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Nov. 1st, 2009 04:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
titusnowlPonce's accession to the command of the future Rag-Tag came as both relief and disappointment to their acting-captain, Davies, who had been half-hoping for confirmation of his brevet post for the sake of the increase in wages, and half-fearing it for the sake of the much greater increase in trouble. By the end of the first two hours, the disappointment was winning out: the new officer, it seemed, was daft.
Davies had offered the usual tour and introductions, and the man had insisted upon being taken through the line to meet every member of every section. Regardless of rank, his response to each salute was a drawing-room smile and a murmured "How do you do, darling," hand extended to shake. This completed, and the weather being fine, the necessary meeting with his officers (commissioned and non-) was arranged around a folding table behind the line. It was here that he gave his first infamous rejection of the title of "sir," amongst other breaches of conduct which would soon become familiar.
"Within this room we are all gentlemen, or a feasible facsimile thereof," he had reasoned, and, taking note of Davies' brief glance around at the open-air setting, continued: "It is a figurative room, my dear; a room of the mind and soul rather than the body, if you will, walled by wishes and roofed by dreams."
"What are we to call you then, s-- er..." the pragmatic Davies inquired.
"Oh, anything you like, really," had been the reply, delivered sweetly with a flash of a grin overtaking the gentle smile that had seemed fixed on his face the whole time. "Within reason, that is; I'd really rather we keep away from things like 'you scoundrel' or anything one couldn't repeat in mixed company, but I'm sure that's no imposition upon any of you fine, upstanding young fellows. I really hate to even mention it, as I'm certain the warning is unnecessary, but then, unnecessary directions are what the Army's all about, isn't it, O best beloveds?"
Davies got around it by simply avoiding addressing him directly as much as possible and calling him Martin when absolutely necessary, although it took weeks before he trained himself out of the cut-off sibilant that resulted from his instinctual honorifics. The second lieutenant, Upjohn, never did get past it, and was assigned the nickname of Basil (eventual inquiry determined that this was short for Basilisk, due to that hissing; how he ended up with that nickname, rather than the Sergeant-Major who actually had a lisp, seemed odd at first, but made perfect sense once they were better-acquainted with the CO's character).
While they all struggled not to call him "sir' during their reports on the state of the company, their new captain listened dreamily, often not appearing to attend at all and thus throwing everyone into a state very like despair. He seemed to absorb a sufficient amount of information through osmosis, however, and sent them away with warm thanks and a few gentle pieces of advice which were afterward identified as direct orders.
Not a single man trusted him worth a groat until the first time they went into action under him.
("Which," he would observe, "is very like the situation the bishop faced when he first made the acquaintance of the actress.")
Davies had offered the usual tour and introductions, and the man had insisted upon being taken through the line to meet every member of every section. Regardless of rank, his response to each salute was a drawing-room smile and a murmured "How do you do, darling," hand extended to shake. This completed, and the weather being fine, the necessary meeting with his officers (commissioned and non-) was arranged around a folding table behind the line. It was here that he gave his first infamous rejection of the title of "sir," amongst other breaches of conduct which would soon become familiar.
"Within this room we are all gentlemen, or a feasible facsimile thereof," he had reasoned, and, taking note of Davies' brief glance around at the open-air setting, continued: "It is a figurative room, my dear; a room of the mind and soul rather than the body, if you will, walled by wishes and roofed by dreams."
"What are we to call you then, s-- er..." the pragmatic Davies inquired.
"Oh, anything you like, really," had been the reply, delivered sweetly with a flash of a grin overtaking the gentle smile that had seemed fixed on his face the whole time. "Within reason, that is; I'd really rather we keep away from things like 'you scoundrel' or anything one couldn't repeat in mixed company, but I'm sure that's no imposition upon any of you fine, upstanding young fellows. I really hate to even mention it, as I'm certain the warning is unnecessary, but then, unnecessary directions are what the Army's all about, isn't it, O best beloveds?"
Davies got around it by simply avoiding addressing him directly as much as possible and calling him Martin when absolutely necessary, although it took weeks before he trained himself out of the cut-off sibilant that resulted from his instinctual honorifics. The second lieutenant, Upjohn, never did get past it, and was assigned the nickname of Basil (eventual inquiry determined that this was short for Basilisk, due to that hissing; how he ended up with that nickname, rather than the Sergeant-Major who actually had a lisp, seemed odd at first, but made perfect sense once they were better-acquainted with the CO's character).
While they all struggled not to call him "sir' during their reports on the state of the company, their new captain listened dreamily, often not appearing to attend at all and thus throwing everyone into a state very like despair. He seemed to absorb a sufficient amount of information through osmosis, however, and sent them away with warm thanks and a few gentle pieces of advice which were afterward identified as direct orders.
Not a single man trusted him worth a groat until the first time they went into action under him.
("Which," he would observe, "is very like the situation the bishop faced when he first made the acquaintance of the actress.")
