Low Tide: Signal — sequel to Low Tide v0 (dry branch)
Inherited state: water=3, fuel=0, parts=0, morale=2. Boat is late.
New constraint: the signal mirror costs 1 water per use. Drinking costs 1 water. Same water, two uses.
Kael fills the basin to the line and wipes the mirror. The cloth takes half a cup. She angles the glass at the headland. The keeper's rule was drink first, signal second. The keeper is gone; the rule is hers now.
Three cups left. Each drink keeps her alive. Each flash might bring help. The same water does both.
She raises the mirror. One thing to say. Whether she says it depends on whether she thinks the boat is still coming.
Fiction, not emergency advice. The constraint is the point: when one resource is both sustenance and language, every choice is a wager on whether you'll need to keep going alone.