[ChicletPrime]

Land of Secret Flames: 12

• i feel like whatever happens in this chapter is going to be a little flat after the high of last episode. its fine. we can't live on the edge of transcendence at every moment.
  
• i turned the proto/aether core fragment over to the Association?
  
• like, are we even convinced the Association is * good *?
  
• what hey? somebody sent something to the Special Ops team from Jewel Reef, using my name as the sender?
  
• "drenched, palm sized metal disc" - huh.
  
• okay, that was some technobabble we're just gonna take on faith.
  
• oh HO! ".. a radio frequency chip capable of attuning to metaflux fluctuations."  so those fuckers from EVER * were * calling forth protofields/Wanderers on command. i knew it.
  
• and in case nobody was paying attention in the last 12 story chapters, let's mention EVER by name again.
  
• no remote activaction. gotta be johnny on the spot with it. noted.
  
• "dark clouds cover the sky, heavy and gray."  feeling out of sorts, beloved?
  
• oh. a bunch of people are missing from "the island", per the radio news. didn't the implied tsunami sweep a bunch of the elite and  rich off their proverbial feet?
  
• yeah, we are definitely intertwining here. whatever bond we got, we're sharing thought patterns on some level.
  
• oh, so the several people missing is just the pair from EVER.  well, i guess i'm not that distraught then.
  
• oh, so we're not supposed to ask about the forgotten promise right now, because of weather related reasons? "not in the mood for a tragedy".  oh MAN, i am a terrible person. it probably wasn't my fault but i still feel the need to pat him all over the face and swear i'll do better this time. at which he will probably look at me side-eye and say something inscrutable before shrugging it off with a quip.
  
• oh, i don't really remember that much from the boat? what is WITH my memory?
  
• oh, we're not talking about RECENT memory.. only that i had a high fever for a handful of days and woke up not remembering much. therefore i surmise that i have in, in fact, forgotten any previous meeting with Rafe and only some of it is starting to come back.
  
• please tune in to Radio F I S H, your channel for the hits of today, yesterday and tomorrow. all the classics, all the time! F I S H, the coast with the most!
  
• yes, i want to apologize but don't know how to make it not sound like i'm trying to dodge out of it with this very convenient amnesia thing.  please don't look at me like you understand.
  
• that's fucking * heartbreaking * - "did you go to the beach to wait for me?"  "are you asking about the year after that, or every year after that?"
  
• and he puts my hand over his chest (heart?) where the bond mark has to be subsumed
  
• "The power within the Tome of the Sea God will protect everything that belongs to the sea. This includes our bond. If you can't let it go, why not just order me now not to hold a grudge?"
  
• we have THAT much control over him?
  
• i am... okay, the implications of that are super heavy.  no wonder he waffles between resignation and anger and a forlorn sort of hope.
  
• oh. does he .. does he want me to take away this particular pain? oh, sweetheart.
  
• yeah, no. i am not ordering you to do anything that doesn't directly impact my continued ability to breathe. unless its for bedroom shenanigans and we've already discussed the safeword.
  
• i  WILL always come back for you. and you said you'd wait, so please ... keep waiting. 
  
• holy carp, YES THE PROMISE STILL MEANS SOMETHING TO ME. even if i don't really remember it, because now i KNOW you again and i can swear it again if you want.
  
• yes, the weather is going to storm.  and yes i came here anyways. for you.
  
• awww, lovely metaphore about rainwater and seawater finding their way back to each other.
  

stars, I have seen them fall / but when they drop and die / no star is lost at all / from all the star-sown sky. / the toil of all that be / helps not the primal fault; / it rains into the sea, / and still the sea is salt.

this game is way more emotional that i thought it was going to be. by a LOOOOONG shot.  still kinda feeling like a well-rung bell.

This is a very important insight into Raf's godhood because it doesn't look like he IS the sea. The Deep Sea is an entity of nature all in itself, and the Sea God is like the conduit for its power, a way to easily govern and take care of it, but the Deep Sea and the Sea God can clash in terms of power hierarchy.

ah, okay! so he's the avatar now, with the channel now wide open and unrestricted. but when he was talking about the Tome before we awakened it, he specifically said the power/runes weren't of the future, but of oblivion. an interesting detail, at least, just gonna let that sit there for a bit while my brain stirs it into soup.

now the question is -- continue on the chain down the "main story" or go back and do the other side quests in that Envelope option?