Here is my theory after discussing and digging up details and blending them in my mind and Connecting The Dots, which is not remotely supported by Solid Evidence and relies on even more yet-unproven theories, but which IS cohesive if multiple things turn out to be true (which is what I couldn't get any of the other more obvious ideas to be) and which I think I will stand by if only just for fun:
asked @taleweaver-ramblings if she had thoughts on this, she threw out the idea that if it's a memory it might be Viv's mom's memory, and that actually made a lot of things click into place for me! Missing piece that gives the rest of the pieces somewhere to go and make sense, perhaps??
Viv wonders what her mom would've thought of Luca, and that's what sets off this potential memory.
Man who looks like Luca but older and as if Luca's history "had never happened" COULD be a memory of the king rather than a future vision of Luca "healthy and healed." "Bright and inquisitive" also does sound like a description that would've been applied to the king in CB.
at home with tea on the patio at Viv's parents' house: I think a future Luca and Viv with that level of familiarity would more likely be either at the Tea House or at their own future house. A memory, Viv's or her mom's, would more plausibly take place at Viv's parents' house.
"I think I'll keep you," in addition to having an entire 10-book series dedicated to illustrating what is wrong with the concept, is actually something along the lines of what happens often with selkies in general in this series, and Viv's mom in particular. Being kept, whether against her will or not, by someone else having her pelt locked up.
Here's where the no evidence section starts. I was reading this scene through the lens of the question COULD that be Viv's mom's memory, though?? and the one thing that really seems to tie it to Viv specifically rather than potentially her mom is that he addresses Viv by name. However: we do not know Viv's mom's name.
Could Viv have the same name as her mom? I wouldn't put it outside the realm of possibility. In the first book, when Luca asks why she's Viv, Viv's answer is because that's what her father named her. I could see her father doing something similar to what Lord Sero did with Zero- Viv's dad had some level of ownership over her mom, we assume, based on the pelt situation, and it could function as an extension of that, naming the daughter the same thing as the mother with the intention of extending the influence to her (even if the name isn't exactly HOW he has it).
Also... that WOULD fit in with what else we know of how much Viv resembles her mom, whether there's an alternative reason for it or not. Another theory with technically no evidence (at least not Yet): if Viv is the child her mother saved from drowning as opposed to her parents' birth child, and there was some sort of magical ability on her end involved with her turning out to look so much like her mom anyway- it wouldn't EXPLAIN having the same name, but it would fit.
On that note. Viv having sort of reddish brown hair + Viv's mom having dark almost black hair + Viv's mom's pelt being reddish brown instead of black, when so far it seems like selkies' pelt colors reflect their human hair colors to at least some extent + the weird questions the Forex agents were asking Viv in book 4 about things like whether or not she's ever dyed her hair... I bet that adds up to something. Makes me wonder if maybe her mom dyed her hair so Viv wouldn't look as much like an obvious direct copy or something?
We know the worldbuilding in this series includes the capacity to transfer memories from one person to another. Viv could have access to at least some of her mom's memories, somehow buried, through something like the memory stick in books 3 & 4.
Remaining question, even if this is a memory belonging to Viv's mom instead of Viv: the king with Viv's mom, though??? Why?/What would he want from her?/When?/How does this fit into the mix of everything about and with Viv's dad?
Anyway, posting my new bizarre and way out there theory in case anyone else has any thoughts or opinions on this one 😂 I think it solves "can't be precognition because Viv doesn't have that + Luca Wouldn't Say That," "no way on earth should Viv have This Memory of That Guy," and also "way too meaningful to be just made up." If this was someone ELSE'S memory of the person it seems to be of... that might make a lot more sense, and it seems to me like there's no obstacle PREVENTING this theory from being the case like there is with all the other ones 🤷♀️
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