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]

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."

[moneymatters]

He nodded in thanks at the cup, and after adding a bit to make it to his own tastes, settled back with it.

"Aye, I'll do just that. I don't know how well Gobo is sleeping either, after all o' that, but I'll talk to him about it first thing I see him."

[takeittothebridge]

"Yeah, he didn't look too at ease when I left."

[moneymatters]

"I didn't expect it, really. I haven't asked him about details o' the event yet, though I certainly overheard the broad strokes of it when he was talking to Perdita earlier, and it... did not sound like something easily bounced back from, even for a happy-go-lucky Fraggle."

He took a long sip from the coffee, and sighed softly. "Thankfully, at least Rapunzel was spared all but fringe experience, though that still doesn't dull what the Fraggles themselves went through."

[takeittothebridge]

He nodded, taking another sip of his own coffee. "Yeah, though Rapunzel is still kind of upset that it happened at all. Sometimes, she feels other people's pain as much as if it was her own."

[moneymatters]

"Aye, I've noticed." He held the mug with both hands, feeling its warmth. "Well. Hopefully a day of peace and quiet will soothe all frayed nerves."

[takeittothebridge]

"Hopefully," he echoed. That was what he planned to be doing today, helping the others relax after what they went through.

[moneymatters]

"Might help Rapunzel with a bit of her magic. I remember she said she'd been stuck in her bird form, which had unintentionally been a bit o' a boon for the whole thing, but still I know she'd like a better handle on it. And there's few 'round here better at that magic than I am."

[takeittothebridge]

Despite himself, Bridge chuckled. "Really? Because you were always the one I went to when I was stuck in duck form."