05-18-2025, 06:23 AM
okay, i think i have some thoughts on this last chapter before moving on to the conclusion and whatever comes next.
in the moment of the first kiss underwater, there is a very strong impression that Rafayel either called up a Lemurian skin for us, or invoked it. He gave us breath underweater with only his mouth on ours, touched then the skin around our eyes deliberately... what for, if not to caress scales? then to ask if we would cry to see if we would give pearls to the water. that the elemental fire guide would only have come close if our scent was familiar. in my mind, that kind of clinches it.
the commentary about the sea's borrowed power and betrayal, that the sea is also cruel and that he remembers and will reclaim it... it could be either a commentary on the vagaries of human allegiances or it could be very specific to the main character, or even both all at once. i don't know how Lemuria actually fell, other than a mention in one story that it was ransacked while Rafayel was not there, and he returned to loss and a ship sailing away.
but if its meant as commentary on his personal story with us, then the few words he says are pretty damned poignant.. and pointed. that he remembers and will reclaim a forgotten power. that only one bonded to the Sea God can raise it again.
did Rafayel seal his power away? did he write it in golden letters onto the palace walls and put himself into a kind of hibernation? did we promise on that beach and he gave us the key to his heart and a true hold on all that the ocean is - and when we did not return, he fell into grief or even fear and sealed it all away, out of reach?
at the end, we remembered *something* - enough to say the words to call the man out of the god, the invoking of whatever that bond was or is.
i note a note in there about lyrics, which was to remind me to bring up something i think appropriate, a song called The Ocean aptly enough by Dar Williams. about being drawn away from the living and the land, to yearn instead for something that cannot ever care back - and how tenuous the hold is to keep turning away from the void.
I went back to the ocean today / With my books and my papers / I went to the rocks by the ocean
But the weather changed quickly / Oh, the ocean said, "What are you trying to find / I don't care, I'm not kind
I've bludgeoned your sailors / I've spat out their keepsakes / Oh, it's ashes to ashes, but always the ocean."
And the ones that can know you so well / Are the ones that can swallow you whole
I have a good and I have an evil / I thought the ocean / the ocean thought nothing
You are the welcoming back from the ocean.
"I... have no need... for traitors!"
the worst part is, did I betray him and his people? did I say something that sent the ships to Lemuria somehow? He was so very angry. but whatever hold he gave us over him, to call him back or even just to call his name, it's still there and that must burn on all levels. that he made a mistake and it's on him forever and ever.
some of the visuals in this whole scene, with the lightning crashing constantly and the howl of the winds and waves and the sheer spillage of uncontainable power wreathing him in water like flames... /chef's fucking *kiss*. it was really frightening, for a little game you should be able to play on your phone. he looked.. so otherwordly. so far above and away even with his hand holding us down, as though he was thinking about ripping our heart right out of our chest.
anyways. FEELINGS.
in the moment of the first kiss underwater, there is a very strong impression that Rafayel either called up a Lemurian skin for us, or invoked it. He gave us breath underweater with only his mouth on ours, touched then the skin around our eyes deliberately... what for, if not to caress scales? then to ask if we would cry to see if we would give pearls to the water. that the elemental fire guide would only have come close if our scent was familiar. in my mind, that kind of clinches it.
the commentary about the sea's borrowed power and betrayal, that the sea is also cruel and that he remembers and will reclaim it... it could be either a commentary on the vagaries of human allegiances or it could be very specific to the main character, or even both all at once. i don't know how Lemuria actually fell, other than a mention in one story that it was ransacked while Rafayel was not there, and he returned to loss and a ship sailing away.
but if its meant as commentary on his personal story with us, then the few words he says are pretty damned poignant.. and pointed. that he remembers and will reclaim a forgotten power. that only one bonded to the Sea God can raise it again.
did Rafayel seal his power away? did he write it in golden letters onto the palace walls and put himself into a kind of hibernation? did we promise on that beach and he gave us the key to his heart and a true hold on all that the ocean is - and when we did not return, he fell into grief or even fear and sealed it all away, out of reach?
at the end, we remembered *something* - enough to say the words to call the man out of the god, the invoking of whatever that bond was or is.
i note a note in there about lyrics, which was to remind me to bring up something i think appropriate, a song called The Ocean aptly enough by Dar Williams. about being drawn away from the living and the land, to yearn instead for something that cannot ever care back - and how tenuous the hold is to keep turning away from the void.
I went back to the ocean today / With my books and my papers / I went to the rocks by the ocean
But the weather changed quickly / Oh, the ocean said, "What are you trying to find / I don't care, I'm not kind
I've bludgeoned your sailors / I've spat out their keepsakes / Oh, it's ashes to ashes, but always the ocean."
And the ones that can know you so well / Are the ones that can swallow you whole
I have a good and I have an evil / I thought the ocean / the ocean thought nothing
You are the welcoming back from the ocean.
"I... have no need... for traitors!"
the worst part is, did I betray him and his people? did I say something that sent the ships to Lemuria somehow? He was so very angry. but whatever hold he gave us over him, to call him back or even just to call his name, it's still there and that must burn on all levels. that he made a mistake and it's on him forever and ever.
some of the visuals in this whole scene, with the lightning crashing constantly and the howl of the winds and waves and the sheer spillage of uncontainable power wreathing him in water like flames... /chef's fucking *kiss*. it was really frightening, for a little game you should be able to play on your phone. he looked.. so otherwordly. so far above and away even with his hand holding us down, as though he was thinking about ripping our heart right out of our chest.
anyways. FEELINGS.
