All that time never truly seeing the things the way they were...

[moneymatters]

Scrooge walked away from the balcony room, shaking his head lightly and chuckling, faintly, to himself. What an interesting day this had turned out to be.

At a thought he glanced beside him, watching Louie out of the corner of one eye. When he figured they were far enough away from their other guests, he spoke.

"I never would've figured you for a romantic, lad. That seems more Huey's area than yours." A more defined chuckle. "No offense at tha', o'course."

Comments

[moneymatters]

He caught something in Louie's tone, looking up toward him curiously.

"But what?"

[talkyourwayout]

Louie glanced away with a sigh. "I... I don't like talking about this stuff. You know that."

[moneymatters]

"I do know that, which is why I hope you can see that I wouldn't be asking this idly."

[talkyourwayout]

"Well... Yeah, I know," Louie murmured. "Okay, fine. Maybe the thing about all of this stuff that's hard is... What if who I am isn't, you know, someone I like?"

Being liked by others if he was truly himself was, again, also a concern... But it was also more embarrassing to bring up, in Louie's mind.

[moneymatters]

"The nice thing about that is, who we are is not a permanent thing. If you don't like how you're comin' out, you can change that."

A ghost of a smile, the faint laugh in his throat. "Unfortunately that's going to take work, but such is the way it is."

[talkyourwayout]

"That's good, I guess?" Louie said, still not meeting Scrooge's eyes. "But it's also really overwhelming, Unca Scrooge."

It wasn't even the work- Okay, it totally was the work, too. But it was also the idea of how much power he had over all of this that had him frightened.

[moneymatters]

"You've already taken great strides on that path, if I do say so meself. And your new little friend seems to be doing a lot to help you down it even further. Remember what I said one o' the first times you were here though: Time. Take the time you need, lad. Cherish what you have going on right now. You shouldn't be in a rush to find out who you are."

[talkyourwayout]

Louie couldn't help the frustrated huff that escaped his beak. "How can I not be in a rush? Not knowing sucks!"

Louie wasn't particularly fussed over labels, all things considered, but it was hard to deny that something about a level of labeling oneself just seemed.... Comforting, at least to him.

1/2

[moneymatters]

He was quiet a moment or two, considering. Then he tilted his head up slightly, looking past the kitchen.

"There may be someone who can help better than I can right now."

2/2

[gobetween]

What Scrooge had heard was a bit of soft humming, which beat Gobo's actual appearance by several seconds. He walked in, his towel from before draped around his shoulders like a small blanket.

"Moon, moon, shine tonight, hold us in your glowing light. Soon, soon, silver bright, fold us in your cloak of light..." He was halfway into the kitchen before he realized the others were there and he paused, looking up.

"Oh, hey guys. Uh- am I interrupting anything?"

[talkyourwayout]

Louie sighed wearily, the humming reaching his ears as well just a split-second later. Dropping the topic was fine with him, although he wasn't sure he wanted to discuss it with Gobo, either.

Looking as exhausted as he sounded, Louie shook his head. "Nah, man, don't worry. Where's Mokey?"

1/2

[gobetween]

"Upstairs still. She wanted to draw the sky before it got too dark to see." He walked over to the counter where he knew there was a bowl of fruit, and he hopped up to it, but paused before grabbing something.

"I'll er, replace those pens from your desk with ones from the Rock, Scrooge."

2/2

[moneymatters]

He'd been getting up to rinse out his now-empty mug when Gobo addressed him, and a strange choked sound came from his throat when a scoff and a laugh rammed together.

"Don't worry about it, lad." Stepping away, he caught Louie's eye and gestured toward the back of the Fraggle currently clinging to the counter's edge pawing through the bowl. Then he walked over to the sink, busying himself with the mug.

[talkyourwayout]

Louie looked wide-eyed over at Scrooge. Really? Really, he didn't get to drop this? He gave an exasperated scoff, but got up and headed over to where Gobo was feeling his way through the fruit bowl.

How the heck did he even bring this up? He looked to Scrooge once more, this time his expression not annoyed - just back to tired.

"Hey, Gobo?"

[gobetween]

He had an apple in his mouth when he turned to look at Louie, and was holding an orange as he dropped back off the counter, landing swiftly. One moment spent readjusting his blanket, then he took out the apple- by biting it at the same time -and looked up curiously.

"Yeah? What's up?"

[talkyourwayout]

"Uh... Can we talk about something? Not in here, though."

Maybe he could just let Scrooge think they had the conversation... Maybe.

[gobetween]

"Yeah, of course. Wanna walk outside?"

Honestly, he couldn't get enough of the starry sky either, and the expansive yard and garden was the most private place he could think of in this place.

Besides, after a while even a huge building like this starts to chafe. He wouldn't call it claustrophobia, not for someone who lives underground, but he was just always more comfortable around rocks and grass than he was carpets and chairs.

[talkyourwayout]

"Sure," Louie said with a shrug. He didn't love the outdoors like Gobo did, but at least they'd be decidedly away from Scrooge's ears out there. He lead the way out into the yard - though not after grabbing an orange for himself.

[gobetween]

He waved as Scrooge did, then turned to walk with Louie outside, unaware of the old duck's gaze on them until they'd left the kitchen. Gobo himself didn't speak again until they were out there, but mostly because he was busy working his way through that apple.

"So, what'd you want to talk about?"

[talkyourwayout]

"Nah, it's nothing. I mean, I just wanted to get out of there for a bit," was all he said at first, as he rubbed his hand up and down the opposite arm.

"...Gobo, when did you know you wanted to be an explorer?"

[gobetween]

He thought about that a moment, looking up.

"Let's see..." A pause, then he nodded. "About a couple years ago."

[talkyourwayout]

Louie sighed at that piece of information. If it had taken Gobo until recently to figure himself out...

This did not bode well, not that he was exactly surprised Scrooge had been right about it being a process. Still, as he'd said before, the waiting was... Not something he enjoyed.

"Man, that's... Yeah. Okay, thanks."

[gobetween]

He seemed confused at the answer, then half-shrugged.

"I mean, I guess I always knew I would be? There's Uncle Matt of course, and his uncle, Great-Uncle Gobo. And my dad was an explorer, too." Finishing the apple, core and all, he tossed the seeds into the grass behind him then started on the orange. "But when I was little, which," he snorted softly, "wasn't that long ago either, I wanted to be a juggler. Uncle Matt decided I'd be an explorer for me, but it took some time for me to discover that really was what was right for me."

[talkyourwayout]

A lot ran through Louie's head as he listened to Gobo - like how did Fraggle age even work, anyway, for one thing - but what really stood out to him wasn't even really about his own struggle. It was something that made him upset on Gobo's behalf.

"Didn't that make you mad?"

[gobetween]

"Sure it made me mad! Once I remembered that little bit from my childhood, I was deadset on becoming a juggler after all. But something else interfered."

He considered a moment. "'Fore I tell you that story though, I should probably go back to the start of that day."