Challenge #02371-F181: Colour-coded For Inconvenience
"Don't touch that, it's hot."
"It doesn't look hot."
"Hot things are red on Terra." -- Anon Guest
"Uh. Not exactly," said a nearby Human. "Not all red things are hot, and not all hot things are red. For your safety, check for radiant heat," they demonstrated, holding their hand above the surface and gradually approaching touching it until they pulled away. "This one is actually hot. See?"
The tourists huddled together a little. "That is how you test for heat on this Deathworld?"
"Well, yeah. The atmosphere helps distribute heat so there's safe distances and so forth. It's scientific. Only we didn't know it was science before we worked it out." An apologetic grin. "Besides, there's more than red-hot. We have black hot, red hot, yellow hot and white hot in that order. Black-hot can still give you third-degree burns."
A tourist fiddled with their datareader. "This information has an offensensitivity warning..."
This time, the Human winced. "You're probably better off not looking. Humanity used to do some really gross stuff before we invented bio-acceptable synth-skin. Plus I think that article shows you what third-degree burns look like..." they checked their own datareader and winced even moreso. "Euw. Yep. It shows you what they look like. Real gross."
Now the tourists were checking what 'gross' meant. The poor things. Some people did insist on going to Earth underprepared.
"There's another thing you really should know," warned the Human. "We really like having red things."
As if to prove their point, a vehicle swung by, blasting music as it went. It was a bright, vivid red that shone like nothing real should shine. It continued on without sparking any fires from its implied heat.
"Ah, yes," said the spokestourist. "We shall employ the Deathworlder method."
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / arosoft]
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