Of Ailing Repute [Frog/Cecil]

Patty didn't get it. How could you not know what to say? She never had to think about what she wanted to say, not even when she was roasting that other bitch. Everything just kinda... fell out of her mouth and it worked. She could talk all day from sunrise to sundown and never talk about the same thing twice, she only really shut up when she was pissed off or the talking was getting in the way of doing stuff. But whatever, he was saying things now and she was getting closer to reaching into his sad little shell and pulling him out of it she thought.

"Ahhh, I wouldn't worry about it," the street chick waved off, "Like, what's she gonna do? Be a bitch to you? We already saw how well that went, like I'm pretty  sure I smacked her down like a couple dozen people on The Popular Girls list. Whatever she was gonna do with what's-her-face she was probably gonna do anyway. Like, there's not really a point in getting hung up about it and junk, y'know?" Patricia had absolutely NO idea what that chick's problems or plans were but she was sure about one thing and that was people that start shit always want to finish it too. So like... why would you even worry about it? Whatever she was gonna do, she was gonna, and unless it was real shit like breaking into lockers and taking shit or cornering'im in the bathroom and busting his teeth on the sink then it was all whatever.

But the lanky chick rolled her eyes as Zander started trying to get Cecil to talk again. He could probably do it better than she could though, she kinda sorta bullied it out of him. Deep conversations. Psssssh. Patty wasn't really interested in listening to nerd shit about... whatever the dumb things nerds talked about that they thought were really smart for. Like...... shit....... okay, like, if reality exists or not. If you knew that it didn't or whatever it wouldn't change anything. What did it even matter? She'd prefer to go bother other people and see what they were up to buuuuuuuuut she'd stick around to play devil's advocate, at least for a sec. Patty usually didn't have patience for the psuedo-intellectual type of circle-jerking but she had a funny feeling that by what Zander meant if people weren't.... like.... debating about Marx or some shit what they were saying wasn't important.
"Shyeah like, just don't make it your go-to or whatever and you're good. Like, then you're doing the same thing except with your head up your ass. I mean like if I found an album or something and I wanted to talk about it with someone and all they asked me was how it related to my life or what it said about me that I liked that kind of music it'd seriously piss me off. Like... dude. Hello? It's just freakin' tunes? Like sometimes you just wanna talk about a thing, y'know? Gag me with a freakin' spoon, dude."

A thin smile sprouted across Cecil's features as Frog spoke. Felt a little better to imagine that it was all because he was actually trying to think about what he said rather than recycling the same few things that they'd run through without actually remembering any of it.
The look turned into a dull confusion as Patty commented on it however, and the look on his face said he didn't quite understand the conclusions being drawn. "I...don't think that's what they meant...? I mean...waxing philosophical all the time would just be exhausting. And just...I don't know. Not something to do all the time unless it's a job or something."

He shrugs, trying to think it through with a slight frown. "I just...it's...trying to take an interest? Paying attention to what they're saying, what you're asking, instead of just going through a routine you're going to forget about in five minutes?" He shakes his head, running his fingers through his hair. "Just...caring about any of it - who you're talking to, what you're talking about, whatever - rather than going through something that'd basically be the same as a few minutes on your phone or fiddling with a paperclip for you. A time waster that could have been anything else without losing something."

"Or...I don't know..." He looks over to the boy he was actually debating the meaning of the words of. "Frog? Help?"

The lanky girl squinted at Zander a little. Something didn't feel right but she couldn't put her finger on it. She also never appreciated being told what she thought was wrong because she knew what she said was right or she wouldn't of said anything to begin with. Unless she was messing with someone. Patricia was inclined to ruffle her feathers a little but she'd let this one go, at least until she could understand why it bothered her.


She tapped her chin for a moment trying to understand why this crawled up her skin. Like, what Cecil described was just talking to people. Almost kinda. Like, it wasn't some kinda superpower to actually fuckin' listen to someone, that's what you were supposed to do when you talked to'em. But like, you shouldn't get up your own ass about it. Like, there were a lot of people that went around thinking they were better than other people just because they talked about stuff that actually mattered instead of just talking to people. Like they had a goal in mind or some stuff wasn't worthy of getting talked about. And it made people into jerks, because then there was "the right things to talk about" and "the wrong things" and before you knew it you had a bunch of elitists in some kind of circle-jerk looking down on people. When you set a standard like that you locked people out and put them down, then you had a bunch of edgy crybabies in an echo chamber blocking the world out and sucking each other off. It was as superficial as the popular chicks gossiping about who was screwing who or the jocks talking about drinking on the weekend, but it was worse because instead of doing whatever Cecil said and taking five minutes to listen to someone and make an impact or whatever sappy garbage it was self-destructive. You didn't need to get all deep on someone to do that.

And then she got it. Patty understood what bothered her about everything. But she'd keep it close to herself, this wasn't gonna turn into some fingerpointing shit fit. She didn't give enough of a fuck for it.
"I think you're talking about listening instead of talking. I don't think you're too bad at listening," she perked up with small smile, "But like... stop taking everything so seriously. Like you kinda did it right there. Nyeh, you see, this is ACKSHUALLY objectively the scientific way in which one converses with the populace. Haha see? Everything doesn't have to have this stupid greater meaning to it or whatever, sometimes it's just whatever. Like... stop thinking sometimes and just talk to people, 'kay? It doesn't have to be a big deal, you don't have to do it all the time." Her tone was vaguely reassuring even if she mocked him with a stupid voice in the middle of her explanation. She just didn't want him to get a swelled head over the ability to have basic conversation with people. It all lead down a bad road.

A betrayed look went Frog's way as he quite literally pointed the finger back at him. All he'd wanted was a little help with this, and now he was being left to hang.
Goddammit, Frog...!

Thankfully, he wasn't really getting much from Patty to worry about, though the mockery still put a little dent in his psyche at that moment in time. "I'm not trying to. I just..." He gives a long sigh. "Aaaand I'm doing it again, aren't I...?"
Cecil shakes his head, and looks up to Patty. "I just think things when I hear things. Can't really turn it off, and I don't know how you or anyone else does. And, well...if telling someone 'build a house' doesn't teach them to build a house, I don't see how telling me to stop thinking about things is supposed to make me do that either." He shrugs, starting to run and twist his hair about his fingers. "You can tell me I need to, sure, but...how? How's that supposed to work? You can tell me to just do it again, but being told to do something by doing it is more frustrating than helpful, especially with no starting point."

Well that was weird. Now she was givin' some kinda class on, like, how to talk to people. So like she wasn't about that but she did like attention so that was a thing. Not like she knew how to teach it. You were kiiiiiiinda just supposed to do it, you either did or you didn't and some people were better at it than others. Whatever, could be fun for a little bit and hey, maybe someone could learn somethin'. That'd be pretty cool.


Patricia leaned back on her arms, crossing one leg over the other. The bitch was gone, this was friendly Patty that helped people because she was so nice, wasn't that awesome of her? That and she liked to talk about nothing for however long. Talking to people was fun, she could do it all day.
"My dude there is always something to talk about. We live in Endymion. There's weather. We have a weekend and we go to school or work or do stuff. Like you say man I can't wait for the weekend, you doin' anything fun? and they'll have something to say about it, even if it's nothing. You just gotta keep asking stuff. Like oh, you just chillin' then? Got chores? They'll talk about it. Even if you don't have anything in common you got something in common and it's the same thing as everyone else, y'know? You don't have to like crank up the weird or spill your guts out or whatever. What I'm tryin'a say is it really doesn't gotta matter, sometimes you just socialize to socialize and talk to people and if they don't like you? Fuck'em! Aha see what I mean?"

Patricia sat up a little bit with wide, engaged eyes, fanning her hand against her chest.
"Like me! Like... I really don't have anything in common with either of you dudes, we just go to the same school and like, spend time around the same places pretty much but I'm still talkin' to ya! Just gotta do it!" So it wasn't what they were looking for probably, but whatever. It was true. Talking to people was a thing you did, you got closer to people by engaging with them and stuff and yeah sure you could keep trying to find the same people but that just put you in a weird feedback loop where everyone said the same thing and agreed with the same thing. You didn't expose yourself and get to know new people that way if you were only lookin' for people you knew you were gonna like because they liked the same things you did. That's how cliques started and cliques were fuckin' stupid.

Cecil almost seemed fascinated as Patty dove into things, listening with an intent focus as it became clear that he might actually learn something from this. It was a potential insight into something that had long been painful.
And in short order, he felt silly for fretting so much over this in the first place. Regardless of whether it was, Patty made it sound easy, in no small part due to the easy delivery of it all that he was curious of in the first place. It made it all sound so much simpler than his mind had managed to make it out to be in the first place - and to be perfectly fair, it probably was easier than that. Even if he didn't acknowledge it, most things were less painful than his mind made them to be.

By the end, Cecil had a thoughtful expression as he turned things over in his head, picking apart the sentences for what was, to him, valuable wisdom. "...you know, if you put it like that, it...kinda makes it sound obvious enough that I wonder why I couldn't see it like that in the first place." After a slight pause, he lets out a little, strange laugh. "People like to talk about themselves...that shouldn't be as weird an idea as it is."

Patricia shrugged, maintaining her neutral somewhat-enthused smile she always wore. Looks like he really didn't know how to talk to people. But like once you got it you got it, just gotta do it then and doing it's easy. Or it's always been easy for her. Patty just did whatever she felt like, thinking came later or sometimes never. She didn't really miss it.
"Nobody ever looks at anything they think is obvious since, like, they think they already know," she commented in a lifting tone, "Like looking for your glasses or something! Like, you think they wouldn't be on your head because if they were you wouldn't be looking but everyone else can see the glasses on your head so they don't even have to think about it, they just kinda see it." Patricia paused and had a thoughtful look of her own for a second before laughing along with Cecil, though a much more playful laugh.
"Hahahaha I don't even know what the fuck I'm talking about anymore! Ahahaha!"

Yeah she got kinda lost. What was that with glasses? She didn't wear glasses, why did she bring it up? Maybe she just wanted to say something that sounded like it was a good idea. She did that sometimes if she thought it would help but like, she really wasn't good at explaining things because most things didn't need explaining to her. They were or they weren't and she either got it or didn't. Sometimes she had to think but it wasn't really that often and it sucked when she did since she was used to just doing but it was whatever, it didn't happen a lot. Zander spoke up and crossed his arms at her though and she found herself doing the same, or at least mimicking his attitude. The lanky chick rested her elbows in her knees and frowned back at him. She didn't like what he said. Patty couldn't explain why quite yet.


Yeah so it was a little mean but not as mean as she could of been and not really THAT mean. Patty didn't really like people that made excuses for not doing stuff they said they wanted to do, that was probably what was getting at her. I don't have to actually make an effort to get to know people because I'm a nerd and they should just talk to me and that's what true friends'll do was a pretty dumb excuse. Like, somebody had to actually start a conversation if you wanted to talk to people and if you wanted to talk about only what you wanted to talk about AND not have to actually make an effort to do it you were like... kinda up your own ass about it. It was a two-way street, yo. That did get her thinking though, she had something she wanted to do but she couldn't really remember what it was...

...what Frog and Patricia were saying were both right, but he couldn't deny that something Frog said bugged him too. It really was easier when he wasn't the one to start things, and it was fair that you might have to wait on others when you yourself couldn't handle it. That much didn't really bother him too much. So what was...


Ah. That.
That definitely bugged him...maybe it was the attitude it suggested, or maybe it was just the idea of having to pretend you remotely care at all, but something about it rubbed him the wrong way. It almost seemed...callous.
It kind of made him worry about how they related to each other too.

"...I guess." It was a strange feeling he was getting right now, and he didn't know what to make of it. He wasn't sure he could say anything about it. "I'd personally rather not have to wait for people, though...you can end up waiting far too long for comfort."
...ah, that was it.
It felt stagnant. Stuck in one, miserable place if you didn't make the effort to do different, to be different - be better than how you are now.
He really hoped Frog wasn't mirroring his own mistakes.

Okay, so like, shit was getting tense. Patty didn't like it when shit got tense, it killed the mood and sometimes it made her yell at people or like ghost'em. More than that they were both like being stubborn and junk and moody and like not even trying to make friends. How could you go out and make friends without even trying even if you wanted to? That didn't make any sense. Like two people want to be friends with each other and then they talk and hang out and that's how that worked. You couldn't make friends by sitting around being mopey and trying to use your psychic pity powers to draw people close enough to like you for mysterious reasons. But she was getting nowhere with nagging them about like, sitting in front of a pond and waiting for fish to just hop out or some dumb metaphor like that.


Patricia leaned back, crossing one foot over the other with a whimsical smirk.
"Like if you want friends just go make friends! It isn't hard, it only gets hard when you think about it. So stop thinking about it! Like, trust me, people think a lot less about you than you think of them. Everybody's like worried about their own shit. But like if you don't then that's cool too, but you gotta go out and do it. That's how you get stuff done!" This must be what it felt like to be a nerd. So she got it, it was so easy to understand. Want the thing? Do the stuff and you'll get the thing. Patricia didn't get HOW anyone wouldn't know how to talk to people, you just say things and then they say things. So like this is probably what chess was to nerds or whatever. Not gonna lie she was pretty glad she knew how to be friendly instead of, like, knowing Algebra. The fuck uses Algebra anyway? Nerds. Nerds with boring jobs and boring lives.

So like she just noticed she was repeating herself and it didn't work the first time so like, what would...? She had to think about it for a bit. So BOTH of them didn't wanna go talk to people but they wanted friends and junk and it wasn't healthy to like surround yourself with people like that. Maybe they had a point...
...at least she thought so until she got an idea. A way to expose yourself to new people without being stuck in like an echo chamber.
"I know!" she exclaimed, clapping them both on the shoulders, "Aheha you guys can meet some of my friends! Or we can go talk to strangers, it'll be fun!" Patty beamed a friendly smile. She knew she could figure something out that worked for everyone if she thought hard enough!

Cecil had similar reservations to Frog, being hesitant about the kind of people Patty would be around. Not that he could say for certain, she was hanging around with him and Frog after all, but...yeah. He doubted they were exactly the norm, and that they would be the easiest people for someone like him to get along with.
Especially if they were less forgiving of things than she was.
Then again, strangers were their own problem. With them, it was easier to find yourself unawares of what you were getting into...
Still...

Cecil nods. "Not gonna get anywhere by shying away from it right? Sounds good to me."
As Frog noted the time, Cecil checked his phone to see the time and found his eyes widening. "Crap, it's Isla Class..." He shakes his head as he starts springing to his feet, giving Patty and Frog a quick wave back. "We can sort this out later, but this class is going to be even more painful if I'm late to it. I'll see you, alright?" With a nod, he rushed off, looking decidedly alarmed.
Possibly making some new friends was a thing to look forward to, but it was really hard to be happy about it with the worst class ever oncoming.