#frolic. prance. cavort even.

[is-the-amogus-video-cute]

Do amongi frolic?

They sure do! They’ve also been known to prance, traipse and even cavort. Some owners try to replicate this behavior with amogus hamster wheels, but it’s really not the same as giving them the proper space.

[byron-von-raum]

Rebodied Toy Soldier Theory

Despite having a backstory and a semi-solid characterization for the Toy Soldier there’s a lot of questions we still have about it! To be expected among this impossible group of space pirates to be confused about their backstory and what makes them tick, in this way literally, but I have a theory that could answer a lot of those pressing questions.

Warning for image of choking, implied abuse, implied sex work, and canon typical fucked up stuff, especially UDAD related

So we don’t actually know in all certainty where the Toy Soldier is from. We have a few clues to help us out, though. 

1. The Toy Soldier was somewhere with very traditional English practices       “She taught him how to take proper English tea and how to talk like a real officer [...]” - SotTS (The Story of the Toy Soldier)

2. It came around not long after a revolution       “She once had a handsome fiance, but he had died in a long ago revolution. [...] The Toy Soldier was her favorite. He wore her fiance’s old uniform.” - SotTS

3. There is a Salvation Army or something similar on the same planet/colony

[ID: The Toy Soldier hitting a drum behind a procession of Salvation Army representatives with a sign above them reading “The Salvation Army.” An arrow points to the Toy Soldier in the back. A woman in the front tries to hand a pamphlet with a cross on it to a passerby. /END ID]

4. The planet/colony was knowledgable and within reach of the King Cole War        “[...] the Toy Soldier joined the ranks of the Rose Reds and fought in the bloody conflict of the Revolution.” - SotTS

5. The planet is close enough to the City from UDAD to have products imported from there.

You may be asking, “wait, Frankie, how do you know that?” Well, my dear friends, it’s actually rather stuble, but warnings for and image of choking, although crude.

[ID: A pencil drawing of the Toy Soldier choking out a woman with long, pale hair while she sleeps. A wine bottle lays empty above her head on the pillow. /END ID]

This lady is the Angel, a woman that the Toy Soldier fell in love with, presumably before leaving its original planet. So this scene also presumably happens on that same planet. Up in the top right corner is a wine bottle that reads “Dionysus 2011″ which is a product of Dionysus back in the City.

With that information, we know that products from the City were imported to this planet/colony. Whether this planet is, in fact, Earth or maybe just a colony of Earth is unclear and not entirely important. What is important is what other products the City might have had.

Re-bodying

“Orpheus’ story isn’t unusual: a broke young musician with a dead fiance, just another life chew up by the City. This broke young musician didn’t accept that though. Didn’t care that he didn’t have the money to have mind from the Acheron rebodied, or that those as were came back wrong.” - “Hades” Ulysses Dies at Dawn

Rebodying in the City is when someone takes a mind from the Acheron and places it in a new body. Someone dead being brought back. Now, let’s go back to the start of The Story of the Toy Soldier and take another gander at that rich old lady and her clockwork collection.

[ID: An old lady in a fancy dress smoking and leading the Toy Soldier away from a group of inanimate clockworks as it looks back at them. /END ID]

The most notable part of this image, I think, is the contrast between the Toy Soldier and the other clockworks. The other clockworks stand very still with no expression and seem more like dolls than the Toy Soldier, who holds close to itself and follows, looks nervous, looks confused. From this image alone, it’s clear the Toy Soldier isn’t like the other clockworks.

“But Frankie!” I hear you cry. “There’s no evidence that the rebodied people are put in animatronic bodies! Even in one of the fictions, the other people from the City think the Toy Soldier looks odd!” 

“Understandly, Narcissus now refused to have a Somnambulist in the house, and shuddered every time his eyes met the vacant gaze of one outside in the street. He was even deeply suspicious of the Toy Soldier at Dionysus’ speakeasy, despite its unconventional yet obvious sentience.” - Orpheus and Narcissus Go on a Trip to the Seaside

Well, first of all, that’s one person who finds the Toy Soldier uneasy and even then he was more concerned that it was a Somnambulist than it being a clockwork. I find that weird in of itself but that’s not exactly the point, is it? In fact, Orpheus at one point even thinks of the Toy Soldier as a strange re-bodying job.

“They’d soon promoted one of the nymphs to fill his place though: a bizarre prancing, whirring thing that would frolic and cavort for the clients’ amusement, flaunting an incongruously innocent joie de vivre. Some said it had stolen the voice of an angel, but Orpheus thought it sounded pretty human to him. It looked like another bizarre re-bodying job, although apparently it had been bought at a knockdown price from one of Dionysus’ business partners, Parsiphäe Minos, after the genius automaton designer had found it in her basement a while back.” - Orpheus, Dionysus, Muriatic Acid, and the Strange Whirring Thing

“Another strange re-bodying job?” you ask. “What other re-bodying job has Orpheus seen?”

Well, first of all, I think you’re missing the point but I’ll show you anyway.

“Orpheus had also heard recently of a new consultant based at Delphi (a strange re-bodied job by the sound of it) who would give good “moral” advice to assuage the guilt of atrocity wreakers: everything was excusable as long as the ends justified the means.” -  Orpheus, Dionysus, Muriatic Acid, and the Strange Whirring Thing

What’s interesting about this is that Brian, who is referenced here, is in fact a strange re-bodied job. He was technically re-bodied into his all-metal body.

That’s beside the point. The important thing is that, although these wooden and metallic re-bodyings are strange, they are only strange. They aren’t impossible, they aren’t incredibly uncommon, and they aren’t questioned. They’re just strange. Perhaps, the technology for this type of re-bodying isn’t the most uncommon thing out there if there isn’t a body available. Perhaps, even, the bodies just look more “human” when re-bodied than the Toy Soldier or Drumbot Brian do.

So, back to the point of the imported products from the City on the Toy Soldier’s originally colony and the fact that those who are re-bodied never come back quite right, we come to the climax of the theory:

The Toy Soldier is a re-bodied version of the old lady’s dead fiance.

Let’s corral all the evidence:

1. The old lady favors the Toy Soldier and acted like it was her dead fiance, even going as far as to have the Toy Soldier say things like “I love you” to her

      “Sometimes she made him say things he didn’t understand.” - SotTS

[ID: A pencil drawing of a spilled teacup, a thrown high hell, and a shattered tea saucer at the foot of a chair. There’s a speech bubble that reads “I love you.” /END ID]

2. Products were imported to this planet from the City

3. Re-bodying jobs that look like Drumbot Brian or the Toy Soldier are only considered “strange” (at least by Orpheus)

4. No one in the City entirely thought the Toy Soldier as odd except for looking re-bodied

Conclusion: The Toy Soldier is a re-bodied version of the old woman’s fiance after he died in the revolution. Liking clockworks, the old lady had her re-bodied fiance look like a clockwork. The Toy Soldier didn’t come back quite right, which is common for a re-bodying job. Frustrated with this, the old lady taught the Toy Soldier things that would make it more similar to her dead fiance like how to compliment her, what to say to sound like a real officer, and to tell her it loves her.

Now, this has a lot of implications in a lot of directions that you are free to speculate on and I would also love to hear other people’s input. Either way, thanks for reading my inane theory and thanks to the people in the various Discord servers I’m in for helping me with this!

[alfalfadesperado]

Caboodle – The whole thing. Also called “kit and caboodle.”

Caboose – A ship’s cooking-range or kitchen.

Cady – Hat

Cahoots – Partnership, company or band. “Those to are in cahoots together.”

Calaboose – Jail.

Calamity Jane – Obviously the hard-cussing, heavy-drinking frontier woman, but is also a gambling term for the Queen of Spades.

Calash – A covering for the head, usually worn by ladies to protect their head-dresses when going to evening parties, the theatre, etc.

Calf Slobbers – Meringue on the top of pie.

Calibogus – Rum and spruce-beer.

Calico – A paint horse.

Calico Queen – Prostitute.

California Collar – A hangman’s noose.

California Prayer Book – Gambling term for a deck of cards.

California Widow – A woman separated from her husband, but not divorced. (From when pioneer men went West, leaving their wives to follow later.)

Callin’ – Courting.

Calk – Sharp points of iron on horse or ox shoes to prevent their slipping on ice.

Came Apart – A horse bucking.

Candle-light – Dusk. The dance will start at early candle-light.

Canister – Gun

Canned Cow – Canned milk.

Cannon – A revolver

Can Openers – Spurs

Can’t Come It – Cannot do it. “You can’t come it over me so.”

Caporal – The ranch foreman or roundup boss.

Cap the Climax – To beat all, surpass everything.

Cardinal – The name of a woman’s cloak, from the red or scarlet habit worn by cardinals.

Carryall – A four-wheeled pleasure carriage, capable of holding several persons.

Cash In – To die.

Catalogue Woman – A mail order bride.

Catawampous –  Fiercely, eagerly, awry, cockeyed, crooked, skewed. Also “catawamptiously.”

Catawamptiously Chawed Up – Completely demolished, utterly defeated.

Catch A Tartar – To attack one of superior strength or abilities.

Catch a Weasel Asleep – Referring to something impossible or unlikely, usually used in regard to someone who is always alert and seldom or never caught off guard. “You can’t sneak up on that dude any sooner than you can catch a weasel asleep.”

Catgut – Rawhide rope.

Cattle Baron – A cattle owner with numerous herds of stock, welding power and influence in an area.

Cattle Kate – A female cattle rustler.

Cats-Paw – To be made a cats-paw of. To be made a tool or instrument to accomplish the purpose of another.

Catstick – A bat used by boys in a game at ball

Catty-Cornered – Diagonally across. “The Courthouse is catty-cornered from the drugstore.”

Cavort – To frolic or prance about, to be lively, having fun.

Cat Wagon – A wagon that carried prostitutes along cattle trails

Cayuse – A cowboy’s steed.

Causey – A causeway, or way raised above the natural level

Cavallard – Caravans crossing the prairies.

Caveson – A muzzle for a horse.

Celestial – A term used in the West to refer to people of Chinese descent; the word derives from an old name for China, the “Celestial Empire.”

Chalk – Not by a long chalk. When a person attempts to effect a particular object, in which he fails, we say, “He can’t do it by a long chalk.”

Chap – A boy, lad, a fellow.

“I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear …” — Walt Whitman, 1860

Charivari – (Commonly pronounced shevaree.) – A custom of serenading the newly married with noise, including tin horns, bells, pans, kettles, etc. This “serenade” is continued night after night until the party is invited in and handsomely entertained.

Chaw – Chew.

Chaw Up – To use up, demolish.

Chickabiddy – A young chicken. Used also as a term of endearment for children.

Chew – Eat

Chew Gravel – Thrown from a horse.

Chip – The money drawer in a bank.

Chink – Money.

Chinking And Daubing – The process of filling with clay the interstices between the logs of cabins.

Chirk – To make a peculiar noise by placing the tongue against the roof of the mouth, to urge horses on. Also refers to people as cheerful, good spirits, comfortable.

Chisel or Chiseler – To cheat or swindle, a cheater.

Chitlins – Fragments, small pieces. Also, refers to Chitterlings.

Chitterlings – The intestines of a pig that have been prepared as food.

Chock – To put a wedge under a thing to prevent its moving.

Chock Up – Close, tight, fitting closely together.

Chock-Full or Chuck-Full – Entirely full.

Choke Strap – A necktie.

Choke the Horn – To grab the saddle horn, something no cowboy wants to be seen doing.

Chop – A Chinese word signifying quality, first introduced to mariners in the China trade. Soon became a common word of seamen applied to fine silks, teas, tobacco, etc.

Chopper – The cowboy who cuts out the cattle during a roundup.

Chow – Food, dinner.

Chuck – To throw, by a quick and dexterous motion, a short distance.

Chuck – Food.

Chucklehead – A fool.

Chuck-Line Rider – An unemployed cowboy who rode from ranch to ranch, exchanging a bit of news and gossip for a meal. Also called a “grub-line rider.”

Cowboys gathered around the chuckwagon ready for “chow” on the ranch, 1887

Chuck Wagon Chicken – Cowboys humorously used the term for fried bacon.

Chuffy – Blunt, surly, clownish.

Churched – Expelled from church.

Churn Twister – A derogatory term for a farmer.

Claw Leather – To grab the saddle horn, something no cowboy wants to be seen doing.

Civism – Love of country, patriotism.

Civilizee – A civilized man, one advanced in civilization.  

Clap Or Clap Down – To set down or charge to one’s account.

Clap-Trap – An artifice for attracting applause, used chiefly in theatrical or political events. Later, applied to someone’s mouth that constantly makes noise.

Clean his/your plow – To get or give a thorough whippin’.

Clean Thing – Denotes propriety or what is honorable. “He did the “clean thing” and turned himself in.”

Clip –  A blow or a stroke with the hand. Also refers to running away – to “cut and run.”

Clitchy – Clammy, sticky, glutinous.

Clinch Mountain – Rye whiskey.

Clodhopper – A rustic, a clown.

Close-Fisted – Stingy, mean.

Clothes-Horse – A frame-work for hanging clothes on to dry after they have been washed and ironed, in the form of an opening screen.

Clothesline – Rope.

Clout – A blow or strike, usually with the fist.

Clum – Past tense of climb.

Coal-Hod – A kettle for carrying coals to the fire. Also called a coal scuttle.

Cocinero – The camp cook – also called “coosie” and “cusie.”

Cocked Hat – To knock someone senseless or to shock him completely. Old Joe knocked him into a cocked hat.

Coffee Boiler – Shirker, lazy person. (Would rather sit around the coffee pot than help.)

Coffin Varnish – Whiskey.

Coil – Rope.

Cold as a Wagon Tire – Dead.

Cold Meat Wagon – A hearse.

Colors – The particles of gold gleaming in a prospector’s gold pan.

Cooling yer heels – Staying for a while. “He’ll be cooling his heels in the pokey.”

Come a Cropper – Come to ruin, fail, or fall heavily. “He had big plans to get rich, but it all became a cropper, when the railroad didn’t come through.”

Compressed Hay – Cowchips.

Conniption Fit – A fit of hysteria.

Consumption – Tuberculosis.

Continental – The money issued by Congress during the Revolutionary War. It eventually became synonymous with anything worthless.

Converter – A preacher.

Cookie at the Chuckwagon

Cookie – Ranch or cattle drive cook.

Coon’s Age – A long time.

Coosie – The camp cook.

Coot – An idiot, simpleton, a ninny.

Copper – A copper coin such as the American penny or British.

Copper a Bet – Betting to lose, or being prepared against loss. “I’m just coppering my bets.”

Copperhead – Northern person with Southern, anti-Union sympathies.

Corduroy Road – A road or causeway constructed with logs laid together over swamps or marshy places.

Corks – The steel points fixed under the shoes of horses, in the winter, to prevent them from falling on the ice.

Corn-Cracker – The nickname for a native of Kentucky.

Corn-Dodger – A kind of cake made of Indian corn, and baked very hard.

Corned – Drunk.

Corn-Juice – Whisky.

Corral Dust – Lies and tall tales.

Cottonwood Blossom – A man lynched from the limb of a tree.

Cotton To –  To take a liking to.

Countrified – Rustic, rude.

Couldn’t hold a candle to – Not even close.  “She couldn’t hold a candle to that beauty across the room.”

Coverlid – A bed-quilt, counterpane.

Cowboy Cocktail – Straight whiskey.

Cowboy Up – Tuff-up, get back on yer horse, don’t back down, don’t give up, and do the best you can with the hand you’re dealt, give it all you’ve got.

Cow Chip – Dried cow manure.

Cow Grease – Butter, also called “cow salve.”

Cowhand – A cowboy, also called cowpoke, cowprod, and cowpuncher.

Cowhide – A particular kind of whip made of raw hide; it is also called a raw-hide. Term also refers to flogging with a cowhide – “to cowhide.”

Cow Juice – Milk

Cow-Lease – A right of pasturage for a cow, in a common pasture.

Cowpunching – Driving the cattle to market.

Cow Sense – Intelligence.

Cow Wood – Cowchips.

Crack – Most famous, best.

Cracked – Crazy.

Cracker – A small hard biscuit.

Cracker – A poor white person of the South, named after the crackling whips used by rural Southerners. There are several definitions of this word dating back before the 17th Century, however this was the definition in the Old West, and could have been derived from “Cracker Cowboys” of Florida, which used whips and dogs to capture cattle instead of lasso’s.

Crackerbox – A rodeo rider’s term for a bronc saddle.

Cracklings – Cinders, the remains of a wood fire

Crack Up – To brag or boast.

Cradle-Scythe – Called also simply cradle. A common scythe with a light frame-work, used for cutting grain instead of the sickle.

Crambo – A diversion in which one gives a word, to which another finds a rhyme. If the same word is repeated, a forfeit is demanded. It also refers to drinking.

Crash – A coarse kind of linen cloth used for towels.

Crawl His Hump – To start a fight.

Crazy as a Loon – Very crazy.

Creepmouse – A term of endearment to babies.

Crimany – Exclamation of surprise.

Critter – Creature, varmint. Sometimes used to describe a contemptible person.

Croaker – Pessimist, doomsayer. “Don’t be such an old croaker.”

Crock – The black of a pot; smut, the dust of soot or coal.

Crocky – Smutty.

Crooked As A Virginia Fence – A phrase applied to anything very crooked; and figuratively to persons of a stubborn temperament.

Cross-Grained – Perverse, troublesome.

Cross-Patch – An ill-tempered person.

Crotchety – Whimsical; fanciful.

Crotchical – Cross, perverse, peevish.

Crowbait – Derogatory term for a poor-quality horse.

Crowbar Hotel – Jail.

Cruller – A cake made of a strip of sweetened dough, boiled in lard, the two ends of which are twisted or curled together.

Crumb Castle – A chuckwagon.

Crumb Incubator – A cowboy’s bed.

Crummy – The caboose of a railroad train.

Crusty – Sturdy, morose, snappish.

Cubby-Hole or Cubby-House – A snug place for a child. Later, also used to denote any small space.

Curly Wolf – Real tough guy, dangerous man. “Ol’ Bill is a regular curly wolf, especially when he’s drinkin’ whiskey.”

Curmudgeon – An avaricious, churlish fellow, a miser.

Curry Favor – To seek or gain favor by flattery, caresses, kindness.

Curry the Kinks Out – To break a horse.

Cush – Sweet fried cornmeal cake. Also called “cushie.”

Cuss Words – The swear words back then are pretty much the same as they are now, though they were not used as prevalently back then.  Profanity was frowned upon by polite society and old west cowboys rarely would swear in front of a lady.

Cut A Caper – The act of dancing in a frolicksome manner

Cut a Dash or Cut a Swathe – Make a great show; to make a figure.

Cut A Figure – To make an appearance, either good or bad.

Cut And Come Again – Implying that having cut as much as you pleased, you may come again; in other words, plenty; no lack; always a supply

Cut And Dried – Ready made.

Cut And Run – To be off, to be gone.

Cut Didoes – To get into mischief, frolicksome.

Cut Dirt – To run; to go fast.

Cut a Path – Leave, go.  Are you ready to cut a path out of here?

Cut a Rusty – To go courtin’.

Cutting out from the herd in 1907.

Cut a Swell – Present a fine figure. “He sure is cutting a swell with the ladies.”

Cut His Suspenders – A departed cowboy.

Cut Of His Jib – The form of his profile. “I knew him by the cut of his jib.”

Cutting Horse – A horse with the ability to cut cows out of a herd.

Cut Up – To criticize with severity; as, “he was severely cut up in the newspapers.”

Cut Up Shines – To cut capers, play tricks.

Cut Stick – To be off, to leave immediately and quickly.

Cutter – A one horse sleigh.

[genusrosa]

‘Words have personality.’

Or words to that effect. So said a famous wordsmith named Willard R. Espy, who wrote a great deal of delightful stuff about words, and remains highly unquoted.

One word that definitely has personality is caper, which is today’s word suggestion from the good folks at WP.

I wouldn’t call myself a word expert, by any means, (terms like uvular fricative make my brain hurt) but I do love to savor a word curiosity now and then. And just like a good wine, there are certain pairings that are immediately suggested by the palate. Like a good pinot and soft goat cheese, or a full-flavored port with a dark chocolate truffle.

So therefore, with caper (though it is also a pungent little berry that goes well with seafood and a crisp, chilled chardonnay) we have a word that suggests, inevitably, frolic.

You could even pair the two as frolicsome caper, and further suggest the word antics, and at the risk of sounding octogenarian, cavort.  This brings me to my red squirrels, which, quite unfortunately, were drunk this morning on summer wine, and doing all of the above.

Summer wine not only goes well with capers, it causes them (the cavorting sort). The wine referred to here is what we like to call the Morello cherries from our tree that have fallen to the ground, now sweetly fermenting. They grow too high for us to actually make them useful for human consumption, but the squirrels and birds are having entirely too much fun up there in the back corner of the yard.

Gambol and tumble are good side dishes, as it were. If fact, if you look up ‘gambol’, you will find the following synonyms:

‘frolic, frisk, cavort, caper, skip, dance, romp, prance, leap, hop, jump, spring, bound, bounce; play; (dated, sport)’

To which I might add “see: tippling“.

All of those definitions sound quite athletic, even for a squirrel drunk on Morello cherries, so occasionally one tumbles down the rockery and causes concern.

So far I have witnessed no injuries, and the merriment continues.

As you can see from the picture below, the lawn is slightly elevated from the patio, giving a stage-like appearance, which the squirrels use to good effect.

Other than that, the garden is (usually) a peaceful place for reading. Perhaps even sipping a bit of Morello summer wine, if the squirrels will share.

  Summer Wine and Word Savor 'Words have personality.' Or words to that effect. So said a famous wordsmith named Willard R. Espy, who wrote a great deal of delightful stuff about words, and remains highly unquoted.