Super quick Pokemon doodle because I have some ideas so I wanted to get this out of the way.
Okay. Mira didn’t want her Feebas. Her parents bought Feebas and a Bagon. Her brother got the bagon while Mira was left with Feebas. While her parents regret the purchase they still told Mira that this Feebas was extremely rare and expensive so she has to stick with it growing up. Mira hated Feebas, it was ugly and it kept splashing her whenever it was she was near. One day when she was sad and sitting by the pond the Feebas kept nudging her and spraying her with water. She eventually thought it was funny and played with it. Fast forward, they’re inseparable. People are amazed that she’s winning contests with her Feebas. She worked hard with it so it can be graceful and creative. Eventually it evolved into the Milotic she uses.
Feebas absolutely loves Mira. It was hurt because she rejected it but she proved that she loves it just as much if not more. It’s a little spoiled especially since it evolved.
Zoey grew up flip-flopping between houses and constantly moving. However her parents decided that she was going to receive her pokemon from the Professor. She actually never really chose. That Turtwig saw her immediately and ran around her, refusing to settle down. She fell in love instantly. No matter what happened between her family she always had turtwig by her side. It kept her grounded (pun intended) and almost never left her side. When she joined Huntrix, it was a Grotle at the time and some big wigs in the company were concerned over one of their idols having a non-beautiful pokemon, Celine assured Zoey she wouldn’t be without her Partner.
Grotle however is still a little scared to evolve because of the stress Zoey had to endure when she fought to keep it.
Rumi lived on Jeju with Celine and it was surrounded by wild Pokémon. They don’t get close because of Celine’s Gallade keeping watch. One day though, when Rumi was walking, she saw an injured Growlithe. She wanted to help it but Growlithe feeling cornered and burned Rumi’s hand. Celine managed to take Rumi away but let Growlithe stay where it was. Rumi wasn’t deterred though. She would leave it food everyday until it eventually trusted her enough to let her pet it. While the two became friends Celine was weary of it, especially after the burn. While Rumi and Growlithe were close they were both scared of actually becoming partners. Growlithe doesn’t want Rumi to be hurt from its flames again while Rumi was scared of letting anyone close at all. It took them a few years until Celine thought it was time Rumi choose her partner and gave her a pokeball to catch Growlithe.
Growlithe holds itself back a lot in case one of flames hits Rumi again. It will always have this guilt of hurting its favorite human but the human still went out of her way to make sure it was fed, sheltered and safe.
oh, i am finally old enough to know why my parents took so long to grab their coats. why they would ask us to get ready to go only to sit down for another round of coffee. what would i tell myself, at 10 years old? it’s okay. sit down with them too. take in the extra hour with your friend and her family. when you get home, write down every moment in your diary. one day you will be older and you will be waving goodbye to your best friend, and you will turn the key to start your beat up little car engine, and you will look back over your shoulder. her hair will be blowing in the wind and she will be beautiful and you will be, for a moment, struck by all of it. what you will feel is so wide and nameless that it will engulf you. and you will think of being 14 and kicking her under the table in math every time you wanted to whisper something behind the teacher’s back. you will think about how long the days felt, and how you could hold her hand whenever you wished, but you didn’t. and you will think about all of the people you could have lingered with. and you will wish, more than you have ever felt a wish, that the universe just gave you that - more time to linger. more time to say - i love you. i know i need to leave, but i don’t want to leave you. and when i go, i am leaving a piece of my heart that lingers too.
one more round of coffee. the days are so short, and you are so lovely.
“The number of hours we have together is actually not so large. Please linger near the door uncomfortably instead of just leaving. Please forget your scarf in my life and come back later for it.” (mikko harvey)
Who is Hunter? A Paint my Frozen Heart with Fire theory.
Hi guys, I’m back with a new theory! This time about Paint my Frozen Heart with Fire, one of my favorite ongoing fics. (Coda, Wolfish Behavior, PMFHWF, Pull me to the Ground, Build me up (before I break again) for anyone curious)
This fic is really good! Go read it. And give @arendellesfirstwinter a follow. There’s lots of mysteries, between Rumi’s strange condition, Mira’s past, Zoey’s family, etc. But the largest mystery has yet to be solved: who is Hunter??
This question has plagued KPDH fandom spaces for far too long, so today, I set out to solve it.
Full fic spoilers ahead! Up to ch4.
So what do we know about Hunter?
Feminine lower voice, she/her pronouns
Face, neck, arms, hands covered by sleeves. Also wears a hood.
Excellent at singing, dancing, lyricism (according to Mira and Zoey).
An idol under Sunlight Entertainment
Launched 7 Years ago (from Ch1)
Active in Sunlight Entertainment Tower
Hosts live shows, very rarely talks.
Rumi doesn’t like her, or at least thinks she could improve.
Okay! So! Let’s go down a list of characters and eliminate them based on whether or not they could be Hunter.
Zoey/Mira- The easiest ones to mark off. They stayed at home during a Hunter concert, which was live. So they cannot be Hunter.
Celine- Celine was already an idol under Sunlight, many years ago. She already had a successful career. It is true that the girls rarely see her, signaling she may be busy as Hunter, but they have also heard her sing during her idol years. If Celine was Hunter, they’d probably recognize her singing voice. Also, Celine is older now, and probably couldn’t keep up with Hunter’s busy life and demanding choreo.
Jinu- Jinu is a guy. However! Hunter is completely covered. He may just have excellent voice training and control. He is rarely in the fic, matching Hunter’s busy schedule. He also is shown to have scars on his chin, explaining why he would wear a mask as Hunter. Rumi also is annoyed by him, so it would make sense if he was Hunter, Rumi’s annoyance is probably constant.
Jinu also mysteriously was able to get tickets to a Hunter concert. And when Mira/Zoey cancelled, he still went. Maybe he had to go, due to being the main performance. He also gives a vague reason for having to go, like “Supporting a friend.” Maybe he’s talking about himself in third person. He also states he can easily get them more tickets in the future. Him being Hunter would explain this.
So it appears Jinu is a fine contender, but there may be more! Let’s keep going.
Rumi- Most people would probably point to her. However, there’s a few issues with Rumi being Hunter. One, Rumi criticizes Hunter a lot. And if she were Hunter, this would show severe self worth and perfectionism issues. And that would be sad. I don’t want Rumi to be sad.
Rumi in this fic also wears long sleeves, with a mask. But she’s shown while eating around Mira/Zoey to reveal her mouth. In the latest chapter, we also saw she had scarring on her chin. Hunter covers her entire body, staying completely anonymous. Hunter is less concerned about covering “flaws”, and more concerned about staying hidden. Rumi is very not hidden to Mira and Zoey.
And speaking of Mira and Zoey! They’ve seen Rumi dance, and Mira noted it wasn’t perfect. But Mira thinks Hunter is perfect. Are you implying Mira has some sort of subconscious idol worship? No, that would be sad. Also, surely they would figure it out by now, them not knowing is a ding against Rumi.
Rumi still covers her arms and hands religiously, like Hunter. However, there’s an easy explanation for this. She is half demon, and is hiding glowing vibrant patterns. It just makes sense.
Rumi is mysteriously absent during Hunter concerts, but this could be a coincidence. See the mountain of evidence above that she isn’t Hunter.
Overall, I think Rumi is a close friend of Hunter’s, who is concerned about his or her progress as an idol and she’s just a good friend. (another point towards Jinu).
Okay! Who else?
Mi-Yeong- Mi-Yeong is dead. So probably isn’t Hunter. Also, Rumi being mean to her mom would be sad. Mi-Yeong did die in a tragedy, so perhaps she was left scarred in an attack and now has re-debuted as Hunter. However, the Celine issue of recognizing her voice still applies. I doubt Mi-Yeong is hunter.
That little sick girl at the park- This little sick girl has one mention. It would be narratively interesting if all three girls were at the same park growing up, but I doubt this is Hunter. We didn’t even see her sing! She did love flowers, but we haven’t seen if Hunter loves flowers.
Elsa- This may seem like a wild pick, but think. Arendellesfirstwinter. Arendelle. From the movie Frozen. Elsa wears sleeves to hide her ice powers. Aren has also written Frozen fics before, and people have pointed out the similarities between Frozen and KPDH before. What if Hunter is Elsa? Maybe she hides due to being previously cancelled for casting Arendelle into an eternal winter.
Aren- Hunter could be Aren. Perhaps it is a self insert. I doubt it, though. I don’t think Aren is a KPOP idol. Also, Aren’s favorite character is Rumi. Surely, Aren would make Rumi Hunter. But we already established Rumi isn’t Hunter.
The reader- Meta. The story is Meta. The story is about how the characters are inspired by the reader, how they only exist in the minds of the reader. How the reader is perfect to the characters, for the reader translates the words into a world. It’s meta commentary about how KPOP idols are nothing without the fans, so it’s a story about how these up and coming idols look up to the ultimate: the reader. Probably not though. The reader isn’t absent during Hunter concerts, and we don’t see Hunter’s pov.
Me- Maybe I am Hunter. I can’t sing, though, and I’d probably know by now. Also, Hunter isn't a shark.
Well dang. It appears as we’ve run through our options. From all of these, our strongest contender was Jinu! There’s one piece of evidence that seals this pick.
Jolaf.
Jinu, canonically, dressed up as Olaf for halloween. That’s a costume. A mask. He’s used to being hidden, another self. And it’s Paint my Frozen Heart. Frozen. Arendellesfirstwinter. Aren loves Frozen. Jinu is the only Frozen mention. Aren loves Jinu. She has called him her little Meow Meow.
"What's that look for, Mira? Zoey got this shirt for me."
Celine props her hands on her hips after tucking her sunglasses into the pocket of the tackiest button-up shirt Mira has ever had the misfortune of witnessing.
It is a bright pink shirt decorated with sharks and cats wearing crowns. Underneath the tacky button-up, Celine paired it with a rust-red tank top, dusty green cargo shorts, and — socks with sandals? At the BEACH?! HEINOUS!!!
Mira scoffs as she places her hand over her heart in mock offense. "That's the problem, it's hideous!"
Zoey giggles at them in the distance.
[Got a sketch commission from the wonderful @princington and colored it to coincide with a lil drabble fic I wrote! Thank you so much for the commission Princington! <3]
No thoughts head empty, just random things/possibilities in the happy ending gumiho au:
Rumi who is still born half jeoseung saja, and therefore have their patterns (pick your poison for how it happens, before polylight is probably my pick, but I honestly don't care to think too much about it)
Maybe she's accidentally been caught up in a demon fight at a young age, maybe it's just regular old insecurity, but at one point she starts being self-conscious about her patterns.
They are different from Celine's radiant red ones and they match with the demons they hunt.
Nothing they say helps and at one point little Rumi breaks down about it, all of her feelings way too big for her like 8yr old self. They are ugly and they're on bad people who try and hurt her parents and Rumi doesn't want to be bad!
She cries herself out, her parents unable to do anything to console her.
Then she wakes up the next morning, walk into the living room and freezes.
Celine is seated on the couch reading, a cup of tea in one hand.
And her patterns were all painted purple.
(No, Rumi does not cry, she's a big girl!) (Except she totally does and Celine only panics slightly.)
Yipping
Or just general fox noises that Celine 100% makes.
And then later on that Rumi inherits. Small yips while laughing or used as affirmatives are a must. And both purring/murring together is also common.
Zoey and Mira don't see it happening with Celine at first, and are thinking it's a demon trait of Rumi's. Maybe when demons aren't trying to kill them they just make these funny little noises?
Then they learn about gumiho's and Celine's whole deal is explained and they're like ooooohhhh
Like mother like daughter.
Teasing by dragging her tails under their (Soo-min and Mi-yeong's) noses
Soo-min and Mi-yeong who 100% squeeze her palms like you would a cat's to get her claws to extend.
(It's not how it works but she humors them)
Baby Rumi pulling on her tail (Babies don't mean any harm but goddamn)
Fox-form Celine just curled around kid!Rumi sleeping. Or Soo-min and Mi-yeong resting against Fox!Celine's side. Let these people sleep.
So this is a vaguely half formed idea based off @zzzzz-cff 's fox bead AU (which I think is supposed to be the happier version of the half-gumiho Celine AU but uh...here I am. Adding angst and truama) but;
What if the fox bead is the soul of the gumiho?
And if someone, say the hunters, manage to tear a fox bead from out of a gumibo's chest (or in our case, a half-gumiho child), that person essentially owns that gumiho' soul. And that gumiho is spiritually bound to obey the wishes of that person.
(And maybe that person also has contol over the gumiho's form? Hmm)
Miyeong doesn’t really mind it (except how she does) because she’s been here since she was a little kid apparently, but Celine is Hana’s vision of perfection.
She’s always pretty and put together. She never complains. She always, always does what she’s told, no matter how impossible.
“It’s like living with a robot,” Chaewon grumbles. “There’s nothing… there, behind her eyes. Can’t you feel it?”
“She’s been living by herself with an old lady for half her life,” Miyeong points out, ignoring the way something prickles at the back of her neck in agreement. “And you’re jealous.”
Chaewon flips her off. Miyeong laughs.
And that’s all they say about it, except, well—yeah. Sometimes it is like there’s something… wrong, with Celine.
Miyeong will look back at her when Celine doesn’t realize anyone’s watching, and find that it is like there’s nothing behind her eyes.
Or sometimes she’ll catch her looking at her own hands like they don’t belong to her.
Or how, when, a few months in, Hana pushes Miyeong and Chaewon past their breaking point finally, is saying get up and go again when Miyeong literally feels like she’s going to die, Chaewon has already vomited from exertion, neither of them are sure how they’r even going to get in for dinner—
Celine, quietly, says no.
And Hana looks more surprised than anything. “What?”
“No,” Celine repeats, shoulders straightening. “We need—we need to stop. Now. I’m not doing it.”
Hana’s eyes narrow and she reaches up to fiddle, oddly deliberate, with the necklace around her throat. “I said again.”
And Celine switches right back off.
“Get one of them up,” Hana says, in a voice like ice. This isn’t about training anymore, it’s—it’s something else, something wrong, something Miyeong doesn’t want to watch, much less be a part of.
Jerkily, Celine turns around.
And she reaches up a hand to draw Celine’s attention, because Chaewon literally puked earlier.
Celine picks her up. She keeps hold of Miyeong’s hand, tight in her own, like an apology, like a plea, until Hana says, “Let her go.”
Wouldn't it be funny (okay "funny" might be the wrong word here) if this version of gumiho Celine suffers for a shorter amount of time because there's something so obviously wrong with her that her partners start getting suspicious of their mentors and get her bead back? (And then Rumi gets to grow up with all three moms)
***
It was breach gone bad that was the final straw; a supervised hunt, their last supervised hunt, Eunji had promised, where so many demons poured from a tear that seemed to stretch the horizon, that they had to retreat.
Run away until, Eunji, perched atop a rooftop, yells at them to, "stop running! Stand your ground and fight!"
And Celine, eyes dull, giving them a sad smile, does.
Miyeong doesn't remember how they survived the fight let alone win.
But when the dust clears and the honmoon shines blue and bright again, Celine collapses onto the ground, barely conscious and half-dead.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Miyeong asks, trying to stem the bleeding long enough for the honmoon to start stitching Celine back together.
"She-- she said to stop running."
Celine's words are slurred. Her eyes drift closed and Chaewon slaps them back open.
I smelt a whiff of fluff and polylight and I came running like a trackstar.
FINALLY A POTENTIAL HAPPY (ish) ENDING *Pushes all the angst additions in the tags under the rug- out of sight out of mind*
They ask her what she means, and she says she can't tell them.
She can't tell them.
They are dragged back to the hunter grounds and Celine is stuffed into the infirmary.
They sneak into the room and ask her again.
It takes them almost fifteen minutes of talking in circles to understand what Celine means.
Literally can't.
Is unable to, despite her own wants.
She's been forbidden from talking about the bead for as long as the old bats have been in possession of it.
They trained conditioned forced Celine to listen, and she never had an opportunity to cross them, let alone think about other options.
But Chaewon and Miyeong never had their choices and thoughts taken away from them.
The writing loophole comes as easily as breathing to them, their minds unscarred by another's will.
And for the first time since they've known her, it's like something ignites behind her eyes.
Like there is a person there, instead of just a soldier.
She tests it to herself first. Just writes down the reason on a piece of paper just to see if she could, and then holds it close to her chest without showing the other two.
The writing on the paper is shaky, near illegible, but it's there. Physical proof that she, at the very least, has her own words back.
Chaewon and Miyeong don't push her to show them, even as she feels them shift in their seats by the foot of her bed.
She tears the first piece of paper to shreds on the spot.
Not because she plans on hiding the information. But just because she can.
Because she needs to know that she doesn't have to do anything.
She looks up at them with the ripped paper littering the covers, and there isn't anger at her silence. No demand for answers.
There is fear, and there is worry and there is concern. But no demands.
And so she gets out of the bed.
Both protest immediately, but for once, Celine doesn't listen.
Instead she gets them to help her stand, her injuries messing her up more than she'd like, but she was still determined.
She has regained her words, but she owes them to no one, even the other thirds of her soul.
And she might be leashed, but foxes were cunning, and damn it were they vindictive as well.
So she keeps her own words, and instead steals their mentors'.
She leads the way to the library, far less afraid of their mentors catching them than she thought she'd be.
The old bats were asleep, and Celine is far too good tame to ever dare disobey them, in their minds.
But she isn't.
She tasted her first drop of freedom in years, and she is grasping it, declawed fingers tearing into it from the force.
She takes out one of the many books about demons, and flips it to the pages about gumiho.
Celine makes them read it all. The entire chapter. On everything.
They're confused at first.
-"This is something we already know? This was the first thing Hana taught us?"-
But after the first initial book, about how gumihos tear into humans, disguise themselves as beautiful women and look like foxes (it was a good 20 or so pages that Celine made them read), Celine walks over (stumbles, more like, but she refuses to let them touch her. Not when she's so close) to another bookcase.
One she was ordered to never touch.
But foxes are cunning, and she's now been given an example of a loophole.
Freedom has never been so close before.
So she says nothing and just points at the next book.
Makes Miyeong flip to the next part about gumihos.
About controlling the fox-demons, about the fox-beads. A recent addition, made by Hana herself.
They recognize the handwriting.
She doesn't force them to read the entire thing. They do anyways.
The pieces are connecting in their minds, and when they look up from the book, Celine is holding another piece of paper.
"They have my bead"
Her hand is shaking enough to rustle the paper she holds up.
Celine half expects disgust or anger.
She made them read the first book for a reason. A reminder. Because that book isn't wrong, per say, it's just not complete. There is nuance that the hunters couldn't afford lest it'd create hesitation.
So she makes them read the first book, allows them the choice she herself was never given.
She is a demon. They are demon hunters.
She wouldn't be the first gumiho they'd killed.
And Celine thinks she'd be okay with it. As long as it's them.
So Celine half expects disgust or anger.
She doesn't expect both. And she doesn't expect them to not be directed at her.
Chaewon is sick in the nearest potted plant.
Miyeong -calm and kind Miyeong- rips the pages out of the book and tears them apart. Fury painted in every line of her body.
It's... cathartic, in a way.
Seeing the emotions she isn't allowed to feel.
Chaewon comes back, skin pale and eyes glassy, and reaches out. She doesn't complete the motion, as if afraid that she's no longer allowed to, after learning the truth.
But this is one of the few choices Celine still has left. One of the few that are still her own.
So she buries her nose in Chaewon's neck, feels the constriction of Miyeong holding her from her other side.
She doesn't cry, she's not allowed to. She's not allowed to be sad or anguished about the gaping hole in her very being.
That's okay though.
They cry enough for her.
At least for now, with the way they're vowing to get it back for her is anything to go by.
*Shakes fist at sky* On GOD I'm gonna give you guys a happy ending even if I have to do it all on my lonesome.
---
They have to bide their time.
Chaewon and Miyeong hate it with a burning passion, but they have to bide their time.
They aren't skilled enough to take it from their mentors, and the only one sneaky enough to do it while they're sleeping is Celine, and she can't touch the bead.
Impatience is their biggest enemy and threat at the moment. They needed to be smart. (and also ignore who taught them those lessons)
Celine is the least the least impatient of them all, which just serves to make the other two angrier. Celine wants to be angry too. But she is not allowed.
It begins with drafts upon drafts of ideas of what they can do, all stored neatly in coded notebooks in Chaewon's room. Hana never went in there without Chaewon's permission. She respected the girls boundaries.
It pisses them off even more.
It would take them far longer than any of them would have liked.
Years, really.
There were other things to account for, beyond just getting the bead.
They needed the training, because maintaining the Honmoon was still something that needed doing. If Hana and Eunji noticed the way that Miyeong and Chaewon started placing themselves between the mentors and Celine, they didn't comment on it. It's not like Celine could have told them, right?
They needed the resources, because they were still becoming idols, and without their mentors and their connections, that would be extremely difficult. Their success was required for the Honmoon's safety. For everyone's safety.
(The fact that both Chaewon and Miyeong had been more than willing to let it all burn in favour of just getting the bead had warmed Celine's heart, just a bit. But she didn't have the privilege of being angry and emotional, so she was rational enough to see the danger)
So the bid their time, and planned best they could. Chaewon and Miyeong now also fully aware of what was going on, nearly breaking their cover each and every time they spotted those old hags grasping the bead around their necks.
Nearly screaming every time Celine got that blank look in her eyes, the dead tone without any will behind it.
It was especially jarring now that they were getting to know the real Celine. The girl behind the orders.
The girl who could somehow convey perfect sarcasm through a note and a raised eyebrow.
The girl who's words never matched her tone. Joking and mirthful, spoken with stilted cadence.
How could they have taken so long to notice?
Every day the guilt would eat them both alive, but in the night they had to plan, so there was no time for self-loathing.
The key-factor in their planning was Celine's orders. They needed to find as many loopholes as possible, so as angry as each and every order Celine wrote out made them, they looked through it all, adding notes, questions and possibilities next to each line. Or at least as many as they could. Some, much to their dismay, they couldn't come up with any solutions for. Or the solutions they came up with didn't work.
The incomplete list:
You will not eat without our permission. ("What the fuck?" "They don't want me eating people." "...Do you have to eat people?" "Do you think I've eaten anyone since being taken? If I needed it, I'd have been put in the dirt long ago." Neither Chaewon nor Miyeong were comforted by how dead she sounded when she said it.) -Drinking still works. Soups and broths are stored in Miyeong's room. -Anything liquid-like that can be swallowed without chewing works.
You will not harm another human being unless we say so. ("What do they think you are, a fucking attack dog?") -Avoidance and misdirection until opponent harms/exhausts themselves. Call us for help!
You will not tell anyone about being a gumiho, nor will you tell anyone about your fox-bead -Suck it you old hags.
You will act human and stay in your human form at all times. -Does partial transformations work? -No.
You will suppress every last one of your demonic instincts at all times. ("What demonic instincts?" Celine shrugs. "I don't remember. I've been suppressing them for so long." *Horrified silence*)
You will never lie to a Hunter. -Conceal the truth. Do lies of omission work? -Lies of omission as well as half-truths work
You will never lash out at us. -We aren't lashing out. This is calculated.
You will not be angry or sad about the loss of your fox-bead. Can you be furious? Devestated? Annoyed? ----
On and on it went. Until they got to the most crucial ones:
Every word you hear from us is law, and will be treated as such.
You will not touch your fox-bead ever again.
These ones took the longest to figure out, and in the end, they had to think on the spot.
It was about a year after their debut that they finally got their opportunity.
Eunji had received a debilitating injury while the girls were out performing, forcing their mentor into full retirement. No longer able to be an effective hunter.
Hana was still an issue, but now they were three against one.
They had a chance.
A check in. That was their cover. Students worried over their injured mentor.
The anticipation was grueling.
The wait agonizing as they pretended to care, while counting down the minutes until they would head to bed.
Once they finally did, the girls waited another hour to make sure they were actually asleep.
Then Miyeong was the one to sneak into their room. Beside Celine, she was the stealthiest of the lot, but Chaewon and Celine still followed closely behind.
It's still on a necklace.
Eunji is still wearing it, even in sleep. Miyeong almost sees red.
It's okay. She's been in battle. She's been on stage. She has learned how to keep her cool in extremely stressful situations.
But despite her injury, Eunji is still very much a hunter.
Miyeong manages to get her hand around the bead before Eunji wakes up and lashes out. Miyeongs hand is swatted away, but she holds on long enough for the clasp of the necklace to break, the jewelry going flying across the room.
While they are no longer in possession of it, until Celine gets her own hands on it, their previous orders still remain.
And so the fight begins.
Chaewon dives for the bead, but is tackled away by Hana.
"She's tricking you! it's what her kind does!"
Celine can't touch the bead, so she goes for the necklace itself. Grasping the string and trying to hold on to it while not touching it.
"Celine! Hand-" Eunji starts, no doubt about to order her to give it back, and Miyeong reacts without thought.
Leaping back from Eunji and next to Celine, she presses both palms over Celine's ears as hard as she can.
Every word you hear from us is law, and will be treated as such.
There is no compulsion to follow whatever it is that their old mentor says, because Celine couldn't hear it.
But now Eunji is free from Miyeong, so she also dives for Celine, injury ignored in favour of control.
Miyeong tries to intercept her, but the move was unexpected and she's pushed back, Celine unable to harm/attack without permission.
Chaewon is being held by Hana, the elder hunter's experience outweighing Chaewon's youthfulness.
"Give me the bead." Celine obeys.
Even as she manages to rage and scream on the inside, her body follows the order and hands her soul over to the reaper. She never had the choice to disobey.
But her fellow hunter partners do, and they aren't giving up until they're dead and fucking buried or the bead is in Celine's possession.
Chaewon stomps hard on Hana's foot, her grip loosening just enough in her pain for the younger hunter to slip free.
Miyeong tackles Eunji from behind, the elder hunter caught off guard once more.
Chaewon manages to grab the bead, and while she doesn't have Miyeong's aim, Celine is barely five feet away, so this throw isn't hard to make.
The necklace goes soaring through the air.
Celine's not allowed to touch it.
But as it collides with her forehead something becomes abundantly clear.
She's not allowed to touch it.
And she doesn't.
It touches her.
And for the first time in something close to -if not over- a decade, Celine's thoughts and actions are her own.
With fox-like reflexes she catches it before it hits the floor.
The room freezes as four hunters stare into golden eyes with slit pupils, framed by red markings.
*Drags my bruised and battered body to my computer screen* Happy ending... happy ending... You guys are gonna get a happy ending...if it's the last thing I do...
It's not really much of a fight after that.
Eunji is still injured and the adrenaline is not going to keep her standing for much longer.
Hana is outnumbered 1 to 3, one of which is a trained hunter with all the regained advantages of a fox-demon.
There is still that knee-jerk reaction that tells Celine to do as she's told when Hana tries to order her to give the bead back. Though there is no compulsion anymore, just reflex.
And Celine is cautious, but she is also petty. She is not their toy soldier anymore. She is allowed to be whoever the hell she wants now.
So she takes great pleasure in acting as if she's handing it back, only to close her fist securely around the bead and crack the woman across the jaw as hard as her new-old abilities allow.
The elder hunter goes down in an instant but it's abundantly clear that it hadn't been necessary in the first place because of one simple thing:
Eunji tries to fight back.
Keyword being "tries"
Celine sees the motions from the corner of her eye as she drops Hana. She sees the way Miyeong and Chaewon immediately are on the alert, half a second away from pulling out their own weapons as Celine mentally prepares herself for the chill that always comes when Eunji pulls out her ingeom.
But nothing happens.
There is no glowing weapon that materializes in Eunji's hand. Only In Chaewon's and Miyeong's
Then Eunji drops as well. Like a puppet with her strings cut.
She is not unconscious like Hana, but she is on the floor gasping for breath. A new weakness in her limbs.
And Celine smells it. The change.
You see, Celine remembers the day she was taken quite clearly. She remembers the blood of her mother, slain at her feet. She remembers how her siblings whimpered as they ran as fast as they could.
She remembers how the hunters had smelled.
Chamomile from Hana.
Honey and old leather from Eunji.
Both of them shared something, though.
A scent of something otherworldly. Something that Celine still couldn't truly compare to anything else than light.
Now with her senses regained, the scent drifts into her nose once more.
But it comes from Chaewon and Miyeong.
From Eunji, there is only Honey and old leather.
For the first time in years, Celine smiles on her own.
It's not her genuine smile. It's not one of happiness or laughter.
It's cruel and vicious and victorious.
Eunji stares at her from the ground.
"What's the matter, teacher?" Her voice is saccharine sweet. Celine leans down into a crouch. "Fox got your tongue?"
And despite her trembling frame, Eunji still finds it in herself to spit at the demon.
"You cursed thing! What have you done?"
And Celine smiles wider, wide enough to have her fangs showing.
Because she is angryangryangry furious.
"Maybe it just doesn't want you anymore." She leans in close, close enough to see her mentor's pupils dilate with the perceived threat. Close enough to smell the fear that fills the air.
Maybe they were right. Maybe she was bad.
Does a good person revel in another's fright?
She doesn't know, and frankly, at this moment? She doesn't care.
So she just stays close before leaving her space with a whisper:
"Maybe you just weren't good."
----
The first thing Celine does (much to Chaewon's and Miyeongs dismay) upon leaving the hanok is tear open her chest.
Not fully, of course, but she uses her claws to tear a hole in her flesh, and then she stuffs the bead back in between her ribs.
Whole for the first time in years.
She doesn't know what to do with it.
Doesn't really know what she can do.
Doesn't know what she wants to do.
For now, she just knows that she doesn't really want to be alone. Not like she thinks that Chaewon and miyeong are goign to let her out of their sights anytime soon. Not with her whole... demon physique still prevalent. She could will it away. Hide it like she had for so long. It is pretty effortless, all in all.
But she really doesn't want to. Even if it makes them stare at her. For just this night, Celine wants to take a step towards figuring out who she is, instead of who someone else wants her to be.
-
The demon traits are indeed what Miyeong and Chaewon are staring at. Not because they think Celine will fly off the handle, that thought doesn't even cross their minds.
There is too much going on for them to entertain the possibility of Celine just going on a murder spree or something equally ridiculous. It's Celine! Sure, they might not know the full her weren't allowed to know the full her, no matter how much Celine wanted to share, but they know she likes to nap in sunny spots. They know she likes having some background noise while doing mundane tasks. They know she likes gardening and they know she likes to startle them (as much as she pretends it's accidental when she sneaks up on them).
It's still Celine. Just the full version.
So yes, it is the demon traits they are staring at.
They are staring at her pointed ears that keep flicking towards every sound.
They are trailing their gazes across the red patterns, so similar but so different from regular demonic patterns. Their shape, their colour. The way they aren't carved into her skin like lightning like Gwi-ma's puppet's are, but instead gently curves around her arms and hands. How they sharpen and frame her eyes.
And the eyes are what they truly get stuck on.
It's the soft glow they emit in the dark of the night. Not enough to truly shine, but just enough to be noticeable. The slit pupils, not unlike that of a cat, that are trained on them both. Waiting for something, clawed fingers twitching at her sides.
It's Miyeong that makes a move. She hooks a pinkie through Celine's.
And it is a moment. One where Celine is deciding whether to pull away or to hold on. One where she gets to decide. One that neither of them would begrudge her if she chose to let go.
She holds on.
Then Celine hooks her other pinkie with Chaewon's, and they all start their journey home.
They all but collapse when they get inside. Physically they're fine (Celine is feeling the fatigue that comes with becoming whole again, and her chest hurts a bit but the Honmoon and her own genetics is helping her heal), emotionally they're all wrung out to hell and back.
"What do you want to do now?" It's Miyeong that asks, her eyes barely open from where she had tumbled onto the couch.
Celine closes her eyes for the briefest moment, pondering.
"I'm not sure." She says honestly. "I think I just want to be for a while"
"Be what?" Chaewon asks, seated on the floor leaning back against the couch.
"Just me. Fully me."
"And who are you?"
It's a stranage question for anyone else. It's still slightly strange even for them.
With the writing and their other loopholes, they had seen cracks into the person under the control. So her answer isn't surprising, nor is it strange.
"I'm Celine."
It's so obvious, and so simple, yet still so very complicated. She was herself, but she also had to learn who she was, because she simply couldn't remember. Hadn't been allowed to be just herself for so long.
So despite knowing the other woman for years, Chaewon still holds out a tired hand.
"It's very nice to meet you, Celine."
And when she takes her hand to shake, that's when Celine smiles genuinely. Not with spite, not with vindictive glee.
With joy.
It's small and it's quiet, but it crinkles her eyes the slightest bit and a fang pokes out the side of her mouth.
It might just be one of the most beautiful things they've ever seen.
Based on @idontknowmanijustlikereading latest comfort addition in the angst-filled factory. I'm throwing my hat into the comfort section to make it balance ✊
Celine and Poppy carrying a big box into the house and goes back out. When they come back inside, they notice the furniture that was in the box was taken out.
They look at the open big box to see a very content Tiger lying in it. Celine sigh in amusement while Poppy takes the picture of Mi-yeong happily taking a nap in said box.
..
When Rumi comes, Celine and Poppy bought another big box that has Rumi's new bed pieces. They go back outside and linger for a bit before they head inside. As expected, the bed pieces are out of the box and now there's two Tigers in the box.
The cub curling against her eomma and Mi-yeong lazily curls around Rumi, both Tigers content.
...
Celine advice Mira to have a couple of big boxes when they have their own penthouse. She knows the box won't last long with how aggressive, at least for Rumi, can be when she feels bitey.
When Mira comes home from her photoshoot, she sees Rumi in her Tiger-Wolf form and Zoey in her Bobcat napping in a box. She also notes the bite marks and scratches on the box. She quietly takes a picture and sends it to Celine with the caption, 'Cat naps'.
For the Shifter AU! Celine has to get more and more creative in her hiding spots. Not because of her Loves but because their daughter will climb and scratch and whine her way into those same spots.
Celine hides in an outcropped part of the roof? The adults know she needs a minute. Rumi? Nope. That baby is finding her way up there. No pain no gain style.
This leads to Celine having to hide in the bathroom, laundry room, even the attic at one point. Third has a video of Celine sitting in the attic entryway sans ladder with Rumi whining below her.
Before Rumi, she can easily get away from her partners when summer comes. She'll give them more cuddles when the weather is right for her and cook them their favorite meals as apologies. They forgive her really fast.
Rumi being in the picture has made it more complicated especially when she was really young. Celine can't let her get into dangerous places, Shifter or not. She rather brave the heat of their daughter's warm body temperature if it means to keep her from following her to dangerous hiding spots. She still shoos her partners away when they thought they could get a cheeky cuddle when Rumi is koala cling to her.
How does Tiger Wolf Rumi work? Is she largely Tiger Cub growing up and then the Pup Years kick in as a teen? Or was she always Making her own Box to sit in (digging holes in the yard)?
Her early stage is definitely focusing more to a Tiger. They were a bit curious why Rumi has slightly sharper ear tips than a Tiger, but they assume it's nothing to worry about. Besides, Rumi has patterns like a Tiger and she exhibits a Tiger cub behaviors.
That is, I want to say when's she's around 5 years old that she starts to exhibit wolf-ish behavior. They have noticed that Rumi makes a high pitched (attempt) at howling. The first time it happened, they though she's just mimicking Poppy.
As time goes, that was not the case. Especially when Rumi learns to fully shift and her lower body is more akin to a wolf. Now it made sense when she starts to behave like a wolf. Miyeong thought she was going crazy and was surprised when Poppy easily helps her in certain aspects of training their cub.
In summary, taking care of a Tiger-Wolf hybrid child is.. A lot. Celine being the lovable scratching post of said hybrid before the mama Shifters have to give their daughter a strict lesson. And when a bad scratch got Celine sent to the hospital bcs even they can't stitch that wound.
I say as I very lovingly gives Tiger-Wolf Rumi scritches
