Terramar is stuck between two heavens: earth and sea.
His parents said he didn't have to choose; that's not wrong.
It's not right, either.
Because he never had a choice to begin with.
And he is unraveling.
Coverart by the fantastically skilled Konsumo.
Special thanks to Aragon, Undome Tinwe, and Feather Note for prereading.
Originally written after Surf and/or Turf first aired, I jotted this down, never finished it, and forgot it existed. A couple days ago I rediscovered it festering in my gdocs and decided to tidy it up, give it a few editing passes, and throw it out on the site.
This is another classic installment of "why don't you just go see a therapist, regidar?" Well fuck you they're expensive and they're always prying into my personal life and shit like that.
Surf and/or Turf disappointed me a little bit because it showed a pretty good issue that a lot of kids (including me) often have to tackle. Unfortunately it dropped the ball super hard with its resolution and sort of glossing over Terramar's emotion, which I feel was a wasted opportunity because they did a really good job of presenting a confused, defeated teenager in a saccharine world facing a really tough problem that isn't... solvable, really.
And then they just decided to end it off with “Oh everything’s fine! I was just being overreactionary haha! Just a stupid kid!”
like, c'mon. I know the show's got an issue with that but... oigh. I was really hoping for... not that, especially considering my own experiences with being a child of divorce. So now you've got to deal with my projection onto a talking cartoon equinid.
I-I swear to god this isn't a fixfic
I'm really glad to see that this one made it up.
Er... Who is Terramar, again?
9489870
A flying fish.
Now that is some beautiful cover art. I believe I understand what he's going through. Perhaps I can't empathize, stoic that I am, but I understand. Very well written.
Thank you for writing this, Regi. I think there's a lot of room for exploration with terramar, and I hadn't given much thought to the parent separation undercurrent until now.
Great work.
Exactly where in that esisode did it mention that his parents are divorced?
9490523 it's not a hard implication to be found in them not living together and terramar having to go back and forth between them, and being upset about it; it's fairly obvious (to me at least) that it's a divorce analogy episode. Every person I've talked to about this reached the same conclusion of their own. But I'm fairly certain (and not surprised) that "divorce" was never mentioned, or hippogriff equivalent of romantic parental separation. But the implication is very brazen. They just likely couldn't be too up-front about it because of some executive meddling and it "not being appropriate" or some nonsense.
I unno. Maybe my head is so far up my ass i'm seeing shit that isn't there.
9490558
Ok maybe, but it’s also just as likely that the husband prefers living on land to living in the water and the mother prefers the opposite. For all we know they still are married. They might even alternate where they make love. Sometimes on land, sometimes in the sea.
And this has no doubt happened with other couples.
9490566 it's also possible that we never see pear butter and bright mac because they travel a lot
:^)
9490582
EXACTLY! See? This guy gets it.
9490583 I am making fun of you.
9490590
Yea. And I was being sarcastic. Like the “Perfect Pear” episode left any doubt that their parents are dead.
I stand by what I said. If it were me I would move back up to the land even if my wife wished to stay in the sea, because I prefer the land to the sea. That wouldn’t mean that I didn’t still love her and wished to remain married. We’d find a way to make it work.
9490597 That's lovely. But the premise is obviously open enough to interpretation to inspire the author to write this story.
And you are nitpicking the storu's premise, rather than offering feedback on the story, itself.
9490611![:flutterrage:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/flutterrage.png)
I just don’t like stories regarding divorce, because my parents prmoised when we were children that they would never get one and they LIED!
If I had known that’s what this story was about I would have passed on it. It’s why I gave my completely plausible explanation on why they aren’t divorced.
9490641 That really sucks. I'm sorry. But this is a story about divorce. If you can't get over that premise, and you don't have anything constructive to offer, then maybe it's better not to say anything at all.
9490641
I'm really sorry, that must suck. I'll pray for you :)
(virtual hugs)
I didn't even watch the episode and this fic was still pretty beautiful in it's execution. It has a certain slam-poetry rhythm that I found really captivating to read.
"the sky alongside her father, he"
"the sky alongside his father, he"?
9494311
Ah, thank you. Fix’d.
9494385
You're welcome.
I found the simplicity and brevity of this to be quite beautiful. I, myself, have often felt torn between two (or more) worlds, and am still trying to find a place for myself somewhere in between. Excellent work.
Wonderful.
I am so dumb right now
9528332
I only noticed by sheer coincidence that I had read “a wizard of earthsea” almost immediately prior to the episode airing and my autism latching on to Latin for some reason
I’m very glad you liked it![:twilightsmile:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/twilightsmile.png)
Seriously, dude, you're more talented than you give yourself credit for.
Glad I found you, glad I'm following.
This was an interesting piece!
Forgot that I helped with the pre-reading. But when I stumbled upon this story again after some time, I couldn't help but think again about my parents. Guess even after all this time it's still... kind of weird to be in a situation like Terramar's? I mean, I don't hurt like I used to, so I guess that's a good thing. But... even still. I feel like I'm frozen in place between two different worlds. My Mom's and my Dad's. And even though I know they're better off without each other... it sucks to have the memories pop up every now and then. Cause like with Terramar, I sometimes can't help the thoughts that pop up representing that idea. The two paragraphs that really resonate with me.
Yeah... this is a story that hits hard. But at the end of the day, I still really like what you did Regi. A great story overall. Another reason, a little mixture of humor and a slight tinge of sadness, I ended up coming across this song by Blink-182 after a while. And when it played, I definitely cried a little. But found the experience to be oddly funny.