From Proxer's observation, Jogrin, with his light grey eyes and expressionless face, for some reason exuded an inexplicable, mysterious feeling.
Meanwhile, there was no light in his eyes. Dullness, and even darkness were all that existed in those eyes that were fixed on Proxer, and it definitely wasn't simply because of the crash landing that even Jogrin, the victim himself, forgot most of.
That raised some questions in Proxer's mind in turn. Could it be related to where he's from? What happened to him and his people? Is he the only survivor of whatever the apocalypse that took place?
And there was also one last thing that had been bothering him since he'd come in contact with Jogrin: the latter had been exuding some kind of ominous aura that seemed to be repelling those who would get close to him. To Proxer, the origin of Jogrin and Jogrin himself were nothing but a mystery.
In any case, bluntly asking him all that might bring up some awfully unpleasant memories and might also appear to be rude. Instead, an indirect approach needed to be taken.
'Could there be a way to do it right then?' Proxer pondered so.
In order to keep the flow going, and more importantly, to let Jogrin feel more at ease under his presence, Proxer brought up some trivial conversation topics. That should also assist in bolstering Jogrin's will to give answer to the above questions.
"Umm, so... since you've been out for like... 4 hours or so, you should feel hungry yeah? Anything you would like to eat?" Proxer was showing his caring side to proof that he could be trusted.
However...
"'Hungry'? 'Eat'? What do these words mean..." murmured Jogrin as he tilted his head. It would seem that he had never once ingested anything or felt the so-called "hunger" in his life.
Despite remaining expressionless, Proxer could tell that Jogrin was bewildered by what he'd been asked about.
An idea came across Proxer. Perhaps with this, he could find out more extraordinary features about Jogrin. Proxer pondered solemnly as he made up his mind to dig further into it.
"OK, Jogrin. I'm going to... test your vocabulary... Just simply answer whether you know these words or not yeah?" Proxer informed Jogrin after coming up with a way to test him without stressing him out and received a nod of consent without any hesitation.
"Alright... 'thirst'."
"No."
"'Taste'."
"No."
"Hmm... 'heat'."
"Yes."
"'Disease'."
"No."
"... 'Pain'?"
"Very much so."
"How about 'dea...' I mean, 'photosynthesis'...?"
"Yes."
"Do you perhaps live on that?"
"No. I don't need any kind of nutrients to sustain myself."
"So you do know what 'nutrient' means."
"I read that on some books."
"And they don't have the word 'eat'?"
"Not at all."
"I guess that's it for now..."
As Proxer took note of the ever unchanging, inscrutable expression of Jogrin, he felt that he couldn't get ahead of himself by repeatedly asking about his "knowledge on vocabulary".
Nonetheless, Proxer was able to find out more about Jogrin, albeit that kind of "more" only left Proxer with overwhelming amount of questions that he didn't know what order he should ask them in.
'Was Jogrin aggravated?' A concern arose in Proxer's mind. He had a goal of unveiling details regarding Jogrin's origin and why he ended up here from somewhere far away, but it appeared he'd gone off course. He also almost muttered a word that might have caused anguish arising within Jogrin.
"Shame" and "concern" were what Jogrin perceived from Proxer. Though Jogrin himself couldn't explain why he could do that, he was absolutely certain of what he sensed.
He stood up from the bed and looked down at Proxer who sat next to him. Having seen that, Proxer became astonished and poised once again by Jogrin's action.
'This fellow's mood swings a lot', was the thought that went through Jogrin. However, it was understandable... Proxer was looking at a monster after all...
While Jogrin and Proxer were absentmindedly staring into each others' eyes, awkwardness crept out from nowhere once again. Proxer was still concerned about whether he had irritated Jogrin from his questions or not, and while Jogrin was still perceiving a chain of combos of emotions from Proxer, his head started to spin.
"Proxer Maladin... What a peculiar name." Jogrin shattered the awkwardness and spoke up.
"P-peculiar?... How is that peculiar? Besides, don't you think it's rude to say that to someone's face...?"
While he felt a little irked, he face didn't show it. That reaction was expected for anyone after hearing such words. In fact, Proxer was unpredictably handling it better than most people.
"Please... stop altering your emotions so frequently... It's really tough on me," complained Jogrin as he put both his hands on his head while trying to knock away the confusion within it.
"Hmm?" Proxer raised a dubious voice. "What do you mean by that?"
"'Emotional perception'."
"Pardon? What's that?" Proxer couldn't make sense of Jogrin told him, and inadvertently asked again.
Jogrin walked close to the two soldiers stationed at the entrance of the cubicle. Upon seeing Jogrin approaching, both of them shuddered and immediately put their hands on their the guns, ready to unsheathe it at any time.
Proxer, without any hesitation, stood up and tried to grab Jogrin's shoulder, but without so much as glancing where the hand was coming from, Jogrin adeptly dodged it. Astonished by that, Proxer made another attempt, only for that to happen again.
"Jogrin... Please sit down, you're scaring the others..."
Leaving him no other choice, Proxer resorted to words by mouth.
"I'm just surveying the area, settle down." Jogrin ordered Proxer in a flat tone, which to the latter, sounded arrogant.
"Will you at least let me hear that... 'emotional perception' that you mentioned just now?" Proxer went with another approach and tried to grab Jogrin attention. At the same time, he gestured the soldiers to refrain from unsheathing their weapons.
"I don't know much about that myself, but if I must say..." Jogrin stepped closer to the windows and took a look outside. There were many vehicles parked in an orderly manner, and a few people were coursing through the sea of vehicles. "This ability lets me perceive others' emotions, and their locations."
Jogrin turned to look at the two soldiers.
"For instance, I can tell that they're completely frightened of me, and that you've been nervous the entire time. But well, it's new to-"
While he was giving an explanation on this unbelievable ability, he stepped closer to the soldiers again, whose butterflies in their stomach began flapping more and more intensely.
Sensing that something was amiss, Jogrin stopped in his tracks and stared at them without speaking another word.
"Hold on! Don't get any closer to them!" Proxer yelled at Jogrin, in hopes of making him stop moving and keep the soldier's emotional fluctuations at bay.
Alas, it was too late.
"Stay back! Or I'll shoot!" One of the soldier already unsheathed his gun and pointed it at Jogrin.
Jogrin, having been threatened by the soldier, didn't show any reaction. In fact, he only kept staring at the soldier with his expressionless face.
"What are you doing?! Put that thing down! We don't know what he will-"
"Are you going to be as ruthless and them?"
Jogrin abruptly posed the soldier a question that didn't make any sense. In response to that, his hands shook more fiercely. As for the other soldier, he also instinctively took out his gun.
"Stop! This is an order! Exit the room this instance!"
Proxer's command fell on deaf ears and the soldiers didn't dare take their eyes off of Jogrin, despite craving to look away from the scrawny boy standing in front of them.
'Why did they bring him in?!' Both of the soldiers couldn't help but harbor such a thought.
"Tell me, are you?" Jogrin demanded them to give him an answer.
And at this moment, the space around Jogrin grew dimmer. With his tall stature and where he was standing, his body was able to block the sunlight seeping through the window, and the indoor lighting behind him. Combined with his lack of expressions, it was making him look even more intimidating.
The soldier were displaying profuse sweating, teary eyes, and extreme tremors.
"Jogrin! I said back off!" Proxer warned Jogrin with a much more intense tone.
*BANG*!!!
An abrupt, ear-piercing noise resounded in the cubicle, and most likely outside of it too.
... Jogrin was shot in the abdomen.
Shocked expressions emerged from three faces, while the last one of the faces remained unchanged in its expression.
Approximately 3 seconds after the "bang", an alarm could be heard. It was just as ear-piercing as the gunshot.
Upon hearing the alarm, the two soldiers fled for their lives.
"No... This can't be." Despairing was Proxer, who failed to prevent a disaster from happening.
*Clink*!
In the midst of the alarm, a noise resembling a piece of metal dropping could be heard. Proxer gazed at Jogrin's direction, and noticed the bullet that was supposed to be in Jogrin's body was on the floor, and the most important of all, with Jogrin's back facing him, his glowing tail came into full view.
Jogrin shut his eyes and let out a soft sigh. Taking this opportunity, Proxer instinctively dashed out of the room, and chased after the fleeing soldiers. He didn't manage to see the wound on Jogrin's abdomen, but there was no doubt in his mind that it'd already vanished without a trace.
"People are the same no matter the place, huh?" Jogrin muttered to himself, his tone bland.