How Not to Plan a Ranch Visit [Frog/Cecil]

Subject: How Not to Plan a Ranch Visit [Frog/Cecil] Tue Nov 21, 2017 9:50 pm

Today, Cecil had made the journey out to Lexaco Ranch. A place full of animals, animals which the owners had no qualms letting other people interact with? It sounded great.
There was a...slight, problem though.
Once Cecil arrived, he realised he had no idea what he was doing. Everything was there, sure - the ranch owners, the creatures they cared for, all the rest of it - but he had no clue how to get started. And in his mind, things blew out of proportion at a rapid pace.

I'm here. I know what I came here to do. I'm absolutely not prepared for what I came here to do! How are all of these supposed to be looked after? Do I just head in and figure it out NO THAT'S A STUPID IDEA I'LL SCREW SOMETHING UP AND THEY WOULDN'T WANT PEOPLE JUST WANDERING IN THERE ANYWAY I MEAN COME ON-
Cecil groans, rubbing at his face. This isn't as big a deal as I'm making it...I just need to talk to the ranch owners, and get this done. I think...yeah, that's one of them over there. Just have to talk to them.
Cecil doesn't move.
It's seriously not that hard. Just need to move over a bit, and call out to them.
He still remains stationary.
...who am I kidding? Maybe if I wasn't the mess I am. But I am, and it's not that easy. Ugh...

Walking a little away from the expanse that he'd come to visit, the one that had turned out to just remind him of the ways it sucked to be him, he finds a decently clean patch of ground and sits himself down, plugging in his earphones as he desperately tries to stop tormenting himself in his head. It works as well as ever - which is to say, not at all.
I hate my life, I hate my life, I hate my life...

Posts : 2877 Join date : 2014-12-26 Age : 26

Frog was walking his dog dangerously close to the ranch. So close, in fact, that the 80 kg bugger started sniffing the animals' scent in the air and was slowly growing more restless by the minute. Frog didn't mind. He pulled on his leash, said a couple of short, pissed phrases and continued on like nothing was going on. He had to walk Titus around to as many different places, tbh, and he wanted to see the ranch every once in a while, so it was a win-win. Besides, it was better than sitting at home doing nothing or cracking his head open over the Terrorist stuff. Walking around like this, he could just relax and think things through in the fresh air.

Titus suddenly pulled to the side, sending Frog jumping after him. "Ohoho, so what's going on, Titus?" He said angrily before noticing the guy sitting in the grass. Titus noticed him too and walked over to him, pulling Frog after him, as the great dane was too strong to be held back.

Subject: Re: How Not to Plan a Ranch Visit [Frog/Cecil] Thu Nov 23, 2017 5:28 pm

I hate my life, I hate my life, I hate...my...that's a dog. That's definitely a dog coming towards me. And not a small one, either. He follows the leash, and sees the poor guy being dragged along by the persistent hound. Well. Poor guy definitely isn't the one in control here, is he? The little smile that had started to form on Cecil's face is rapidly wiped away. ...not the time for that.

Putting up his usual relaxed facade, Cecil returns his attention to the massive hound dragging the boy about, popping his earphones out. Hanging around his neck today is a simple wooden yin yang necklace with a slightly crude, handmade look, the iconic symbol ringed by an inset white ring that fails to contrast with the yang, that ring further surrounded by the rounded, dark wood it's made from. The dark dot within the yang seems to have worn away a little.
As Cecil speaks, there's a certain dry, sardonic tone to his voice. "You're a carefree one, aren't you? Not a worry in the world as you yank someone's arm off." He lets out a dark chuckle before turning his attention to Frog. "I'd ask who's walking who today, but I think I already know. That's definitely a nice dog you've got there, though I don't know enough to say the breed. You got a problem if I give him some attention?" He smirks a little, but the expressions he puts on never reach his eyes, the pair of flat, dark green irises seeming to gaze out near lifelessly at the moment.

Posts : 2877 Join date : 2014-12-26 Age : 26

Frog had no qualms at all with someone giving Titus any sort of attention. It was easing, even, during walks, that the two of them could have these moments lacking motion and all the yanking that came with it. Frog looked the guy over, deducing he looked weird, but social pleasantries implied he couldn't just deny him the wish to pat his dog or whatever. "Sure, go ahead. And thanks." Frog smiled politely, but fake. "Just watch the drool if you don't wanna get dirtied." He added, therefore verbally removing any responsibility if anything such would happen. Or well so he thought.

Titus would look Cecil over too, but mainly focus on sniffing his butt and crotch. Frog would yank him when he'd do that and the dog would stop momentarily each time. And yes there was a lot of dry drool in the dog's droopy mouth. It would surely leave visible stains.

Cecil doesn't seem particularly bothered by the drool as he starts fussing Titus. Not that he doesn't notice, but he seems used to it...though he does tuck away his necklace. "I have a feeling that the drool isn't something I can so easily avoid. Nothing much I can do, I guess." He focuses his attention on the dog now before him, little restraint in the way he goes about giving him attention. It's enjoyable for him, certainly, but his current mood refuses to shift in spite of that. Well...I guess I got some animal time, huh. Just...not the way I expected.

As he continues on fussing Titus, he develops an expression as if he was thinking, though his hands never stop moving. Cecil's head then turns to Frog as he continues with his ministrations. "What brings you out here, then? Other than this guy here pulling you along, of course."
He wasn't incredibly bothered by the answer right now. He'd have a hard time mustering genuine enthusiasm for most things at the moment. But he wasn't a complete wreck right now trying to talk to this guy, and he wasn't about to give up the rare occasion so easily.

Posts : 2877 Join date : 2014-12-26 Age : 26

Frog shrugged at Cecil's lack of concern about drool, or well, the lack of will to combat the concern in a practical manner. "Shoore, suit yourself." He says shortly, not really feeling the need to socialize with a complete stranger who was petting his dog right now. He did however still smile politely. Keeping up appearances was a full time job, after all, even if said appearances were only really in his own head.
Titus remained calm. He wagged his tail lazily and panted like a big boy he was, all the while sniffing the ground around him and Cecil from time to time. He seemed pleased by the fuss he was receiving.

Frog raised an eyebrow at Cecil. How come this guy was acting so amicable. Not many people who met him and his dog opened the discussion with a question about him. It was always with questions about Titus. So yeah, he was caught off guard by Cecil's inquiry. "Well, nothing special. It's just more fun to explore places you don't get to see every day." He answered. "Like the Sunlake Palms. Nothing special's left for me to see there. Besides, East Eden is nice and has nature and all that. You know."

Cecil gives a little shrug. "Guess I do. Really, it's good to see new stuff, try new things. But I guess you and I'd have different definitions as to the sort of things that grab us. Like..." His gaze flicks briefly up into the corner of his eye. "Can't say I get a massive kick out of looking at nature. Trees, forests, rolling plains and exotic plants...I can kind of appreciate them. But it's not really something that's much significant to me, usually. So..." He gestures with one hand, pointing a finger out in a circle before returning it to Titus. "Places like these? I can't say I'd take a stroll here just for that."

"I guess I prefer the comforts of the city. Might look a lot the same to some people, but there's a surprising amount of little details and intricacies you won't have noticed to even a street you've walked a thousand times, if you just keep an eye out for them. Less blatantly pretty sights to wow you like in the natural world, but that just means you actually have to open up to things nearby a little more to take in the details. Not for everyone, but I guess I just like finding these little details in familiar sights."
It felt weird. For once, the words were coming naturally. He wasn't choking trying to put a word in, and things existed in his head to say. He could probably thank the guy's dog for that. Dogs were nice. They made things just that little bit better when you needed it. Hell, speaking honestly he enjoyed this in general, even if he wasn't actually feeling better. "Each time, it's just...something you think you know all too well, and then you find out there's more to it than you thought there was. You have to wonder what else you haven't seen yet. About it. About other things. Or, well, I do, somewhere in my mind."

Posts : 2877 Join date : 2014-12-26 Age : 26

Frog grimaced a bit and Titus wagged his tail at Cecil's tale. Heh, pun.
"Well that was...elaborate." Frog's tongue slipped a bit, but he didn't feel bad about blurting out what he really thought this time. To be honest, someone talking like this guy was talking was sure to make any stranger's stomach listening to them to churn with unease. And Frog would be lying if he claimed he wasn't feeling uneasy himself. "But, err...I guess I just don't pay much detail to stuff anyways and I just forget about what I saw anyways so anyways I don't think I can do what you're describing." He responded clumsily, shuffling in his spot. Titus walked a circle around Frog and then another around Cecil, settling to lie down in the grass, seeing as they weren't moving anyways, so better make valuable use of the time.

Subject: Re: How Not to Plan a Ranch Visit [Frog/Cecil] Mon Nov 27, 2017 1:15 pm

Cecil glances away, shrugging. "Sorry. Being able to talk to someone this easily is kind of a novelty for me. I usually don't just go on like that unless I'm actually in a decent mood."
For once.
Cecil lets a long breath out, his head shaking slightly from side to side as the air escapes. "I'll just say you'd be surprised what you remember, whether you wanted to be able to or not." He makes a short sound that couldn't quite be called a laugh. "Not like any of this matters to you, though. I'm just the weirdo at the ranch...not that being weird is the bad thing a lot of people tend to think it is."

Cecil pauses a while, one hand playing with an earphone as Titus starts circling around. "...you don't have to stick around, you know. You probably don't really care, and I doubt you're pleased with any of this anyway. I wouldn't blame you if you just wanted to move on with your dog about now." His thumb runs along the rubber earcup of the bud, popping it out of position and pushing it back on several times. His expression remains relaxed, if somewhat melancholy as he continues to hold the smile on his face in place.

Posts : 2877 Join date : 2014-12-26 Age : 26

Frog grimaced at Cecil's shift in mood. Or well, Cecil's sudden 'weirdness', to accomodate the used term. He stared at the earphones the other keeps fiddling with, as Titus sniffs the grass around. This guy was acting like an edgy teen and Frog really didn't want any part of it. He oozed edge in the statement about weird not being a bad thing (which, Frog knew to be true, since he was, quote-on-quote, weird too, but it wasn't a phrase one would want to say around other people unless they wanted to be given very adult-like stares trying to tell them to stop acting like an idiotic child), and all in all acted repulsively towards him all of a sudden.

Yet Frog didn't wanna leave just yet.
"You're a weirdo for saying things like 'being weird isn't all that bad, hurrdurrfurr'. That makes you sound like you give a shit which is never good to let the enemy know that." Frog tilted his head to the side, letting his bangs reveal the eye hidden beneath, a piercing bluish gray. He peered at Cecil before unbuckling Titus's leash, letting the dog wander around a bit. He wouldn't go far. He was way too attached to them and worried way too much they were gonna leave him or something. "Oh well whoops my dog wants to stay here for a bit longer." He shrugged, trying his hardest to maybe catch what the guy was listening to in his earphones.

Cecil's expression transitions to sarcastically incredulous as Frog makes his comment, eyebrow raised as he gives him a flat look. "'The Enemy'? Seriously? That's a new one." Cecil scoffs. "And you don't think calling people something like that doesn't broadcast you see them as a threat to you? I mean, I doubt you're actually calling them that to their face, but there's plenty to be pulled from that as well."

Cecil leans in. "For example. The fact you're even telling me what's bad to let 'the enemy' know in the first place kinda suggests that you don't count me as one of those enemies." Cecil shrugs, eyes closing and opening with the start and end of the motion. "Of course, that's just what it sounds like. You can make some decent guesses from the words people throw out, but you can't always say much for certain."

He watches as Frog lets Titus loose, and chuckles to himself. "Welp, if that's what the doggle wants, that's what they'll do. Way they were dragging you about before, I'm not entirely sure whether you could get them to leave if they didn't want to anyway." The makings of a grin appear on Cecil's face as he continues idly working over the earphone with his fingers, watching Titus wander about.

If Frog listened closely enough, he'd probably be able to the hear music from the loose earphones. Cecil didn't exactly have his music playing quietly most times, and he'd neglected to turn down the volume as he usually does when talking to people. Odds were though, unless Frog knew Japanese and had good enough ears to hear the vocals clearly with the distance, he wouldn't understand a word of what Cecil was listening to. He might recognise where it was from, but otherwise it was just stupidly cheerful J-Pop thrown up from Cecil's somewhat eclectic music collection.

Posts : 2877 Join date : 2014-12-26 Age : 26

Frog chuckled. In reality, he was getting somewhat irritated. Like someone's been rubbing his temples and the back of his head with construction paper, that someone being Cecil with his retorts and edgy J-pop music. Uh, errrrrr, Frog too listened to some J-pop b-but his reasons were definitely better than this guy's. Whatever Cecil's reasons were, they were clearly inferior. "I wouldn't have said that had you not revealed it to a potential threat already. That threat being me. Were I not a potential enemy, there'd be nothing I'd need to correct you about." He responded bluntly with a slight smirk. How young was this guy even? Frog's views were quite naive, yes. Arguing with such views was even more naive.

What really ticked Frog off, however, was the fact Cecil commented on his ability to keep Titus on leash. This also meant he himself failed to resonate his internal self-centered persona over to Cecil by being unable to control his dog and, quite frankly, letting Titus lead the way. This bothered him. Bothered him very very much. And it showed in his suddenly annoyed expression, borderline anger. He avoided looking directly at Cecil like that because it was rude, but he didn't feel like hiding it completely either. "I can control him, ok. When I really want to. I just don't want him to feel bad or bored or angry with me."

Utterly missing Frog's rising frustration, Cecil shrugs. "Well, yeah. That's how that works. Unless you can read minds, I doubt you could comment on anything I hadn't said. Still, doesn't change anything. Even though I said what I did, you didn't actually need to tell me that - you just had the chance to. Actually doing it was your choice." He notices the smirk, and sighs. He doubted right now that anything he said was really going to register as anything other than a flag for another remark. It'd be nice if the content of what he was saying was acknowledged, but this guy seemed pretty firmly rooted in his current position, in the sort of stubborn and arbitrary way. Given how these kinds of situations usually worked out, he'd just count it a blessing if he wasn't about to hear a bunch of circular logic.

As Frog gets more blatantly emotional though, Cecil picks up on it this time and flinches, any traces of a good mood wiped clean off. He...hadn't meant to... "Sorry...sorry. I...I didn't mean it like that. It was only supposed to be a stupid joke. Wrong kind of stupid, apparently." He glances away. "I'm not going to pretend I know why it bothered you...but I am sorry. Really." His eyes wonder about, not able to look at Frog.

Cecil's silent, for a while. "...you care about that guy, don't you?" He gestures over in Titus's direction. "Not hard to see why. He's a good dog, even if he pulls a bit. You did well with him." He keeps looking away, obviously feeling bad.
The J-Pop coming from Cecil's earphones comes to a halt, and a new song starts up, exchanging the bright and cheerful tones for a smooth, bassy rhythm.

Posts : 2877 Join date : 2014-12-26 Age : 26

Frog was about to retort to Cecil's commentary when he noticed the guy's mood quickly changing. Was he...was he actually feeling bad that he got him angry??? Well, that was, that was far from expected. Raising an eyebrow in confusion, Frog pulled his torso back a bit away from Cecil, mirroring the way the guy turned away from him. Now, either Cecil was pulling his nose or he was actually feeling this down just because Frog got a bit pissed off? Either way, Frog was the one feeling bad now, and it showed in a small blush on his cheeks and the way a drop of sweat oh so deliberately rolled down his chin.
"H-hey, you don't gotta feel bad, man..." He responds as best as he can. What the proper way to deal with a situation like this even was, he couldn't tell. Cecil was diggin a bigger hole around Frog with every word he said, because they stroke through, and he was obviously very apologetic. Did this guy's dog die or something? "I mean...thanks? I guess?" Posture relaxing. Frog placed a hand to his hip and looked down at Cecil. "Yo, I wasn't actually angry at you. Hope you understand as much." He said, extending a hand to the guy.

Subject: Re: How Not to Plan a Ranch Visit [Frog/Cecil] Mon Dec 04, 2017 9:30 pm

Cecil looks back at Frog...internally very confused, but somewhat relieved. Not noticing the little details of Frog's shift in mood, he just rubs at the back of his neck feeling awkward. "I...yeah, I get that...now, I mean? Now that you've said? It's just..." He laughs awkwardly. "Broad strokes, I guess? Can be hard to tell anything that isn't fairly obvious...though, I'd guess we don't have the same definition for that word...yeah." His expression shifts in ways that are just the textbook definition of awkward.

His hand starts to reach for Frog's, but it's barely away from his side before he stops, slowly retracting it a couple of millimetres. What...what am I supposed to...shake his hand? He offering to help me up? Something else I'm not thinking of right now? Am I...why can't this ever be easy for me? The uncertainty (/cluelessness/hesitance/all of the above and more, take your pick) shows quite blatantly on his face, mixed in with a little of those feelings that tend to come when you're sure anyone else wouldn't be having these problems.
In the end, he ends up taking Frog's hand and picking himself off the ground, glancing about awkwardly after the fact. "I...I ah, should probably get going? I didn't come here to sit around and do...whatever that just was today, but..." His eyes briefly shift over to the ranch before flicking back, with the resigned smile of someone all too used to an issue. "I don't think I'm going to really actually manage what I'd intended. That...and I suspect it's been long enough that if I don't get back soon, my sister's going to give me hell over making her wait to eat."

He sighs, eyes briefly glazing over, before shaking his head and returning his focus to the world around him. "Oh...ah...Cecil? I'm Cecil. Pretty sure I'm not supposed to pull a stunt like this without at least introducing myself." One hand comes up, and he starts scratching at the back of his head.

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