starlightcafe | It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor

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It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor - could you be mine?

Della didn't much mind the cold, so long as she kept moving, which was (part of) why the visit to the other Duckburg's Manor had become a walk out in the slush. According to Scrooge, the snow had been fierce just a week ago, but now conditions were safe enough to be out in, though they were sticking to the Manor grounds just in case things got bad again. Della wasn't nuts about that limitation, but at least she was in good company.

She smiled over at Scrooge. "You do this regularly with my uncle, right?" she asked.

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He stepped back after the hug, glancing back a moment when Scrooge walked back to join them both. Then he sighed softly and looked up at Della.

"...I don't know. I guess that's what I've been trying to figure out."

Della glanced up at Scrooge for a moment, then looked back to Gobo and nodded before standing up straight. "Then we'll help you."

"Took the words right out o' my mouth, lass." He smiled some and glanced down at Gobo, resting a hand behind his shoulder. "Come on. You can join us on a walk 'round the grounds here, and we'll talk all the while. Might help you sort out your head."

When Gobo nodded, Scrooge started off again, leaving space for the Fraggle between himself and Della. At first they walked in silence, then he glanced down at him.

"So, what happened before you decided to really come out on your own?"

"Well... I guess it was that I met Doc." He tucked his hands into the bottommost pockets of his vest, pulling it a bit around him. It hadn't been cold enough out here for his full winter gear, just the hat, but without being somewhat curled into his own body heat like he had been on the tree, it was a little chilly at first down here.

"I think I've told you guys about that before, right? About the Honk of Honks, and Doc moving and all that jazz... Heh. Y'know, that was one of the times I almost left the Rock, too. He wanted me to come with him before he moved, but I got scared and went back to Fraggle Rock. Then he did leave, and... I dunno. It still all felt so different, even though the tunnel we found to his new place was almost in the exact same spot as the old one."

"Yeah, that was a big deal for you." Della nodded thoughtfully. "Your world got a lot bigger when you first met one of us, huh?"

She stretched one arm out, using the other to brace it against it. "How long after that whole thing did you leave?"

"Not that long. I guess only about a week?" He shrugged slightly. "I explored around Doc's new home some, and then I started branching out, thanks to this one place in Fraggle Rock that leads to other parts of Outer Space. I knew then that... I finally felt ready to leave, to really leave, and go out on my own just like my uncle."

She let her arms fall to her sides with a surprised expression on her face. "Just a week? Wow, getting out there a bit must have really made an impact on you, then."

For him to have made up his mind so quickly...

"Well, it's something I'd been thinking about for a long time, remember. Like when I'd felt like I had explored every inch of Fraggle Rock that there was to even see."

He breathed out a sigh, the breath pluming at the end of his snout and then buffeting backwards. "I had felt a little lost, because what does an explorer explore when there's nothing left? But the Storyteller told me about a trip that not even Uncle Matt had finished, so I set out on it with my friends. It was supposedly an impossible quest that no one had ever completed, to find nothing less than the meaning of life itself." Weak, humorless chuckle. "We had different levels of confidence about this a'course, but to me this sounded like just what I needed.

"We struggled a little to make it, but eventually we got to the outskirts and found a literal point of no return, with a map and a message carved on a wall. 'To learn the secret you must walk alone, and never return to all that you've known. This map is but the first of many more. Each map found, the further to explore. The meaning of life awaits those who pay the price. A lifetime of wisdom for a lifetime of sacrifice.' One by one the others decided that the Rock needed them more than they needed the meaning of life, but in the end... I continued. Wembley was there at first, but then even he realized he had to go back. I pressed on for a bit, but then... I decided, too, that I had to go back, and I did."

Della looked down at him with another nod, though it was a bit stiff - she had to remember that this was about Gobo's choices regarding leaving home, not her own.

"So... It sounds like once you left the Rock - and really saw what was out there - you couldn't go back so easily, then."

"Something like that, yeah. It was scary at first, Outer Space. But the more I got used to it... The more I wanted to see it."

"I can understand that feelin'. Realizing that your experiences, while making you grow the entire time, have grown you too large for your home, and it's almost like you just don't fit in anymore. Right?"

He glanced down and when Gobo, after a pause, nodded, he continued. "That happened to me in my youth, actually. I'd spent the previous couple o' decades gaining wealth for back home, to support my family. And when I finally made it, was finally rich beyond my wildest dreams, I thought I would move back into my home in Scotland." He sighed, nostalgic at the memory but not regretful, having long made his peace with this. "I was wrong. Scotland, that part anyway, had become too 'backwater' and I had changed too much because of my travels. It's not necessarily a bad thing, to feel like you don't belong where you came from. Home is where you make it, after all. And ultimately, I made a new one. My living family members and I decided to travel together for a while, and 'twasn't long after that that I founded what would become the modern Duckburg. Everythin' since then has been history, as they say."

Della flashed Scrooge a gentle, heartfelt smile, gave a nod, then looked back to Gobo. "And there's no rule that says you only have to make one home, either," she added, gently tapping his shoulder with two fingers. "Uncle Scrooge is right, Gobo - things change. No, actually, people change - and sometimes things, well, places... They don't. And when that happens, we go to new places that fit how we've changed." She shrugged slightly. "But you keep the people with you, one way or another."

He thought about what they both said, and at length nodded slightly.

"Yeah, I guess that's... why I'm not really upset my friends came with me. Fraggle Home is exactly what it sounds like it is." He was quiet a bit, then sighed again. "It's just that... Fraggle Rock was a lot. Still is. You're right, when you say places don't change. And I'm not talking about the parties or the music or anything like that either. My friends, and the other Fraggles, they.." He paused, trying to put words to it. "Well. It seemed like I was always getting picked for the big and important stuff, or led things happening, or was always being asked one thing or another, or that others just wanted me. Some days I couldn't get a bit of peace. There's even a couple times where everything almost ended entirely because the Rock as a whole decided to listen to what I said."

Della reached down - leaning a bit - and took Gobo's hand in one of her own. "Like when you wrote the Glory Song? Yeah, I remember when you told me about that... Huh. You had a lot of responsibility that day. I don't mean the pressure to write the song or even to save Fraggle Rock, either. Just... Knowing the amount of sway you had with everyone." A pause. "Was that the first time you realized it?"

He took her hand gratefully, if a bit without thought. It just seemed natural, and he didn't even glance up at it.

"No. The first time was when I was still a kid. Uncle Matt had always said that, if ever there was too long a time between postcards, that he wanted me to go out there and find him. There had been a couple of weeks without any news, and... I wasn't a true explorer then, not yet, but I knew I had to do my duty and go out there. The entirety of Fraggle Rock got behind me, and then threw me a goodbye party completely by surprise. In the end I didn't have to go because a postcard came in, explaining that he'd been sick, but..."

He trailed off, looking down a moment in thought. "That was the first time for a lot of things, I think. The other Fraggles getting behind me for something, the thought of me leaving the Rock for Outer Space... and only a week before I'd been stuck out there in Doc's Workshop! I couldn't think of anything but getting back into Fraggle Rock, and now here I am out here thinking about how far I've gone from Fraggle Rock."

Edited 2019-12-28 18:23 (UTC)

"Gobo that's not right!" Della gasped before she could stop herself. She shook her head, then, and crouched down close him once more. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean- It's just that you were too young to make the decision as a child."

It was strange, because Gobo still had a childlike nature to him, so she couldn't say it felt like he'd missed out on a childhood of any kind... But it was upsetting all the same to realize how early all of this had started.

He looked up at her, seeming perplexed. "But... It's what I had to do. There'd be no one else who could go out there and find Uncle Matt."

Della quickly grabbed Gobo in a hug at that. It was mostly a gesture of comfort, but also so she could give Scrooge a look without Gobo noticing - a look of alarm; a look that said 'help, I'm in over my head.'

But again, she couldn't stop herself from speaking. "No. Gobo, no."

He saw that look and understood it plainly, but his response might not be what she was expected. His expression was pained and helpless as he shook his head, spreading his hands.

He was hardly qualified to talk about the pressures one takes on at a young age.

He blinked in surprise at the hug, hung there a second and then pushed away, keeping his hands on her as he looked at her.

"Look, I know it's a lot but that was one I chose. It's only a problem when everyone else decides they want to drop everything on top of me. When I choose it, I can handle it fine."

"But-" Della sighed and clapped both hands on Gobo's shoulders. "Gobo, I don't want you to feel like you have to handle things like that by yourself... Because you don't. Look, there's so much you can do - you're so capable - but it shouldn't all come down to you. Not ever."

He scoffed some, leaning back a bit. "Well I don't now. I know all about it being better with friends and the help of others. Like putting together the Honk of Honks."

She sucked in a breath. "Gobo, didn't you not even want to be the one who honked the Honk of Honks at first? Weren't you picked for that, too?"

"Well... yeah, I was, but... But it was Cantus! It's not like I could've said no to him. And he was right, too! I was able to put it together and unite everybody in and around Fraggle Rock, even if just for that one event."

"And I'm glad you did! But Gobo, you absolutely could've said no to him. You never just - have to do something just because someone else wants you to. I mean..." She sighed, and shook her head. "Gobo, I'm not trying to bring you down, I just want you to be okay."

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