#duskbright steps

I think we can all clearly see Duskbright Steps’ connection to Rafayel’s second anecdote, but I’d like to talk about how it connects to his past with his art teacher.

Over the past 2 years, Rafayel has gradually opened up to mc about his past, his thoughts and feelings in general. He now feels safe enough to talk about his deepest feelings and fears with her. And this also has a big impact on his healing journey. It’s not coincidence that this year’s birthday collab is about art therapy/healing through art, it directly connects to this card and it’s something Rafayel himself experienced years ago.

After the catastrophe in Lemuria, Rafayel has been in depression. He was dealing with a lot of things like the guilt and responsibility he now has, but he was also just a teenager trying to find himself. After losing everything, who was he? Is he now the sea god who bears the responsibility of all the lemurians in diaspora? Then, what will happen to the Rafayel who was just a kid, having lost his parents and friends? He was now forced to live on land, a place that was foreign to him. He was meant to live among crowds disguised as a human, but what did it mean to be a human anyway?

At that time, he couldn’t bring himself to draw and paint. His teacher used to bring him next to the seaside. Rafayel would “sit there and watch the sun dip below the horizon” Maybe he started seeing a new perspective about life back then. He started painting again.

And now, we can see the parallels between his Timelock lines and Duskbright Steps. Yes, he still doesn’t know who he is. But now he has people by his side that love him, or rather, it is now that he is able to realize that people love and care for him. Because his teacher, his butler, Talia and other lemurians have always cared for him, but perhaps he was not seeing it clearly back then. He was more focused on his task as the Sea God. For his students tho, he can be just “Professor Rafayel”.

I think these lines fit both the situation about the university, and the human world in general. It seems to me that he is finally finding his place in this world, finding a.. home. A home where he feels loved.

The sunset, the sun. Perhaps just like when he used to bath in sunlight on that seaside in the past, he is now again watching people pass by him, and gaining a new perspective in life. After all that time and suffering, he really likes the surface world.

It's a bit rushed but that line from the event kept me wondering the possibility of college student mc being next to rafayel unaware what her future aholds w him

"Just be sure to remember that I'M the better fishie here, 'kay?"

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This line in the memory made ne laugh out loud 🤣