RISING TIDES + RAFMC INTIMACY DYNAMICS
I really love the detail of MC's comfort and intimacy soothing away his scales. To me they are a manifestation of the lack of control Ebb Day brings of his physical and emotional state which is routinely something Rafayel maintains extensive control over and is something he actively fears losing. He feels as strongly and intensely as the sea and as its God is constantly maintaining the turbulence and storms he endures. And is noted as something he is unfortunately very used to and very good at doing. But it is also something that is wearing him down, to the extent his aunt relates him to battered coral. And it’s why MC plays such a crucial role in soothing away this constant struggle.
We see that in Banquet Ablaze and Ignited Echoes in regards to his grief and rage over what is happening to Lemurians. That fear of losing his core self. And in the sense of intimacy we see that in Intertidal Zone of his fear of being selfish and only taking from MC and how he pulls back twice before they finally get intimate because of this (and in just how he handles their sexual relationship in general of him waiting to see what MC is willing or wanting to do or how far she's willing to take it before he lets his desires take over).
Her accidentally using the bond on him and him reminding her can override it were both done purposefully to show us that his control is threatened in this state by being with the person who can command him but also being in a state that ignoring it is likely if he lets himself unleash the turbulence the reversed tides cause. It's just like the bond where he reminds MC he is dangerous to her and that she is his greatest weakness (which is reaffirmed in the myths as the reason he must kill her). He’s choosing to be vulnerable with the one person who has some control over him and she is choosing to stay with someone who’s in a state that could push her past what she is comfortable with.
She soothes away the scales and gives him back control over his turbulent emotions by not trying to control him with the bond and not fearing that if he breaks the covenant he’ll break her. By offering this trust and comfort that she doesn’t fear him and going back to the room she actually gives him back his control, puts him back in a state where he is still charged from the effects of Ebb day but no longer held back by fear or distrust like he was in the first Ebb day. Allowing him to indulge in those intense desires with her (all night long) but without fear or losing control of himself in a way he did not want. As Talia explains, MCs presence lessens the symptoms. MC took away the edge of fear of losing control and allowed him to indulge in the pleasure of those desires and intense wants without fear.
I personally think that a lot of their sexual content plays with their power dynamic and Rafayel’s giving control and trust to MC at the start and seeing her willingness to be with him and allowing himself to trapped that turns into him feeling comfortable in unleashing his passions and intensity on to her and losing himself in it by taking back the control and lead because he trusts that MC desires match his. He needs to know that her devotions and desires match his own before fully unleashing. He is someone who wants to fully emerge in his emotions of desire, pleasure, and pain but as stated he is a man who also remains in control of those intense emotions and in sexual situations we see how MC plays a crucial role in him feeling in control of losing control.
He offers himself- sexually, romantically, financially, even his powers to her in return for her complete devotion so they can properly drown together. Without that mutual offering of everything to one another, he’s losing himself without control but together he can control losing themselves completely in one another.
I personally see him letting MC take the lead as the start of mutual submission to drowning in their desires together much like Santarch says to offer herself to make him submit… once again ebb and flow, push and pull. It’s less about needing to control her but rather guiding her to submit to a mutual loss of control where he can fully indulge in the depths of his desire for her and show her the depths of his intensity. It’s not a submissiveness out of giving up control but one rather to allow him to be in better control of his intense desires and better match hers.
His dominance fully comes through when he can guide you to sinking together into the depths that he wants to reach alongside you and show you the intensity of the kind of feelings that are normal to him but overwhelming and intense to you (which he absolutely gets off on but also bridges the distance of differences between you as Lemurian God and mortal human and allows him to get closer and deeper through intimacy)
He does not want to take from her selfishly but he knows how intense he is and that his love and desires are all consuming like his flames and the ocean depths he comes from so he pushes MC to see how she pushes him back before he takes control and pulls them both down into the depths of their mutual devotion and desire.
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