A question for discussion: if you saw a stranger you had reason to think might be a therian (for instance: sporting the theta-delta or wearing tiktok-style "therian gear"), would you go up and talk to them?

How would the age of the person influence your decision?

Or the context (such as: cafe, park, furry convention, night club)?

I once saw two teenagers at my local mall wearing the style of masks that has been popular with young therians, and I panicked. I just found it so embarrassing for some reason. They didn't act weird, they were just hanging there, talking and trading stickers or something. I guess I found it embarrassing since I've hid my therianthropy the last decade except in a few select contexts. I didn't talk to those kids, so I have no idea if they actually identified as therians.

I think that if I saw an adult with the theta-delta, and they seemed like a normal, nice person, I could strike up a conversation. And when I see people wearing animal ears and such, I usually just assume they are furries. If we're at a place for socializing with strangers (like a night club), I might comment "nice ears", but nothing else. Sometimes in the past, when I wore a tail in public at LGBTQ pride events and such, I would be asked if I was a furry. Most who asked were furries. My answer was usually something like "um, not really. I'm a therian." But if someone just asked "why do you wear a tail?", and seemed like a "normie", I would just say "because I wanted to" and leave it at that.

But my conundrum is mostly the teenagers. It seems, based on posts on social media, that a lot of them are public with their animality in hope of finding other therians in public. But I don't want to be a creepy adult, you know? Would it be okay to say something like "me too" and offer a high-five, or would that be overstepping? Especially since I assume a lot of the very young ones aren't actually therians, but just going through a phase/playing around?