royalrock | Far away, long ago, glowing dim as an ember. Things my heart used to know...

"GoboGoboGoboGobo!"

That could be heard a good ways before Wembley came racing to the top of the stairs in their cave. The moment he started trying to go down those stairs in his rush, though, he tripped. As he tumbled the rest of the way down with "oofs" and "ows", the occasional "Gobo" could still be heard, until he landed halfway across the floor of the cave.

Wembley immediately popped back to his feet, though, looking excited, if not slightly dizzy. "Gobo!" Wait, he was looking in the wrong direction... "Gobo!" There he was. "Gobo, you're not going to believe what Red and I just found!"

He did hear Wembley, and internally cringed at the sound of it. Not that he was against seeing his best friend but well... he just wasn't in the mood.

Stopping on the far side of the cave because of the- yep, there it was -expected tumbles and trips, he walked over to dust him off since Wembley had the "getting back up" under control just fine.

"What is it, Wembley?" Perfectly genuine question, if one missing a little heart.

Wembley giggled as Gobo brushed him off - that tickled!

"You're really not going to believe it, but there's a spot just outside of the Great Hall where little squirts of water keep popping up! Like- Like magic! And I said we should tell you, so you could add it to your maps if it sticks around, and Red thought- Well, Red was just splashing in the water," he admitted, grinning. "But Gobo! Isn't that amazing!"

Thwack thwack thwack against Gobo's arm at the end there.

"That does sound amazing, Wembley." Just as the question had been, there wasn't much oomph behind Gobo's words. And that smile certainly didn't meet his eyes.

Wembley frowned at that under-reaction. Gobo loved to add things to his maps, but he wasn't even going to get one now...

"Gobo, what's wrong?"

Gobo glanced at Wembley, then exhaled softly and turned away, starting to pace again.

"I've got a lot on my mind, I guess... Been having some weird dreams lately, ones on my own and not from the rest of the Fraggles."

Wembley watched him walk about in circles. "What are the dreams about?" he asked, voice soft. If Gobo was having problems, he wanted to help...

They were best friends, after all.

"The sun." He turned another half-circle, just feeling Wembley staring at him. Defensively, he waved his hands. "Look look I know it sounds weird! But... I can't explain it. I keep dreaming about the sun and..."

Gobo hesitated, trying to draw his dreams out, the mixed and blurry images he couldn't make sense of awake. "...and a rock like a field. Warmth, and music and..."

Other Fraggles.

"...other stuff. Weird, I guess."

Wembley tilted his head to the side. "Other stuff...? Well, Gobo, I do think it sounds weird, but if it's bothering you, then it's not really weird. It's important, so..." His voice started to pick up hopefulness again. "...So we'll figure it out! Share your dream with me, or another of our friends! Oh! Or all of our friends, because we'll definitely figure it out if we all try together!"

Gobo glanced over at Wembley, and there was a faint, real smile on his face then.

"Yeah... you're right, Wembley. Thanks."

"Aw, you're welcome, Gobo!" Wembley giggled, his own mood restored entirely. "I may not have lots of ideas, but when I do, I'm happy to give them to all of you guys!"

"Yeah. So..." He walked over to his bed and hopped up backward into it. "My dream." Clasping his hands in between his knees, he took a moment to pull his words together before talking.

"It feels kinda like... sliding, or- or maybe being carried? And walking from Fraggle Rock out into the sunlight. But it isn't like going into the Gorgs' garden, it's stepping out onto more rock. Only this one stretches as far as the eye can see, and it's all kinds of golds and browns and greys. And I can see Fraggles, but too far to make out who anybody is."

His eyelids dropped a little as he continued thinking. "I can't see myself but I still feel like it's me doing the looking, y'know? Everything's bright and sunny and warm, that sort of warm where the stone's been in the sun all day and it almost hurts to touch, but not quite. And there's a couple Fraggles with me, but I can't really seem them either, but they're warm too. The kind when Mokey gives you a hug. I can hear music, and there's partying and stuff, normal Fraggle things. And I can hear bells and..."

Gobo breathed out a sigh, shaking his head. "That's it. That's all the dream is."

Wembley climbed up beside him, listening carefully to the explanation. "That sounds... Nice, Gobo," he said. He couldn't understand why such a cozy dream was upsetting his friend, but it was, and that was all that mattered. He shook his head and adjusted himself some to start getting comfortable. "We'll figure it out. I promise."

Gobo gave him a faint smile, then sighed and looked off and down again.

"Thanks." Then, as if picking up on Wembley's thoughts, "I know it sounds like a good dream. I just feel like... it's calling me, or that it's... memories almost, and not just a dream. Like I should know where I am or who the Fraggles I'm with are. Like it's all on the tip of my tongue but it's just out of reach."

"Oh..." Wembley nodded from his lounging position on the bed, then sat up and put a hand on Gobo's knee. "Yeah, that would bother me, too. I wouldn't want to think I was forgetting something that was important enough to dream about..."

Gobo nodded, hands clasped still, thumbs worrying with each other. He heaved a sigh and closed his eyes, muttering a soft melody.

"What makes dreamers feel dreams are more than real?... Why does dreaming keep revealing what our lives conceal..."

Wembley released Gobo's knee to copy his hand-clasped position, without even realizing he was doing.

"Well... That's the question, yeah. But I don't know if there's really an answer to that. I mean- I think we dream things for a reason! But maybe we aren't able to know it...?"

"Maybe, yeah." He was quiet a moment more, then screwed up his face and hopped off the bed, throwing his hands up in a bit of temper.

"If only I didn't feel like I WAS supposed to know this stuff!"

Wembley smiled sadly. Gobo's temper was nothing new, but he hated seeing him so upset over something that seemed like it was supposed to be making him happy.

"Well... Like I said. If it's important to you, and not knowing is bothering you, we'll figure it out. You, me, Boober, Red, and Mokey. Between the five of us..." He trailed off with a shrug.

"I know, I know..." He swept his hands back through his hair and sighed in frustration. Then, turning on his heel, he marched out of the room.

"C'mon. I'm gonna figure this out right now."

"We are? Right now?" Wembley asked, though it was mostly said softly to himself as he hopped down from Gobo's bed and followed him. "Well, okay, Gobo, if you say so!"

Unfortunately, not all of the rest were available, and those that were had only the barest advice. Red had said "Dreams happen, kid" and then hadn't gotten anything else out because she had to shout at someone for improper swim form. Unwilling to wait until the rest of her class Gobo had marched off again (completely missing the helpless look Red flashed at his back, before the others distracted her again). Boober was nowhere to be seen, and would probably be arms deep in laundry suds anyway and Gobo wasn't in the mood, so he found Mokey next.

Mokey would be as unhelpful as Red though, in the end. While she was more enthusiastic about the idea of a mysterious dream, she got far too much into trying to interpret it. Tired of hearing about "Maybe the sun means growth" and "Rocks are supposed to mean stability, or that one might find a very nice mountain" he made some excuse, didn't even remember what, and got off again. Wembley, he let him down as easy as he could, feeling as mixed up as he did.

"I need to be alone right now, okay? I've gotta think. I'll... see you later, Wembley."

And Gobo went off without leaving him room for argument. If any tunnel ahead of him sounded like it was occupied he avoided it, eventually coming down to a large cavern, full of stalactites and stalagmites and somewhere in its depths, a gentle glow. Standing at the threshold of it, he looked up and off, temper melting away and leaving that same melancholy from before.

"Nobody gets it..."

Standing in one of the tunnels Gobo happened to pass by was Boober, on an errand of sorts. He was looking for bleachnuts, and sometimes it was just easier to pick the best ones himself.

It was hard to miss colorful Gobo... Especially when he looked so upset. Boober hesitated on seeing that, for several reasons. If Gobo's low was strictly emotional, he might need to be alone... And he still had bleachnuts to gather. But on the other hand, if Gobo was ill, well, who was going to help him if not Boober? Oh, but contagions...

What ultimately got him to start following Gobo, albeit after a lengthy wait, was just- A feeling he'd always had. That looking after Gobo was something he should do, whenever he could. He followed at a distance, and when Gobo started heading into a large cavern, Boober watched him carefully. When he spoke, it wasn't so Gobo would hear him, but rather, his concern flowing over and spilling out as words.

"Gobo... What's wrong...?"

Gobo did not seem to hear Boober, so wrapped up in his own thoughts was he. His shoulders rose and fell with a sigh, and he closed his eyes. He could feel that sunlight, could... almost smell the environment. Almost without thinking a song rose, dancing with his memories and away from him.

♫ Dancing bears, painted wings
Things I almost remember
And a song someone sings
Once upon a December ♫

He walked forward, further into the cavern, his voice carrying with him and bouncing off the walls, adding more to the soulful, mournful quality of it.

♫ Someone holds me safe and warm
Horses prance through a silver storm
Figures dancing gracefully
Across my memory ♫

Arms crossed across himself, he then spread them out with a light spin, carrying briefly across a small stream. The glow of the cavern was closer now, and spying it he started a climb up an incline, toward it.

♫ Someone holds me safe and warm
Horses prance through a silver storm
Figures dancing gracefully
Across my memory...

Far away, long ago
Glowing dim as an ember
Things my heart used to know
Things it yearns to remember ♫

Reaching the top of the incline he looked up toward the glow: a single shaft of sunlight, warm across his face, though when he tilted his head up to it and closed his eyes it was against tears.

♫ And a song someone sings
Once upon a December... ♫

He lowered himself down to sit as the last remnants of the song echoed away around him. Head up and eyes closed he almost seemed to be basking in the sunlight, but the rest of his posture, and his expression said otherwise. Heartbroken and lost, without any answers...

Ohhh, while that song was beautiful, it was so... Painful. For some reason, it made Boober ache, and- Not just for Gobo. He felt unhappy for himself, too.

But when he saw Gobo look like he was tearing up, he gasped, and the moment he was done singing Boober couldn't help it, he had to go to his friend-

-except a hand reached out of the darkness and snared his elbow, dragging him back off his feet. Sidebottom hauled him several feet and then into the first tunnel they came to, not releasing him until a good ways into that.

From there he started pacing around agitatedly, looking more like his counterpart than himself. With this, amid the cacophony of his bells, there was strangled, distressed words as well.

"Oh no, oh nonononono! I knew I shouldn't have seen him again! I thought, it would be a little harmless fun! Getting to really see him again but no, no now he's starting to remember, this is bad! Boober this is BAD, do you know how bad this is!?"

Whoa, what was happening-??

Oh great. Sidebottom... Probably didn't want him to hang around with someone in a bad mood, or thought he'd be better spending his time doing something silly and dangerous...

But when Sidebottom was just, well, freaking out in a panic, Boober could only stare as he ranted. "Sidebottom...? You're unhappy? A-About what?"

"About everything!" He threw his arms out, then started pacing again. "Gobo's remembering who he is! And if he remembered what happened and what hasn't happened and-"

Stopping in place, he stared toward the tunnel with an unhappy whine in his throat, wringing his hands together.

Boober scowled. "Gobo is Gobo. Sidebottom, what are you talking about?" he demanded, putting his hands on his hips.

He looked over, then huffed sharply. "Right, right, you don't remember either."

Raising a hand he snapped his fingers toward Boober's face, then started pacing again. On his action, everything would come back- everything. The kingdom, the jester job, the royals- the chaos, the night the Poison Cacklers arrived... The conversation with Matt, the hiding. Boober becoming himself.

Everything.

Sidebottom, unknowing and uncaring about the enormous thousand ton boulder he just dropped onto Boober's brain, continued worrying.

"What am I gonna doooo...."

"What?" Boober spat out, arms falling to his sides as he looked ahead, dumbfounded. "What?!"

How could this be possible- How had Sidebottom kept this from him for so long? How... How did he not remember a whole different life? How had Matt never slipped up?!

And... Goodness, Sidebottom was the one who was supposed to be out there, then. Not him. That- That was a shock. He felt faint, but he had to take things one step at a time. He just didn't quite have enough control to determine what the first step would be; he was frightened and confused and angry!

"Why do you always have to do this?!"

"ME?!" Even his bells sounded angry as he jerked to a stop, whirling around toward Boober.

"Do you think I- wanted to have this little kid shoved into my arms and told to get him to safety??! Do you think I- wanted to leave behind Flock and Leko and everyone else I, we, ever cared about??"

Huffing now, he got right up in Boober's face, shoving him with his fingertips. "Do you- think -that I wanted to miss Gobo growing up! Teaching him all my best games and jokes! You don't know how I feel!"

A harder shove now, full-handed, and then he whipped around again, stalking across the tunnel. "I've got to go in there. You- you've gotta dreamshare with him and I've gotta get everything back under lock and key! If- if he ever figures out where he came from, that we haven't heard from the kingdom yet-" His voice had started to shake there but he pulled it back under steely control. "Well, he just can't. Nobody can.'

Boober recoiled as he was pushed, though it had more to do with Sidebottom's words than being shoved. He'd never thought of Sidebottom as feeling anything but joy and good humor. This was... So strange to see. And far too much to grasp; normally he'd turn to a friend for advice, but- He couldn't. Not this time, because Sidebottom was right. No one could know. He wished he didn't know, that was bad enough! But if anyone else knew... It would change everything.

It would ruin everything. There were a million things that would be broken, but Boober couldn't deny that the scariest part to him was that... That maybe he'd have to let Sidebottom be on the outside; let him take over full-time.

He didn't want that.

Boober took a deep breath. He should apologize, but he couldn't bring himself to - not entirely out of pride, but also because he was still struggling to process this.

"Will... Will I be able to forget, too?"

Edited 2020-07-04 18:25 (UTC)

Sidebottom gave him a long, piercing look, in a way that only Boober would be able to read it. Then he seemed to deflate and he nodded.

"Yes. You'll be able to forget, too. Once I fix Gobo, this whole thing will be like it never happened to you, too."

The moment that glare was sent his way, Boober lowered his head and looked down at his feet. "Sidebottom... Iii am sorry that that happened," he muttered. "But I'll find a reason to go inside Gobo's dreams, and then it will all be okay."

It was presented as comfort, but the truth - the truth he feared Sidebottom would know - was that it was rationalization for his own selfishness and cowardice.

He heard it and honestly, he couldn't do anything about it. They were both selfish, weren't they? That was the entire problem between them...

"Alright, go. The quicker we get this over with, the quicker everything'll go back to normal for you."

Boober nodded. He felt positively queasy, a mix of anxiety and guilt.

"Right. Uh... Well, you'd better get back in, then."

"Yeah, I know. Just go, okay?" He turned Boober around and pushed him toward the tunnel. "Before I change my mind."

One final shove, then the weight on his back disappeared. If he were to look behind him, Sidebottom was gone.

He better get this over with - and he did take the task on straightaway, approaching Gobo with claims of nightmares at naptime. He didn't like lying, but this was important, and eventually he got Gobo to agree to share a dream with him, though the other Fraggle was still quite preoccupied.

Waking up from the dream was the next thing he remembered, and things before sleeping seemed fuzzy now, too. But he felt okay now, at least... And that was the whole idea.

Gobo seemed a bit confused as to what had happened, too, and normally that - plus how long it took him to remember he'd been looking for bleach nuts - would have had Boober worried, but there was just a sense of relief right now he couldn't shake.

Gobo had indeed been preoccupied, but he was always willing to help a friend in need. Nodding at Boober's request, he settled down to rest with him, reciting the couplet together that would start the process. And afterward...

Well, he assumed he had helped, but he couldn't quite remember the dream. Lots of colors and sounds, and then- nothing. Well, if there was a lot of nothing that certainly was a nightmare, wasn't it? He just had to shake a bit of lightheadedness he had now. A pat to Boober's shoulder and he left him to gather his laundry supplies, and he headed off to... whatever he had been doing before, too.

What was it...?

Deep within Boober's subconscious, barely more than a thought himself, Sidebottom looked at a small wooden chest in his hands. It had been full of various joke materials but now, now it was very precious. Two orbs of light were within, one goldish and the other a sort of raincloud grey. He was sorry it had to be like this, but he couldn't let it happen again. Not unless...

Sighing, he closed the chest tight and locked it, then buried it deep in his corner of Boober's mind. With it he went back to sleep himself, curled up on top of its hiding spot. He'd hold onto it all. He was the only one that could.

Far away, long ago, glowing dim as an ember. Things my heart used to know...

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