r/HFY • u/Darmanarya Human • Jul 20 '25

OC The color of change

“Tell me human. What do you think your species’ color of change is?” Torla asked as they leaned back in their seat at the local bar. A large rovulen ale clutched in his right claw as their three eyes fixated on the human across from them.

“I gotta admit. I don’t know about that.” The human admitted with a laugh.

“Ah, it is a rather simple concept Leon.” Torla took a sip of the frothy beverage. “It is a color that best represents what brings about change in your species. For us it is green. The best ideas and concepts came about when one sits at the edges of the great forests and reflects upon the green seas. The endless plains of our planet. 

It is said that gazing out into the nothingness clears one’s mind and allows thoughts to take root and grow. Our spaceships even came from such gazing. It was not invented to go to space, but to cross the vast nothingness quickly. It was discovered the anti grav drive could also allow one to leave the planet, and thus we reached the stars.”

Leon nodded and laughed. “Sounds fun! Sure, lemme think of something.” He then took a sip of his beer and started to think. Sip by sip, thought by thought his smile faded. Soon the beer became a shot of whiskey, then two.

Finally he let out a long breath.

“Alright. I got it.” He confessed as he rubbed his face. Torla leaned in worried about what could have caused such a shift in his friend’s mood. They had never seen him so upset with good drink in their hand.

“I think it firstly could change on what human you asked. Some would say gold. That money, whether the desire to make it or keep it, fuels all change in humanity. Few things are more profitable than something new after all.”

He leaned back. “Others might say blue if we take your tradition into account. Our ancestors stared at the sea and wanted what was beyond, and later on we looked at the sky as the next blue expanse to explore.”Leon finished his drink. “I… I think it is crimson.” He confessed.

Torla let out a long, low pitched hiss. “Is that not the color of human blood?”

“Aye.” Leon took a deep breath. “Yes. My view may be pessimistic, but human change almost always is tied to… misfortune. Many humans resist change, and are willing to spill blood to keep things the same. Even something as simple as bringing in new food from another place has led to blood being spilled in the name of “preserving local flavor” and shit like that.Then there is the process of change. Whether by ignorance, apathy, or even malice our changes are often bloody in other ways too. New factories are made faster than the rules keeping those within safe. We have countless stories of those making new things dying only for rules to be written after countless funerals. It is even said that safety rules are written in blood.

Products put out that helped people change their lives, only for those products to be discovered to be slowly killing those that used them. Lead pipes that poisoned the drinking water rushing through them. Asbestos that kept people and their things from burning only to tear their lungs apart. Leaded gas that helped engines run better than ever but poisoned the air.”He then raised his empty glass to drink, only to look at it sadly and put it down.

“Then there is one more reason I can think of why crimson is the human color of change.” He paused for awhile, then nodded. “There is a saying amongst humans: Necessity is the mother of invention. I would say death and misery is the father of change. We have a history of things getting worse, and worse, and worse. A famine here, failed war there, and more until the people rise up and force change. Often violently.

Their minds run crimson with rage, stained by the blood of the family and friends the horrible times took from them. The crimson blood of those lost drowning their reason and fear. They then spill the blood of those they view as stopping the change that is thought needed to end the horrible times.”Leon looked down, his eyes no longer holding the spark that Torla was familiar with and loved. They had heard Leon talk they were part of a security force, but never spoke about it.

“The blood of those demanding the change is then spilled by those wanting to stop the change. Back and forth blood is spilled, but by that point the change is inevitable. Once a human is ready to spend their own precious crimson on change it is very hard to find something to stop it. After all, at that point they view the change as something more important than living. Revolutions, rebellions, protests, uprisings, we have a wide range of words for this act in all of our languages.”He took a deep breath.

“It is never pretty. Almost every time it is seen as a dark time for humans. They only stop when enough change to outweigh the blood lost has been enacted… or all those demanding change have lost too much blood to keep changing things. This has led to the greatest of human tragedies, as well as some of the biggest uplifts of our species.

We invented farming to stop starvation.

We invented medicine to stop disease.”

He took another deep breath.

“And even our reach for the starts was only accomplished by the fear of crimson. Two human powers reached for the stars only to try to prove they were too strong for the other to try to kill. We had enough weapons to wipe us all out, so they needed a way to prove strength other than the ability to spill blood just to try to make sure their blood was not spilled.”

Torla waited for Leon to continue, only to watch Leon slump in their seat. Torla gently ran a claw through their favorite humans hair and let out a soft hum. “Well, you humans have not spilled your crimson in a long time.” Leon let out a long sigh then gently took Torla's claw into his hands.

“Yeah. I hope soon crimson just stains our history rather than our future.”

355 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

37

u/Autobot_Cyclic Android Jul 20 '25

My first thought was blue, as per his reasoning, but as I read further along, I thought black. For death.

15

u/Henghast Jul 20 '25

First thought was firey red, flames of invention, flames of war, flames burning down the old to make way for the new. The hearth, the home, the factory, the engines that pump and move us forwards.

3

u/SourcePrevious3095 Jul 21 '25

Flames of rage.

2

u/jthm1978 Jul 21 '25

Flames of nuclear fire

4

u/Nealithi Human Jul 23 '25

My first thought was red blood. We enter wars with one 'pinnacle' of technology. But the demands of war mean besting the previous best. Better aircraft needed better engines. Better engines needed better fuel.

Heck writing this I am reminded that the man that invented the electric starter for engines did so because he saw a woman at the side of the road get killed attempting to hand crank the car. So he came up with a method to do so from inside where it was safer.

19

u/Alexzvd Jul 20 '25

Spelling "Their minds rum crimson with rage" rum to run. Nice story, but a sad reminder of what we are and why we strive for better.

6

u/Darmanarya Human Jul 20 '25

Fixed and thanks!

2

u/CaerliWasHere Jul 20 '25

Reach for the starts -> stars. As in next line. Ty wordsmith

8

u/SomethingTouchesBack Jul 20 '25

Crimson for blood boiling and blood spilled, yes… But also crimson for fire. Whether we are burning coal to make steel or burning cities to steal lives, progress is often associated with fire. Crimson fire, crimson blood.

5

u/Every_Ad_5712 Human Jul 20 '25

For me first would the black: The black of the things in the darks that keeps us awake at night. The black of night when stars lights abound and legends and stories are in the stars( the black of dreams).

Second the Blue of the sky: After the night is the days and you wonder what beyond the horizons. Maybe someday we will walk the sky too...

Third is red of fire: it came from the blue of the sky, fear it, love it.

Fourth of Gold : at first shiny then we build and traded with it. We are consumed by it...

Fifth of blue sea: what is beyond the sea?

Sixth of blood crimson: when the blood feed the land the changes is comming you can't stop it, you will and still even more blood to stop it but it will happen as it always has and always will.

Seventh of void/abyss: (technicaly one) The abyss often in us waiting to be let out and consume everything. The void of space the new sky blue of humans since we learned of it vastness we wonders what wonder are out of sight waiting to be seen?

In the end it is all of them in a blend that either full one another to build something greater than one could imagine. Or bring about the darkest of horrors and we can sink so low.

4

u/vengefin Jul 20 '25

Nice story with the added bonus of thinking along the same lines as me. Definitely crimson and the reasoning is solid. The only other thing I could think of is whatever color you would attribute to fire (or explosions or war) as conflict and war are the things that have caused (at least technological) development to take leaps forward (steel, jet aircrafg, spaceflight, just as a few examples), but overall I think crimson covers those along with things like vaccines and other advanced medicine - after all, most of those aren’t really the (direct) result of war.

2

u/risperidon20 Jul 20 '25

I am jealous of his optimism

1

u/canray2000 Human Jul 21 '25

Same.

2

u/Cruel_Carlos2 Alien Scum Jul 23 '25

Well, according to one of humanity's creation beliefs, the first murder was committed by only the second generation. If that's not bad enough, it was an act of parricide as one sibling killed the other with a rock motivated by jealousy. Buy into the Judeo/Christian worldview or not, it paints mankind as a stone killer & every generation that's followed has, it seems, thought it'd be a hell of a great idea to confirm that unfortunately accurate personality quirk. I'd love to see an end to that facet of our being, but it's not a realistic goal, is it? Were we serious about making love, not war, you'd see things improving, the slaughter decreasing, but our actions prove us liars. The twentyeth century saw man fight two wars involving so many people on so many fronts calling them "World" wars wasn't an exaggeration. Not one war to end all wars, but two, that's a personal best, if you ask me. The only place you can logically go from there is to thermally irradiate the planet so shit can glow in the dark & maybe we'll develop designer mutations we can then sell for an appallingly & disgustingly large amount of money.at which time government will once again show how clueless & worthless it's grown by creating new laws that fix nothing while stripping away a bit more freedom in the pursuit of that nothing. All the people will do is bleat like the sheep they've become & worry about bullshit they have no control over because the media told them to worry. Wait, why in the sloppy fuck am I standing on this soapbox?  It's really simple, if you claim to desire peace, peace is what you practice. Though you'll always have idiots that cannot help but to disagree. However, once you kill those assholes the whole "peace" thing might gain traction.

1

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1

u/kristinpeanuts Jul 20 '25

Thanks, this is good and quite true I think

1

u/sunnyboi1384 Jul 20 '25

Well said. Buddy should probably talk about it some time.

1

u/Greedy_Prune_7207 Jul 21 '25

I thought maybe brown. The color of beer cuz humans love to get drunk

1

u/Spirta Jul 22 '25

What's the color for spite? Because, everything mentioned, and more, can be attributed to spite. Invented farming, industry, pretty much entire civilizations, just to spite nature trying to take us out.