(Untitled)

[tookfoolery]

Pippin blinks as the door swings open. Merry has gone back to Brandy Hall and he is alone today, which is why he pauses in the door a moment. He glances over his shoulder, appearing uncertain. Looks at the bar

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[_to_the_bone]

"Gracious," says Jack, with a blink or two, from where he's seated nearby.

"Hello. Are you eating just mushrooms?"

[tookfoolery]

Pippin stops chewing, looks around to see if anyone else is eating mushrooms, and, seeing no one, says sagely, "Of course." Smile!

[_to_the_bone]

"I have never had just-mushrooms." It turns into one word. "I have had mushrooms in things, but usually cooked. Is that a custom where you are from?"

[tookfoolery]

"Yes," says Pippin, finally swallowing. "A very fine one, if I do say so myself!"

[_to_the_bone]

"Jack of the Frost, at your service," he introduces himself absently, still looking more at the mushrooms than Pippin.

[tookfoolery]

"Peregrin Took." With another bite of a mushroom, "Better known as Pippin." Thoughtful pause. "Or 'hey, you, get out of my fields!' "

[_to_the_bone]

He laughs, because he can picture it.

"Rescuing mushrooms?"

[tookfoolery]

Pippin looks vaguely shifty. "And the occasional cabbage, carrot or tomato. Merry says they need to be liberated."

[_to_the_bone]

"But what fate are they going to?"

A pointed grin.

[tookfoolery]

Pippin looks shiftier a moment, then brightens. He grins. "A much better one."

[_to_the_bone]

"Is that so? It strikes me to be rather like the Walrus and the Carpenter."

Except Pippin is not a walrus.

[tookfoolery]

This is Pippin's blank face.

Jack had probably best get used to it.

"What does that mean?"

[_to_the_bone]

"It's a poem. About a Walrus and a Carpenter who go down to the sea and talk the oysters into coming out to dine with them for a lovely trip. I hate oysters, they taste like slime. Walruses and Carpenters evidently feel quite differently."

He doesn't remember how it starts.

[tookfoolery]

Pippin isn't much less confused. "What's a Walrus?" he pipes up.

[_to_the_bone]

"It's like a cross between a worm and a fish that barks like a dog, has a beard, and is as long as these stools," he gestures, "and has huge teeth." More gesturing, trying to approximate tusks with his fingers.

[tookfoolery]

Pippin's eyes go round. "Is it like a dragon?"