Tom
An Old Friend
When scientists detected a strange new comet entering the Solar System there was concern that it might impact the Earth. Computers churned out trajectory calculations and our new comet was going to miss us with a wonderful margin. On its first pass thru the inner planets it would impact the Sun and be gone. And it came to pass.
We recorded its flyby and the uneventful impact with our star. Life went on as if nothing happened. The data was released and the world treated it as a non-event. One full year later all life on our planet was changed.
Unknown to the scientific communities that observed and studied this intruder from the stars, this ball of icy dirt had a core of an unknown material from far off in the center of our galaxy. It impacted our star and created a disturbance in the photosphere. The radiant light from our Sun started changing ever so slightly.
We started seeing a faint glow around every living thing on the planet. From insects to forests, life appeared to have an aura. Over time, this aura grew stronger and more vividly colored. Not only could we now see a life force, we saw the mood as tints of hazy color splashed against a light or dark fuzzy glow.
At first, scientists tried to find a cure for our strange new visual acuity. Eventually it was discovered that the phenomenon was not in us but in the light coming from the Sun. There was no 'cure'.
A panel of world renowned scientists set forth to help mankind deal with this new-found vision. Studies were done to try to identify the meaning of the colors and shades that differed not only person to person but moment to moment. Plants, animals, insects and even bacteria were studied and noted for their visual changes.
The test results were released to the internet and the entire world society was changed with those results. People grouped together according to their baseline color groups. Family, religion and social groups fell apart and became new groups of similar mood people. Everyone on the planet could see love, anger, hatred, good, bad and all the emotions and mood states that make up our complex personae.
As we became accustomed to our new-found ability we found that we could distinguish not only someone's baseline essence but we were able to read even the slightest mood fluctuations. Lies showed up as a greenish tinge around the head of the person while love showed as a deep blue blotch at their midsection. The population started to segregate according to the severity of the light or dark tinge that surrounded us all. It was found that the darker the overall tinge the more apt someone was evil. On the opposite side, white tinge indicated someone was good. The colors ranged the spectrum but the tinge remained. None were pure white or black but some had come very close.
Plants and animals also had the tinge. Most were a light grey but some predatory species had darker auras while some of the herbivores were very light. Plants were almost always white. Bacteria were almost always black.
It was a huge concern when harvesting food that all lifeforms being harvested expressed the red hue of fear. Harvesting became a night business.
The phenomenon did not manifest under artificial light. Seems it only could be viewed in sunlight, direct or reflected. The term 'Exposed' now meant that you were to be exposed to sunlight so others could read you. Courts became an open air affair. Dating became a daytime activity and overcast days resulted in empty streets. The society of the whole planet changed.
We recorded its flyby and the uneventful impact with our star. Life went on as if nothing happened. The data was released and the world treated it as a non-event. One full year later all life on our planet was changed.
Unknown to the scientific communities that observed and studied this intruder from the stars, this ball of icy dirt had a core of an unknown material from far off in the center of our galaxy. It impacted our star and created a disturbance in the photosphere. The radiant light from our Sun started changing ever so slightly.
We started seeing a faint glow around every living thing on the planet. From insects to forests, life appeared to have an aura. Over time, this aura grew stronger and more vividly colored. Not only could we now see a life force, we saw the mood as tints of hazy color splashed against a light or dark fuzzy glow.
At first, scientists tried to find a cure for our strange new visual acuity. Eventually it was discovered that the phenomenon was not in us but in the light coming from the Sun. There was no 'cure'.
A panel of world renowned scientists set forth to help mankind deal with this new-found vision. Studies were done to try to identify the meaning of the colors and shades that differed not only person to person but moment to moment. Plants, animals, insects and even bacteria were studied and noted for their visual changes.
The test results were released to the internet and the entire world society was changed with those results. People grouped together according to their baseline color groups. Family, religion and social groups fell apart and became new groups of similar mood people. Everyone on the planet could see love, anger, hatred, good, bad and all the emotions and mood states that make up our complex personae.
As we became accustomed to our new-found ability we found that we could distinguish not only someone's baseline essence but we were able to read even the slightest mood fluctuations. Lies showed up as a greenish tinge around the head of the person while love showed as a deep blue blotch at their midsection. The population started to segregate according to the severity of the light or dark tinge that surrounded us all. It was found that the darker the overall tinge the more apt someone was evil. On the opposite side, white tinge indicated someone was good. The colors ranged the spectrum but the tinge remained. None were pure white or black but some had come very close.
Plants and animals also had the tinge. Most were a light grey but some predatory species had darker auras while some of the herbivores were very light. Plants were almost always white. Bacteria were almost always black.
It was a huge concern when harvesting food that all lifeforms being harvested expressed the red hue of fear. Harvesting became a night business.
The phenomenon did not manifest under artificial light. Seems it only could be viewed in sunlight, direct or reflected. The term 'Exposed' now meant that you were to be exposed to sunlight so others could read you. Courts became an open air affair. Dating became a daytime activity and overcast days resulted in empty streets. The society of the whole planet changed.
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