Hey, I went through your Reverse au again and I wanted to ask; do you have any more ideas for the guys during their early/training years?
I have a couple ideas that come to mind.
First, little kid Jinu singing the same song that kid Rumi does in the movie. And of course, it being instilled in him by his mentor/paternal figure that he has to hide his demon patterns.
Kid Jinu: *singing* We are hunters, voices strong Slaying demons with our song Fix the world and make it right
Kid Jinu & Eun-woo: *both singing* When darkness finally meets the light
Kid Jinu: Abeoji, do hunters kill all demons?
Eun-woo: Yes.
Kid Jinu: So, anything that has patterns? *lifts his sleeve to reveal a small section with dark purple patterns*
Eun-woo: *pulls Jinu’s sleeve back down* Cover those up. You only have those because
Kid Jinu: Because my… dad was a demon? *almost looks sad as he says it*
Eun-woo: *puts his hand on Jinu's shoulder in an attempt to be reassuring* You're not one of them, Jinu. You're a hunter just like me. And just like the rest of our clan. When the Honmoon is sealed, all of the demons will be gone from this world. So, will your patterns.
Kid Jinu: So, these will be gone?
Eun-woo: Yes. Those will be gone.
Also, Jinu being raised and trained by Eun-woo and the other members of that hunter generation (jinu had five honorary dads). As well, as interacting with the members of the other hunter clan branches.
Lowkey, kid Jinu (and teen Jinu) copying Eun-woo and the other hunters because he wants to be just like them. It's kind of like Tigress in that one short called Secrets of the Scroll about the Furious Five and their origins where she wants to be just like Shi Fu and is stifling her own potential by only doing things just like him.
Jinu meeting his little sister for the first time, and hearing his mom call her "perfect", and he gets it in his head that he has to be "perfect" just like his sister (as in, not have his patterns/demon side), so that he can be loved the same by his mother.
Jinu not knowing how to approach the other boys at first. He was a competent fighter, and plenty smart, but he wasn’t exactly taught on how to interact with people his own age. Let alone given much hands-on experience with leading a team of his own. So, we get the awkward dork side of Jinu but teams 2x since he’s a teenager who was mostly raised surrounded by a bunch of adults rather than anyone his own age.
Beomseok kind of stepping on some toes without meaning to. He went from being the main person others relied on to having to work on equal footing with four other people. So, it wasn’t the easiest transition for him. Which resulted in him tending to be a bit bossy and kind of acting like he knew better at times. Of course, none of it was meant to be mean-spirited and he meant well, but he put him into direct conflict with the others at times. He eventually got better at it as they started to work more on being an actual team, and becoming real friends, but this still slips out from time to time.
Beomseok getting homesick and a bit emotional because he misses his dad and his siblings. And he also misses his mom and he hasn't really given himself much time to grieve or process of that.
Jae acting way quieter and more reserved in the beginning and way less of the lively and prone-to-cuddle person he is with the boys later on. He was worried about “coming on too strong” so he tried to act more mellow in hopes that it would make him more likable to the others.
Jae’s English accent accidentally slipping out at one point, and he gets real worried for a second that the boys will say he “talks weird” and make fun of him.
Jae stifling his own skills when the boys get to archery training, despite that being part of the reason he was scouted, because he's worried about outshining the others. And thinking that doing so will make them resent him (he's got trauma okay), but it doesn't really help. And then him actually showing what he can do.
Daeun was very suspicious of literally any nice thing the other boys did for him at the start. He was used to being hyper-independent as a way to protect himself from people, so relying on others felt very off and weird to him at first.
Daeun getting along with Hoseong (one of the prev hunters) in that "unhinged recognizes unhinged".
Garam straight up going “oh no, people…” even though he knew what he signed up for. He was an anxious wreck who probably was pushed into social interaction too fast and too soon. I kind of imagine that one YouTube short about a dog being nervous about being other dogs, until one dog gives them a vest that says "nervous" and then another dog notices and slows their pace to make them more comfortable. That but the nervous dog is Garam, and the dog who befriends them at the end is both Jae and Beomseok. Jae, the empathetic guy that he is, realized that Garam wasn't so much standoffish and unresponsive as he was just nervous, so he met him in the middle. And Beomseok, being the caring big brother type, kind of naturally took to taking things slower to really understand how to understand Garam socially.
Garam not really being so sure about the whole fighting aspect of demon hunting at first, because he was scared that he'd lose control again and actually hurt someone. Until, the prev hunters gave the old "demons are unfeeling creatures, so its fine to kill them" that is. And him getting very worried when he actually overpowers one of the other boys in a sparring match, thinking that he hurt them. Took a lot of reassurance and confidence-building for him to rise to the role of being the team's powerhouse.
The boys finally getting sync and overcoming an endurance obstacle course, and Jinu letting loose and having fun with them.
The boys doing karaoke together for the first time. You really learn a few things about people once you've done karaoke with them.
The boys sparring together both before and after they figure out their weapons. Jinu and Daeun sparring, a fighter who uses a more traditional style of swordsmanship versus a fighter who uses the Korean style of fencing. Beomseok and Daeun sparring, seeing if Daeun's agility and speed can stay ahead of Beomseok's precision and speed with his weapon. Beomseok and Garam testing their own strength to ready themselves for facing opponents that match their physical strength. Jae improving his close-combat skills in the instances where he has to fight opponents up close. etc etc
