Text to Avery

[american_tanuki]

okay but what if colors are social constructs and dont actually exist

think about it

Comments

[counterclock]

what

[counterclock]

are u dexing is that whats happenin right now

[counterclock]

bcuz i am way too many hits into the gravity bong to deal w this

[counterclock]

oh my god

[counterclock]

just walk into the pool room and talk to me irl i cant fone anymore ok im laying under the pool table k bye

[american_tanuki]

[Shortly after, a voice from somewhere above the pool table.]

I'm serious though, like, if you raised a kid and never taught them anything about colors, what would they perceive?

[counterclock]

Man, I don't fucking know. [She has a hand thrown over her eyes. People are actually playing pool on the table she's laying under. Very badly, because no one in this room is sober.]

I have a friend who is legally blind but claims she can taste colours. Figure that one out.

[american_tanuki]

I still think Nyquil tastes like colors. I am going to carry that belief to my grave.

[counterclock]

Oh my god, Sara I can't fucking hear you.

[american_tanuki]

[Sara sits down under the pool table, next to Avery's head.]

If you're blind, how would you know that you were tasting the right colors? There's no frame of reference.

[counterclock]

Does it matter, though? Are you a colour fascist? Do the colours have to align with sighted people's interpretations of colours and their hypothetical scents and/or tastes? Whoa, Sara. I didn't know you'd shit on some poor disabled girl's enjoyment like that.

[american_tanuki]

That's exactly what I'm saying, though! Nobody has a frame of reference for what colors are, because we all learn the same shit in kindergarten, so we all come into adult life with the same preconceptions about what "red" and "green" mean! None of it means anything, it's all just a social contract that we signed before we knew that there was an alternative!

[counterclock]

[Huffing out a breath, Avery pushes her sunglasses up her forehead, rolling her neck so she can see the line of Sara's thigh.] Some people can see like, a million more colours than pathetic normal humans can. Go ask them how they associate words with those colours.

Maybe we're just labeling concepts to make them easier to talk about. Maybe you're full of shit.

[american_tanuki]

And what if colorblindness is psychological instead of physical? What if some people just never mentally processed what the difference between red and green, and we think it's an issue with their eyes?

[counterclock]

Sara. [She headbutts the girl in the thigh.]

You're drunk.

Go home.

[american_tanuki]

[Sara ruffles Avery's hair as retaliation for the headbutt.]

I am not drunk. I am high as shit.

[counterclock]

What did you do? You mentioned Nyquil. Did you actually do Nyquil? [She does not protests the hair ruffles.]

[american_tanuki]

Just between you and me, I'm a huge poser stoner who's never done anything heavier than weed.

[counterclock]

Haha, oh my god... What, really? Not even shrooms or X? [For all Sara's public posturing, Avery genuinely expected a little more adventure from her.]

[american_tanuki]

Okay, shrooms once. It was not a positive experience.

[counterclock]

[Avery considers this, and then hauls her body up to drag it the few inches necessary to sprawl in Sara's lap.] Spill.

[american_tanuki]

I'll be honest, most of it is a blur. The main thing I remember is being really freaked out because I thought the trees were all covered in human skin instead of bark, and it was just constantly peeling off in chunks.

I was inside, Avery. The trees were a wallpaper pattern.

[counterclock]

...

[Heh. Heh.]

Well.

I don't think anyone would blame you for thinking wallpaper was made of human skin. Some of that shit feels grody as hell.

[Snicker.]

[american_tanuki]

I wish it was that simple. The wallpaper had vertical green stripes. I thought the stripes were trees. I thought those trees were made of skin. It was like an awful hallucination on top of a nice hallucination.