Ever think abt how Rafayel's story leans into the og version of The Little Mermaid and more folkloric mermaid lore like the crying pearls and LSG!MC turning to seafoam and think about how Raf doesn't have a typical standing pose, but tends to favor one leg or the other and in the og version of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson, the mermaid was constantly on pain while walking - that each step felt like razorblades and that each step was agony?
And apparently in his recent solo - sweetness overdrive - the card references Rafayel injuring his arm and dealing with it all alone.
And how his main exercise in the game is interval running and walking on a treadmill. Which is also an exercise someone in PT for leg pain might do.
And in the latest timelock key, we find out that during this timeline's Fall of Lemuria, little rafayel was escaping - be it from human hunters or EVER in particular or something else - Raf was injured during the event - "in bone piercing flames, he tears through the water. His shattered scales fall in a howl of dispair"
And I can't help but wonder if it's all connected and might also be why Raf is hesitant to show MC his tail in the current timeline.
Like we've only seen the silhouette of his tail in that early chapter of the game. We know he has a tail. But MC does not. He even brushes off the idea as a peice of fiction in Ebb and Flow when MC finds out he's a Lemurian. Even though there's clear proof of Lemurians having tails just based off the skeleton of the poor Lemurian in Raymond's fucking livingroom. In cards where he and mc go swimming underwater in the Sea (Whalefall Lament and his 2025 birthday card (n prolly others I can't remember off the top of my head)) he always has his legs.
Idk where I'm going with this, but the thought has been swirling around since timelock key released. There's something here. I know it. What kind of angst with the current timeline tail reveal are you planning, infold . . .
