Merry Christmas! Angst in honor of all the wine aunts and vodka grandma's out there.
Fanon thing I've seen off and on: Celine with an alcohol problem. Which I mean, yeah, valid, she's been through a LOT.
I submit past alcoholic!Celine who did have a major problem, or the start of one after everything. She wasn't a complete disaster she'll contend, the house wasn't well cared for sure, and she forgot to eat a few too many times but Rumi was always fed, clean and happy.
The Honmoon protected, she still kept up all her obligations.
Still hauled into an intervention by a manager who cares, who's been with her since she was a teenager though, who helps her get back on track, restart her life.
Celine who's been sober years and years, has her way of swapping drinks at parties, giving excuses so no one realizes she's sober and not just abstaining for the event.
No one allowed to know about that particular failing. That horrible fault that could have ended everything, a personal failing that haunts her nightmares still decades later.
She's strong, she stays away. She has to be stronger than her faults.
But ever since that night at the tree, since her new estrangement from the girls... well that bottle is starting to look very tempting again.
God, just imagine the girls not hearing from Celine for weeks after that night that they start to worry then they come for an unannounced visit because Rumi feels something in her soul (perhaps the honmoon) telling her something is off
I mean, if I ever did continue the fic to any degree that's pretty much the place I'd start with it. Because the other side of the pain and where it leads would be amazing in the best and worst ways.
The girls are probably not going to handle it well. Rumi wouldn't understand because the Celine she knew (the version she only met as a baby when Celine was in her 20s who lost too much too early but had too much responsibilities that are too important for her (like preventing the entire human race from being eradicated by demons) to take a moment and breathe) would never do this, and for Mira and Zoey, Celine has always been so...put together, unflappable in the face of everything (a brick wall, Mira would say, in every sense of that word). So to see their seonsaengnim passed out on the kitchen counter, surrounded by an audience of empty soju and makgeolli bottles, is unnerving
Not handling it well at all. That's the panic moment of 'I need an adult' hitting with the realization they are the adults and the only other one they'd ever turn to in this situation is now the one who needs help.
The strong, confident person who's always seemed to be able to take the whole world on without breaking a sweat is now someone they don't recognize.
What the hell do you do when the world's already been upended around you in the last few weeks, and the one constant pillar of strength you thought would always remain unchanging in the center of all of it is crumbling?
A house that was kept immaculate when they lived there as teenagers now looking worse than the penthouse the first few weeks they were learning to live on their own.
An empty fridge which was never allowed to match all the empty bottles Celine would never bring into her home...
Oh it's an absolute disaster in the waiting even before Celine is awake to speak with them, Ms 'our faults and fears must never be seen' unable to hide her biggest failing.
Once they collected themselves (as best as one could when you just found your mother figure mentor a drunk mess), maybe step out of the hanok and internally scream together for a bit, Rumi and Mira do their best to take Celine to her room (a room where they're forbidden from, except for when Rumi was little and cried for protection from the monsters that are too real, and even then, it was in the cover of the night. Now in the light, they can see one wall decorated with posters and pictures of HUNTR/X, another dedicated solely to the Sunlight Sisters, a monument to the times when Celine's heart wasn't cut into pieces) while Zoey cleared the path.
The moment they lay her down on the bed, Celine stirs but remains asleep, only an alcohol-laced mumble leaving her lips, "Mianhae...Miyeong-ah...Mianhae...I failed everyone..."
I see your tags and raise you;
Not even hungover. Still actively drunk. Because she's been sober for more than 20 years at this point and her body can't process the alcohol like it used to.
And in her state, just goes on a ramble (as she's resisting the girls trying to help her) that manages to hit the points of:
I've been good and sober for 20+ years and look where it got me
All being sober has done is make me feel every moment of pain I've inflicted on myself and everyone around me
I've done everything I've needed to do; my job is done. Rumi is raised, the label is fine, the demons are taken care of, her will is updated. No one needs her anymore and she's done.
So why don't you three go. Live your lives. Forget about her.
She's tired. She's weak. She's done.
