Buck, Duck, and What the Fuck?

AQHR NPC Show | March/April

Collaboration with @Janntly

Featuring:
Theo Daines on w.YKR Oneshot Buckshot

and

Sydney Brannon on WRR Autocorrectional Facility

Level: 2
Class: Sorting
Horse's Name: WRR Autocorrectional Facility and w.YKR Oneshot Buckshot
Rider/Handler's Name: Sydney Brannon and Theo Daines
Bonus Prompt Included: Yep
NPC Features: --
Previous Rider Experience: Sydney: [1] [2] [3]
Previous Horse Experience: n.a.

Placed: Second!? and Grand Champs!

Fancy Grand Champ Trophy!

Results

Sydney POV follows after:  

(story summary below the wall of text, feel free to scroll on down for all your non-reading needs~)

     Money talks and it had a lot to say. Said that this turd of a horse needed a butt in the saddle and some wet blankets on his back. Called Duck on a good day. Called his more explicit name the other three hundred sixty-four days of the year. But the Tharoksu sponsorship paid well and Sydney listened to his paychecks these days. The ex-wife took him to the bank and he didn't walk out with what he should have. 

     For as late as Duck was pulled off the island and tamed, he was a “decent” mount. Headstrong, quick to make his own decisions, not a horse Sydney would just pass off to anyone - not yet anyway, there was a horse in there worth working with. He didn’t mind a challenge. But one thing Duck had to get over and Sydney was adamant he would - Duck didn’t play well with others. And as a western horse, he just had to get over it. He was going to be in classes filled with ears and be expected to work alongside his hooved brethren and even the distant hooved cousins; cattle. Little did he know… 

     It wasn’t uncommon to pair up with a partner the day of the sort. Sydney did it all the time. Of course, it was nice if his partner was competent. Didn’t get lucky every time. But with the stakes pretty low and just intending to get some exposure on this horse, he didn’t really mind the luck of the draw. “Howdy,” Sydney greeted the pair he was directed to. First glance, the horse looked fit for the job. Not some cutesy flashy horse with the suburban wannabe cowgirl on its back. The rider…well…

    Always the handyman and not much of a rider, it was a surprise to everyone, including Theo, when he volunteered to climb on Buck and participate in the sorting competition. If it was any other horse but Buck, he would have found a lame ass excuse and ducked out of the offer. But Buck was an interesting little stallion; for some reason, the two vibed with each other from the first day when he was brought to the w.YKR as a working ranch horse. You could say the two of them were like one giant orange cat sharing a singular brain cell between two beings, but at least they were lovable oafs. 

    Already the buckskin was chomping at his bit, his blue eyes and black-tipped ears flicking around and taking in the surroundings around them. He was certainly an eager mount, and even more eager to push some poor unsuspecting calves around. The quarter horse let out the faintest whicker of a greeting towards the tall spotted Tharoksu, only to be met with pinned ears and a peeved look. But Buck only had half a brain cell and didn't seem to register the other's hostility. 

   "Big howdy to you too big fella, it's not everyday I get to ride with Dog the Bounty Hunter." Theodore greeted him with a wide smirk, It was clear the young man had an attitude as bold as the tattoos he was forced to keep hidden under his pink show shirt. He certainly didn't... look up the part to be a cowboy, but at least he had a good spirit. He was wearing a friend's stolen cowboy hat and lacked the large and shiny belt buckles most of the other riders wore, instead the dolt figured he could pass the shiny vibe check by wearing a studded belt that looked to be something from Hot Topic. And was he seriously wearing Timbs under his jeans? Oh, good lord. “You can just call me Theo. What’s your name, fella?” 

     Days like this, Sydney's hard expression remained as is. Could the ogre smile? Absolutely. Had he found a reason to yet? No. “Syd,” he answered as more of a grunt. He could smell the musk of a sweaty novice. It was going to be a wet saddle pad kind of day. 

     “This one's green to sortin’,” he gestured to Duck, checking him to back up a couple steps. An attitude readjustment. “Better at the gate. Can you push ‘em my way?” He tipped the brim of his hat towards Buck. Maybe so long as he could sort at the gate, he could salvage their work. 

   It seems the orge woke up on the wrong end of the swamp this morning, but of course, this didn’t deter Theo and his obnoxious ego from thinking he couldn’t befriend even the surliest of folk. Big guy didn’t seem to be the talkin’ sort, but at least he wasn’t spitting a wad of chew in his face…yet.
   “Hell yeah! Buck’s great at shoving and pushing; leave it to us.” The brunette replied confidently while he gave the buckskin a pat on the shoulder. The dopey stallion appeared to just be excited to be there, not picking up on the tension between the riders and a very irritated Duck. Theo leaned back in his saddle, clearly too nonchalant and relaxed about the ordeal, but at least he wasn’t a blubbering and hysterical greenhorn.
“How long have you had that one?” Theo gestured to Duck, and the young man couldn’t help but find it amusing how grumpy they both looked.

     A man of business, Sydney gave a nod to the side, gesturing for them to head into the warm up pen, get the horses around the chutes while the other contestants ran their rounds ahead of them. “Not long enough.” Was the honest answer for Duck. A long ways from feral anymore but just as far from finished too. Another check on the reins as Duck flattened his ears at every horse they walked by including the one by his side. The stud snorted loudly in protest but didn't dare test the waters further. 

"Ya’ll are both rockin’ one hell of a BRF. Was it planned?”

     “B R what the hell is that?” Sydney asked, feeling like he was paired up with some kid speaking in that computer code. 

Theo quirked an eyebrow at the large blonde male, a look of slight disbelief that he hadn’t heard the term before. Hell, he figured he was addressed for his BRF / RBF or whatever the hell kids call it at least a thousand times with his surly expression. The lad snorted in amusement before replying, “Just means you need to smile more, hoss.” Funny how the mention of smiling just made him want to smile even less. Sydney sighed to himself, reminding him that he was here on a job. The fuck was a hoss? 

The pair made their way into the warm-up arena as their turn was approaching. Already, Buck had his ears pricked up and was eyeing the bustling calves eagerly. Theo kept his reins loose but gave the slightest tug to remind his mount to stand. “Remember to push the right calves, bud, not all of them.” He reminded the eager buckskin. For once, the lad stopped his yammerin’ and yapping to listen to the cowboy, nodding and humming in response to the advice given to him. The grump was good and quite experienced; his pal K.D. would probably like the big fella with the big glare and all.

     Keeping to himself in the warmup wouldn't prove useful for the team event, so while it felt like punishment, Sydney did make it a point to at least run through some basics with Theo. Including working some reserve calves in a spare pen. They couldn't go in but they could at least acclimate the horses. It took Duck a bit longer to focus, hone in, and pay attention. But once he was on a specific cow, nothing else mattered. Even the other horses around him were irrelevant. Perfect. More importantly, Sydney watched the buckskin go to work. Forget the rider. The horse knew his job and knew it well. Sydney liked what he saw in that horse. Almost smitten. He felt his confidence eek up a smidge. 

     It was time to put this circus under the tent. Their names were called and they were let into the pen. Across the way, a small herd of calves stared back at them. Having been through a couple other pairs, they seemed a little lackluster, not as lively. Kind of a “really?” attitude coming from the moo crew. 

     “Start number: 8,” the announcer called. 

     Sydney nodded, looking over to see which that was just to get an idea. “Just keep ‘em comin’ my way one at a time,” Sydney called over to Theo. He could filter out the ones that should go through and send back the ones that had to wait their turn. No problem. Foolproof. 

Now was his time to shine and put in the work, hell Theo helped train the big buckskin; he served as the rowdy human-calf that ran around helping the stallion sort and focus in on that cutting instinct. Even if K.D. did all the fancy horsemanship and saddle work, he still liked to feel he played a part in Buck’s development… sort of. 

    Buck was already snorting and chomping at his bit once more the second the announcer called the starting number. Immediately, Theo let the stallion have his head and merely nudged the buckskin with the side of his calf to guide them into the correct direction. He was focused and tried to remember his pal’s advice on letting the horse work and stay as still as possible so he wouldn’t ruin his hard work. So far so good. Buck was shoving number 8 over to Duck and Syd a protesting blep escaping the young calf before the stallion honed in on number 7, but wait– why was there a deer in here? – all of a sudden when trying to dodge the deer Buck shoved his head big against number 5 as the black calf moo’d in protest.
“W-whoa! Hey there! Wrong one- We can’t both be dyslexic!” Theo protested and immediately tried to pull back, but Buck was literally running through his hands. “Dude! For real?” 

     Back at the gate, it was like watching a mushroom cloud after a bomb was dropped. The kind he was too close to. The kind if you saw it, you were about to get caught up in it. He saw the- deer(?!?!?) outside of the pen scamper from who knows what and they started coming their way. He couldn’t pay attention to that for long. There was a calf being shoved his way. Literally shoved his way. He had to orchestrate this to some extent! He was the gate! He lifted his reins to direct Duck but then came deer! Right over the small bushes and panels. Just SPROING right into the mix! One over the back of Buck, one right into the thick of the mess!

     “HUH?” Was all Sydney could manage to even fathom responding as not only calves came his way, here came the deer too! And that damn horse just kept shoveling it all his way! What happened to ONE AT A TIME!? This was the shockwave that about blew him over! Duck couldn’t tell what he was supposed to focus on anymore! The cow? The deer? The other horse? The grounds keepers rushing to shoo the deer away from the pen? This wasn’t a hunt! This was a stampede! 

       It was complete pandemonium, as if hell itself decided to rise to the surface for a chaotic party. Theo cursed, feeling a thud at his back, which forced him to stand in his saddle and flip a bewildered glance over his shoulder as a random deer brayed and scrambled before sliding off of Buck’s hindquarters. The stallion was in full on hunt mood and didn’t even blink an eye as he proceeded to keep shoving the wrong calf right into Duck’s broad chest, causing the annoyed mount to bare his teeth.

     He did what any cowboy could do when the farm got a little funny. A boot into Duck’s side, a check of the reins when the stud thought to hump up in retaliation, another boot in the ribs and to work they went! Calf 8 then deer 1 then calf 7 then deer 2 then- NOT 5! He pulled Duck around fast to kind of sling his hindquarters into Buck to knock him off the calf already- the damn bulldozer! His hindquarters swung to smack the stubborn buckskin in the face forcing the dumbbell to pause and snort, his large head shaking in annoyance as he lost his calf…and a deer for that matter.

    5, bless its little moo heart, thought it was home free to the other pen until Duck landed right in front of it, ears flat to his hide, flashing teeth. It tucked tail and scampered through a wave of deer raiding the pen to get back to the other calves yet to meet the bulldozer! “Keep ‘em comin’!” Sydney called over the chaos, seeing as Buck was headed right back for another cow. Maybe they should have taught that brick wall how to count!? 
    “Holy fuck– if you say so!” The brunette huffed, while he tried to redirect his blockhead horse to hone in after number 6, he could feel the stallion getting agitated as he took his sweet time rolling back on his haunches and honing in after calf 7, at this point he wasn’t even counting the damned deer. Neither was Buck, as he headbutted a screaming doe into the bunch. The correctly numbered calf bolted like a bat out of hell right past Duck’s rear. At this point, it felt like they were being punked on some rip-off MTV show! Was Bam Margera and Johnny Knoxville going to pop out of the deer herd and start laughing? At this point, he wouldn’t even be surprised.

     Safe to say, the Buck and Duck special order combo was taken off the menu as an item that shouldn't be tested amongst the general population of Earth. 

(2344 wordcount)

TLDR SUMMARY;

--Sydney got taken to the cleaners by divorce

--He's keen to take up just about any sponsorship deal atm; so here he is, working Tharoksu deals

--He's paired up with a rando: Theo and Buck <3

--Sydney can only hope the horse can do the job for the kid on his back :"""))))

--And to be fair, they probably would have done okay

--BUT the deer of the surrounding park decided to join in!

--No bother to Buck, of course, just shovel any creature on four hooves right on through

--Needless to say, even Duck, with his natural "hunting" instincts couldn't handle this with any sort of grace

--No one died?

Previous: Cesspool of Suffering || Next: TBA

A collab! Of the chaos we all needed for our eyeballs! When we got to scheming this thing:

I knew Janntly HAD to do the lining for this The expressions are just PERFECT. We feckin' CRUSHED this project! Pretty sure I got the treat out of this xD I just wanted to draw a pretty spring background~

Chaos reigns once more!

Not the outing Sydney bargained for but at least he's had practice with Jarin lol Gonna need to hit up the local sake bars and drown his misery~

Collab breakdown:
We both poked at the initial sketch idea above!

@Janntly refined the sketch, did the lining, and flat colors - made sure it was max chaos!

@Drasayer did the background because spriiing, and rendered the chaos to shiny yum~

Janntly Post; give some love!!!

Sydney/Duck/Art © @Drasayer

-initial sketch idea, background, shading/highlights/extra sparkles

Theo/Buck/K.D./Art © @Janntly

-initial sketch refinement, actual sketch, lining, flat colors

No specific refs for this circus show

Dras's end: Procreate/PhotoshopCS6