Chapter 2: Queries

It would be ideal if details of Jogrin's origins were to be disclosed straightfowardly, as if writing comprehensively in a piece of blank paper without leaving out the smallest of information, but things wouldn't always go the way one would want them to.

From Proxer's observation, Jogrin, with his light grey eyes and expressionless face, was blatantly expressing sorrow and somberness. Needless to say, it would be reasonable to hypothesize that the latter must've experienced a traumatizing affair before the crash landing. Well, in retrospect, one would've been able to surmise any event that took place prior to the crash landing itself wouldn't have been a pleasant one. 

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 mysteries.

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. Hence, Proxer had to prudently think of a way to structure the sentences.

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...

Bemusement was what could only be perceived on Jogrin's face.

Huh...? Did I somehow offend him? Proxer's body and expression alike became stiff as he was afraid that he may have provoked Jogrin after taking note of his scrawny body.

""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 ravenous in his life.

Proxer was astonished... by the fact that he wasn't surprised by Jogrin having more aspects being out of ordinary. He couldn't help but let out a sigh.

Perhaps, there would be more extraordinary features about him, there was only one wqy to find out more in this circumstance. 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."

""Sleep"."

"No."

"Um, "pain"."

"... Yes..." Jogrin shuddered a little before answering.

"Hmm, "heat"." Seeing Jogrin's reaction, Proxer decided to tone down the wordings.

"Yes."

"... How about "photosynthesis"?"

"No."

That might've just been a big word to him. Oh well... Proxer thought to himself.

""Disease"."

"No."

"Hmm... "dea..." Ahem... I mean, "that's" it for now," Proxer stuttered before continuing to the next word as he glanced at the still anguished expression on Jogrin's face. Almost got carried away, was Proxer.

At any rate, it would be an irreversible blunder if that word was mentioned to a person shouldering anguish. Though "pain" actually almost crossed that line... 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. His bad habit of letting curiosity take over his reasoning could prove to be nothing but aversive. His original goal was to figure out Jogrin's origin, but the result now showed discrepancy from his expectations. Proxer felt deeply ashamed of himself and made a sour face.

Having perceived "ashamed" and "concerned" from Proxer with his newly attained ability from when he crash landed, Jogrin got up from his bed with a face that expressed bewilderment and gazed at Proxer who was a little astonished by Jogrin's action.

This fellow's mood swings a lot, was the thought that went through Jogrin. Though being able to perceive emotions, he was failing to understand why the emotions were brought about.

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.

"Um..." the one who made the awkwardness scram this time around was surprisingly the quiet, taciturn Jogrin. "Who are you...?"

"Eh..." Proxer leaked out a funny voice while having a frown on his face.

'Didn't I tell him my name just a few minutes ago? Does he have a memory of a goldfish? Or was he just spacing out?' Proxer asked himself while musing on the kinds of queries he could ask about Jogrin's origin.

"Oh... my apologies. I haven't come to my senses until in the middle of your interrogation," replied Jogrin warily as there was no guarantee how this mood-swinging person would alter his emotions to strain Jogrin's own brain again.

'Ah I see, it was the latter.' Proxer nodded his head slightly as a sharp static abruptly and nimbly charged through his head.

"Huh? Wait... "in... interrogation"?!" Yelled Proxer inadvertently as he made a sad, annoyed and disappointed expression while his eyes became watery. Yet again, he has put the fact that he had to figure out Jogrin's origin behind. Not gonna lie, this guy's mind was completely all over the place... One would never expect a commander, who was supposedly a well-behaved leader within a discipline, could be acting like that

'Huh?? Is "interrogation" a forbidden language here? Was I not supposed to say that word? Uh... what's he going to do to me now...?' Having perceived "flustered" from Proxer, Jogrin couldn't help but began panicking inside, though his face remained expressionless.

"In... what way did I make all that seem like an... interrogation? Wait a sec... Actually, you were answering my questions earlier precisely, so how exactly were you "spacing out"? Argh honestly, are you trying to drive me crazy or something?" Not being able to stand his attempt at slowly getting close to Jogrin being treated as interrogation, his lashed out a little while holding both his fists up in the air. He looked like a child throwing a tantrum because his parents wouldn't buy a toy on a shelf that just happened to catch his eyes. How did this guy become the commander again?

"Um..." Taken aback by his abrupt movements, Jogrin muttered.

"Ahh... I'm so sorry Jogrin, I didn't mean to lash out like that..." Having gazed at Jogrin's eyes which were exerting the colour of sorrow, Proxer managed to regain his composure and interrupted Jogrin as he was about to let out some words.

"Oh... um... please pay that no mind. And wasn't it an... interro...gation... because you were asking me questions that I had to answer?" Having sensed Proxer's "irked" fading away, Jogrin courageously muttered.

"Well, that wasn't NECESSARILY an interrogation. I was just trying to get to know you, you know. And what about the previously claimed "spacing out"?" Skeptical, Proxer asked.

"When you said that the doctors told you "the specs about me", I had a feeling that you were going to start blabbering about some nonsense so instead of listening to you, I opted to figure out the situation I was in at the moment. I awoke when you started asking questions again," An insensitive thing to say indeed, especially with an expressionless face.

'Gah! This guy, I swear, he's really starting to get on my nerves...' These words flowed within Proxer's mind. While he felt irked again, 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?"

"Huh? What do you mean "what do I mean"..." Another dubious voice was let out by Jogrin this time around.

"What you said just now... me altering emotions is tough on you? Please tell me exactly what you were implying," Proxer pestered Jogrin to answer.

"Huh...? Um..." Having sensed Proxer's being suspicious, Jogrin stuttered while grabbing his hair tightly with one hand and the bed sheet with the other.

'It's no good attempting to be duplicitous and dishonest. I can't have him getting into even more disturbing emotion rampage...' Jogrin shuddered as he pondered.

"Well... to be frank, it's um... how best to convey this... This is just something I have been able to do since... I arrived at this planet... I think. I can... sense emotions, like how you feel? It's... emotion per...ception?" Muttered Jogrin as if he was a child who just learned how to talk and was trying to think of the right words before intermittently speaking on. Being a taciturn person, in addition to the fact he hadn't actually use his voice box for the past 752 years, his voice began to crack after in the midst of the everlasting conversation. Moreover, having sat up for too long, he lost balance. As he was about to fall on the floor, on his face to boot, Proxer caught him instinctively by holding both his shoulders.

"Woah there, you should lie back down and rest for lil' bit, 'kay? We'll keep goin' in a lil' bit, alright?" A worried sick look appeared on Proxer's face and his accent also seemed different. Was that his real accent? He steadily helped Jogrin lie back down by wrapping his arm around Jogrin's back.

A realization struck Jogrin in his head: 'This person whose name I have yet to know... his expression and emotion alike... are those of "concerned". Now that I think about it, he carried the same emotion when I crash landed, unlike others who were at the scene too... It was foolish of me to fret apprehensively under his presence. Maybe he's not a scary person after all...'

With that in mind, Jogrin began to be less on guard and trust Proxer more.

Having had more trust in Proxer, Jogrin stared at him with sincere eyes. Having noticed those light gray eyes that had somehow lost a bit of despair, Proxer felt somewhat relieved. However, it didn't take long for him to feel the cringe of being stared at. It seemed like having a sense of awkwardness has become a habit of Proxer ever since he opened his mouth under the presence of Jogrin.

'What's he thinking about now... Man... him being too direct is one thing, but also not being much of a talker is kinda vexing too... Maybe he still doesn't trust me? I mean, that's sensible and all, but that kinda puts me in a bind...' It appeared that Proxer wasn't aware of the the trust of Jogrin in himself has had an increment, even if just slightly.

Needless to say, understanding one that barely speaks would be a pain in the neck. And doing so with Jogrin was no exception for Proxer.

"Uh, let's see... Let's continue with where we left off... so you said you can sense one's emotion, right?" The awkwardness that pervaded was once again shattered by Proxer.

Jogrin responded by simply nodding.

"Hmm I see... peculiar indeed..." whispered Proxer as he made a pondering face, but quickly, he regained his senses "Ah sorry. Anyway, you also said that this... ability thing is novel to you as well... It's hard to imagine why and how you acquired it... I reckon you may not know as well, but... do you? Does something ring a bell?"

Little did Proxer know, he was re-lighting a fuse leading to a bomb, that was conveniently extinguished due to Jogrin's exhaustion.

It was Jogrin who made a pondering face this time around. Shortly, he expression became bland. It did seem like he recalled something, but that something wasn't exactly 

'Oh? Does he actually remember? Let me ask...' Noticing the facial change, Proxer opened his mouth, attempting to query again. But that didn't happen.

"Jo... Jogrin...? What's wrong...? HEY, YOU ALRIGHT? CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"

The bomb... has gone off.