theroleplaybin | You gotta be someone, you gotta be strong, when you got the goods y'know you can't do anything wrong

He gave Louie an odd look, taking a half-step back. That expression on the young duck's face was.... off-putting, and he only really remembered seeing it one other time, when Red invented the "~~Red and Gobo~~ Gobo and Red Slide." Following Louie's line of sight to just below his neck, he patted himself-

Then realized what it was and quickly stuffed it back under his shirt.

"Nothing. It's nothing."

Well, if that wasn't confirmation enough, he didn't know what would be.

"Oh man. Oh man, you have a collar. Who the heck gave you a collar?" he asked, gradually breaking down into laughter as he spoke. "And you're wearing it!"

Gobo sighed, and turned to look over his shoulder. He was still in the tunnel, he could just go right back home now. Louie knew he was fine...

"A friend of mine gave me the collar, moss mouth. So if someone picked me up, they could contact her." Snorting, he turned back to Louie with a look. "Because of what happened, so if you wanna know, you'd better stop laughing."

"No way," Louie chuckled, shaking his head. "You don't get to show up with a collar and expect me not to laugh! Who is this lady? Are you her pet now?"

His fur bristled, and he half-turned.

"I'm going home, bye Louie."

Louie sputtered - although honestly, it was mostly from trying to stifle laughter - and moved further into the tunnel. "W-Wait, no, Gobo...! Come on, man, you'd do the same thing!"

Oh good, Louie's within range- er, well if he happens to get accidentally boofed by the end of his tail as he turned and started walking (at the easy, established pace the two of them have when travelling together, mind), then surely it's just an accident.

"That's beside the point."

More sputtering, at that, before he caught up with Gobo and began to stroll alongside him. "I'd say it's exactly the point, but whatever. Seriously, though, what exactly happened? And how did it end with you wearing a collar?"

"What happened was," and he paused, maintaining the bratty attitude for a beat longer before all pretenses dropped and he sighed. "I got sick. Like, real sick."

So, as they walked down the tunnel, he explained to Louie the story. How the city had been having problems with its pipe system and how it'd polluted the groundwater, as well as the environment Gobo had been travelling through. How that'd wrecked his system, and it was all he could do to crawl up to said friend Perdita's yard, and how it was only through her intervention, and a friend of hers, that he was alive at all. He included the more recent visit, the one that'd come with the collar gifting, and how Perdita had explained it so if he was ever hurt or in trouble again, he'd have an outside contact someone could make since he didn't really carry any other methods of doing that.

And at the end of it all, "...so that's the story. After I got better is when I sent out the postcards, and since then I've been going around doing, well, this. Visiting in person so that you and anyone else knows for sure that I'm okay."

"Holy-" He cut himself off abruptly, then glanced back over his shoulder. He could still see the light out of the tunnel, and honestly, even if he couldn't, he was pretty sure he would be safe from Uncle Donald killing him if he finished that thought. "...Wow. Dude, that's awful. I'm, uh- I'm really glad you're okay, now." A quick pat on the shoulder for his friend.

"Yeah, I'm glad too." A bit of silence, then he snickered through his nose. "Though I kinda wish most of my friends lived a bit closer together, right about now. I'm gonna be a Fraggle made out of thin air if I keep this up."

Louie smirked a bit, grateful the conversation had taken a lighter turn, and poked Gobo's side. "You sure about that, buddy?"

"Ah- Hey!" He laughed as he shoved Louie's hand. "I'm exactly as much Fraggle as I need to be."

"Oh, please, you're a Fraggle and a half," Louie teased, before pausing a beat. "Hey, are we going anywhere in particular?"

Gobo snorted, then considered the question. "I don't think so?" He paused long enough to wave back the way they'd gone. "We're still close enough to tell 'em if you wanna go to Fraggle Rock for a bit."

Not having an issue like what happened the first time, no sir.

Louie considered this with a light eyeroll. "I guess, but then I have to go all the way back there..." All the way? "...And then come all the way back here. We can just wander around a little, though."

He looked at the still-visible light from the other end of the tunnel, then shrugged and smiled, walking on.

"Sure! You never know what you'll run into down here anyway."

"Wait, what?" Louie asked - he'd run into other Fraggles down in Fraggle Rock, last time, but those were definitely not whats - they were whos. He had slowed down already when he heard some sound coming from around the nearest turn in the tunnel, at which point he came to a complete stop.

Fortunately, this was another of "other Fraggles down there" - a group of three were chatting softly as they rounded the corner, and stopped upon spotting Louie and Gobo.

"I don't think we know this one," one of them said to his two friends, focusing on Gobo.

Gobo stopped a bit ahead of Louie, glancing up with surprise when he saw the other Fraggles. They certainly were unfamiliar, but that was easy to take care of, right?

"Oh, hi! I'm Gobo. Are you from Fraggle Rock?"

"Around there," the Fraggle in front said with a bit of a snort.

"Gobo? Yeah, I've never met him, Clef," one of the two Fraggles standing a bit further back than Clef pointed out. The fact that neither she nor Clef had really introduced themselves had Louie wary out of the gate. But Gobo seemed to think this was okay, so... He kept his beak shut, at least.

Honestly, it kind of twinged something at the back of Gobo's mind too, but he ignored it for now. He was about to speak when the third Fraggle beat him to it.

"I've heard of Gobo. One of Cantus's pets, him and the rest of that doofy group he hangs out with. Got chosen for the Honk of Honks and everything," they added in a mocking tone. "He put the Ditzies out that one time."

Louie, standing behind Gobo, will see his tail turn itself into a loop.

"Oh yeah, that guy," Clef chuckled, as Louie was about to ask how you could put Ditzies out, anyway. "Messed up the Festival of the Bells, too, didn't he?"

"I thought that was the obnoxious braggy one with the braids?" the second Fraggle asked, but the third was quick to explain.

"Nah, but they do hang out a lot. Not as much as he hangs out with that tiny wembling doormat, though."

"Right, that's the one," the other Fraggle sneered with a smirk. "The brat, the doormat... Don't forget about the wet blanket either. Not much of a Fraggle, is he?"

Gobo tensed, then inhaled deeply and let out a slow breath, folding his arms.

"The way you guys are talking, I don't think much of you as Fraggles, either."

"So? Like we'd care what you think of us," Clef remarked. "Look at the Fraggles you do think much of."

"Yeah, there's that tall one, too!" the female Fraggle spoke up, seeming excited to have remembered. "She thinks she's so smart, right? Tried to be the new Trash Heap? That's so dumb if you ask me."

Louie had been looking away and down, awkwardly, but he looked up then. "Tall one...? Hey, Mokey's not dumb-"

"What do you know about dumb? You some kind of Silly Creature?" Clef asked, really regarding Louie for the first time. "I guess Gobo ran out of failures to collect down in Fraggle Rock, huh? You look like a real dimpy thing."

Gobo's sleeve tightened as he pulled one hand tighter, scrunching up that fabric.

"Man, Silly Creatures are ugly," the Fraggle spat. Elbowing one of the others, they laughed. "No wonder Fraggles don't wanna go up there!"

Something gleamed in their eye and a dark grin spread their face.

"Now I know why I remember Gobo so much, besides all those times he rocked up!" A laugh in their throat. "He's a freak! Always going up on the surface. What's it got up there that Fraggles don't have, huh?"

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