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Emotion 365: The Land of Disheartened, the Capitol Gloom

At the bottom of Disheartened canyon a shadowed river runs. Visitors cliff jump into the chasm then find it difficult, no impossible, to ascend. They swim down river with the rock walls high above them. The narrow canyon goes on and on. The rock walls close in. Raptor cries echo. The cold river flows fast and deep and still. It’s the color of blackened steel. On slim sand shores, lizards scurry through the rocks. Trout swim deep and river octopi tell stories. Those who jump into the river lose their legs and gain tails and gills. Their slim arms fail and they are sucked underwater where they relearn how to breathe.

“They never quite drown or freeze, but are carried a long way by the river before they are released,” says the Guide.

In the river city Gloom, live Trout Men with strong tails and arms. Gloom lies deep below in the depths of Disheartened. It runs underneath the river. Visitors plunge into the river and arrive in Gloom where they are captured, their legs are chopped off and replaced with fish tails, their necks sliced open to make room for gills.

To escape, they must leave Gloom through the frigid river which eventually leaves the canyon and flows to the sea.

The Trout Men raise their children on rocks. They do not accept outsiders or want to hear about other’s ways. They do not fight their environment. The river rocks and water and the canyon are as they have always been, but grow deeper and deeper over time.

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