[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/wWd5i98.png[/img][/center]
[sub][color=60cf11]Location[/color]: Communal Hotspring[/sub]
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Although the initial greeting was somewhat awkward, Anathema didn’t hesitate to choose a rock close to the blight-born woman and enjoy the springs’ warmth. It was unusual, how long had it been since someone was so comfortable to be around her? Since the transformation most humans regarded her with fear and suspicion, even when she made her intentions clear; even after she healed them… To be treated like a person again or the human connection that came with that was a comfort Céline realized she had sorely missed. 

[color=goldenrod]"No apologies are necessary."[/color] Anathema began, [color=goldenrod]"You actually happen to be the first blightborn I've met, but I am a sage--a researcher--I've come to Dawnhaven to study the blight and, ah-um, those affected by it."[/color]

It was even more surprising when Anathema revealed that Céline was her first blight-born interaction and yet somehow that only made her respect for the woman grow. Anathema seemed somewhat hesitant to share her reasons for coming to Dawnhaven, but perhaps it had to do with her subject of choice being the one to ask the big ‘why?’ Still Céline felt a kindred spirit within this person, someone who, despite the risks, was willing to go the distance.

[color=goldenrod]"I just feel it's too late for me to be afraid. I've come all this way, by my choice, afterall.”[/color]

[color=60cf11]“I think some people might call that pretty reckless, stupid even,”[/color] Céline smiled, interlocking her own hands together, rubbing them for warmth, [color=60cf11]“personally it’s something I can relate to. Even after my transformation I never tried to stop helping people, even after…well they said some pretty nasty things to me.”[/color] She chuckled nervously, [color=60cf11]“When I first heard of this town, having no other information than a name and that both human and blight-born coexisted, I knew I had to come. Call it…intuition or faith, I felt this town needed my help.”[/color]

[color=goldenrod]"You said that you're a doctor. Do you mean that you use healing magic? Do you also come here from Aurelia?"[/color]

Céline had to laugh a little at that one, but it was an understandable mistake, [color=60cf11]“No no, I’m sorry, I was actually born with no magical affinity whatsoever, in a land far east of the Aurelian capital. My ‘healing magic’ is something a bit more practical, sometimes long-winded depending on the injury, but effective nonetheless.”[/color] Her eyes wandered to the steaming pools below, the moonlight somewhat diluted upon the waters’ surface. [color=60cf11]“In a time where healing magic is so limited, especially those affected by the suns’ disappearance, I think a little practicality is something people desperately need right now.”[/color]

The anxiety that was emanating from Anathema hadn’t gone away since she had revealed her role as a researcher in this town. It didn’t take much to draw a line that the research was around blight-born; people like her. There was a lot of curiosity and excitement, but that anxiety was holding her back from being more open. Despite risking the floodgates of emotion once more, Céline decided to broach that topic. [color=60cf11]“On a serious note, it’s pretty dangerous to approach a blight-born you don’t know.”[/color] A light scolding for sure, but Céline liked this person and didn’t want to see her get eaten after just arriving, [color=60cf11]“There are some pretty…feral and wild ones out there that don’t hold as much pleasant conversation as I do,”[/color] Céline smirked, [color=60cf11]“that being said, this seems like a perfect opportunity for you to conduct some rese-”[/color]

Céline’s ears perked up, suddenly picking up the noise of crunching snow, [color=60cf11]“It sounds like someone’s coming,”[/color] her eyes narrowed and moved towards the directions of the sound, footfalls crunching and winding their way through the springs rather hurriedly, followed by a splash as if someone plunged themselves in. There was something else that she could hear coming from that direction, something faint, yet deep, [color=60cf11]“Do you hear.. [sub]that[/sub]”[/color]

As she turned to face Anathema, she was gone from her vision, turning back the trees and sky had dissipated, leaving something large and aching in its wake. It felt like a pulse, looked like one too, a black and viscous ichor that seemed to pull and gnaw at Céline. She tried to pull away from it, but it wouldn’t let her look at anything else, move anywhere else, as the world faded away around her. It called her in, beckoned, something that was pure and raw; anger, fear, loss, anguish, despair, hopelessness, survival, desperation. It was beautiful, violent, awe-inspiring and she wanted to let herself be drowned in it. Something stopped her though..

Blinking, Céline looked around and realized she had stepped away from the pool of water and was now standing barefoot in the snow, some couple dozen or so feet away from another individual. She looked at the brunette haired woman in the water, beautiful, fearful, and the reason Céline had been so inexplicably drawn here. A meal of raw, fresh, undiluted emotion was just sitting there waiting to be eaten and Céline’s eyes grew wide in fear as she tried to step back. Her body just didn’t seem to want to listen as she collapsed to her knee, the back leg suddenly giving out underneath her weight. Everything just felt so difficult right in that moment, an aching hunger, a free meal right in front of her, a moral obligation to do no harm. The weight of all that stress on her mind locked her in place. [i]‘I-I-I I can’t, I can’t do this, I won’t Iwon’tIwon’tIwon’tIwon’t-I …I can-’[/i] and like her leg, the mind gave out.

Throwing her body forward onto her hands and knees Céline emptied the contents of her stomach; a mixture of whatever bile and mucus had settled its way there. Before more could be said or done, Céline collapsed on her side, her ears ringing loudly and her mind going blank, unable to comprehend the violent convulsions her body was going through from the shock of rejecting one too many meals.
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[sub]Interacts with: Anathema [@Lu]; mentions: Octavia [@The Savant][/sub]