theroleplaybin | Friendlier Faces

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Friendlier Faces

Today was a perfectly fine day to be spending outside here in Duckburg. Though Gobo was a bit more comfortable up on the surface than his friends, he still decided to keep himself somewhat hidden- he'd found a tree by the sidewalk with a perfect branch some ten, twelve feet off the ground that would let him recline back and see without being seen. From there, he spent time noodling around on his guitar, hidden by the foliage and shadows, watching the Silly Creatures pass by on the sidewalk below.

He went through different songs and general music, and though the occasional person paused to look around, they never quite found him. That amused him more than most, and he chuckled a little to himself as he sang.

♫ Catch a tail by the tiger
Take the horns by the bull
A bird in need is a friend indeed
So pull the eyes over the wool... ♪

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It was hard to say why Fethry "heard" the next part of the song in his head before he truly even heard Gobo singing and playing. Perhaps it was a coincidence, or because of the fact that Fethry was so open to the idea of the unknown and inexplicable. Or maybe it was just that there hadn't been terribly much else keeping his brain busy - there very rarely was - and that left it open to some telepathic music. Whatever the case, Fethry stopped before he finished taking a step, foot hovering above the ground as he glanced around.

There was no visible source of the music he know heard beyond the lyrics in his own mind, and Fethry was quite certain there were only two possible answers to this little mystery. Either it was a case of Psychosomatic Earworm, or... Something more exciting. He'd always wanted to meet a Fraggle in person. Maybe this would be his chance!

"Heehee, let's take a look-" He walked on, keeping his head low to the ground. Fraggles were under-the-surface creatures, after all! But as he looked under bushes and behind rocks, he had no luck - on the contrary, he almost walked directly into the trunk of a tree. "Oh, gosh!" He straightened up his stance...

...And sneezed when something tickled his nostrils. His eyes went crossed as he tried to focus on what was directly in front of them.

That something would be a little pink piece of indiscriminate fuzz. Seemed like fur, but what sort of creature would have something so aggressively pink as part of its natural coat color? Well, exactly what Fethry was looking for, that's what. And if he looked up from whence the fur had drifted, he'd see a righteous poofball at the end of a shaggy orange tail draped over the side of a branch, lightly ticking back and forth to the tempo of the music being sung.

♫ Steely gaze in the sunrise
Lonesome walk in the dawn
Sometimes lonely but living only
For truth when truth may be gone

Danger lurks at the crossroads
Shadows loom on the wall
Sounds behind us and hounds will find us
And death and taxes and all... ♪

It was pink, whatever he was looking at, but what was it? Plucking the small tuft fur off his beak and holding it in front of his face allowed him to answer that particular question, once Fethry realized it was an option.

"Hmmm... Aha." Fethry glanced up and spotted that tail - unmistakably Fraggle-y! Grinning, he jumped into the air, but couldn't quite reach it. He also wasn't sure what he planned on doing if he could, so clearly it was time to put a different plan into action: Climbing the tree.

Busy with the music, Gobo wasn't aware that someone had spotted him, at least until a tremble went through the tree. He paused and looked down below the branch, enough that he connected eyes with Fethry for exactly two seconds-

Then he sucked in a breath and quickly whipped around, guitar going behind him as he scrambled further up into the tree, disappearing somewhere in the leaves.

Those two seconds had Fethry's face positively lighting up - only for his expression to instantly fall flat when Gobo scurried off. Why had he run away, anyway? Fethry didn't understand! Although... That wasn't anything new.

Well, he wasn't giving up that easily. Members of the Duck family were doggedly determined, after all, and Fethry was no exception. He scrambled up the trunk, trying to keep an eye out for hints of movement in the leaves.

He'd be able to track Gobo easily enough, because squirrel he wasn't. He was well accustomed to climbing rocks, but branches were something else entirely, and he just couldn't get the right purchase on the bark. So he slipped and he skidded, and Fethry may even have to dodge a few twigs coming down once or twice.

Unfortunately this inexperience with trees also means he pushes his luck too far. One branch is too thin to hold his weight for long and it snaps, dropping him down with a startled cry. He impacts and rolls off another branch, unable to grab it to break his fall down.

"Oh!" Fethry gasped as he saw Gobo stumble, and he gripped the tree more tightly with one hand as the other was held out to catch the falling Fraggle - oh, maybe he should open his eyes, right, right! Fortunately, he was able to grab onto the back of Gobo's vest in time to interrupt the plummeting.

"Gotcha!"

Unfortunately, gravity was still at play, and vests weren't exactly safety harnesses...

Gobo let out a sharp noise when he was caught, looking up at the duck holding him. Then his eyes widened when his body jerked down once, twice-

Gravity yanked him the rest of the way down, a strike on one last branch rolling him over before he hit the dirt, hard. A strange bonking sound came from above and the guitar pachinko'd itself the rest of the way down, landing somewhere nearby.

He lay partly on his front, tail pinned underneath him, and his eyes rolled before his head dropped. He didn't move after that.

Fethry sucked in a sharp breath as Gobo tumbled down, and quickly slid back down the tree to check on him. When he got back to the ground - and after he tripped over his own feet, he was by Gobo's side, but he didn't see any movement...

Oh god the Fraggle was dead. He'd indirectly killed a Fraggle. Except... Dead things didn't breathe. No, that was what made them dead.

"Thank goodness!" he exclaimed, a shaky laugh to his voice. "I am so sorry!"

While Gobo definitely wasn't dead, breathing and all, he also wasn't conscious.

Better try something else, Fethry.

After poking and prodding at Gobo a bit, while muttering curses under his breath, Fethry accepted that he couldn't handle this on his own. And when Donald didn't pick up for his call, he went for the next-best person.

As soon as the phone stopped ringing, Fethry began blabbing - he didn't even wait for an answer proper. "Uncle Scrooge, I killed a Fraggle! Well, no I didn't - he's breathing, but he's not doing anything else and I didn't mean to, I tried to catch him but he fell and what do I do?" A half-beat. "This is Fethry."

He half considered pulling the "voicemail" trick, having realized it was Fethry right off the bat, if only he hadn't said Fraggle. An eyeroll and a silent, 'What are you doing now?' to the heavens.

"Is he pink?" At the jumbled answer he really should've expected, he cut him off. "Is his hair pink?" An affirmative. "It's Gobo." Of course it was. "How bad does he look?" As he partly listened to Fethry, he was already walking toward the front door, waving for the car to be brought around. "Mmh. Where are you? ... Alright. Stay there with him, I'll be there in a moment."

And he hung up.

Fethry put his phone away - beneath his hat, of course - and sat down beside Gobo. "Okay, my uncle's coming," he sighed. "Well... Not actually my uncle, I think he's just Donald's uncle, even though Donald's my cousin. Anyway, he knows you! That's good, right? You probably can't hear me, though, huh?"

True to his word Scrooge was there soon enough, the car pulling up to the side of the street nearby. He got out and walked over to them, looking down at the still-unconscious Fraggle. A brief, mostly hidden worried look, then he turned to gesture the driver out of the car and over to him, who walked over with a blanket and a small vial.

"Fethry, what happened?"

Fethry shrank in on himself when he saw Scrooge get out of the car. An ashamed glance off to the side before he met the older duck's eyes.

"I was climbing up the tree to see him, and he got scared. He ran up and I chased him, but he fell. It was an accident!" he added quickly. "Not chasing him, or climbing the tree, but scaring him and making him fall. Those things."

"You must've scared him." His head down to watch Gobo as he took the blanket and vial, also conveniently kept his dry glare away from Fethry's attention. "This Fraggle... doesn't take kindly to being chased, and that must've been what he thought you were doin'."

The blanket was placed folded nearby, and then he opened the vial, which was glowing faintly. A pungent aroma wafted out and he rested one hand on Gobo's back, the other, with the vial, waving it near the end of his nose.

"Come on now, laddie..." Seeing him stir, he kept a gentle pressure on him. "Easy, Gobo. Don't move, not until I can get you checked out the rest o' the way."

That weird... scent had electrified his brain and brought him around, and though it was foggy he heard the "Don't move" clearly enough. Besides, the hand on his back was keeping him from doing so, anyway. He glanced up, and was momentarily aware of a bright light shining in his eyes which made him flinch.

"Scrooge...?"

"Oh, good," Fethry breathed out when Gobo stirred. His hands were fidgeting and about a million questions were running through his mind. What was in that vial? How did Scrooge and the Fraggle know each other? Would the little guy be okay?

By the grace of god, though, he managed not to bombard the other two with them, instead watching as his fingers threatened to become a tangled mess. It helped, though.

He pocketed the small light he'd flashed into Gobo's eyes, and sat back on his heels. Having several Junior Woodchucks in the family, plus his own "battlefield" experience, made a preliminary checkover a rather simple thing to do, and thankfully he didn't seem too hurt. He wasn't concussed anyway, though he'd probably have a good-sized bump on his head for a while.

"Alright. We'll bundle you up and take you back to the Manor. Fethry, that means you too."

Here is where the blanket came in handy. Though he had some help from Gobo himself, mostly Scrooge was able to scoop him up, to shove him- not unkindly, though a bit firmly all the same -into Fethry's arms and then he led the whole group back to the car.

Oh, okay, he was holding the Fraggle now. That would be fine, he could handle not dropping a Fraggle for the short walk over to the car.

Thank goodness he was right about that. Once everyone was in the car, and they were off, one first observation finally got out. "I didn't know you knew about Fraggles."

"I didn't know you knew about Fraggles, though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised." Though Fethry was in charge of carrying Gobo, once they'd gotten to the car he'd been laid on one of the seats, where he watched them intently the whole way back.

"Louie the younger was told about them from Louie the elder, and one day he managed to catch Gobo here. From then on, he and a few other Fraggles have been pretty constant features in our lives."

Fethry smiled weakly. "And I probably shouldn't be surprised that you know about them. You and Donald have seen all kinds of great things."

His attention quickly shifted back to the Fraggle, though. "Gobo is his name?"

He eyed Gobo a moment to see if he felt like talking, but the little Fraggle was curled up in the seat bottom, chin resting on his arms. His eyes flicked toward Scrooge, and after a moment Scrooge glanced back at Fethry.

"Aye, Gobo. He's an explorer, from a central society o' them called Fraggle Rock."

"Sounds like an amazing place. I didn't know Fraggles were ever explorers, though," Fethry noted, glancing out the window as he tried to organize his other thoughts and questions - but something else is making it hard to focus. Er, harder than usual. "I really didn't mean to scare him."

Edited 2019-11-12 08:07 (UTC)

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Friendlier Faces

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