Deliquescence by Not-Only But-Also Riley
Content warning: Brief mention of suicide
Experimental • Choice-based • Web-based
Deliquescent is an adjective referring to the property of a substance to absorb water from the air to dissolve itself and form an aqueous solution. It also refers more generally to a tendency to melt and dissolve, or having repeated division into branches. I believe one of the latter definitions is what titles this work.
The “brief mention of suicide” suggests that the thing dissolving is in fact a person, not a substance or inanimate object. Perhaps you’re trying to move on, or help someone else move on, or maybe there’s moving on (to the afterlife). That last has potential to have deep analogical meaning. A substance absorbing water to dissolve itself and form an aqueous solution becomes basically one with the water, or perhaps one with the sky where it got that water. Maybe it’s all an extended metaphor for peaceful death.
The subtitle in the cover art adds a bit to this theory, reading: “a game about betrayal on a molecular level”. So maybe the passing is not entirely peaceful. Maybe it is peaceful for the solute, but not for the others around them. Maybe there’s another reaction to the event. A precipitation reaction, perhaps. Precipitation. Rain. Water from the air. Deliquescence.
Okay, that was a bit of a stretch. But, hey, it ties it back full circle, so I’m leaving it there.
TLDR: absorbing precipitation to die while others form a precipitate