INKTOBER DAY 19 - Bone

Rachel Amber is the fire that Chloe needs to stay away from

Okay.

Look.

I love Amberprice. I will defend it til the very end. Would I fall for someone like Rachel Amber? Yes. Would I like to be friends with someone like Rachel Amber? Absolutely. Would I date Rachel Amber? No. Absolutely not. Not because of how smashy she gets when she’s angry, but because of how the tiny traits about her tips me off the wrong way.

Am I sure she really likes Chloe? No. Do I think she’s manipulating Chloe? Yes. Does Rachel’s actions and reactions to Chloe’s doubt to running away bother me?…

Hella yes.

It VERY much bothered me.

I’d like to go back to this conversation:

They’re talking about Rachel. Hands down, that’s what I sincerely believe.

The first time you meet Rachel is intense. It’s like fire. It’s bright, and warm, and exhilarating. Rachel burns like fire. Brightly, and she’s the center of attention.

She becomes the center of Chloe’s attention.

but….

She burns so brightly that the darkness of Chloe’s life is completely engulfed in this. I can’t find a video where Chloe says it, but in my play through, on the first episode, while talking to Joyce during breakfast, Chloe basically goes: We make bad choices when we’re dealing with losing someone. She’s basically judging her mother for choosing David so soon after she lost William.

Sound familiar?

Who else lost William, as well as a best friend, and started hanging out with the wrong crowd and making awful decisions in life?

So, if you eliminate fire. If you eliminate that bright bright light… what do you see?

Darkness.

Chloe doesn’t want that. She just wants to see…. Rachel provides her light. a direction. But perhaps that direction becomes too blinding and painfully burning as Chloe gets closer to it. That’s why, by the end of the episode, Chloe is so hesitant with leaving with Rachel. Chloe felt the warmth of the fire, but as she edges closer, she has to recoil for a moment because that fire is burning her. Eventually she gives in, after a promise.

Something solid – the bracelet

Something permanent – a tattoo

Something passionate – a kiss

Lesbi-honest… MOST of us, chose the most NON concrete way to make a promise: a kiss. We, as Chloe’s players, are pushing Chloe into the fire.

But here’s the thing, let’s jump ahead a little bit in the future okay?

Chloe loses Rachel anyway. She loses her fire. A very bright fire that she has been staring at for a while now. She’s back in darkness, but the fire left a mark on her. It didn’t burn her. It left that weird shape in her eyes that happens when one stares too long at something bright.

But slowly and surely, she starts seeing clearer. And in darkness.. what do you see when you look up?

Stars.

Fire that shine billions of light years away. Safe to watch, untouchable, yet they’re still so beautiful. They give direction. If one knows how to read stars, you will know where to go just by using them

Who else is miles away? Who else is untouchable?

It’s a bit of a reach, but Max could have been that greater beauty.

A more logic reach is the end of Life is Strange (original), where Chloe realizes that she has been so focused on the fire (Rachel) and the hazy orb that the fire left (Rachel’s disappearance), that she failed to see the other beauty of her world (her mother, blackwell, Eliot (he’s a really good kid), Steph, Mikey, and maybe even David because he does have some lessons that make sense)

But Rachel isn’t just what made Chloe miss the finer things in her life… The darkness around her was dark enough that she couldn’t see….

So dark that she couldn’t see directions.

So how was she to know that looking up was all she needed to see the dim lights in her sky? How was she to know when Rachel Amber was this wildfire that gave her warmth but also misdirection?