Empyrean Iris Story Collection

Aliens Explaining Emotions

A lot of my academic counterparts had been asking me about the scope of human emotional range. This may seem like a confusing question to humans seeing as that emotion is an every second part of their lives, but there are many species in the galaxy who are only limited to a restrictive subset of emotions including fear, contentment, anger, happiness and interest. I, and other scientists have taken the liberty of studying human emotion, as well as human studies on the matter, and come up with 29 emotions on the human emotion spectrum. I took the liberty of asking a human to describe just what these things feel like, and when they occur and will try to explain it as well as I can.

Admiration = The human categorized this as a subset of awe but ONLY for people. This involves being impressed, and the desire to BE more like another person, or the desire to be closer to that other person. I'd consider this some function of social integration for humans an instinctive way of modeling proper behavior. Admiration is usually towards a figure in authority or position of power a parent, friend, icon, or celebrity.

Adoration = Not to be confused with admiration, adoration does not necessarily involved the desire to become like that other person, but it does involve the desire to be around them, to make them happy. Anything the target person does, no matter what, is seen as exciting, cute or admirable in whatever combination. Humans will generally do anything for someone they adore. Adoration can be for animals, small children, a mate, or someone famous.

Amusement = I have learned to personally experience this one myself. It is an extreme requirement if you are to spend any time with humans as it is the single most important emotion for social bonding. I would say it is similar to happiness, but much more physical. It is almost a cognitive joy taken from a specific phrase or situation that manifests as a bubbling in the stomach and chest. It is a pleasant feeling.

Anxiety = Just imagine feeling like a boulder will drop out of the sky to crush you at any moment, or the impending feeling of knowing the world is going to end, but you don't know when. I would consider this a subset of fear, but less intense, more chronic and physically catastrophic.

Awe = awe is an extreme emotion which manifests with the widening of the eyes, and the mouth. This is a response to unbelievable or amazing situation. Humans describe it as a feeling of the chest expanding, may include tingling or the piloerection of hair on the skin. This emotion can be completely overwhelming and may manifest when the human understanding is stretched to capacity, and the brain is having trouble comprehending what it saw.

Awkwardness = is a motion manifested when something socially inappropriate happens. Awkwardness is a way of letting others know that something socially unacceptable just happened. This may include saying something insensitive at the wrong time, like asking a fat woman if she's pregnant only to realise she isn't. The modern use of the word Cringe is a subset of awkwardness that is more intense and usually involves a person or situation being EXTREMELY awkward so much so that it causes a person to cringe. Includes a tightening in the stomach and chest manifesting in a human making their body smaller and curling towards the center like someone is about to hit them. The awkwardness is so bad it is physically painful.

Boredom = when a human is lacking in cognitive stimulation. The brain will try to find something to interest itself and may lead to frustration or anxiety as the brain gets frustrated over the lack of stimuli. May also manifest as a flat affect or staring off into space.

Calmness / Contentment = a limbo emotion suspended between all other emotions. It is not happy, it is not sad, it is the closest emotion to the state of just existing in which my species spend most of their time. Humans do not often spend time here.

Confusion = An emotion that is common in many species, when cognition cannot figure out what is happening. It often manifests in humans with head tilting, frowning and looking around to gather more information.