Work Text:
“What are you doing, Orange?” Red asks, strolling over to the Google page Orange has open. “Why are you laughing?”
Orange chuckles, wiping a tear from one eye. “I was looking up shades of pink – you know, for that picture I’m drawing – to try and find the perfect one. Some of these names are just…” He snorts, holding his sides in an attempt to keep from breaking into laughter again. “I mean, look at this one!”
“Amaranth,” Red reads, leaning closer to examine the color Orange has indicated. “What does that even mean?”
“I have no idea!” Orange giggles. “It sounds like a poisonous plant.” He points. “Look at that one.”
“Piggy pink.” Red frowns. “Reuben’s not that color. Trust me, I would know.”
“Dust storm,” Orange cackles. “Why would you name a shade of pink ‘dust storm’?”
“Now that sounds stupid,” Red agrees. “What do the numbers and letters mean?”
“Those? Those are hex codes. It’s another name for the color, a technical name. Once I found the right shade of pink, I was going to copy the hex code and type it into the color selector so that I’d get just the shade I wanted.”
“Cool.” Red taps his chin. “Wait, do all colors have hex codes?”
“Yeah.”
“And do they all have names?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Can you find my hex code?” Red asks. “I mean, I never thought about it before, but – I mean, my name’s Red, but there are so many shades of red! What kind of red am I?”
“We can find out,” Orange says, hopping up and running over to the Adobe Animate window. He grabs the dropper tool and pokes Red in the arm with it, then turns to the color selector. “It looks like your hex code is…#D91606.”
“Got it,” Red says, smacking his hand on the search button. “Now, what color of red am I?”
“Rosso corsa,” Orange reads. “Hmm. Maybe Google it?”
“‘Racing Red’,” Red reads. He grins. “Cool! Racing Red. I like it.”
“What are you two up to?” Blue asks, poking his head out of their house.
“You can call me Racing Red from now on, Blue!” Red shouts, waving his arms excitedly.
“That’s a good nickname,” Blue laughs.
“It’s not a nickname, it’s my actual name! That’s the name of my hex code!”
“What?”
Orange explains.
“Ooh, look up mine,” Blue says. “I’m curious now.”
“‘Spiro Disco Ball,’ huh?” Red says, once the search results come up.
“I can live with that,” Blue muses. “Don’t know if I want to go by it, though. I kind of like Blue… Do I really have to change my name?”
Yellow, just exiting a file folder, catches the last sentence. “What on PC?”
“Orange is looking up our hex codes,” Red says. “Wanna know what your real name is?”
“I already know, it’s Yellow.”
“No it isn’t,” Red shouts, as Orange obligingly looks up Yellow’s hex code. “It’s Golden Poppy!”
Yellow sighs. “Whatever. You can call me anything, as long as I have coffee.” He sniffs the air. “Speaking of – who’s using my coffee maker?”
“NOT ME,” Red, Blue, and Orange shout in unison. They’re all well aware of Yellow’s fierce territorial instinct over the coffee maker.
“GREEEEEEEEN!” Yellow bellows. “Stop touching my coffee maker!”
“I was up late last night, okay?” Green shouts, poking his head out of the window of their house. “Can’t I catch a break?”
“No, you can’t,” Orange huffs. “You kept me up until three a.m. playing music!”
“Ooh, look up Green’s hex code!” Red gasps, running over and stabbing Green in the arm with the eyedropper.
“Ow! Red, what was that for?”
“Come on, come on!” Red says, handing Orange the dropper. “Time to find out what shade of green you really are, big bro!”
The Google search loads, and for a split second there is silence.
Then Orange, Red, Blue, and Yellow all burst into laughter, laughing until tears stream from their eyes and they’re lying gasping on the taskbar.
“What?” Green asks, unable to see the Google tab from where he is. “What is it?”
“Come – look – ” Red gasps.
Green stalks out of the house and over to where they all lie on the taskbar, giggling helplessly. He tilts his head back to read the results.
His jaw drops.
“Isn’t it wonderful?” Blue wails helplessly, sides shaking with laughter.
“If any of you dare call me that – ” Green growls.
“What, you don’t like it?” Yellow chuckles.
“It’s got such a nice ring to it,” Orange laughs, tears streaming down his face. “You’d be the center of attention wherever you went!”
“Such nice initials,” Red says. He manages to get to his feet and drapes an arm around Green’s shoulders. “What do you say, AA?”
“Red,” Green says in a dangerous voice.
“Come on, Green! You should embrace it!” Yellow says. “Be the green you were truly meant to be!”
“Yellow – ” Green opens his mouth, but before he can say anything, the cursor drifts over.
Alan’s cursor is still for a minute, and then it switches to the text tool.
[what r u doing?]
[r u looking up hex codes?]
[why’d you look up the hex code for alien armpit green?]
Orange, Red, Blue, and Yellow burst into renewed shrieks of laughter.
“I WILL MURDER YOU ALL – ” Green shouts.