They say there's a difference between each forest... [Social/Sebastian]

Spacing out – one of Vyx’s favorite pastimes. In fact, they might even go so far as to say they were quite the expert at it. As they laid there, staring off through the canopy of leaves above them, they were already lost in a land full of who what when where whys, oblivious to the events happening all around them. In fact, if one didn’t know any better, it would have to be said that the teen was basically asleep. In fact, when a grown man suddenly fell out of the sky and nearly landed right on top of the obake, Vyx still stirred not, multicolored eyes slowly blinking in the pale sunlight. Although it wasn’t quite spring yet, one could already feel the tickling taste of it drift through their nostrils, and it was an excellent topic for the philosopher to dream on over. What did spring taste like, after all? Was it fresh? Cool? Warm? Rainy? Would that make it sweet? Spicy? Minty? Such were the sort of questions that enveloped the mind at the moment, and there was no room for the occurrence of raining men to impact it.

But then, after a few moments of pondering the topic, a strange scent would wash over their nose, causing them to wrinkle it in distaste. Something – no, someone had disturbed the scent of a newborn spring. This simply was not an event that could be ignored, for spring was ever so important a process of life! If it were taken away, then… Yet again, Vyx lapsed into momentary thought, forgetting things for a moment. And then, the scent drifted even closer, and even a dreamer couldn’t ignore the aroma as it spread about the area. Their eyes flickered around, turning to see a man sitting with his back facing them, spitting hay out of his mouth. H-huh? A man?

Vyx sat up in mild alarm, knowing that their social skills would most certainly make this meeting an awkward one. Perhaps they could just… quietly slip out? Deciding that this was the most logical course of action at the moment, the yokai slowly got to their feet, bare toes scarcely rippling the grass as they began to slink off into the trees. Except…wait! Their backpack! Alarm pulsed through their mind as they scrabbled about hurriedly, knowing there was no way they could survive in a foreign country with amnesia AND no backpack! Forming an alarmed gasping noise in the back of their throat, the bag was grabbed at, only for it to roll over the other side of the rock, and conveniently right next to the strange hay-spitting man. “E-eh?” Oh dear gods, this couldn’t turn out well – Vyx didn’t need to be a prophet to know that much.

A slow, achingly torturous amount of time would stretch out, as the man would slowly turn towards the backpack. A quietly mumbled comment about disappointment would reach the weretiger’s ears, and Vyx cringed as he slowly turned, fingers latching onto the cloth straps. The man’s pupils would slowly focus in on the silvery-haired figure, seeming to size the youth up. “Oh hey. You’re that tiger boy aren’t you?” A very simple, non-offensive comment this was, yet Vyx was still frozen in place, blinking awkwardly, fumbling for something to say. So this guy had seen them transform from their beast form into this human body? Ah man… That was just embarrassing! Not to mention… ugh. The question of their gender would pop back up again and again, every time the poor individual crossed paths with another human. It was something irritating about the species, how they seemed to believe everything was a certain this or that. Their minds were stuck on an idea they couldn’t let go. But how to react?

“Oh?” Before the poor obake could even think of a suitable response, they found the man staring at them with the oddest of expressions, eyebrow slightly arched. “H-huh?” Waiting desperately and nervously for an explanation of the look, Vyx quickly gave up and instead sank their senses into the whirl of the stranger’s aura. Was that curiosity they saw? Pity? Sympathy? Irritation? Trying to sort out the many emotions that crowded the auras of most sentient beings, Vyx completely ignored Sebastian’s interruption, the name lodging itself in the back of their mind, pulling out only when their familiar backpack suddenly swum before their eyes. “Ah!”

Immediately, the youth jolted to their senses, registering what had happened while they were off in Vyx-land. “S-s-sebastian!” they stuttered, gasping softly, “Um, ah, y-yeah… thank you!” Awkward as always, they found themselves flushing pink from embarrassment, grabbing clumsily at the bag. It would hook back onto Sebastian’s fingers, and Vyx took a few tries to finally get their possessions out of his grip. Trying to remember what their scattered memories had said about introductions and gratitude, the yokai quickly nodded, saying, “Hi, er, I’m Vyx, nice to meet you! And, uh, by the way, sorry to trouble you with the added burden, but I’m not a b-boy…” Half bent over in an awkward position similar to a bow, the stray lock of hair falling free from the rest of their hair would be seen bouncing as they attempted to regain their balance.

As Vyx semi-crouched there awkwardly, poking at Sebastian’s aura out of even more philosophical curiosity, they would find that honestly, the man had a pretty wondering, curious feeling about him than anything else. It was an interesting feeling to have around someone, something the obake found they could relate to quite well. Not many people they met these days were always wondering, so this was interesting. However, this somewhat positive look on the man was quickly erased as he smiled calmly back when Vyx struggled to untangle the cloth straps from his grip. Ahhh, belittling them, huh? It couldn’t be helped though, that they knew. With both their appearance and social awkwardness… The yokai was essentially doomed to an eternity of badly done introductions.

For a moment, awkward silence reigned once more, as Vyx slowly forced out the denial of labelled gender Sebastian had given them. The reaction was immediate, and quite startling as suddenly, the man dropped to his knees, lowering his shock of white hair to the ground. “My sincerest apologies, Miss,” was uttered from his mouth as Vyx watched on in slight amusement. So… It was this sort of guy after all, huh? One of those who found mistreating a woman completely unfathomable. Hehe, a part of them would resound slightly, easily picking out ways that would fit perfectly with his personality and cause him to treat Vyx with utmost respect and care. It would be amusing, certainly, and not to mention beneficial… While the trickster side of them was more than willing to give it a go, they found themselves not quite ready to embrace the Vyx their instincts taught about how they were before amnesia.

They wanted to live as…a new Vyx, if only just for a short while.

Turning to Sebastian, the weretiger would chuckle uncertainly, scratching the back of their head. “Err, actually, I’m not a girl, either… I’m sorry for the confusion, but, well,” they paused for a moment, wondering how to say things clearly with the back of Sebastian’s head facing upwards towards them. “I don’t consider myself to be either female or male in terms of gender…” It was hesitantly, the way Vyx said it, and it was only logical that way. After all, gender had always been a touchy issue throughout society, and they had gotten used to weird looks and comments whenever this was brought up – thus why they preferred to stay out in a place where they rarely met people. Travelling was a different issue, however, that was for sure.

A slow silence drifted over the pair as Sebastian considered the bestial youth’s words. The melody that came with the forest drifted lightly over them, birds chirping, and leaves and needles rustling over each other. Vyx’s eyes would slowly close, and they smiled lazily up at the pale sunlight filtering through the dappled layers of pine and maple. The other man’s voice washed over them smoothly, barely making a single ripple in their slow ripples of thought. This was the obake’s favorite state of consciousness. Something that fluttered uncertainly, yet comfortably between sleep and wakefulness, a state where they could notice every single little detail without disturbing a single piece of this dreamlike perfection.

It was only slowly, and rather reluctantly that Vyx began to slip back into reality with Sebastian’s reply. “I…see…” they trailed off, their eyes still holding a haze of dreaminess in them, violets and golds shimmering in the now warming glow of the sun. The older man would then continue, speaking of travelling, of the names of countries and cities that barely registered in Vyx’s mind before floating off into some abandoned corner of the place. However, something the heat user said especially caught the philosopher’s attention, and they would slowly focus their gaze upon Sebastian once more. “…curious? Someone else who likes to see more, learn more, hmm?” Now that the conversation had drifted away into a topic that Vyx was quite comfortable with, the stutter began to fade from their voice, replaced by a soft, slightly slurred pattern of speech.

“That’s nice…” A yawn would sneak its way past the weretiger’s pale lips, and they realized with a start that they had traveled all night! This would lead them to the man’s question of how they ended up here. “How did I get h-here? Hmm…” Thinking back to the complicated journey they had made that, quite honestly, hadn’t been completely legal, Vyx would shrug off any worries, knowing that with some yokai luck, they could probably escape if this man ended up being one of those law sticklers. “Stowed away on a few ships, then some trains and wagons, and took the rest of the journey on paw,” they murmured thoughtfully, though their eyes had already snapped from the daze they were in before, and were carefully scanning Sebastian’s aura. If even a single bit of danger was detected, then they could get a head start, especially since he was currently in such an inconvenient position…

“N-not the most legal of means, but essentially the only way for a broke freelancer like me,” they said off-handedly to fill in the awkward gap as Sebastian stretched.

As Vyx waited in something akin to the feeling of fear, the man would continue the oddity of that stretch, before managing to chuckle while still in that position. He cast his gaze away from the teen, and looked upwards at the sky without even a single wrinkle of pain upon his face. “Have you ever tried stretching your body out like this?” It was most certainly a random question, and one that Vyx hadn’t quite prepared for. But, then again, it wasn’t as though they had experienced many conversations with people before. Who knew? If they encountered enough people like Sebastian, they may very well form an opinion that all people in the world were like this. That would certainly be interesting.

The man would continue about the pain of such a position, a grin ever-present upon his face. “Being flexible can get you around with no problem,” he would continue, finally reaching the meat of the situation. Vyx frowned again, for although much of their worry had gone away when the man had simply continued to stretch, it was a natural part of their personality to be suspicious. Something they supposed must have been passed down in the yokai bloodline. Feeling the fine hair at the back of their neck begin to rise in alarm as Sebastian rose to his feet, the weretiger would listen on as he experimentated with a variety of flexibility exercises. In fact, Vyx had just about confirmed in their mind that this person must indeed be a professional gymnast, for who else could manage to fit such intense stretching into a casual conversation? With the comment about escaping if ever caught by the authorities, however, the obake could finally relax.

Having been carefully monitoring the older man’s emotions the whole time, when he spoke this comment with a rather nonchalant, nonspecific emotion, they pretty much knew that they were fine. They would seat themselves firmly on the grass once more, folding legs up neatly in a crisscross position, as honestly? There wasn’t much else to do today. The man was amusing to listen to, going on about his dreams of traveling in a rowboat and destiny. (Even now, Vyx still couldn’t see what was so amazing about it, but you know, that wasn’t any big issue).

“E-ehm, I suppose so…” The youth would begin, searching for an appropriate word. “But honestly, wouldn’t travel by boat be nauseating? I mean… it’s not the most convenient way of travel, either. How would you get around on land?” Typical Vyx, thinking immediately to some of the more trivial details instead of the full, overall picture. “Also! Rowboat travel is extremely impractical! It’s dangerous to put the fate of your life on a rickety wooden creation…” Realizing that they were getting far too passionate for this conversation, the youth would blush, and promptly shut up to avoid embarrassing themselves any further.