Even Changelings Get The Blues - Guide to the Emotional Color Spectrum · 9:41pm Aug 18th, 2024
AKA: How to see like a changeling
AKA: horizon why do I always end up writing guides for your stories. I mean it only happened twice but that's still more than anyone else
If you're reading horizon's new novel Even Changelings Get The Blues (now complete!), you've probably noticed there's a lot of color in it. This is because the main character, Chester, has the ability to see emotions as colors, and because it turns out people are very emotional.
I tried reading the story without paying attention to the colors at first, but that turned out to be the wrong way to do it, because a lot of information is contained within that color sense and Chester is too busy being attacked by wolves to explain what all the colors mean, so it's up to the reader to learn the emotional spectrum as they go.
Or you can cheat and use this color chart I made. Now complete![1]
Guide to the emotional color spectrum
██ Red colors: Anger
- ██ Pastel pink: Frustration
- ██ Pink: Irritation, annoyance, impatience
- ██ Rose pink: Disappointment
- ██ Pastel red: Exasperation
- ██ Red-orange: Disgust
- ██ Muddy red: Outrage
- ██ Red: Anger, rage
- ██ Wine red: Contempt
- ██ Maroon: Suspicion
██ Orange colors: Fear
- ██ Faint orange: Worry
- ██ Pale muddy orange: Apologetic
- ██ Orange-gray: Caution, wariness
- ██ Muddy orange: Embarrassment
- ██ Pale orange: Nervousness
- ██ Pastel orange: Alarm
- ██ Peach: Shock, alarm
- ██ Orange: Fear
- ██ Dark orange: Desperate fear
██ Amber colors: Greed
- ██ Light amber: Envy[2]
- ██ Amber: Base desire, greed[3]
- ██ Gold: Hunger, intense desire[4]
██ Yellow colors: Pain
- ██ Cream: Guilt
- ██ Faded yellow: Suppressed pain
- ██ Pale yellow: Resignation
- ██ Light yellow: Reluctance
- ██ Beige: Betrayal
- ██ Muddy yellow: Bitterness, indignation
- ██ Tawny: Resentment
- ██ Pinkish yellow: Distress
- ██ Red/yellow: Self-deprecation[5]
- ██ Yellow-gray: Regret
- ██ Yellow: Pain (emotional and physical)
- ██ Chartreuse (yellow-green): Jealousy[6], betrayal[7], inadequacy[8]
██ Green colors: Hope, longing
- ██ Pastel green/pastel grass green: Saudade (longing)[9]
- ██ Olive green: Lust
- ██ Muddy green: Confidence, certainty, earnestness
- ██ Emerald green: Hope, yearning
- ██ Radium green: Desperation
██ Blue colors: Sincerity
- ██ Blue-green: Encouragement
- ██ Pastel blue: Gratitude
- ██ Light blue: Vulnerability
- ██ Periwinkle: Maternal love
- ██ Blue-gray: Grudging respect
- ██ Muddy blue: Grudging admiration
- ██ Cyan/light blue: Love [10]
- ██ Cerulean: Sincerity, trust
- ██ Blue: Rapport, sincerity, empathy
- ██ Deep blue: Rapport
- ██ Dark blue/midnight blue: Protectiveness
- ██ Blue/yellow: Concern for another[11]
██ Indigo: Relief[12]
██ Purple colors: Happiness, good nature
- ██ Lilac-gray: Dry humor
- ██ Lilac: Amusement, jocularity, teasing
- ██ Pastel purple: Innocence (possibly feigned innocence)
- ██ Muddy purple: Smugness
- ██ Purple: Happiness, joy, high spirits, approval
- ██ Light violet: Curiosity
- ██ Violet: Surprise, pleasant surprise, excitement
- ██ Magenta: Schadenfreude
██ Brown colors: Determination
- ██ Light brown: Emotion of the hunt (wolf emotion)
- ██ Light caramel brown: "Spyfeel" or "planfeel", the satisfied feeling of figuring out how to solve a problem
- ██ Khaki: Grim resolve
- ██ Drab brown: Compliance
- ██ Gray-brown: Sobriety, clearheadedness
- ██ Puce: Gloating[13]
- ██ Chocolate brown: Bravado
- ██ Muddy brown/blue-brown: Pride
- ██ Brown: Determination, resolve, confidence, certainty
- ██ Chestnut: Challenging[14]
- ██ Dark brown: Stubbornness
██ Gray colors: Secrecy and doubts
- ██ Gray-white: Denial
- ██ Gray: Concealing emotions, disinterest, skepticism[15]
- ██ Black: Uncertainty, doubt
██ White colors: Sadness
- ██ White: Depression, grief
- ██ Orange-white: Despair
- ██ Red-tinted white: Self-loathing
██ Creamsicle: Confusion[16]
▒▒ Mirrored silver: Appearance of Sunset's geode power[17]
Uncertain colors
- ██ Blue-gray: Reluctance?[18]
- ██ Crimson [19]
- ██ Dark green[20]
- ██ Dark violet: Intense focus[21]
[1] DISCLAIMER: Not official. Color groupings were chosen by me. I've probably got some things wrong. I assume horizon has his own color chart that he'll publish at some point but for now this is more fun
[2] Envy and jealousy are not the same emotion, which is probably why they have different colors. I'm not entirely clear on what the distinction is, however.
[3] As a hue, amber is between orange and yellow, but it didn't seem like a hybrid between those emotions and more like its own thing, so it's in its own category.
[4] Jealousy, meanwhile, definitely feels like a hybrid emotion - longing desire (green) mixed with bitterness or emotional pain (yellow).
[5] In chapter 24, self-deprecation is described as being colored like Sunset's hair, ie. red and yellow. This is evidently another hybrid emotion, as Chester previously described her hair colors as representing "rage and pain". Possibly it could be interpreted as an attack on and wounding of oneself.
[6] Spoilers for chapter 19: After initially believing sparkling gold to be a transcendental color, Chester eventually realizes that it's a kind of magically-empowered hunger (the sparkles being the telltale sign of magical influence). He describes it as "hunger", although presumably it's not the same kind of hunger people get from lack of food, as he would certainly know that color from experience.
[7] This may be a mistake, as chapter 9 says that beige is the color of betrayal, but in chapter 10 Chester remembers it as chartreuse.
[8] Chartreuse seems to be quite an overloaded color, as chapter 21 says it's also the color of inadequacy.
[9] I did not know this word.
[10] In a memory from his childhood, Chester mentions that Sister Mandy can turn people light blue. Later, he says she could turn people cyan. It seems likely that these are the same color, and that the younger Chester didn't know the word "cyan" at the time. We later find out that light blue actually corresponds to vulnerability.
[11] This color confused me since those two colors don't naturally mix (or if they do, they produce either green or white). Chapter 11 later clarifies that Chester sees it as a green color, but is able to recognize the blue and yellow components within it. If we treat it as a hybrid emotion, it makes some sense - blue (rapport) mixed with pain (yellow), making it a kind of empathy for another person's pain.
[12] Indigo might be part of the purple group, as you could say that relief is a positive feeling, but I decided to keep it separate.
[13] Visually, puce is usually considered a shade of red, but it sometimes has a brown tint. I put it with the brown colors because it feels closer to determination than anger.
[14] This one might be another hybrid emotion, anger (red) plus determination (brown).
[15] Possibly skepticism is a darker gray, closer to doubt, than the gray of concealed emotions. We're not told exactly what shade of gray it is.
[16] Appropriately, I had no idea what a creamsicle was. Wikipedia says it's a cocktail made from vodka and orange liquor, and it's a sort of creamy orange color.
[17] Not really a color, but it was super cool so I wanted to include it for completeness.
[18] Esau shows some "gray reluctance" in chapter 7, but the description suggests it might be mixed in with blue too.
[19] Anton goes from red to crimson just before firing a warning shot at Chester. Could be a brown variant.
[20] Dark green appears only once, in Chapter 12, when Chester is trying to give Ember a pep talk. We aren't told specifically what emotion produces it, but from the context I would guess it represents self-confidence.
[21] Dark violet also appears only once, and seems to be associated with intense focus, which doesn't seem right to me as purple colors usually represent happiness. I'd expect focus to be a brown color.
This is great! I'm super honored that the story is worth the effort. Consider me violet!
Speaking as the author, I will confirm that an "official" color key does exist -- and, in fact, is an appendix in The Other Me, so those who buy the printed version of the story will have it available to reference offline.
At some point I had planned to drop a key onto Fimfic myself, but yours is both cooler as a fan project and much more nicely formatted with the swatches, so I'd be happy to throw a link your way if you wanted to keep maintaining this!
(And the best news of all: since every word of Blues is pre-written and will release on a set schedule -- and since it exists in print form, meaning it can be read straight through even if I get hit by a bus tomorrow -- I can guarantee no ten-year delay this time.)
By my tally, you should have the majority of colors the story references by now, though there's about a dozen colors which make their first appearance in material which hasn't been published yet, and another 3-4 which first show up in chapter 7.
As for the color key, you're virtually spot-on (which makes me even more happy, because it means that I left enough context clues in the story to make this reconstructible). Do you want any Word of Author feedback on what you've done, or would you prefer to get it from the story alone?
And a few zero-spoiler comments having nothing to do with your classification or interpretation work:
5799456
Yay!
I shall follow along with the story for now, thanks ^^
derpicdn.net/img/view/2023/10/9/3215229.gif