#natima lang

(Gentleman prefer blondes reference?!)

Personally, I like to imagine that it’s blue/green/infrared. This would have lots of fun ramifications, starting with

Redleaf tea

Humans call it redleaf tea because it’s red, while Cardassians call it redleaf tea because it’s hot. Like for them it’s redleaf tea because it turns the mug red. Drinking a tea “black” means it’s cold. Cue many hilarious misunderstandings re: Earl Grey.

Speaking of “grey”

…this would also add an extra, wacky dimension to Garak’s complaint about Romulan hearts being grey. Maybe their hearts only look grey at a specific temperature (shortly after being mysteriously murdered, one assumes). The infrared would have to match whatever green and blue tones the heart had; any warmer or cooler and it would no longer look grey.

Also, Cardassians would not look grey to other Cardassians. If we’re assuming they have less internal temperature regulation than humans, they’d be changing colors to match the ambient temperature, while humans remained a more stable color. In fact, the color of the room would shift to match them.

(the metaphors about the Federation write themselves)

Lighting

Anything warm would be emitting light, so everything is brighter by default. A warm, dimly lit room might appear equally bright to a cool, brightly lit room. But the light distribution and color temperature would be very different. The first room would have much more diffuse, warmer-colored light. The second room would have very focused, very blue-green light by comparison, appearing more like harsh fluorescents.

Clothes

Clothing would have a similar (infra)redness to the person wearing it. Matching fabric colors to someone’s complexion would be a very different process, since they’d automatically colorshift to be closer together. However, you could add more color contrast between the skin and the fabric by choosing insulating fabrics. Or maybe mixing different fabric types for different color effects. Warmer species could change the color of fabrics by touching them, adding temporary patterns/markings.

If you sell clothes, any species that doesn’t share your visual spectrum is going to get… interesting color combinations.* For example, where a human sees blue+purple, you’d see blue+dark blue. And purple, yes, but only when worn, and the purple hue would wash over the entire garment as it warmed up. Then, if someone with cooler hands touched the garment (perhaps on the shoulders), they would leave blue handprints.

Today, I attempted watercolour for the first time since elementary school, which makes me about 25 years out of practice.