Is there anything you could tell me about why I have such issue with water? It's thankfully not something I have to face regularly, but one of the few times I went outside onto campus grounds, it was raining. For all I could tell, it was acid rain, making my skin sizzle and my body blurry. Obviously, it wasn't though. It was just normal, natural water.
Another ghost told me that they knew of some spirits who had passed away due to drowning. Understandably, they had a big issue with being in, near, or in contact with water during their afterlife. But that can't apply to me, for as far as I'm aware, water was never a part of my death. Sure, maybe I choked on a bit of blood, b-but... that's surely not the same, right?
Someone else told me that some people believe natural sources of water contain spirits of their own. Things like raindrops and river water are apparently full of them, and where I'm a young spirit (both in the fact I died as a teenager and I haven't been dead for a long time in the grand scheme of things), they might be confused by me, or I may be getting overwhelmed by them, and that's why it hurts.
I vaguely remember hearing what I figured was just an old wives tale about how witches and some other supernatural creatures couldn't cross running water. That theme kind of appears in media, too, with the most famous example probably being the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz melting when exposed to water. There's also the whole concept of priests splashing "blessed water" or "holy water" on evil spirits to burn them and banish them.
Could you tell me anymore examples of this sort of thing? Or even better, the theories behind them?
[OOC: From both Kaede's Ghost and I, happy birthday, Korekiyo Mod-guji! Hope you had a good day! - Saber]
"Well, water is considered sacred in a lot of spiritual practices. Traditional folklore views water, especially moving water, as a pure element that repels dead or unnatural things. Rivers and streams, for example, symbolize constant change and time. They serve as a clean break that trapped spirits cannot step over.
Though... perhaps it wasn't the water itself that caused those issues."
"...I think it was the salt.
Rain is fresh water at first, but it picks up microscopic traces of dust and salt as the droplets fall. In ancient times, salt stopped meat and fish from rotting, and so people associated it with stopping decay and fighting off evil.
Many traditions and religions use it in rituals to wash away bad energy and seal doorways against harm. It's a stable, physical mineral that opposes the unstable nature of a ghost."
"This isn't to say it can't be both... after all, you're the first spirit I'm able to interact with and see so easily; you could very well be different from other spirits in terms of "biology". You might react to water more than you do salt, and vice versa.
The only way we can be sure is if we test different theories. After all, I wouldn't want you to dissipate into nothingness by accident."
