[ChicletPrime]

fantastic. mystery solved, everyone hit the showers.

[ChicletPrime]

Chapter 2: Snowy Stairs

• going by the picture, this is another Zayne one as it looks like a medical terminal. and, you know, "snowy".
  
• yup! but we're starting off with ... dun dun dun... Carter!
  
• at least they already acknowledge that Zayne is a 'medical genius'.  that's my boyfriend. kowtow, peons.
  
• what the fuck is 'cabin 607's patient'? we are going to find out and its probably going to be gruesome. as it looks like they are or have just finished offering Zayne millions of dollars in salary that he's turned down to go with Akso Hospital, this has to be before the main story by a little bit.
  
•  okay 2048 has just started, we are now present day or close to it.
  
• Okay, so Carter's continued on with his research at Xander Sciences and has a protocore type now that can, at least by what's being described, reverse death / make the dead live again as he offers to revive a kid's dead dog. Zayne is really not pleased. 
  
• I am not sure that 'breaking free from the shackles of natural law' is going to be all it's cracked up to be. give a research lab a million dollars and they don't always come up with post-it notes.
  
• Zayne is working on 'evol tech... an artificial lump that needs to be charged in [their] heart'. huh. okay. which is apparently different from the protocore tech that Carter is slaving over. 
  
• okay, so Cabin 607's Patient has a rare condition and Carter's using it to tempt Zayne to the dark side.
  
• Zayne doesn't take the immediate bait though (best boyfriend!) 
  
• "lifepods" - red tubes suck away death, blue tubes inject new life and they are very expensive to run. currently Xander Sciences has 15 pods running.
  
• 607 is soaking in "the liquid", like a shriveled skeleton. heart regen surgery failed (because Carter isn't the genius Zayne is and continues to gnash his teeth over the gap between theoretical knowledge and applied knowledge). 
  
• so whatever Zayne shredded before he quit his medical research, Carter took his part and went to Xander with it, now the project is called 'X-Heart'.
  
• Carter seems like he got into this for the right reasons, but has happily fallen down the chute to hell in his pursuit of results.
  
• on his way out, a technician is wheeling a dead body out while the parents try to grieve. he's... missing a heart? 
  
• sounds like Zayne did a quick cosmetic job so the parents could see the body? 
  
• okay, a few days after this, Zayne officially joins Akso's Evol-Cardiac Medical Research Lab as its lead
  
• Carter is just bombarding Zayne with this 'opportunity' to erase death
  
• he sends a picture of 607 (Felix), lying on the floor outside the lifepod with a cluster of black crystals blooming on the left side of his chest 'like a magnificent dahlia'.
  
• oh fuck. Carter, you rat bastard. if i'm reading this right, he wants to find "us" because he knows that Zayne became a doctor for 'a girl' and all he has to do is get a list of which patients are being transferred from Noah's care into Zayne's and he can then figure out which is the one that will 'motivate' Zayne into jumping ship. 
  
• i find it interesting that Carter called this "God's mission to allow for God's descent".
  
• and apparently he's also excited to find out if i'd be even more interesting as a case than 607's patients as neither Noah nor Zayne have been able to help so far.
  
• a previous conversation between Zayne and Carter, the last time they met - Zayne: "Even if we can avoid death, we still need it."  interesting. why? 
  
• now Zayne sees our name on the transfer list as he sits in his office. 
  
• Memory Carter: "Wouldn't you use everything in your power to prevent your loved ones from dying?"
  
• ... Of course he would.
  
• No matter how many years have passed, his answer hasn't changed. He would do everything he could to prevent her death and save her. But the night is long. The fog is dense.. if the end of the road is truly what's left, at least he still has another option. His last one.
  
• jeez, that's ominous as fuck. that is something he also said in his Thorny Moon storyline - shit, what was it? i'mma go look it up again. yeah, he says it then too, there there is still one last choice he can make. i am very sure i am going to hate whatever that is with a fiery passion.
  

oh man, that's all we GET?!

i feel vaguely cheated. so Carter's actually the driving force of badness on the science side with his X-Heart Project and he still really wants Zayne and his intellect and incredibly steady surgeon hands on his side to speed up the experiments that will erase death from humanity.  

Xander does get swallowed up by Ever at some point but at this particular moment it seems like that is still on the horizon.  

i am seriously looking forward to Zayne's myth(s) as it has to give a pile of backstory as to what's going on with present-Zayne. even with all the mysteries of Xavier, Zayne is still the least explained and I am dying (cough) to find out what he knows, why he turned his back on it and why he thinks that evol manipulation is the way to move forward instead. 

hang on. the event cards for Death&Rebirth -- "He clutches the key to reversing life and death." argh, what does it MEAN. i have GOT to know what's going on here, other than Carter being a Jurassic Park fool.  how does my (now stable) aether core in my heart and Sylus' stable aether core in his eye correlate to these black crystals in the X-Heart Project, along with Zayne's black corruption in his evol.

[Coldsaturn]

- okay 2048 has just started, we are now present day or close to it
Following the chronology of page 1, Zayne should be starting to take on Noah's patience since he's retiring. MC will be one of them. Zayne will meet her again later in the year.

- Evol vs Protocore
One is under the human's control, the other is known to overpower humans and turn them into monsters. In terms of technology, Zayne is going for something less innovative and groundbreaking, especially considering how everything High-Tech in this society comes from protocore technology.

- God's mission to allow for God's descent
You know it, I know it: put a pin on it!
And speaking of pins, I wish I had pinned something else in this text the first time I read it because it sure is giving me lots of "OH! No way, they were already mentioning it here?"

- Zayne's myth(s) as it has to give a pile of backstory as to what's going on with present-Zayne
Zayne is a special case, because vast majority of his lore comes from the main story, anecdotes, and world underneath. His myths are relevant for the overarching themes around him, but they won't feel like they're properly looming over him until Death&Rebirth.

[ChicletPrime]

Chapter 3: Bouquets & Dirges

• this has to be Rafayel - the mermaid skeleton on the face card is a dead giveaway
  
• oooh wedding... for Talia? I know that name. she was in the story where we learned Rafayel was an opera singer at one point.
  
• Talia's getting married? aww, all best to you and your future intended! 
  
• Rafayel isn't going to attend Talia's wedding... for why? that's an odd thing to skip if you've known each other as long as i suspect you've known each other.  unless the intended is an EVER plant or something.
  
• oh, its a diversion? because Raf has a surprise in mind or something? 
  
• "Why are you so stingy with your blessings?"  "I blessed you when you made the pact. Any more would be pointless."
  
• pact? blessing? oooh, i like this!
  
• so Talia's more of a casual sort of person, dancing barefoot on the grass. i had the impression in the other card that she was more of a sophisticated sort of lady, but sounds like she's more bohemian.
  
• nice. the gathered Lemurians are gossiping - this person she wants to marry doesn't stand out at all and they seem collectively piqued by it, and that Talia deserves somebody more outstanding.
  
• i wonder how many of his people are still surviving in hiding.
  
• Rafayel sees a familiar face he hasn't seen since "the disaster". since the disaster is in quotes, i'm guessing it was more of a fashion faux pas than anything serious.
  
• "Raymond is dead." 
  
• you come to me, on the day of my wedding... to give me happy news? 
  
• yeah, Talia's pleased as very alcoholic punch about that little tidbit.  
  
• random thought as i'm imagining this wedding in the flower garden .. how often can his people even get together in any sort of crowd? coming together is an advantage of numbers, but also a great way to take out a whole bunch of them all at once. alone, you're more vulnerable if you're found out, but together might be worse. huh.
  
• yeah, the next line basically says that nearly all the survivors are here at this wedding, which means there really isn't many of them left. a few hundred, at best? 
  
• "I'm not getting married because I've forgotten the past but because I want to live in the present. We're all looking for an anchor, a reason to live."
  
• Rafayel shakes his head. "Lemuria is more important." 
  
• Talia: "But what about you? When your own heart is devouring you, is there anything that can pull you back? Can you really let her go?" 
  
• The light in Rafayel's eyes dim. 
  
• "Rafayel, have you ever thought about your own wedding?" 
  
• "No."
  
• Rafayel doesn't want connect with her or connect strongly in this lifetime? Too intent on extracting revenge on EVER and trying to protect the remnants of his people? 
  
• Light yellow gardenias = freedom, happiness, rebirth
  
• he wants to take a bouquet of them to a relative's daughter's funeral? "her father can no longer give her flowers."
  
• is... is the father now also dead, along with his daughter, so now Rafayel has to adorn her grave alone? 
  
• oh MAN
  
• freedom, happiness and rebirth indeed. good lord. 
  
• he's at RAYMOND'S funeral? oh fuck, is the daughter buried ON THE GROUNDS? oh no no no, she's the skeleton in the atrium, isn't she? 
  
• /holds head in pain WAIT A MINUTE
  
• was Raymond Lemurian? is that HIS daughter displayed in the atrium? what the fuck is going on
  
• ...and Talia is there, and she sings a dirge. for the daughter? it has to be the daughter, Talia is glad Raymond is dead.
  
• and as Rafayel turns to leave, an old biddy calls him a murderer! 
  
• well, to be fair...
  
• wow, she outright yells out her accusation across the entire room of mourners. paparazzi descend like doomsday!
  
• and Raf just... looks around and then leaves.
  
• this is wild. Raymond cannot be the dead father, can he? unless this is incredibly dark and he was somehow at least partially Lemurian and he sold his daughter to EVER to experiment with her blood which is why Talia and Rafayel both came to offer their condolences for each side of that tragedy. please, i really hope i'm misinterpreting this. 
  
• Lemurians marry mortals. Talia just got married and its heavily implied she did before as well, so perhaps they pass along their bloodlines, diluted but still strong. The burden of loneliness? to have a family to love, even if it's only for a time, even if you give them a gift that others will kill them for.
  
• Rafayel goes back to Charles' flowers and takes some flame lilies (errata: i have tiger lilies in my front garden) unsure if he should give them away or not.
  
• "For now, he still has a chance to get a good night's sleep. Until he must face the never-ending tsunami of his dreams alone."
  

that was fairly wild. please tell me i am wayyyy off track with what this story seemed to be saying.

[Coldsaturn]

A few little notes from the Anecdote Siren's Song:
- Talia is Raf's aunt. She's taught him to sing opera for his past job occupation.
- She gives him an envelope most likely containing names of either dead Lemurians or humans connected to those dead Lemurians. It's a hit list.
- "After that incident in Lemuria, Rafayel changed. Talia felt she could no longer recognize him. If the Rafayel of the past was a blazing flame, then the Rafayel now resembled a reef battered by relentless waves - outwardly cold and hard, yet riddled with cracks, vulnerable to crumbling from the next wave."
- "K is dead." he says. "We held the Seamoon Ceremony for him last Saturday."
Many of us speculate he's the father of that skeleton in Raymond's house. Although it's a stretch since he never mentioned a daughter, only the torture he suffered and can no longer endure.

Now for this WU text.
- Talia's getting married?
Again. Which is an interesting piece of info. Unless Talia collects husbands like a femme fatale, plus the mention of the "pact", this tells us Lemurians can bond to more than one partner (in succession, at least). We can imagine she didn't go through a divorce, more likely her past husband was Lemurian and died, and now she's finally bonding again to someone else, a human.
- She says "Not everyone is as lucky as you..."
Implying that he doesn't have to find someone else to like and love and bond with. It's always going to be one person.
Unclear whether she says this because MC reincarnates so she's always going to be his bonded partner (implies they all know of their multiple lifetimes together), or because she knows he's already in love and nothing more.
- "But there are still those who don't realize how important it is to have an anchor."
Put a pin on it! It's a literal metaphor we'll see again for Raf.
- "Rafayel, have you ever thought about your own wedding?" "No."
The man whose entire identity spins around finding the bride of the Sea God. The man who's thinking of designing a wedding dress and asking Talia's husband to make it. "Goodbye my beloved bride" he says in Abysswalker, and in the main timeline he doesn't want to think about it. Ouch.
- Raymond wasn't the Lemurian's father. We know that Raymond was sick and a patient of Zayne, then he found a way to extend his life thanks to Xander Sciences. Considering the Lemurian skeleton in his house, we can guess what means he used to become young again.
Raf is there officially for Raymond's funeral, but unofficially he's only there to mourn the girl.
"He leans over the coffin and places the carefully selected gardenias on it, making sure its most beautiful side faces the fish tank."
"At a barely noticeable angle, he aligns himself with the bouquet" which is facing the tank "silently reciting a eulogy"
"He knows who Talia is singing for, just as she knows who Rafayel came here for."
They're both there only for the skeleton.
- The bouquet of flame lilies that he doesn't know if he's going to give or not. In his trailer video we see him caress the face of a statue (whose hairstyle heavily resembles MC in the Sea God myth), flowers and lilies around her and they catch on fire when his hand is close. He looks somber and his shoulders give way to what looks like a sob.

- If Raymond wasn't explicitly mentioned as someone who regained a youthful appearance and health through shady means, we could entertain the theory that he's Lemurian and betrayed his people. But Lemurians have no problems staying young and beautiful, so Raymond was made of a more mortal cloth.

The most direct reading is that Raymond lured/captured the Lemurian girl, gave her to Xander Sciences to get his cure, and then once she was dead displayed her in his living room.

[ChicletPrime]

okay, i am very happy to be corrected because i had forgotten most of the details of the previous anecdote. taking this one on face value, the implications were horrifying.

i got the impression that Talia simply had multiple love affairs over time - and i mean, actual love, not that she's necessarily tripping through the centuries eating her partners like a spider. she could have picked her human to bond to as she went and simply outlived them. although that's a whole 'nother side can of worms - does she stay with them entirely, which means she'd have to out herself as Lemurian and they'd have to move a lot to outpace suspicion, or does she bond with them until she has to leave to avoid said suspicion?

one would think (extrapolating) that any lemurian x lemurian pairs have already pledged themselves at this point in the timeline and there's no mention if more are being born. can lemurians have half-blood children? if yes, are the half-bloods fully mortal or do they have lemurian characteristics like long life? are those characteristics inherited pure or are they watered down? can lemurians without Lemuria have children at all? anyways.

[Coldsaturn]

I'm here exactly for this, like those automatic museum guides offering monologues in your earphones at the press of a button.

I have certain reasons (you'll know them once you get through Raf's playlist) to believe that she wouldn't hide her nature from a human lover. It might be why it's such a big deal that they're finally finding a way to keep on living on, creating bonds with others and finding joy in life anyway: they need to be extremely careful with who they get close to, because they all know they're being actively hunted.

"can lemurians have half-blood children?"
The million dollar question, to be honest. My fanfic writer heart wants to believe they can, but the half-blood might end up having a "weaker blood" than a full Lemurian, thus survive less ideally in the deep sea, or maybe they're not immortal etc.
My canon reading ass tells me if Lemurians could procreate with humans and thus already create a generation that lives much, much longer than normal people then EVER would have already knocked up a whole bunch of them. Yet we don't read about it, and I don't think it's because the game would censor it, they've written plenty of very dark stuff over the torture Lemurians go through.

[ChicletPrime]

imagine you have some trace of Lemurian blood. somewhere back in the day your great-great-grandpappy fell in love with something that walked the shore of the sea and now you have to deal with it.

colors can sometimes be too strong. sometimes you hear things you shouldn't. you've learned not to put a lot of effort into karaoke nights - it just gets weird.

you swim only in pools under fluorescent lights with chlorine an acrid taste in your mouth. where down is measured in feet, not fathoms. you tried, once. in a lake with your friends and purple shadows underneath like a silk you wanted to wear and you dove and dove and dove - but your lungs thrashed just as your heart began to sing and you exploded back to the surface, angry at wanting to live.

sometimes you stray. you walk the shore of the sea and feel things you that have no description and you have no place to put.

but you remember the lake and you carefully stay above the tide line.

[Coldsaturn]

Yessssss something similar to what Raf described in Romirro. You start losing sight of colors unless you're underwater, you hear the call of the sea, etc. Maybe on ebb day you need to be close to the ocean or you literally feel like you're drowning on air. And sometimes you have to be careful when you fall in love because some of your exes accused you of being a little too much, but to you it's terrifying that the more you feel, the more your existence starts revolving around your partner.

Like, forget raf/mc stories for a moment, give me a random protagonist who knows there's definitely something wrong with them and finds out there's lemurian blood in them and this triggers a whole search of their origins where curiosity definitely killed the cat. A lemurian husband might also be on the menu.

[ChicletPrime]

how about said random protagonist who digs and digs and digs and eventually gets much too close to something that might be true and there's a rumor that a certain artist in a certain city might be what they're looking for, or could at least point them in the right direction if they can get there and can get them to talk... and the closer they get to what they don't realize is their god, the weirder shit gets.