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

When Boober asked that, Louie looked down a bit frantically to see what he'd done to his favorite article of clothing - but when the Fraggle went on about dirt, he breathed a sigh of relief.

And then... Okay. Going this way now. He was too lazy to protest, really, so he allowed himself to be led away, though not silently. "It's not a big deal."

"It is if you want to maintain a clean environment, which living underground is a daily battle," Boober continued, leading him up into the room. Louie's going to immediately see that it's crisscrossed several different ways with hanging laundry. Once inside, the Fraggle walked over to a sudsy tub in the middle of the room, pointing at it.

"Luckily for you I just put some wash on. Go ahead and put it in."

Louie looked around at the drying clothes, brows furrowing in a vague sense of concern. "You're... Really into this clean environment thing, huh, Boober?"

"Yes. Believe me, there's a lot that can happen otherwise. Now, off with the hood." He looked up and around, considering, then walked over to a low line. He considered some of the shirts hanging there, including one that seemed to be one of Gobo's. Grasp, slight stretch out, a glance up and down Louie, then he shook his head and moved on. Choosing a shirt, a blue one with purple sleeves and a bright radish on the front, he unclipped it and draped over his arm, walking over to Louie.

"Here, you can wear this in the meantime. Shouldn't take more than a couple hours for me to properly wash and dry it, and it'll be back to you good as new."

"...Okay," Louie sighed, feeling less uncertain now that he had something to change into, at least. Even if the shirt Boober had given him sure was- Sure was something, alright. He unzipped and shrugged off his hoodie, then tossed it Boober's way and pulled the radish shirt over his head. "Just go easy on it, okay? It's pretty old."

A thoughtful hum as he caught it, looking it over. Louie's admission had him taking an extra glanceover at it, and he toyed momentarily with what looked to be a fraying hem.

"I'll have to repair this before it goes into the wash. Don't worry! I'll take all the care in the world with it." Turning back, he walked over to his supplies, the hoodie over one arm and pointing a finger up with the other. "I take laundry very seriously. It's my job."

"Oh, uh..." Louie faltered a bit, taken by surprise. He and Boober hadn't spent much time together at all, really, so he hadn't expected that offer. Even if laundry was the focus of Boober during that thirty-minute work week Louie so envied. "That'd be cool. Thanks, man."

He gets one of Boober's- rare? -smiles, as he glanced back and nodded.

"Of course." With sewing supplies in hand he takes a seat on a ridge of rock, setting everything out. He paused, seemed to look up a moment, though really it was hard to tell, then back down so he could thread the needle.

"Er, feel free to stay here if you want...?" It was also hard to tell how much he really meant that offer. He seemed a bit nervous though again, that was hard to tell from the norm.

The tentative invitation to stay had Louie frowning a bit, as he tried to gauge what Boober really meant, and what was just good manners. But eventually, what won out was that he wasn't sure where else to go... And that he wanted to find out more about what he'd seen today; about just why Gobo had been so set off.

"Sure," he said, once he realized how long he'd been quiet in thought. Now the only problem was how to bring it all up. "So, have you known Gobo long?"

"For years." He dutifully sewed the hem, using a stitch that would hide the thread in the fabric yet keep it close and tight. "He was one of the first Fraggles that ever really reached out to me."

Boober paused, unsure about revealing his next thought. But Louie was an Honorary Fraggle, he knew, and more than that, he was one of Gobo's friends. That would make it alright, and he nodded a bit before he looked up.

"I'm... not exactly like the other Fraggles in the Rock. But Gobo didn't care. I wasn't exactly ignored or disliked, or anything like that, but- There was something different, once I met Gobo. And then I met everyone else after that, and..." A bit of a shrug, and he returned to his work.

"The rest is history."

Louie carefully regarded Boober for a moment, looking him up and down. On the surface, it probably looked just like when Boober had sized him up for a shirt just moments ago, but Louie was trying to see so much more than just Boober's size and shape.

After a few seconds, he walked over and sat down beside the Fraggle, gently leaning into him.

Boober stiffened, likely out of surprise, but relaxed half a moment later. There wasn't quite a smile on his face, but he did seem pleased all the same when he glanced at Louie, then returned to his sewing. The hemline done, he inspected the hoodie and then started working on another spot he found.

"Gobo's really taken a shine to you. That's gotta mean something special." Needle in, pull thread tight out the other side, needle back in and then out. "He's the de facto leader of our group, and... I don't know what we'd do without him." He paused, then inhaled softly and looked over again.

"What happened?"

Louie blinked in surprise at that - it wasn't news that Gobo liked him, they were friends. But it was always good - important, really - when Louie was told he was special. The question, though, dampened his spirits. Well, he had wanted this to be discussed, right?

It was just a little hard, now that the moment was here. "We ran into some other Fraggles - real jerks, I... I didn't know there were Fraggles like that, honestly."

"Unfortunately there's a few of them. We've dealt with it alright in the past, and I guess it's good there aren't more like that, but..."

He was quiet, even pausing on his work for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was equally soft.

"...Did Gobo get into a fight?"

Louie sighed and nodded. "Well... Yeah," he admitted. "But they deserved it. They were saying all sorts of stuff about him and the others."

And Boober himself, but that probably didn't need to be brought up.

"It must've been some pretty horrible stuff, for Gobo to get into a fight over it. Usually he can just laugh that kinda thing off. 'Course, usually it's Red teasing again, but..."

Louie nodded again. "It was pretty bad, and it wasn't just..."

He trailed off. He didn't want to mention that the Fraggles had been picking on him, because then he'd just feel more responsible for all of it.

"...He seemed really upset about getting into the fight, too."

He put a momentary pin in that first comment, to address the more important one before it.

"Gobo's not usually a fighter, again not unless he and Red are going at it, and even then it's just messing around. He's got a temper yeah, but that usually just leads to master class sulking. If he's actually angry, he usually gets it out by doing something foolhardy and reckless, like trying to jump the gorge on greaseberry leaves, or free-jumping down the Hole to Who Knows Where, or getting radishes from the Gorg's garden." Yes, they're their allies now, but that doesn't make it any less frightening.

"That's why I said it must have been really bad, if it made him seriously fight somebody."

"The Hole to-" Louie shook his head - later, for that. For the time being, he crossed one hand over his body to rub the opposite arm. "They... Might have brought up some other stuff, too. That could have been what set him off. I guess."

His request was simple, in a serious tone of voice.

"What was it?"

Louie let out a sharp puff of breath. "Me. They were making fun of me. And then his uncle, you know, Matt? They said some really bad stuff about him."

The thread snapped as he pulled it too tight, briefly bunching up the stitches. He stared at it for a moment, then started correcting the mistake.

"...That explains it. Making fun of his friends is one thing, but- them starting in on Uncle Matt was a bad, bad idea."

Louie's eyes widened at Boober's slip - that was more of a reaction than he'd expected. (It was also his hoodie, but he tried not to focus on that part. It wasn't... The point, right now.)

"I noticed. So... They're really close, then?"

"Uncle Matt raised Gobo." Once the sewing mistake was fixed back to like it never happened, he set about re-threading the needle and finishing off the repair. "They were already together by the time any of us ever met him. The room you know as Gobo and Wembley's room even used to be Matt and Gobo's, before his uncle went off out into Outer Space."

Louie sat bolt-upright and stared at Gobo. "He- He raised Gobo..."

That explained it all, honestly - and boy, could Louie understand everything much better with that piece of information. He got to his feet an instant later, and started pacing back and forth. "I didn't know that! No wonder he got so upset, I... I gotta talk to him! I can't believe I just hid."

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