thinking about one of my favorite Skydancer Things, sensing emotions. some skydancers are better at it than others, either at picking up emotions in the first place or interpreting them, and you’re generally best at sensing specific ones rather than the full spectrum - you might recognize emotions that you feel a lot yourself, or that you have practice sensing. i also conceptualize the sense as tied closely with a skydancer’s magic, and the way a skydancer senses emotions reflects that. for instance, my birbs:
Surak: honesty/deception, regret, belief (cool, clear bells of truth, discordant notes of falsehood, the heavy weight of certainty in your bones)
Azeraik: very basic positive/negative surface emotions (a bright, cheery blaze; the sputtering hiss of sullen embers that can’t be coaxed to warmth)
Alieth: anger, fear, and sadness - but only when strong (quiet air whipping into angry cyclones, the stopped-breath shock of fear, friendly breezes so familiar they’re hardly felt)
Vaikarik: nervousness, earnestness (the lick of flames, dancing hotter as stress ratchets nerves ever higher; the earnest glow of honest support)
Shael: loneliness, need, insecurity (the hollow, echoing darkness of the truly alone; the faltered step of certainty lost)
Sadzhik: attraction, nervousness, contentment (warm washes of heady flattery like afternoon sunlight; prickling, tickling nervousness that turns to ripe, sweet anticipation at the right look or touch)
Kastra: worry (protectiveness that shelters like a mother’s embrace; the tug and twang that vulnerability plucks on unguarded heartstrings)
Senkar: (dis)trust, fear (the cold knife-edge of terror, pressed close against the throat; wariness that scrapes needles of ice down the spine)
Rihak: botched breed change (jagged crystals of blood and bone digging senseless, sourceless, in mind and mana)
Vintori: envy, greed, desire (the vicious pleasure of taking what others want; poison dragging knives through your veins when they get it first)