starlightcafe | I will be waiting, time after time

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I will be waiting, time after time

It had started off as concern about her garden. Sure, Gobo had been on Perdita's mind when her garden started failing, but mostly it had been her flowers and vegetables she'd worried about. But time went on, the source of the problem was revealed - a breakdown of the city's pipe infrastructure that resulted in lead in the water supply - and weeks passed without hearing from or seeing her little friend.

She was checking the mailbox - knowing it would likely be a fruitless search - once again, her cellphone held in place against her ear by her shoulder. "I don't care if the city's working on it, Roberta!" she was snapping. "I- Yes, I'm worried! ...No, I've been boiling water. I'm fine, but that doesn't mean I can't be upset! ...Yeah. Look, I... I'll talk to you later."

Pumpkin circled her owner's feet a few times, whimpering, and Perdita sighed. "I guess I could tell her, girl, but you know Bob. I'm not sure if she'd get it." She flipped through junk mail and a few bills on her way back into her home, but paused on the front steps, glancing around the front lawn.

"You better be okay, you dumb twerp."

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The thing was, she wasn't as alone in her yard as she might've thought, but it would take a dog's nose to find.

Part of her yard was shaded by a huge tree with old, gnarled roots, and it would certainly take more than a little lead to knock out this aged soul. But someone else was a little less lucky, hidden in the darkness of the roots, where one might be able to imagine a little slope leading down underneath...

A dog's nose would be what found that out, as the winds shifted and Pumpkin caught a whiff of something distinct and familiar. Yapping loudly, she scrambled over to the large old tree and set to digging.

This certainly caught Perdita's attention.

"What are you doing, you-"

But when she caught sight of a shock of fuchsia hair, Perdita fell to her knees, right by Pumpkin's side, helping the dog create enough room so she could reach in and pull out...

"Gobo! What's going on?"

Unfortunately, Gobo was not in much of a position to answer her. He was barely conscious, like a limp plush doll when she pulled him out of the ground. He gave a little moan so thankfully he was alive, but with a sickly color to the skin under his fur, it seemed to be only just.

Perdita cursed under her breath, and quickly got back up to her feet. She ran into the house - it was a good thing she had a doggy door, because Pumpkin was momentarily forgotten in her panic.

"Oh god, what do I do? It's not like I can take him to a vet- It's not like I even know what's wrong with him!" she shouted as she walked through the house. The way Gobo was cradled in the crook of her elbow was a far cry from how she'd stuffed him under her arm when they'd first met.

"Okay, this has to be because of the water, right?" she realized aloud, and doubled back into the kitchen, slumping Gobo against the wall, on the counter. There was water in her fridge that she'd treated properly, and she pulled the pitcher out now, then frantically started fumbling for a spoon. Once that was obtained, she spooned out water and dipped the spoon into his mouth, carefully tilting it.

While the water was the most likely cause, unfortunately there would be no quick fix. Gobo remained out for the rest of the day, in various states of consciousness, though never completely lucid. He'd half-rouse every time she dosed him again, only to slip back into whatever blackness was consuming him. Every now and then he'd toss and turn or moan, as if in the grips of a deep fever, but still nothing promising.

Not, anyway, until well into the wee hours of the morning. The fresh water in his system was starting to do its job, flushing out whatever bad sediments coursed through him. He stirred, blinking heavy eyelids, then wincing with the back of his hand going up over his eyes. It was a few moments before he could look again, trying to gauge his surroundings.

"Where... Perdita....?"

Perdita was exhausted, but entirely unwilling to leave Gobo alone. She wasn't sure how much longer she could stay awake when she saw Gobo seem to wake up - really wake up - and a new wave of energy found her.

From when he first opened his eyes until he spoke, she held her breath, and when she did let it out, it came as a disbelieving laugh. She wiped her eyes with the heels of her hands, at a rare loss for words.

"Hi."

"Hi..." He tried to sit up, but found it difficult and instead settled back, closing his eyes again and swallowing against his hoarse voice before he spoke, glancing at her.

"I was hoping I'd find your place." An all-too brief smile, then he shook his head with a look of concern. "There's... something wrong underground. I don't know what it is, but it's making everything sick." Then the smile returned as he laid his head back, closing his eyes. "Including me, I guess..." A soft chuckle, a flash of an attempt at humor.

"That'd be the pipes," Perdita sighed, weary, as she gingerly scooped Gobo up once more. "Let's both get more comfortable, and I'll explain."

Soon, she was filling Gobo in on how things looked from her perspective. As she did so, somewhere in the back of her mind she couldn't help thinking that their current set-up was good, as much as the situation was bad. Gobo was set up on her nightstand, propped up and generally made as comfortable as she could manage with some of the tiny decorative pillows that a former co-worker had give her as part of an office "secret santa" event, back when she'd worked with tech and programming. (She'd thought they were absolutely useless at the time.) Perdita, herself, was in bed, leaning against her headboard with a pillow cushioning her back and shoulders. Pumpkin was curled up by her side, snoring peacefully.

"...I don't know when everything will be back to normal," she admitted in closing.

Edited 2019-09-26 05:20 (UTC)

Gobo listened, at least as much as he could. Part of him just wanted to go back to sleep, but this was too important for that, and the inaction was starting to make his fur itch anyway. So he paid what attention he could, and even if he lost some of the tiny details, he still got all the important story beats.

"You know... something like that happened back at the Rock, once. We never found out what was causing it other than it being the Silly Creatures' fault, but the water was poisoned and it made nearly everybody ill. If Boober hadn't intervened, we all probably would've died."

On that a sudden fear seemed to grip him, and he looked up almost frantically. "...I'm- not going to die, am I??"

Perdita was quiet, at first. She couldn't know for sure, now could she? And she'd never been the type to sugarcoat things. After a moment...

"Not if I can help it," she uttered, with a steely determination despite how tired she was. "But I might need some help to get you better."

Unfortunately, his little moment of fear there had done a number on his system, but even the coughing that'd been caused afterward hadn't kept him from hearing what she'd said. As he rested back on the pillows with a soft groan, he glanced up toward her.

"Help...? From who?"

"A friend of mine. Steven," Perdita began, cautiously. She wasn't sure how comfortable Gobo would be with being seen by another human, considering how so many of them viewed Fraggles: as trophies or goods. It was another reason she hadn't told Bob about Gobo - to respect his wishes, not because she thought Bob would try anything unkind.

Nor did she think Steven would, of course, but Gobo didn't know the teen mage like she did - didn't know him at all, except for the occasional story she'd told. "He's a really good healer, Gobo. If anyone can help you, it's him."

Truth be told, he was torn over the matter. True, he'd been a bit more freeing with being seen by others lately, but he didn't like it, as much as Outer Space still being a big unknown to him as anything else.

But he also felt absolutely horrid. And her pause after his earlier question certainly wasn't all that uplifting, even with her confidence that'd immediately followed. So, with a soft sigh and closing his eyes, he nodded, then rested his head back and to one side.

"Ohhhh... this is worse than when I had the pebble pox..."

Perdita winced as his head lolled back, though... At least he'd agreed to see Steven. She really hoped it work, was all. She'd seen Steven perform near-miracles, but that was on fellow humans, and the occasional Demon. A Fraggle would no doubt be new territory for him to work on.

She couldn't call or otherwise wake him now, though - not that she wasn't tempted to try - so she'd have to focus her thoughts on something else. She lay down, adjusting her pillow accordingly, and rolled onto her side to face Gobo.

"Pebble pox?"

"Yeah..." He spoke softly, avoiding both a headache and an ill feeling in his midsection. Thankfully, with his already weak voice, this was easy to do.

"Little... red itchy spots, all over your body. Pretty contagious too, one Fraggle catches it, next thing y'know, fifteen have it."

Perdita blinked twice, then just stared at Gobo.

"So... Chicken pox."

He may be her friend - her friend on death's door, at that - but that didn't mean he got to be dumb.

"Chicken pox?" Okay, that made him sit up a little. "What do little red pebbly-lookin' spots have to do with chickens anyhow? That's stupid."

Perdita snorted, somewhere between amused and dismissive. "You're stupid," she retorted. Not that she knew why chicken pox were called such, but still. "Up here, we've called them chicken pox for centuries."

"Yeah, and that doesn't make them any less stupid." He rested back again with a dimissive snort of his own. "We've called them pebble pox for as long as there's been Fraggles."

"But everything is rocks with you guys," Perdita pointed out. "You can't exactly keep chickens underground, anyway. Of course you call them the wrong thing."

She could do this kind of thing with Amy, usually - this back and forth - but other than her? Just Gobo. Bob got offended too easily, and Steven would probably end up with hurt feelings - and certainly wouldn't know the right way to do it. Not that she didn't genuinely think she was right. No, she was positive she was - and that Gobo was being dumb. But it was still fun.

"Of course everything is rocks with us, in case you never noticed we live in caves." He was momentarily interrupted by a few uneasy coughs, and then went right back to it. "Maybe it's you that call it the wrong thing, because it's certainly not us."

Perdita's brow furrowed in concern at the coughing, but once Gobo returned to the argument, she didn't miss a beat to jump back in herself with a huff.

"Gobo, if you're going to be ignorant about how ignorant you are, I can't help you."

"I'm not the ignorant one. I know plenty about Outer Space and how weird it is."

"You do not." She shook her head. "And from where I stand, it's your Fraggle Rock that's weird."

"Fraggle Rock is exactly what it needs to be! It's just fine the way it is."

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