Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Grief

I found this in the archives of my personal journals. It was originally written for an audience, but somehow, I didn't think it was appropriate for the eyes of others. Now don't be salacious, I don't mean it was inappropriate in that way. I mean, at the time there was something about it that just felt too sacred to deface by showing it to the public eye. I am giving this to you now, reader, because I think it is important that, if you are going to join the ship and become involved with humans, you need to understand what you are in for, and there is soemthing about this experience that explains something fundamental I simply cannot quantify.

Forgive this story, as it was written when I was still new to the ship and had a fundamental misunderstanding of humans in many ways. I don't claim to know much more now that I did then, but at least now I fake it better than I did before.

This episode happened shortly after I gave up a promising career to go galivanting off into the galaxy riding in the wake of a storm that was named the UNSC Harbinger. A few years, a few disasters, and a new ship have taught me a lot of things, but there was something abut this that struck me to my core.

I will enclose with this memory the report that I would have attached if I had not decided to omit this piece from my written communications. If you are going to have the full story you might as well see everything that was going through my head at once.

Report: Unnumbered

Have you ever experienced emotional pain? The Vrul council says that, unlike other species, we Vrul have no concept of emotional and physical linkage like other species, and I tend to agree with that statement. The Vrul are far to rational to fall into such behavioral patterns. However, I have come to determine that the mind body link, as some call it, can have a profound impact on the psychology of other beings. Specifically humans.

Humans are known for many things, and one of those lesser attributes just happens to be the extreme mind body connection humans experience on a daily basis. For the rest of us the emotions work independently from the body except for in extreme cases like fear. However, for a human mind and body are so interconnected that emotional stimuli can cause reactions in the body. Nervousness can cause indigestion and insomnia, anger might cause headaches and heart palpitations, and grief and sadness is often described by humans as sharp and stabbing or a deep throbbing ache.

Take a moment to speak with a human, and ask them about emotions. I doubt any of them will be able to explain how they feel without including at least one physical symptom, a tingling in the face, nausea, a tightness in the chest, a crushing sensation, burning or otherwise.

I personally have a theory that the linkage between the human mind and body has something to do with their extreme social nature. Physical symptoms are often taken more seriously than emotional symptoms within many human societies. Pain gains sympathy and physical experiences create situations with which others can empathize. If a human experiences sadness that appears as pain, other humans will be alerted to that distress, and they will come over to check on their counterpart offering the empathy and support 'most' humans either need or desire to recover from the emotional pain. Happy humans may experience excitement so intense that they cry. Despite being happy the tears trigger reactions in other humans generally amounting to physical touch, and even causing similar tears in others.

The mind body link in humans facilitates social interaction, which is required for developing humans, and even those past development. The mind behaves one way, and the body gives signals to alert other humans to the state of their counterparts.

There is one downside of course.

A downside I am not sure I can speak of, and even now I recoil from the idea of sharing such an experience for fear of breaching privacy.