Slackbot's text sketchbook

[charlietheowl]

Awww! I like how Sidebottom is able to help Boober slowly get over his fear, and how Sage is perceptive enough to realize that Sidebottom is the "part of him that knows it's safe". Thanks for sharing.

 

[mostlikemokey]

I notice you seem to have confessing his fear of water to more and more Fraggles lately. Interesting.
I really love how you do Sidebottom. Most fanfics just touch on him, but you really get into the deeper, philosophical aspect; who he is, how he came to be, what he means.
Also, I really like Sage. She has Boober's groundedness and Mokey's sweetness. It's good that Boober has someone in his family who can empathize with him without giving long, airy speeches that go right over his head, as Mokey would probably do.
Great Story! I don't know why, but while your longer stories are exciting, your one-shots always leave the greatest impression on me.

 

[Slackbot]

Thanks for the kind words, guys. I wish I knew where this story came from. It just kind of popped into my mind while I was filing reports, and I wrote it during a break.

Boober hasn't made any new confessions about his fear of water. In "Red Versus Blue" he told the rest of the Fraggle Five, plus the three children, why he doesn't swim. "Treading Water" came after that story, as did "Self Help," so both Mokey and Sage already knew. Boober just felt a need to explain more than strictly necessary to justify himself, and the author wanted to inform the reader, because she can't expect everyone to have read all of her previous stories and remember all the fiddly little details.

Glad that Sidebottom's coming across well. I may have a bit if a handle on him because I've done a fair bit of research into Dissociative Identity Disorder, which is the current scientifical name for split personality. I approach Sidebottom from that angle, as a personality fragment originally created to enable Boober to cope with things that he found unbearable. In some real-life cases the multiple was a parent, and the alters had to be kept away from their children. I thought it'd be nice to reverse that and have Sage accept Sidebottom, even to the point she can recognize him and tell him to cut it our when he's working at cross purposes to Boober. Also, many multiples have an "Inner Self-Helper" personality, one who helps keep the system stable and can help the core cope. I've promoted Sidebottom to that role, sort of. In "Trials and Tintinnabulations" he took over when Boober reached the end of his rope. In "Commonplace Miracles" he reveals to Boober the cause of his dread, and then carries the burden so Boober can cope in a very stressful situation. Here he's trying to give back the ability to swim, which Boober had sheared off when he created Sidebottom.

It kind of surprises me that Sage has a few fans. I never planned to make her an important character. She just kind of happened when I put her in stories. Not that I'm complaining.

 

[Plaid Fraggle]

:'D So interesting! I love it when characters experience personal moments that will be kept secret together (an example being the episode 'Marooned'). And naturally I just adore the relationship that you continue to build between Sage and Boober

Go Sage go!! *cheers!!!*

 

[Slackbot]

I writed a thing today.

*****

Big Brother​

by Kim McFarland​

*****

It was a dark and quiet night. The caves of Fraggle Rock were filled with the comforting sound of dozens of Fraggles snoring. Most slept in small clusters for warmth and comfort.
Four Fraggles currently occupied Red and Mokey's room. Red was fast asleep in her hammock, of course. Mokey's bed was a bit crowded tonight, but it was cozy rather than uncomfortable. Mokey was sleeping on one side and her son Janken on the other. Between them was Mokey's newborn daughter, Sage. She was twenty-seven days old now, and she sometimes slept for an hour or even two before waking up and alerting everyone nearby to her myriad needs.
She began to whimper and squirm, but that was not what woke Janken up. It was the smell. Janken recognized the smell of a full diaper; Sage perfumed their cave many times daily. At first the odor had horrified him, but after a while he had gotten used to it.
This was Sage's third wake-up tonight. Mokey had held her and rocked her when she got fussy, and fed her when she was hungry. Mama had to be tired, Janken thought. Since Sage had been born Mokey had been tired a lot during the day because she didn't get enough sleep at night. She took it in stride, cheerfully assuring him that it was all part of motherhood. Still, he felt sorry for her. She couldn't let any of the others take Sage for the night because she was the only one who had milk for her, so she never got a good night's sleep.
Sage began to whine. Janken made a decision and slid out of bed, then picked Sage up. There were a pair of buckets on one side of the room. One was uncovered, and contained clean, absorbant, fluffy moss. The other was covered. He took off the lid, winced at the odor, then set Sage down the thick blanket by the buckets. He untied the sash holding her breechclout-like diaper on and dumped the soiled moss within into the smelly bucket, then shut it quickly again. He wiped her behind with a bit of clean moss, then put more of the soft fluff into the breechclout and tied it back on her. He patted it to make sure he had enough of the moss and it was in the right place to catch the next mess so it hopefully wouldn't foul her diaper. Mokey had shown him how, and he'd done it several times since.
Sage, once again dry and comfortable, stopped wriggling and making unhappy sounds. Janken picked her up and, for the moment too tired to get back into bed, set her in his lap and cuddled her. She closed her eyes and went limp, asleep in moments. Janken looked down at her. She seemed to be frowning in concentration, as if sleeping was hard work.
Babies were hard work. Right before Sage had been born Mokey had gotten so big it made her tired to do much. Everyone had gotten radishes for the garden for her. When Sage had been born...that had been scary. Even though Mokey had assured him that she would be all right no matter what it looked like, he had been frightened. But Boober, who had helped her have the baby and told her what to do, had stayed calm the whole time, even when she was yelling, so even though Janken knew he didn't have to stay if he didn't want to he had. Mama Mokey was always there when he needed her, so he wouldn't run away when she needed him. And he had seen his little sister born, and Mokey had been all right just as she promised she would, and everybody was so happy, and Janken was glad that he'd stayed.
During her pregnancy Mokey had told him about being a big brother. Babies were small and helpless and needed everything. Just as Mokey, Gobo, Red, Boober, and Wembley had all raised Janken, they would be raising her and Boober's child. That didn't mean he was any less important. In fact, the baby would need him too. He would help love her, and when she grew he would teach her how to play and other things that he knew. The thought had made him feel proud and excited.

Looking down at the sleeping baby, he thought that it would be a long time before they could play. It would be winter, and then another winter, before she even began to speak. But that was okay. It was neat, being a big brother. Even if it did involve crying and smelliness. Moments like this made up for it.

He sat for a little while, holding the sleeping baby, until he began to nod off. Then he made himself get back up and return to the bed. Mokey was still asleep. Good. He lay Sage next to her. Mokey's eyes opened briefly and she drew Sage close, but Janken knew that didn't really count as waking up. He climbed back into bed with them, closed his eyes, and in a minute was asleep too.

*****

Fraggle Rock and all characters are except Sage and Janken are copyright © The Jim Henson Company. All copyrighted properties are used without permission but with much respect and affection. Sage, Janken, and the overall story are copyright © Kim McFarland (negaduck9@aol.com). Permission is given by the author to copy it for personal use only.

*****

Big Brother, Little Sister - A quick Sharpie doodle.

 

[charlietheowl]

Jan's a good sport for changing the diaper all by himself in the middle of the night, and he's got a good attitude about helping out with Sage and getting used to having another person in the family. About how old was he at this point?

 

[Slackbot]

This takes place in the spring following the events of The Mamas and The Papas, so Janken's about eight years old. We think; Fraggles aren't good at counting years after the first few.

In TMaTP, Janken was afraid that he was losing his place in the family, partly because he didn't know if Mokey would still be his mother after she had her next child. Yeah, not logical, but little kids don't operate on logic. Mokey saw the possibility of sibling rivalry, and headed that off early by playing up how important he would be as a big brother. Clearly the lesson took, if he was there when she was born and will voluntarily do dirty work so Mama can sleep.

I wrote this mainly to show why Sage and Janken are so close. Janken has been kind of a junior parent to her, plus he is a playmate.

 

[Plaid Fraggle]

I swear, your Fraggle characters are just so great I love Janken, such a positive and forward-thinking fellow! And the sense of family that is illustrated in all your Fraggle stuff is really interesting, because it's just so perfect for the Fraggles in general.

Oh and I mean, Baby Sage?! Is there anything cuter? (Nope.)

Awesome job here

 

[Slackbot]

Dear Nephew Gobo,

The other day I found myself in Equestria, a very magical place, even moreso than Fraggle Rock. It is populated by the Hoofed Creatures, which come in all colors. There are pink ones and purple ones and orange ones and blue ones. In fact, they come in all the colors that Fraggles do! However, the poor things have no fingers or toes. Their legs end in hard round things. Despite this they seem to get along quite well. They run around and some even fly with the greatest abandon. However, they do not seem to swim. They don't know what they're missing. Perhaps it's better that way.

Love,
Your Uncle Traveling Matt

 

[mostlikemokey]

I've been waiting for somebody to make something like this. Considering that Red and Gobo fraggle are public fans and all This was cute. Now I know I'm not the only one making strange pony crossovers and loving it. It makes me wonder how Red would get along with Rainbow Dash...

Rainbow Dash would win Red would win It would be best out of 374... billion.