Every so often, conversations drift to the topic of people’s energetics. Sometimes it’s in reference to interpreting trueforms, sometimes it’s in reference to recognizing a potential lover/clanmate/etc. The energetics of individual people will react differently to each observer, sometimes manifesting as “that certain something” that causes the observed individual to be identified in a particular way (friend, lover, enemy, elf, dragon, etc.).
For one reason or another, many people use the terms “to See” or “Seeing” to describe how they interpret someone’s energetics. This puts certain preconceptions on how energetics are experienced. As a result, some people get the impression that because they don’t get a quasi-visual impression of something, they aren’t able to interpret other people’s energetics, or that this whole “energetics” thing doesn’t exist. As a “mundane” example, I have a friend named Gus who’s red/green colorblind, and he denies the existence of purple. Anything that other people call purple gets mashed into being either pink or blue. As a result, he “can’t see purple” because “it doesn’t exist”.
During one such conversation, I got a flash of how sensing energetics might be just as varied as sensing physical things. (I note that some of the weres and furries describe things as having “scent”.) Maybe for one person the “certain something” translates as a particular shade of blue, but for another person the “certain something” doesn’t necessarily translate as a different shade (like yellow), but as a texture. For still another, it comes through as a sound.
None of them can necessarily explain to the others what the “something” is, because while the “seer” sees two people’s energies as being clashingly different colors, the “singer” may hear their energies as being different but harmonious melodies on the same instrument. And the “feeler” may look at the other two and say “You’re both wrong, those two people both have the exact same feel as raw silk.”
I don’t See often. Sometimes something manifests strongly enough that I can’t help but See, but usually I sense in some other way. At the moment, I can’t describe even what it’s close to resembling. A small portion of my brain is arguing that it would be like trying to describe Liszt’s “Liebestraum, Nottorno #3” to someone who was born deaf. Or purple to my friend Gus.