New, and a bit alarming, who'd have ever thought that this could be?

[getrichquick]

Lexi's first crush had come when she was about eleven, and had ended before she was twelve. Webby's interest in her and her family, though unnerving, had been flattering - and she was nice to Lexi. That went a long way to a kid who'd barely had friends outside of family prior to that. But, ultimately, it had been a passing infatuation with someone who she wasn't suited for, and who wasn't suited for her.

There had been other people in her teenage years - crushes and relationships alike - with all kinds of people, and plenty of meaningless flirtations in addition to those. For a while, she'd thought that was what she'd been doing with Gobo - flirting harmlessly. It was certainly fun, but he was, well, Gobo. It clearly didn't mean anything.

Right? The thing was, she found herself thinking about Gobo a lot, even when they weren't together. Notable experiences left her eager to tell him, and she often wondered if he'd like this or that thing... He was becoming a big part of her life. That was still a bit scary to Lexi with anyone, but in this case? Doubly so.

At least she knew who to go to when it came to any sort of strange thing like this. And she knew Louie was in town for a bit, so off to Donald's place she headed.

Comments

[getrichquick]

A smug grin; she'd hoped he would be curious.

"Oh, it was when I was a kid, back in the days I just visited here - and before I even did it all that much. Unca Scrooge'd had some kind of magical incident, I don't remember much about that part, but... He was a merduck. I thought that sounded pretty funny, and Louie set me up with this magic charm that let me join him as one. Uh... Should I explain what a merduck is?"

[gobetween]

He was already eager to hear more, sitting a bit forward. At her question he snickered, shaking his head.

"No, there are merggles. Go on, what happened next?"

[getrichquick]

Lexi blinked a couple of times. "We've got to loop back to that," she snickered, before carrying on with the story.

"Well, Unca Scrooge found a sunken shipwreck, and we brought up a lot of treasure, which - you know - was awesome! But... There was a lot more that happened that day. That's when I started really feeling close to Unca Scrooge, and thinking I kinda might fit in here."

[gobetween]

"Really? That's great! You and Scrooge have been really close for a long time then, huh?"

[getrichquick]

She nodded. "We have been. He's supported me in so much - and he's never afraid to tell me when I'm being a dumbass. I may not love hearing it, but... Sometimes I need to."

Openness and honesty. It felt good to want to express those things.

"And he treats me like family - I mean, he does that with a few people, but it still means a lot to me."

[gobetween]

Gobo snickered, rubbing behind his head some.

"Scrooge seems like a lot of fuss and fire to me, but," he smiled at her, "I'm glad you've got him."

[getrichquick]

Lexi snorted out a laugh. "Well, yeah, he's that stuff, too," she admitted. "...Thanks, Gobo. And man, okay, Merggles?"

[gobetween]

He laughed at that himself and nodded.

"Yeah! Merggles. Red found 'em first so she'd have to tell you the whole story, I didn't really meet them until later. But apparently there's a passage pool that leads to their lake. There's not a whole lot of back and forth between us, if only because the tunnel is about the upper limit of us normal Fraggles' lung capacity, but it was pretty cool to discover they existed."

[getrichquick]

"Huh, like with the little flipper-tails and everything? Sounds pretty cool! You know, with how much you love water, you might want to talk to Louie about getting one of the charms like I have."

[gobetween]

"Flipper tails and everything. And you know, that's not a half bad idea, but I think it might be better suited to Red than me."

[getrichquick]

"From what you've told me? Yeah, it might be. But then again, I never cared much about water until that day - and I spent the first ten years of my life on a houseboat!"

[gobetween]

He considered that a moment, his smile a bit devious as he tapped his snout thoughtfully, drumming his fingers.

"You know, it would be nice to be able to beat Red in a swim-a-thon for a change..."

[getrichquick]

Lexi rolled her eyes, but she was grinning. "Alright, alright, don't get a big head about it," she joked with a wink.

[gobetween]

He snickered some and glanced at her, grinning. "Yeah yeah, alright.

"But a merduck transformation you didn't have before, that's cool! I bet we really could find a way for a Fraggle one, if we looked hard enough. Then you'd definitely be able to fit through the entrance."

[getrichquick]

Lexi perked right up at that. "Man, you know, I bet you're right! Louie might even know something about it; we should ask him."

[gobetween]

He sat up a bit better and nodded.

"Yeah! You said he was here, right? Why don't we ask him right now?"

[getrichquick]

"Yeah, sure thing!" She kissed his cheek before standing up, at which point she offered him her hand. Look, she was no proper lady, and no romantic either, but this was new. Exciting. Thrilling. She could be a bit of a goofball.

1/2

[gobetween]

He looked at her hand a moment, then took it with a bright smile, going inside with her.

This indeed was new and exciting, and not just the idea of the question they were asking.

2/2

[playersandpieces]

Inside, Louie busied himself in the kitchen, totally trying to make it look like he hadn't been spying on them the whole time.

Hearing the sliding door open and close he leaned around to look, then smiled warmly.

"Hey, guys! All went well, I take it?"

[getrichquick]

Louie being Louie, Lexi was certain that was more than just a guess, and she grinned at him while flashing a very rude hand gesture.

"Yeah, it did," she confirmed, giving Gobo's hand a little squeeze. "Thanks for the nudge, but now I'm gonna ask another favor."

[playersandpieces]

He laughed at the gesture and, so long as the cat was out of the bag, slipped his phone from his pocket and idly passed a couple photos off to Lexi's.

"Sure. What's up, buttercup?"

[getrichquick]

She didn't even check her phone when it chimed, mostly because she had a vague notion of what just happened, but it was still a clear sign: Lexi was smitten.

"Gobo and I want to visit Fraggle Rock sometime, but I'd need a little help getting through to there. You remember the merduck charm, right? Think you can find something like that, but a Fraggle charm?"

[playersandpieces]

"A Fraggle charm?" He rubbed his beak in thought, looking down toward Gobo. "Let's see... Fraggles are pretty rare, so I doubt there's one already existing since only like, 2% of anybody in the history of everything knows about you guys."

Seeing a bit of disappointment, he held up a finger with a grin. "Wait though, wait! I didn't say one couldn't be made. A singular enchantment can be done, it just takes some sort of information from the species being changed into. Generally that's study and a whole lot of written magic for 'plain' species or, in the case of demons like Fraggles, something to read and copy the magic."

[getrichquick]

Lexi blinked, confused. "Reading and copying? That sounds more data than magic, man. But okay. How would we go about that?"

[playersandpieces]

"Hey it's like they say, sufficiently advanced technology is indeterminable from magic, or something like that."

He snickered some, then walked them back outside, to where his wares were spread out over the ground. Tracing the perimeter of the blanket, he looked down at them in thought.

"There's a couple of different ways, but the main method is that the demon donating the magic gives up a portion of it to be copied into a vessel, which charges the charm and enchants it for the recipient. Such methods are usually pretty rare, but I think I've got something here..."