With Dubious Characters

Kierkegaard helps Gaius up from the floor.

Anything broken? asks Kierkegaard.

I think not, says Gaius. 

Break a leg, says Sweezus.

What? says Gaius.

Just....like.....yeah, says Sweezus. Sorry. Not funny.

What is not funny? asks Gaius. 

It's what you say to an actor before a performance, says Sweezus.

I know that, says Gaius. But I had fallen over already.

Perhaps it's to do with the timing, says Kierkegaard. Isn't that why it's funny?

Indeed, says Gaius. If it were in any way funny. Now what were we doing before I fell over?

We're already doing it, says Terence.

He and Baby Pierre are making paper cones from pages ripped from Gaius's old notebook.

I hadn't approved the use of that notebook, says Gaius. But it's too late now.

It was pretty old, says Sweezus. When did Marx last go to a Marxist Conference?

I know! says Terence. It was when I lost my Peruvian hat. 

Yeah, says Sweezus. You got lost in Melbourne and ended up in a pub with some dubious characters.

And they took my hat, says Terence. 

That was years ago, says Gaius. All right, Use the paper.

I LOVED that hat, says Terence.

You've had two more Peruvian hats in the meantime, says Sweezus.

And lost them, says Baby Pierre.

Terence looks sad. 

Kierkegaard remembers how he, as a lad, made himself a paper cone hat, and liked to wear it.

He takes a sheet of note paper, and fashions a similar hat.

It's the paper with the Four Noble Truths scribbled on it, along with some phrases in Dutch.

Vind je het leuk? Ik vind het leuk.

He perches the paper hat on the cement curls of Terence.

That is kind of you, Kierko, says Gaius. Say thank you, Terence.

Thank you, says Terence.

He does like it, even though it doesn't have side flaps.