Once upon a time, in a land not so far away...
You wake up thirsty.
It's a thirst unlike anything you've felt before. A glass of water, another. It isn't enough to sate that feeling. Isn't even close to quenching that thirst.
After the third glass, it's clear that this isn't going to go away, no matter how much you drink. So instead, it's time to listen to that other need that's sinking in to your bones. That's battling your need for hydration.
You need to be under water. Submerged. It isn't your throat that's dry. It's your entire body. And you know that there's no way to fix this other than to get in to a bath. Or better yet, a lake.
Once you're underwater, you feel a strange, uncomfortable feeling in your legs. You feel as though your limbs as wrong. As though you shouldn't have those feet, those toes. You begin to move your legs as though they are a single limb. As though you could swim for miles with them alone.
You sink underneath the water. You feel your body relaxing. Getting more comfortable with that feeling. You feel--
You're drowning. You splash, you struggle. You get your head above the water now and take that much needed breath. The water burns. Your skin blisters. You scramble to get out of the water as quickly as you can, dragging yourself to dry land and trying to remember how to breathe again.
Unfortunately, being on land may not end up being the reprieve you hoped it was.
...the sharp knives cut her feet, but she did not feel it, for the pain in her heart was far greater.
Characters will wake up that morning feeling thirsty. But no amount of drinking seems to help. Instead, it's that instinct to submerge themselves that keeps them from drying out completely.
Once they manage to find a body of water to sink in to, characters will feel an urge to put their head underwater too, a feeling of their legs joining together sitting comfortably in their mind. But once they do give in to that urge, they'll soon find themselves running out of air. Scrambling back to the surface, they'll find their skin getting redder by the second, burns starting to appear if they ignore the warning.
When they finally escape back to dry land again, characters will be stuck with the aftermath of it all. That feeling of their legs joining becomes one of splitting. Something that's made hundreds of times worse the moment they try to get to their feet again. The floor may be clear, but it'll feel as though they're walking on knife blades. On shards of glass. And the only reprieve from it will be to get back in the water and put up with the burning instead.
This event takes place throughout the rest of the month, with no true resolution available. However, after surviving two weeks with the symptoms, characters will begin to find themselves becoming more resilient to the effects. They will only feel mild discomfort when walking, and the call of the ocean will become easier to ignore.
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fablelands2018-10-15 12:29 am
Questions?
Tsume | OTA
[Tsume's gone without food and water before in his life. When one is a wild animal, they get used to the fact that sometimes there's not always going to be enough. But this unrelenting feeling of being thirsty is starting to get to him. He'd found a bucket of water near an abandoned house and drinking the whole thing had done nothing for him.
He was going to need to find a different solution to the problem.
So he was walking steadily back towards where the Great Lake was located. That was such a large body of water that surely it would provide some relief, right? Though he's gonna be panting by the time he gets there.]
In the water
[Tsume enters the water and it seems blissful for a moment. The sensation of his hind legs joining feels odd for a moment and then it passes. He recognizes that it feels like a tail. After all, he has one of his own already.
But then he starts to run out of air. He looks up towards the surface, which has somehow gotten much further away. How had he sunk so deep into the lake. He's got to get back to the surface. He struggles, paws moving frantically as he tries to get back up. He starts to panic. He's drowning! The water boils and churns as he gets close. Just a little further...
When he breaks back through the surface, there's a brief flicker if anyone's around where the illusion drops. Instead of a leather-clad teenager, it's a grey wolf bursting through gasping for air. Then it's back and once again Tsume looks like a human. He drags himself back to shore, collapsing on shore as he swallows deep breaths.]
Two weeks in
[He's limping along, though it's not quite as pronounced as when this ordeal first started. Frankly, he's grown more irritated than anything else. Tsume's the wolf who has the most stamina and agility in his pack, so to be reduced to hobbling along was horrible.
He's trying to hunt, but considering he can't run for any extended periods of time, he's been reduced to going after small game. Right now, he's positioned himself outside of a gopher's den, waiting for it to come out. If he can stun it quickly, he won't have to get into an extended chase.]