This is my fight song, take back my life song

[moneymatters]

Scrooge stood near the window that looked out onto the city, high enough in the Manor that he could see better past the sprawling grounds of his home. Sunrise would be soon; somewhere out there, men had been carted off to jail from a warehouse complex. In his home various innocent parties slept- or tried to sleep -but no matter how much he himself had tried to settle down, he couldn't do it.

So he stood and watched, ostensibly to see the dawn break, but really he was just too anxious to rest.

Comments

[takeittothebridge]

Scrooge wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep; with what little of the night was left, Bridge found himself a bit to restless to relax. Even while he hadn't been entirely involved with everything that had happened, he'd helped to deal with the aftermath of it, and now was filled with too many questions.

Carefully getting up, not wanting to disturb the others, he slipped out of his room and into the hallway. Then, hesitating for a moment, he headed towards the kitchen.

Might as well get some coffee started.

[moneymatters]

It was the distant smell of coffee that caught his attention. He turned his head, then started downstairs, peeking in on the room where most were sleeping on the way. Ah, it was Bridge. Nodding to himself, he walked the rest of the way to the kitchen.

"Couldn't sleep either, eh?"

[takeittothebridge]

He hadn't been surprised to hear footsteps, and glanced up when Scrooge entered the kitchen with a slight shrug.

"Not really. Too many things going through my mind."

[moneymatters]

"Aye, I'm about the same." He sighed, leaning against a counter and folding his arms. "Been a wee bit too eventful today for me tae rest easily enough."

[takeittothebridge]

He nodded, grabbing two mugs from the kitchen cabinet. "I feel kind of bad that I wasn't really there to help out. Not that I probably could've done anything."

[moneymatters]

He watched him for a moment, and when he spoke his voice was a soft tone Bridge would know well. "I know, but I hardly wanted to take Daniel, and only did because he was a Sentinel and could help with the law." Daniel had also insisted because it was Rapunzel, but that was beside the point right now, at least where Bridge was concerned. "Those men had guns, and I don't know what I would've done if you'd gotten shot."

[takeittothebridge]

Glancing up at Scrooge, Bridge nodded. "I know...it was better all around that I stayed here."

It was the truth, he knew, but it hadn't made the fact that Rapunzel and Gobo had been in trouble any easier, and he'd had no way to help. Daniel getting involved had only worried him more, despite knowing he could take care of himself.

[moneymatters]

Scrooge nodded, then walked over toward him. "Still, everyone is safe. I've got some further cleanup to do myself today, but the rest o' you can get back to your lives as normal."

He paused, looking off through the mansion, and sighed through his nostrils. "Though if I had my way, that would be rather close to home for a few days, for the lot of you. Gobo included."

[takeittothebridge]

Watching the brewing coffee for a moment, Bridge then turned to Scrooge. "...Can I ask you something?"

[moneymatters]

He looked over at Bridge rather curiously, then nodded. "O'course, you can ask me anything you want."

[takeittothebridge]

Even with Scrooge's confirmation, he hesitated a moment, playing with the rim of one of the mugs.

"What...What were those guys gonna do with Gobo and the others? Why were they capturing them in the first place?"

[moneymatters]

He sighed softly, having been expecting that question from somebody, on some level.

"Fraggles... are worth a lot of money. They're known as garden pests, sure, but they're also rare. Rarer than a black unicorn at 7:31 on a Sunday mornin'. And they're unique among demons, for a lot of different reasons. Those men were goin' to sell them on the black market."

[takeittothebridge]

Bridge's frowned deepened. "They're really worth that much?"

[moneymatters]

"At least a few thousand a head, and they rarely travel alone, if they travel at all. That's part o' what makes them so rare, they generally stick to a central location and if they do leave, it's usually underground. Gobo's a bit of an outlier in that regard, and I expect seeing him around town is what attracted those men in the first place."

[takeittothebridge]

He breathed a sigh, running a hand through his hair. "And he's not gonna stop traveling either." Not if he knew Gobo like he thought he did. "And I doubt they'd be the only ones to try, either."

[moneymatters]

"The silver lining is, at least, that very few ordinary people know what a Fraggle is. I know Gobo's mentioned his uncle before, who travelled before him for a few years in relative safety. We just got unlucky."

He paused, expression darkening a little. "What likely happened is those men were probably already here. I have a sneaking suspicion of who their buyer would've been, given the grounds we found them at, and it's someone frequently at odds with me, my company, and my morals if that tells you anything. Likely they were already in town for another 'score' and happened to try to capitalize on our recent Fraggle invasion."

[takeittothebridge]

Bridge glanced at Scrooge. "Yeah? Who do you think was gonna buy them up?"

[moneymatters]

"Glomgold. You've seen enough trouble from that quarter just in the relatively short time you've been here, would it really be so surprising if this was something else?"

[takeittothebridge]

He frowned, shaking his head. "No, that makes sense." Too much sense, really. "And Glomgold would be bold enough to try to steal something-" or someone "off your property."

[moneymatters]

"That he would. He'd better hope I don't find any actual connection to him, or he'll regret it." It was an unspecific response, but the drop in his tone of voice made it serious enough.

[takeittothebridge]

Vaguely aware that the coffee had finished brewing, Bridge began to pour the coffee out into the two mugs.

"...Do you think he'll try again?"

[moneymatters]

"Glomgold always tries something again. But it's rarely the same scheme. And whether it's him or not, I'm no' naive enough to think everything's perfectly safe. Part of the cleanup I mentioned earlier will be putting some boundaries in place to keep Gobo and his kind safe movin' forward."

[takeittothebridge]

"What kind of boundaries?"

[moneymatters]

"Sentries underground, for one thing. An extension and update o' a network I put in place a while back to keep the Beagles out of Old Duckburg. I also want to give Gobo in particular something, though I haven't decided on what; some kind of tracker or emergency alert. I know his owner has her own tracker on him, but this would be an additional layer.

"I have one or two other ideas, though less solidified than even those others. But rest assured that something will be in place, and soon."

[takeittothebridge]

He nodded a bit. Sounded like nothing that was too constricting for the Fraggles, though he doubted Scrooge would've done that in the first place.

Sliding over one of the mugs of coffee to Scrooge, he took a long sip of the other. "Maybe you should talk with Gobo and the others to see what other safety measures can be taken? Since they might know a thing or two to protect themselves."