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

Entry tags:

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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."

A distressed noise rose from his throat before he said anything, though the heart of that sound remained in his eyes. "I know that! All Fraggles know that, that's why we don't have a ruler of any kind! Sure, someone like World's Oldest or Cantus may designate one of us for a task, but that's it!"

He stepped back, tail tucking in closer behind him. "And I am okay! I may get confused sometimes like today, thinking about why I left the Rock, but-!" His expression hardened and he jerked a thumb at himself. "I know what I did was right! Right for me, all of it, no matter what anyone else has said along the line!"

"What? Gobo, I- I'm not saying something's wrong with you, or anything! I'm just making sure you can see that you don't need to have all this pressure on you - so you can stop always worrying about these things! Don't you get it?"

Edited 2019-12-28 19:40 (UTC)

He noticed Gobo bristle and draw in a breath, working up to some sort of reply. Scrooge looked quickly between them both, then his expression narrowed and he stepped around until he was beside them. Snapping out his hands, he clapped one hand around Della's beak and the other around Gobo's snout.

"Enough!" A stern look to them both. "Arguing is not going to solve anything! Gobo, Della is looking out for you. Della..." He glared at her, then his look relented and he sighed. "Stop telling Gobo what to do. People have been doing that his entire life."

He'd glanced back toward the Fraggle as he said that, and he watched that statement go across Gobo's eyes- from confusion to widened surprise and finally looking away. Yep, just as he thought. Stepping back, he released them both.

"Gobo's out here on his own, and he's questioning if it was even right for him. It's probably one of the first major decisions that's been his own. True, he's not out here alone anymore, and he may've been seeking some of that in the first place. I know I would have, after years of being in a position like that from such a young age! But everything out here, every decision, has been truly his, and not you, not me, not anyone needs to take that away from him."

Della's look of indigence as she was very much made to shut up faded when Scrooge hit that point - the point about everyone telling Gobo what to do; making up his mind for him. She saw that look in Gobo's eyes, and she sighed when her beak was released. First, a quick "thanks" to Scrooge, because she'd needed to be interrupted, but then her attention was on Gobo.

"Gobo, I'm sorry," she breathed. "I was so worked up about other people doing that to you that I didn't realize I was doing it... You don't need that."

Gobo was quick to shake his head, looking up at her. "No it- it's okay! I didn't realize that that was my problem too. Uncle Scrooge," he looked up toward him, gesturing at him at the same time and then turned back to Della, "is absolutely right. Little decisions have been made by me the whole time, but the big ones have almost all been made for me, and..."

He paused, drawing in a short breath and then he looked off again, in the direction Fraggle Home lay in though it was far from visible here. "I need to talk to Wembley."

Maybe someday, she thought briefly, she'd learn... Learn something, anything, that would help her not put her foot in her beak all the time. But for now, she was at least lucky that Gobo was forgiving.

"Still... I shouldn't have done that." She brushed a hand through his hair. "Wembley? Is everything okay there?"

"Yeah- No- I don't know." He seemed agitated now, looking up at them both like he needed them to understand, but couldn't put the words together.

"Wembley, he- he's not great at decisions, y'know? And I just realized that what everybody was always doing to me, I was doing to him! I've been dragging him along this whole time, making decisions for him and- and it almost got us killed a few weeks ago! I can't believe- Why didn't he ever say anything??"

Della nodded along, getting up from her kneeling position. "I haven't been around you guys together very much, but if you think you need to- Wait. Almost got you what now?"

"There was a bad blizzard around then, and Gobo and Wembley got trapped outside in it." When Gobo started to argue, he held a hand up. "Gobo, it might've been your idea to go outside, you hardly would've known there was a storm coming. And Wembley, indecisive though he is, still has all the agency he needs to to know if he wants to go with you or not. And besides that, it was him that saved you both when things were lookin' bad."

He knelt down, putting a hand on Gobo's shoulder. "That day is not all on you, and I'm sorry tae hear you're still feelin' guilty about that whole thing, even given what happened afterwards. I think you ought to talk to Wembley about that, no matter what else you've got on your mind."

Della smiled bittersweetly and crouched down at Gobo's other side, and tapped the tip of his nose. "I'm glad you two are okay, no matter how any of it happened," she said softly. "You go talk to Wembley if you need to. Sounds like there's a few things Uncle Scrooge needs to catch me up on, anyway."

He nodded, and looked between them both before giving them both hugs in turn, swinging his arms around their neck and shoulders.

"Thanks you guys, thanks for everything. I'll talk to you soon!" Bouncing a little on his feet he took off running, straight toward Fraggle Home.

He stood up as he watched Gobo run off, waving. He was silent for a few moments, resting his hands behind his back, then he half-turned his head.

"This is about the plural Scrooges thing, isn't it?"

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

2/2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

2/2