I finally have an ask, okay. Since I've done a bit of research on prolonged effects of exposure to high electricity, for a little bit more blending, what if Rumi starts to experience some heart palpitations? Since they won't let her take the collar off either even in the rain, it'll probably start to wear on the skin around her neck too if they don't take it off to dry and clean the area. You could even start having seizures with too much electricity over time. Oh! And since the setting is a bit higher on Rumi than it would be on a dog it may also burn literal holes in her neck. That happened to one of the dogs in my family when I was super little because the collar was just a little too tight and a little too high.
Sorry for the paragraph, but just imagine Celine's frustration causing Rumi some permanent symptoms that hinder her ability to be a hunter like Celine wants. And the guilt! From Mira and Zoey if she gets shocked during training and just drops straight into a seizure.
Ohhhh my word. Ok yeah this is all new info to me, I haven’t looked into what the side affects could be.
The collar would be taken off exactly once, the first time she was gonna sleep. Celine was waiting outside the room and (reluctantly) put it back on her. After that it stays on at all times.
Rumi would also not be listened to about it being uncomfortable, so they wouldn’t listen when it starts to hurt worse. They wouldn’t notice the yellowing at her neck or the faint black marks from the burning either, since they all avoid looking at her neck.
(the guilt of what their doing is eating them alive. They can’t stop now, they think, she’s learning to work with them now, and the collar is just the motivation and hope that when they’re done training she won’t hate them.)
It would probably be a seizure that would cause a medical checkup. Let’s say this is two months after the collar got implemented, and during one of the course runs Rumi collapsed. Celine (assuming this is one of the times Rumi decided to just lay there instead of doing the training) would hit her with a quick shock.
After a few minutes she checks on Rumi, finding her dazed and confused. Zoey’s the one who realizes what happened, one of her cousins has epilepsy. Cue them panicking and getting a private doctor to come in and check on Rumi.
Final verdict: heart palpitations from repeated electric exposure, and she’s more susceptible to strokes.
Yeah, the guilt for Mira and Zoey is absolutely crushing. Shes got a lifelong heart problem now that’ll hinder her career as both a solo artist and as a member of Huntrix.
But for Celine it’s way worse.
Wanna know why?
To discover the reason for Rumi’s new heart problems, the doctor needed to check her medical history. Celine got access to it, and discovered who her mother was.
So yeah. Everyone’s having a very bad time, Rumi especially. Thanks for the ask, I didn’t know the kinda stuff repeated shocks could do!
Okay, you say that Rumi still wants to live but is willing to do something drastic to get away from the hunter's.
So, I propose that Rumi uses her sword to cut her vocal cords. Thought process being she can't be a hunter if she can't sing.
Ohhhh man. Ok Anon, I know I like angst but dang you take it to another level. I love it!
Ok, so this would probably be after Rumi’s escape attempt. She managed to get outside the compound walls but eventually passed out from the shock collars non stop shocking that ramped up the further she went.
She ended up getting found by Celine who got the notification. She had hoped that letting Rumi feel the fulll affects of the collar would disinterest her in trying to leave like that again. She… didn’t mean for it to go quite that far.
But this is good, right? Rumi won’t try to leave again, she’ll slowly grow closer to Mira and Zoey and eventually befriend them, and then boom! A new generation of hunters is ready for the stage!
…
It’s a strange feeling, staring at your own voice. The blood dripping from the starlight blade, whispers of everything you once could’ve been.
Mira had come into the room right as she did it. Why can’t Rumi hear her anymore? Shes saying something, or maybe screaming it? All Rumi can hear is a ringing that won’t go away.
Rumi falls asleep as tears begin to fall onto her face.
—
She woke up. Her throat feels sore, her breathing sounds funny, but she’s alive. Mira and Zoey are sitting in chairs on the far side of the room, holding each other. They’ve fallen asleep.
Rumi shifts her head slightly, letting out a pained whimper as something in her throat shifts along with her. The room is a stark white, like a hospital room but smaller.
The medical ward. That’s right, Rumi remembers from the last time she was here. Why is she here again?
Her throat.
Or rather, her vocal cords.
She’s lucky, and Rumi can’t help the faint, wry smile that crosses her face. If not for all the diagrams Celine had hung up in her room, she’d never have known where to cut to sever them.
Exhaustion tugs at her, making her eyelids heavy. Well, Rumi thinks, at least I won’t have to sing for them anymore.
—
The faint murmur of voices is what brings her back to consciousness this time. It sounds like someone’s having an argument. After a moment, she recognizes Celine’s voice.
“an’t explain it, I just need a yes or no. Can you get an artificial set of vocal cords ready?”
There’s a tense moment of silence, Rumi’s pulse quickening as the realization sets in on what that could mean.
“Good. I’ll have the surgeon brought in next week, get them here before then. Thanks, Poppy. Love you too, Bye.”
Rumi forces her eyes open, glancing about until they land on Celine. The older woman is sitting in one of the chairs across the room, her head being held in her hands as she slumps over.
There’s an odd sense of satisfaction at the despair written in Celine’s expression, the little of it she can see. It feels like penance for what she’s done to Rumi. The satisfaction fades as the dread returns.
An artificial set of vocal cords?
She thought she’d done it. Found a way to outwit Celine and force her to let her go. Instead all she’d done was give up another part of herself to Celine’s control. A frustrated tear slips free, and Rumi tries to reach up to wipe it.
The cuffs on her wrist halt it, producing a clanging sound that makes Celine jerk up in surprise. The two women regard each other, one glaring as the other withers. Finally, Celine looks away, eyes cloudy.
“I’m sorry about the restraints. We didn’t want you scratching at your throat, or pulling the bandages off.” She hesitates for a moment, not looking up to meet Rumi’s eyes. “And… I’m sorry, too. I know you probably don’t care at this point if I apologize or not, but I wanted you to know I am. I didn’t think… I didn’t want to-“ Celine’s voice is cut off by a harsh sob.
Rumi can only blink in shock as the older hunter, the one who’d tortured her for two weeks the first time she’d been taken, and put a shock collar on her the second time, began to cry.
“I didn’t know you were-“ a ragged gasp tore from her, cutting her off again.
Celine isn’t able to calm down for a long time, and Rumi can’t do anything except sit and watch as this happens. For several minutes Celine just hides her face, tears leaking around her hands as her body shakes with the force of her crying. Finally, slowly, like a tap dripping as it shuts off, Celine manages to calm down.
She looks back up at Rumi, meeting her eyes. “I… I know you probably don’t actually care much, but Mira and Zoey have been worried about you. They’ve barely slept, and have spent so much time in here with you that they’ve fallen behind in their training.” Celine huffs out a humorless laugh. “Though you don’t care about that part, either.”
Rumi doesn’t react beyond narrowing her eyes. She really doesn’t care that much, true, but it is a little surprising Mira and Zoey bothered to check with her. After all, she was of no use to them now, at least until Celine forces the new vocal cords into her throat.
“I have a friend.” Celine’s sudden voice makes Rumi jump slightly, focusing back on her. “She knows some people who have been working to make artificial vocal cords. I… I know why you cut yours out. You wanted to be free.”
Celine stood up, striding towards the bed. Rumi forces herself not to react to the hunters approach, remaining as still as she can manage. Once she’s reached the bed, Celine crouches down so she’s eye level with Rumi.
“I’m having surgeons brought in, they’ll install the new vocal cords for you. After that, I’m going to send you to a hospital on the mainland so you can go through physical therapy to recover. I won’t hold you here anymore, Rumi.”
Rumi blinks at that, confusion mixing with relief and a little fear. She wishes she could communicate, tell Celine she doesn’t want new vocal cords, she just wants to go home, but she can’t. She can barely even breathe.
Celine nods at Rumi’s stillness, standing. “I’ll leave you to rest. Once the surgeons get here I’ll help put you under, then when you wake up you’ll be able to talk a little. I’m going to let Mira and Zoey know you’re awake. They wanna talk to you.”
With that Celine leaves, and Rumi is left to sit with the anger, fear, and dread of what’s to come.
——
So yeah, Rumi would get the artificial vocal cords. She hates them, hates that they don’t sound like her, hates how they feel, but she has them anyways. More than that, Celine kept her word, sending her back to the mainland to recover.
This one, I imagine, would be very nearly impossible for Rumi to ever be willing to be near Celine, and rarely ever interacting with Zoey and Mira, even when their in the same rooms a suspicious amount of the time.
The honmoon remains stable. But it cannot grow any stronger. (Up to you all if Rumi could learn to trust Zoey or Mira after all that!) thanks for the fun ask!
Kidnapped Rumi au! What would happen if someone accidentally went too far with the shocks? like maybe Celine wants to punish her for whatever reason and leaves it on for a bit, maybe she forgets it's on or they were too many shocks in a row
Also, saw someone say prolonged exposure to electricity can cause epilepsy, as someone who has it, it's an absolute nightmare to deal with, sometimes you have to relearn how to do everything, speaking, walking, standing, etc. especially after a bad seizure, how does everyone deal with that?
Lastly (for now at least) does Rumi get Lichtenberg scars? And how far do her patterns reach? Do the scars and patterns intertwine? Or maybe the scars turn into patterns over time?
Anyway, loving the blender!
Ohhh man. Ok I need to do more research about the extended affects of repeated electrical shocks to human body’s, this sounds like a really interesting course of study.
Ok, so if they left it on too long my understanding is that it runs the risk of both giving her a heart condition (irregular heartbeats for example) or brain damage. If they did that to her (it’d be Celine. Celine is the only one who shocks her, the other two never have their remotes with them.) the guilt would be massive since it both permanently impairs her abilities to perform and fight and it also is a lifelong issue.
As for the epilepsy, I had a friend who had it and he told me a little about it, and it is a genuine nightmare like you said.
Rumi would respond the worst. Relearning to do all of that stuff from the people who did it to you? Messes with her head a lot to the point she lashes out physically a couple of times.
(Mira and Zoey don’t really defend themselves. They’ll defend each other, but both feel like they deserve to be punished for what they did.)
Celine… she’s a whole host of emotional issues, stunted development abilities in processing said emotions, and desperately looking for a magic or mundane “cure” so Rumi can get back to work.
(The guilt is crushing her she can’t breath why did she do this it hurts to see what she did Mira and Zoey can’t look at her in the eye anymore)
Her patterns cover her whole body already, due to the spell Miyeong cast to shield her from the Honmoon originally. The scars (I just looked those up, their very early permanent but the angst calls to me) intertwine with the patterns in some places and blend in, so they can be ignored.
But one of them circles around her neck, right where the collar was. She got it from trying to remove the collar one too many times one night. She hates it. She hates her the hunters who collared her. She hates Celine the most.
And she hates herself a little bit for wanting to watch the world burn if it meant seeing despair in Celine’s eyes.
Thanks for the ask! It was super fun getting to do some research for this one I liked it a lot. Hope you enjoy the angst!
so this started as a comment and became a question
I swear, every time I see kidnapped Rumi pop up I keep feeling the "wants to watch the world burn for this" build in me, because damn would it suck, I'm pretty sure knowledge of bobby still being around is one of the bigger things keeping her from wanting it (despite how good a person she is, anger and grief are intoxicating)
so I got the thought, twist the blade, Bobby is the one who gets got in the kidnapped!Rumi verse. and it happens in the presence of Zoey and Mira, maybe a company thing draws them back to the city, and a tear occurs, only to get there just a bit too late seeing Bobby get got. Then having to try and explain that to Rumi.
Ok so first you are 100% right, 90% of the reason Rumi isn’t willing to just let the world burn (ie; refuse completely being a hunter) is because of Bobby. As much as she hates to admit it, she’d rather be the one suffering than see him hurt.
So of course this being the case, Bobby having his soul taken by Gwi-ma is worst case scenario.
——
They knew him. Of course they did, he was the one who came and got Rumi the first time. They’d looked into him, his history and his career as a manager.
The one thing that stayed consistent in everything they found was that he was the best. The best at taking care of his idols, at taking care of his friends, at taking care of his daughter.
They actually talked to one of his old teammates, someone he had sung with when he was an idol, in a desperate bid for an in with Rumi. While he’d been a bit surprised to learn Bobby had a daughter, he said he wasn’t surprised. Bobby was always nurturing at heart, everyone around him knew it and loved him for it.
But now…
Now he is gone.
They’d been too late, a stupid meeting with one of the managers for another idol group that wanted to collab. The honmoon had warned them, and they’d tried their best to cut the meeting off early.
But it wasn’t enough.
They’d arrived in time to see him placing himself between a cowering girl and a demon. He had a chair and was using it to hold the monster back, swinging wildly. He’d been too distracted to notice the one clawing through the Honmoon behind him.
Zoey had thrown one of her shin-Kal.
She missed.
And then he was gone.
The drive back to the hunters compound was a quiet affair. Neither of them knew what to do, what they should say, how they would ever tell Rumi her father died.
They find Celine when they get back, sitting in the office where they’d kept Rumi the first time. Zoey spots a single speck of blood on the wall that got missed from their joint cleaning efforts.
Celine glanced up as they approached, signing some kind of contract as she greeted them. “Mira, Zoey. What brings you to my office?”
Silence greets the question, and Celine pauses her signings to properly look at the two younger hunters. Something in their expressions reminds her of that night months ago, when they’d first stepped in to protect Rumi from Celine. She set her pen down and interlaced her fingers, looking intently at the two of them.
“What happened?” It’s more demand then question.
Zoey shifted, opening her mouth to speak, but she just couldn’t quite find the words. Somehow, they just… wouldn’t come.
Zoey is speechless.
Mira steps in when Zoey looks at her in a panic, the somber expression still on her face. “Bobby is dead.”
Celine blinks at that, tilting her head to the side. “Bobby…?”
“Rumi’s dad Bobby.”
“….oh.”
Celine blinked twice, considering. The two hunters watched her, unsure what they should do or say with the truth out there now. Finally, she sighs, standing from her desk in a single smooth motion.
“Ok.” Celine hesitates for a moment before continuing. “I’ll go tell her, you two stay here. I imagine it’d be worse if you tried, since Zoey would blame herself then you’d blame yourself, Mira.”
Celine begins striding towards the door, but Mira’s hand snaked out to stop her. At a questioning glance she let go of Celine.
“She’s not doing the best mentally right now. Is it a good idea to tell her?” Mira asked, fidgeting minutely with her sleeve.
Celine pursed her lips for a moment before nodding. “Yes. The sooner she knows, the better. Who knows, this might just be the push she needs to start trying without… motivation.”
The office went quiet for a moment, the memory of Rumi’s screams as she tried to take off the shock collar for several nights flashing through their minds.
“I’ll be gentle.” Celine turned and left, leaving them with that statement.
The door clicked shut behind her, and the two young hunters looked at each other nervously. The silence stretched almost painfully before Mira shook her head.
“We should be there. If she has any questions, Celine won’t be able to answer them.” She said.
Zoey bit her lip to keep it from trembling as she nodded her assent to the plan. Together they made their way out of the office, creeping down the hall to where their rooms sit. Rumi’s door is cracked open slightly, and they hear the two woman’s voices drifting from it.
“-ay your finally talking to me like a person! Let’s have a round of applause everyone for Celine, clearly all is forgiven since she’s actually pretending to be nice!” Rumi’s voice is cutting, dripping with false cheer and sarcasm.
There’s a strained moment before Celine responds. “Rumi, I need to tell you something important, so I need you to be serious-“
“Oh yes, serious, let’s be serious for a second!” The sound of a chain rattling followed her voice. “I’m seriously pissed at you and the others! There, happy?”
Mira steeled herself and pushed into the room, Zoey following close behind. Celine turns her head briefly to look at them before looking back towards Rumi. The older woman is standing a few feet away from her, arms crossed with a strained look on her face.
Rumi’s eyes snap towards Mira and Zoey, an eyebrow already arched in disbelief. “Oh, great. If it isn’t Cultwo. What the hell do you two want?”
Mira takes a deep breath before tearing her gaze away from Rumi. She nods at Celine.
“Celine, just tell her. There’s no point in arguing about how she’s behaving.” Mira says
Rumi turned to look at Celine now, her eyebrow still imperiously high. “Go ahead, Celine. What’s the ‘important news’ you have to share?”
Celine met Rumi’s eyes. “Your father, Bobby, is dead.”
The room went deathly still. Mira and Zoey both stiffened, looking towards Celine with equal disbelieving glares.
Who in the hell just drops a bomb like that??
Rumi’s face dropped. All emotion cleared from it, her eyes becoming distant as they looked over Celine.
“…your lying.” Rumi whispered.
Celine sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose as if the death of Rumi’s father was nothing more than an inconvenience. “No, Rumi, I’m not. Feel free to ask Mira and Zoey, they watched the whole thing. I’m going to finish the paperwork for your first show. You’ll have tomorrow off for training.”
Celine barely glanced at the far more aggressive glares from Mira and Zoey, something in her cool manner cracking at the twin looks. But she doesn’t stop, doesn’t turn around to try and soften the blow.
She just… leaves.
The two hunters turned slowly, meeting Rumi’s still distant stare. No one said a word at first, simply looking at the other for some kind of tell, some kind of indication of what they’re thinking.
Rumi breaks the silence first. “She’s lying, right? She’s just trying to get me to give up hope?” Her voice, while still faint, had a soft edge to it that screamed of danger.
Zoey’s hand slid into Mira’s, and the older hunter squeezed it in quiet thanks. “I’m so sorry, Rumi… but she wasn’t lying. Your Appa… he’s gone.”
The silence settles again as Rumi looks at the two of them. Looking for some kind of crack in the facade, some kind of truth underneath the lie. Mira sees when the reality of it sinks in, in the way Rumi’s shoulders tighten. She sees it in how her jaw clenches, her eyes narrow, and her hands grip her blankets harder.
“Get out.” Rumi’s voice is almost firm, but the faintest wobble in her tone gives away how close she is to breaking.
“Rumi…” Zoey and Mira speak in sync without meaning to, each one gently lifting a hand.
Maybe they’re trying to reach out. Maybe they’re trying to placate her. Maybe they’re trying to hold her down so she can’t choose anything else. Whatever they are trying, it fails.
“GET OUT!!” Rumi’s voice reverberates through the honmoon, red ripples twisting it unnaturally.
The two hunters flinched as it happened, taking a step back. Rumi didn’t turn to look at them, and that was somehow so much worse than if she’d glared at them or screamed at them. This was… a choice to ignore them.
As they closed the door behind them, Mira could feel it. She knew Zoey could as well somehow, with how she gasped and fell to one knee.
Walls.
Insurmountable walls were somehow being put around Rumi’s soul, the connection all hunters have somehow being slowly smothered until the barest trickle remained. A single thread, pulled taught, barely managing to stay connected, just enough to feel a grim satisfaction barely covering the ocean of sorrow.
And, Mira suspects, one that will be severed the moment Rumi learns how.
—
Rumi hates them. She hates Mira, she hates Zoey, and she most especially hates Celine.
Bobby… her Appa… is just gone.
Just like that. No warning, no explanation, just dead. She wants to refute it, to scream that it’s not possible, but somehow she can tell. She knows they weren’t lying. And she knows that it’s their fault.
Something solidifies in Rumi’s heart, closing it off to those wretched women who she has to share a soul with. It feels good, the panic and fear that she felt before closing it off. There’s still the faintest trickle, enough that she’s aware of them.
She’ll find out how to break that.
And then the hunters are next.
——
So… yeah. This is what it would take for Rumi to help Gwi-ma. After their first performance during a tear (Rumi’s wearing a specialty made necklace that doubles as a shock collar instead of the giant black clunky one) she meets a Saja.
She tells him where to meet her after this so they can talk. And when she meets up with him, she gets him to agree to be a liaison between her and Gwi-ma. She shares secrets about the Honmoon, how it works, and how it can be broken.
It takes one full year for the Honmoon to begin falling apart. Mira, Zoey, and Celine can’t figure out what’s happening, why and how it’s possible. They don’t realize it’s because of Rumi.
See, she’s been working with the Saja to carefully create a new solo artist persona, one that uses demonic power instead of the hunters hope. It weakens the Honmoon, and the demons are making full use of it.
But at the year mark… Rumi’s anger is fading. She knew it would, but she still tries to desperately hold onto it. She heard from Mira and Zoey what actually happened. She knows they tried to save him.
She also sees the missing persons reports flooding in, The way the Honmoon practically begs her to help it instead of hurting it.
Rumi can’t keep doing it. So the next time she and the Saja meet, she kills it. No preamble, no warning. One second their talking, the next theirs a sword through its chest.
And then it’s gone.
The Honmoon doesn’t recover quickly. People still go missing, and Rumi’s guilt only extended so far as to stop the Saja, not so far that she is willingly working with Mira or Zoey.
But she cant help the slowly growing sense of care she has for them. The two of them are nothing but kind to her, and if not for the collar could have been dear friends of hers… if not more.
But she can’t forget the betrayal. The pain that comes even now if she refuses to train with them. They’ve tried to get it off her, but without the master key Celine has it just hurts Rumi more.
I think this would end with the two stealing the key for Rumi, and then Rumi runs away. Celine tries to find her but Mira and Zoey stop her. (They find out who her mom is because Celine has the idea to try to find her birth parents if Rumi decided to run to them.)
She then tried to find her because oh my god I did all of that to my lovers friends kid. But Rumi is just gone, and the connection between the hunters and their mentor is so frayed that they aren’t willing to guide her to Rumi.
Ultimately, I think over the next few decades Zoey and Mira would become friends with Rumi. If she’d ever be able to forgive them, or move beyond what they did, is up to your own imagination.
Because to me, the loss of one’s freedom is perhaps one of the worst things that someone can do.
Hope y’all enjoyed! This took three weeks because writers block sucks!
What if Bobby didn't die but Celine told Rumi he did? Maybe she's exasperated because despite the collar and the (almost daily nowadays) shocks Rumi refuses to cooperate, maybe she thinks if Rumi loses all hope she'll be easier to deal with train
As to how noone knows he's alive, maybe he goes MIA looking for Rumi, like, he infiltrates different places looking for his daughter and isn't seen in public for a while, when he is Zoemirs find out he's alive, but do they tell Rumi? How do you tell someone the father they thought was dead isn't? Do they set her free after they find out the truth? Or do they lead Bobby to his kid?
Ohoho my word. Ok this one would be really fun, and you wanna know why?
Because Rumi knows. She became very adept at reading Celine’s expression and tells, she knows when she’s lying, and when that woman came into her cell and told her Bobby was killed by a demon?
Rumi knew she was lying. But she also knew this is her best shot.
Let’s say, for Mira and Zoey, they do really believe Bobby’s dead. He did in fact vanish, traveling in some darker circles to see if Rumi was kidnapped by someone with higher connections. (Funnily enough…)
So? Rumi starts to plan. She throws herself into the training because she knows it’s what Celine was lookin for. Celine feels satisfied, ignoring the guilt building day by day as Rumi drives herself to the edge of exhaustion every single time they train, but hey, for the Honmoon right?
But the issue is, Rumi’s improving a little too much. Mira and Zoey? They used to be able to smoke her, but now Rumi’s on par with both of them at once.
Celine can still beat her… barely.
It would be around the first time, and what would turn out to be the only time, that Rumi beat Celine that Bobby would present his findings to the public.
Someone in sunlight entertainment kidnapped Rumi, his daughter, and is holding her in parts unknown. Mira and Zoey freak out, because what do you mean he’s been alive this whole time and now he knows your company is involved, Celine??
Celine tries to make the girls keep it a secret, but they can’t handle it. They have been hurting their literal soul mate in training, emotionally, and physically via the collar (only Celine uses it but they helped put it on) so they tell her immediately.
They use Celine’s key to take the collar off of Rumi. For a moment, all they can feel from the bond is raw relief.
And then, Rumi moves.
She takes down Mira and Zoey quickly. She doesn’t hurt Zoey too badly, but she does break Mira’s arm.
(“What’s that American phrase Zoey likes? An eye for an eye?”)
Then she faces Celine. The two battle, and while Celine’s aiming to maim Rumi is fighting to escape.
Celine gets Rumi’s leg, hurting her.
Rumi gets Celine’s stomach, almost killing her.
Rumi runs then. She runs to the docks, using the money she stole from the hunters compound to pay for a ferry. She makes it back to her dad, bloodied and bruised but finally home.
A massive investigation takes place into sunlight industries, but despite Rumi and Bobby’s best efforts they can’t quite get anything to stick. The public perception moved on too fast once Rumi returned on her own, with some even calling it a hoax.
Rumi began performing on her own again, working to help strengthen the Honmoon. She knows Mira and Zoey are probably doing the same, but she doesn’t care enough about them to check. She does see that Celine survived a near lethal attack from an unknown assailant, but nothing beyond that.
Ultimately, I think Mira and Zoey would manage to get Rumi to agree to collab on one song for an album, then two, and slowly just keep growing the number of songs for them all. She never truly becomes a part of their group, but folks have begun shipping them.
(“Wait, they are? What’s the ship name?”
“Polytrix?”)
Celine keeps her distance from Rumi. She knows trying to push her at all would end poorly with Mira and Zoey so sympathetic to her. She does work with Poppy to ensure that the three end up together at random events more often, but doesn’t do much beyond that.
I think this little spinoff wouldn’t have Rumi’s heritage being discovered for a long time, if ever. Celine always gripes about how if Rumi would just “let go of the past” then Huntrix could seal the Honmoon!
Rumi says in no uncertain terms that she isn’t trying to turn the honmoon gold. If all demons are gonna be banished she’s not taking the risk of it including her. Celine tries to convince her it’s her duty and that the Honmoon wouldn’t take her, but Rumi objects.
(“The patterns were good enough for you to treat me less then human. Who’s to say your precision Honmoon wouldn’t do the same?”)
So yeah, Rumi’s livid at Celine about lying about her freaking dad being dead, but ultimately uses it to help her escape. Thanks for the fun ask!
One thing about both the Solo and Kidnapped AUs is that Celine only eases up on her treatment of Rumi when she discovers that Rumi is Miyeong's daughter, and I think that Rumi would/should be mad at that.
'Oh, NOW you're giving me a break? Because I'm related to a dead woman you're hung up on!? Fuck off!'
Ohohoho, yeah, she is LIVID about that part of it.
Let’s see the solo version first! Ficlet below!
TW: mentions of torture, cursing.
——
Celine knocked on the door again. She waited, hoping for… something. Maybe some kind of noise, or even a few words. Anything, any kind of indication that the demon Rumi was still in there.
Of course she’s still in there, you locked the door. The padlock is heavy in your hand, because you just can’t stop hurting her in every way you can.
It’s your fault Miyeong kept her a secret. Your fault she’s dead. Your fault why this generation will fail.
Celine took a breath, trying to clear her head.
“Rumi? Is it… can I come in?”
There’s another brief moment of silence.
“Sure. Why the hell not. Not like you’d listen if I said no, right? You never cared what I said anyways.”
Celine winced at the harsh words. She knows they were well deserved, and that Rumi’s right. She hadn’t cared what Rumi told her, not until she discovered the young woman’s heritage.
Taking another deep, steadying breath, Celine grabs the doorhandle. For a moment her other hand reaches towards the latch, muscle memory pulling her fingers towards the familiar location. Her hand met empty air before she realized what she was doing. The lock sits ignored beside the door, unused by the hunters for the last two weeks.
A slight tremble is cut off as she squeezes her hand into a fist, the nails biting into her palms. Celine can’t let her nerves show, not now.
With an unsteady but firm breath Celine pushed the door open. There, glaring from where she’s seated on the floor, is Rumi.
Miyeongs daughter.
Steady, Celine. If she sees your nervous this won’t work.
“Well, glad to see my jailers haven’t forgotten little ‘ol’ me. What brings you to my little cell?” Rumi’s tone is jovial, but her expression remains unchanging.
Her eyes track Celine’s movements, watching her hands and the book therein warily. Celine can’t blame her for the caution.
“I have something for you.” Rumi’s eyebrow raised imperiously at that. “Nothing… nothing bad, I swear. I know you don’t believe me, but it really is something you should see.”
Rumi didn’t move her eyes from Celine as she shrugged in answer. The older hunter took that as an invitation to approach, holding out the photo album she’d had tucked under her arm. Rumi flinched for a moment when Celine’s hand approached, causing another pang of guilt to hit her. Rumi regarded the album for a moment, seemingly having not noticed the way she reacted to the movement.
Celine can’t decide if that’s better or worse.
With a reluctant sigh, Rumi slowly took it from her, the chain on her ankle clinking as she crossed her legs on the floor.
Rumi opens the book, settling it between her legs as she took in its contents. Even if Celine couldn’t see it, she knew by heart what every picture contained by heart. She’d spent years looking through it, laughing and crying in equal measure at all the memories.
There, on the very first page that Rumi had opened to, was Miyeong. She was laughing, soaked completely through, standing in a pond. It had been one of their outings as trainees, and Poppy had dared Miyeong to jump in. She’d done it without a second thought, and shortly after the photo was taken had wrapped both Poppy and Celine in a hug to get them wet too.
A small smile creases Celine’s face at the memory. A frown grows on Rumi’s.
“Who is this?” Rumi looks up, her genuine confusion wiping the distrust from her face for a moment.
Oh. Right. I never told her, did I?
Celine took a steadying breath. “It’s… your mother. Her name was Miyeong, and she was one of my hunters.”
Celine watched, hoping for some kind of flicker of recognition or something that wasn’t the growing confusion on the young woman’s face.
Rumi looked back down at the photo, then back up at Celine. “Why in the hell do you think this is my mother?”
Celine flinched at the harsh tone. Of course. She really needed to work on explaining things better to this girl, it’s the least she deserves.
“I sent in a sample of your blood last week. I wanted to see if it could figure out what you were.” Rumi’s gaze slowly darkened as she spoke, so Celine hurried to finish before she could be interrupted. “I got a call a few days ago and found out that Miyeong was your mother. I checked public records and found that she gave birth to you in Seoul hospital before she vanished.”
There was a tense moment of silence as Rumi regarded Celine. Something in her expression told her that Rumi wasn’t taking this news very well.
A quiet, scornful laugh comes from her as she slammed the book shut. Without looking away Rumi threw the scrapbook onto the floor at Celine’s feet. Celine hurriedly picked it up, looking it over to make sure it was undamaged and letting out a sigh of relief when she found no damage.
“What, did you think I would care about some dusty old photos of a woman who abandoned me?” Rumi’s tone is flat, her lip curling slightly in disgust. “If she was anything like you, then I’m glad I never met her.“
Celine grits her teeth, trying to remain calm in spite of the slights against Miyeong. “Rumi, Miyeong was one of the kindest, sweetest people I’ve ever known. She genuinely cared about everyone around her and inspired others to be kinder. She… she wass nothing like me.” Celine holds out the book again, a desperate bid for something, any kind of connection to Miyeongs daughter.
The girl only laughed, harder and harsher than the first time. “Oh my gods, you actually believe it too!” Celine pulled the book back, eyes widening in surprise. “Tell me this, Celine; if that woman was such a sweet, gentle, caring person, why in the hell did she just dump me off at an orphanage at birth?”
Celine remains silent at that. What could she say? Even when the three of them were at their closest, Celine could never truly get a read on Miyeong. She was always the better of the three of them at keeping secrets.
Rumi scoffs into the silence, looking away from Celine. “Why do you even care?”
Crouching to Rumi’s eyeline, Celine reigned in the anger still bubbling within her. This could be her one and only chance to get through to Rumi.
“Because I trusted her, and loved her, just as I loved my third hunter. Just as Zoey and Mira will love theirs. And I want you to know that your mother, reguardless of the reasoning for leaving you behind, did love you too.” Celine watched in hope for a moment as she finished speaking, letting the silence sit with the weight of what she’d just said.
But when Rumi’s eyes turned back to meet hers, Celine realized she had somehow messed up again. All she saw was rage.
“Oh. I get it now.” A sharp smile spread across Rumi’s face. “I’m not a person to you still, am I? Instead of ‘the weird demon’ I’m now ‘Miyeongs daughter’ to you! Not Rumi, the woman you kidnapped, noooooo, I’m just the unwanted daughter you took.”
Celine took a step back, a strange chill running down her spine ay the vitriol in Rumi’s voice. She opened her mouth, planning to try and interrupt Rumi, or protest it, but the young women kept going before she could.
“I don’t give a single flying fuck what you want, or whatever this weird attempt to connect to me is. I don’t care about whoever the hell my mom was, or why you think I’d ever want to get to know who was before abandoning me.”
Rumi stood then, glaring up at Celine as she stood frozen.
“You have tortured me for the last two weeks, trying to get answers to questions that I don’t have! You wanna know the funniest part, actually? The best part? If you hadn’t discovered who that woman was, you probably wouldn’t have even bothered to treat me any better than before. So yeah, Celine, I don’t give a shit that you loved her or if she loved you. If your the kind of woman she could’ve loved, then I thank the gods above that I didn’t get to see the kind of mother she would’ve been.”
Rumi’s chest heaved as she gasped for breath, her eyes still locked onto Celine’s. The two stood like that for a moment, Celine processing everything Rumi had just thrown at her and Rumi trying to catch her breath.
Celine looked down at the scrapbook in her hands then back up at Rumi. She licked her lips before opening her mouth to try to say something in Miyeongs defense, anything, but the last sentence Rumi spat at her kept ringing.
“If your the kind of woman she could’ve loved, I thank the gods above that I didn’t get to see the kind of mother she would’ve been.”
The silence sits heavy, a weight in Celine’s throat as she traced the familiar shape with her eyes. Her eyes dropped back down to the book again, and she didn’t look up at Rumi.
She couldn’t look up at her.
She wouldn’t.
Celine’s eyes moved up to meet Rumi’s. Inevitably, naturally, always, and they truly, finally saw the girl in front of her.
Not a demon.
Not Miyeongs daughter.
A girl.
Her tears falling from those eyes so filled with hate, like the earth trying to suffocate her. So much like her mother’s… a woman whose memory she tainted simply because Celine knew her. It’s an expression Celine ever saw only once, that night all those years ago before…
Before she died.
Celine turned, walking. Celine doesn’t run when she’s scared, but she does retreat when needed. She doesn’t look back as she shuts the door. She doesn’t hear the lock as it clicks into place, instinct driving her more then anything.
And then she’s back in her room, still clutching the book that had condemned Miyeong in her daughter’s mind.
Celine ignores the wetness on her cheeks. It doesn’t matter now. Nothing matters-
A ripple. A warning from the Honmoon, an indication of danger.
A breach.
The plan clicks in her mind in a moment. A chance, a way to show Rumi exactly why she had thought hurting her in such a way wasn’t wrong, wasn’t cruel, wasn’t evi…
Wasn’t bad.
Celine turned, throwing the book onto her bed before stalking back towards Rumi’s room.
——
In case yall were wondering here is the snippet of Celine taking Rumi on a hunt.
As for kidnapped, I imagine the only way Celine would find out is when Bobby comes in with the raid and throws the info at Celine as a way to say “you keep hurting Rumi, leave her alone”. She wouldn’t get a direct confrontation with Celine about it for months, and when she does she spends it just cursing Celine out and trying to walk away.
She really doesn’t want to deal with Celine, and she mocks her for how much softer Celine’s being now that she knows who her deadbeat mother is.
The kidnapped rumi angst has me in a chokehold but like a good angst lover im a sucker for a happy ending too.
Is there any way you can imagine a happy ending to that particular spin off? 👀
….yes. Like I’ve said, I don’t do story’s with bad endings, and I’ve been thinking about the how for this for a while.
(I am also a sucker for happy endings.)
There is one path that I can see that would EVER lead to (after well over a decade) a happy ending/polytrix.
(Also there’s like, a LOT of words after this cus I went overboard 😅 you have been warned!)
Mira and Zoey make a deal to get Rumi out of the compound and collar (Celine had the key), then are killed by Celine under the assumption they’re demons impersonating her hunters.
——
Ok, I know, but this leads to fluff, trust me on this.
So, Mira and Zoey die. They made a deal to get their soul bonded partner out of the compound and out of the collar. The issue is, their souls are still connected to Rumi’s.
Because they approached Rumi with a deal.
We get you out of here, and you agree to do collaborations with us on occasion, just enough to keep the honmoon stable.
(Mira and Zoey loathe themselves for their part in all this. Their resolve to force Rumi via the collar faded faster and faster each day they saw her trying new ways to get it off and getting shocked for her efforts. That, and the new bone deep hatred she’s gained for them, are what push them to offer this as the barest chance of keeping their third in their lives.)
So they make the deal. They get the key from Celine through various shenanigans and get the collar off, and give her tickets for the plane and bus to get home, along with their numbers.
They didn’t realize it yet. How could they?
No one had made a deal with a demonic hunter before.
The patterns that spread from the deal were far faster than one of Gwi-ma’s. They woke up the next morning feeling slightly hopeful, only to find themselves completely covered in patterns.
Celine ran into the room when she heard the screaming.
She summoned her swords and struck as they were turning to face her. The blades pierced their chests in perfect synchrony, years of training honing her movements into a blur.
But the body’s didn’t disappear like they’re supposed to. Don’t puff out into mist and return to Gwi-ma like they’re supposed to.
Instead they fall. Red spreading underneath them. The two demons girls hold each others hands, unable to speak as liquid fills their throats. Celine can only watch in dawning confusion and horror as her daughter’s trainees souls slowly lifted from their body’s.
She watched as they slowly glided along the Honmoon, being guided across it and out into the world.
Celine is alone now. Two body’s of the two young women she helped raise growing cold the only company she has left.
Of course, she rushed to Rumi’s room, to make sure she’s safe please let her be alive but when she slams open the door… the rooms empty.
Her shock collar is open, on the bed, with the key in the lock.
Celine finally has the mental breakdown she’d been staving off for weeks.
—
So Celine would probably just. Cry. For a bit after that. Zoey and Mira’s body’s would do the slowly dissolving thing DeadSolo!Rumis body did, slowly turning to ash and fading away.
But unlike Dead!Rumi, they don’t go to Gwi-ma’s domain. He’s not the one who owns their souls, after all.
—
Rumi feels warm. A kind of bone deep warmth that only comes from a solid nights sleep in her own bed. But for some reason this warmth feels… different.
Rumi opens her eyes, the familiar white ceiling above her, decorated with the glowing stars she had set up as a child. A small noise to her right draws Rumi’s attention away from the nostalgic sight.
Two people are in bed with her.
With an undignified yelp, Rumi flopped out of bed, hopping onto her feet and pulling her sword out. She almost strikes the two figures waking up before she recognized them.
Then she has to debate whether or not stabbing them is still an option.
After a moment of disorientation Mira and Zoey were able to get up, taking in Rumi’s room. They also noticed Rumi standing at the foot of the (surprisingly large) bed they had woken up on, blade out.
After a very confusing and very stressful conversation where Rumi learned about their deaths at Celine’s hands, Rumi agrees to let them stay with her to keep the safe for the time being.
(She wishes she could’ve sent them off somewhere else. But there’s no where safe she could send them with those patterns, she’s seen firsthand how widespread the net is that Celine can throw.)
The next few days are… extremely tense. Mira and Zoey are doing their best to recover mentally from being murdered by their mother mentor, and Rumi’s trying to deal with the fact that two people who were more then willing to help put a literal collar on her neck now live with her.
Rumi has her own house, so Bobby doesn’t know about her until the security team informs him that there’s two women living with Rumi now who have the exact same type of “birth marks” as her.
Bobby comes by and actually recognizes Zoey and Mira from the first time they kidnapped her, and ended up trying to fight them until Rumi jumped in to explain what happened.
Bobby (best dad in the world, kindest man ever, absolutely has experience helping people out of abused homes) ended up taking the two back to his house to help them get whatever they need delivered without Rumi’s address showing up on their cards.
Now, there’s something strange that happens then. Something deep inside of the two hunters souls that starts to… shift.
Because, you see, they’ve spent the last several days with the woman who owns their souls. And leaving her… has some adverse affects.
It starts with a cold, something neither girl has really had to worry about since becoming hunters. The next day it’s a slight fever, where Bobby insists they get some rest. But the rest doesn’t help. It just keeps getting worse.
And now they’re hearing voices in their heads.
Gwi-ma rules by reminding his servants of their worst qualities, so he can always have his hunger sated by desperate demons who just wish for quiet.
Rumi doesn’t rule through fear.
She rules through care.
Because Rumi is, above almost everything else, still a kind person. Despite everything that’s been done to her, every aspect of her that’s been grounded up by Celine and the girls, she is still kind.
So the voice they hear is Rumi. Rumi, in the softer moments after the first kidnapping. Rumi arguing with a particularly bold producer because he said Zoey’s rapping just “doesn’t fit” her maknae image. Rumi who brought them both coffee the day before they kidnapped her, saying that she doesn’t forgive them yet.
It’s an odd contrast.
Feeling so physically awful while the woman you both desperately wish to be with whispers sweet things in your ears.
Eventually, Bobby calls Rumi and tells her what’s going on. Rumi hates the way her gut twists in worry, the way she started instinctively packing her stuff up. She doesn’t really care for those two, right? This is just a concern that if they stay sick she’ll have to hunt.
Right?
She makes her way to Bobby’s house while internally arguing with herself, angry at the way she starts running a few times. Why is there such a sense of urgency for a few fevers? It shouldn’t matter, they shouldn’t matter to her!!
Yet, when she opened the door to their room, finding the two of them huddled together under a half dozen blankets and shivering, her heart twisted.
Rumi decided, just for the next few days, she would put aside all the stupid, complicated feelings she has for these two women and instead will just take care of them.
It’s while she’s caring for them that they start talking, sometimes crying and apologizing and other times begging her to not leave them.
She try’s to tune them out, but something in her very being is crying out to comfort them, to hold them, to tell them everything’s going to be ok.
Finally, it’s Zoey who tells her about the school. Sobbing, clutching at Rumi’s shirt and accidentally wiping tears and snot on it, she tells her how they failed. There were too many demons for the two of them, and by the time they managed to kill the last one an entire school of children had been taken by Gwi-ma.
Rumi freezes in horror, before gently asking her when this happened.
Exactly three days before she was taken.
Rumi leaves after they fall asleep, going to the living room and getting out her laptop. She finds the school, of course she does. An entire school vanishing in the middle of the day? It’s still one of the most popular news story’s in Korea. Parents desperately reaching out online for any sign of their children, police basically begging for any leads, politicians making promises to find those kids and get them home.
Rumi has to close the laptop after seeing one of the kids faces. She couldn’t have been older than nine.
Could she have prevented this? If she’d just been willing to work with Mira and Zoey instead of avoiding them entirely? She’d been planning to talk to them before they took her this time, but she had waited too long. And now dozens of parents will never see their kids again.
She ends up talking to Bobby while the girls are asleep. He offers a little advice, but says that ultimately this is up to her to decide. If she can’t trust them, how could she help protect the world with them?
But that’s just it, isn’t it? The problem? She does trust them, at least about how much they need her help. She can see the Honmoon, the way it dances and twirls about like a living ocean. She can se with growing weaker, threads of it slowly slipping from the weave and fading into nothingness.
If nothing is done, it would spell the end of everything she knows and cares for.
So, Rumi makes a decision.
When Mira and Zoey have mostly recovered, Rumi comes to them. She sits down with them, offering them tea. She tells them she knows about the school. She understands why they thought they had to force Rumi to cooperate, even if she can’t forgive them for it.
The two try to apologize again, but Rumi holds up her hand for silence. She says she’s going to accompany them back to the isle so she can train under Celine. Bobby will be coming with her, as will a few security team members.
Mira and Zoey are shocked, then ecstatic, then terrified. Last time they’d seen Celine, she had killed them.
Rumi points out that they’ve dealt with doppelgängers before, both ones of themselves and Celine. Is it any surprise that upon seeing two people covered in patterns who look like them that she struck quickly?
As much as Mira and Zoey wish to argue, they both know that she’s right. They’d likely have done the same if Celin had suddenly had patterns in the middle of the night. Rumi gets their attention again, asking how they have patterns now.
The two admit they have no clue. They’d likely didn’t make any deals with Gwi-ma, so it shouldn’t be- Zoey cuts herself off. A deal. They made a deal with Rumi to get her out of there.
The realization that it’s not Gwi-mas patterns, but rather Rumi’s patterns, is a rather alarming one. The two quickly check, they do still have their souls. But now there’s a new tether, similar to the hunters bond but somehow deeper then that.
Whatever that deal did, it’s irrevocably interwoven the three hunters souls. Rumi’s patterns must have spread to them, and since she didn’t make any deals with Gwi-ma they instead are connected to Rumi.
Zoey admits that while she was sick she could hear Rumi in her head. That’s alarming to Rumi, up until Mira says she could hear the same thing. They figure out that when apart from Rumi they can hear her voice saying encouraging things, which confuses Rumi even more.
Ultimately, they don’t know how to break the deal, and even if they could (Mira and Zoey wouldn’t ever admit this aloud) they wouldn’t. They can finally be close to Rumi without her despising them every second of every day.
The three of them leave the next day, along with Bobby and five security members. The flight over is surprisingly pleasant, with Zoey and Mira chatting with Rumi occasionally interjecting. It feels… natural, like this is how they were always supposed to be.
After landing, the group quickly makes its way to the compound. Rumi pauses outside it, taking in the now semi-familiar gate. Mira and Zoey step up beside her. They tell her they won’t force her to do anything ever again, and if she want she can still go back home. (Mira can barely say that part. She desperately wants Rumi to stay with them.)
Rumi takes a deep, steadying breath. Bobby puts a hand on her shoulder in supporter. And together, they make their way inside.
Celine is laying in the foyer, her clothes unchanged. Shes got a few cuts and bruises on her body, but she’s still alive. At the sound of footsteps she slowly sits up, freezing as she spots the group.
Rumi approaches alone, crouching to meet the older woman’s wide eyes.
She says that Mira and Zoey made a deal with her, to stay in contact with them in exchange for letting her go. She says that the deal somehow saved their lives, despite what she did. Rumi stands up as she says she’s here to learn to be a hunter, and after her training is finished she will never speak to Celine again.
Rumi goes to Mira’s room after that. (They talked beforehand, Rumi needed a different space.) the two hunters and Bobby stay in the foyer. Celine’s eyes are darting over every part of them, seeming disbelieving that they’re actually here.
She slowly pushes herself to her feet, unsteady, as she takes them in. They’re hesitant, waiting to see how she reacts, waiting for her to say something, anything.
Slowly, Celine starts walking towards them. The two flinch at the movement, but stand firm. Bobby watches from the side, ready to intervene if it’s needed.
Celine stops in front of them.
They can see the tears falling from her face now.
She gently pulls them into a hug, tears falling freely as she whispers apologies and regrets over and over to them. The two of them are stunned, they’ve never seen their mentor like this before. Slowly, hesitantly, they hug her back.
The three stand there for a while, Celine reassuring herself they’re actually here and alive and the two hunters coming to terms with the fact that she doesn’t hate them for having patterns.
They part, Celine reluctant to let them leave her eyeline, but they need sleep. She turns to Bobby. He speaks before she can ask, saying he’s there to make sure Rumi stays safe from her.
Celine can’t blame them for the caution. She’s already hurt the honmoon and hunters so much by trying to force them all to be together.
The next few days with them all at the compound feel delicate. Rumi occasionally tossing barbs at Celine, and Celine not really reacting because she thinks she deserves it.
The training is hard, but Rumi actually finds she’s starting to enjoy it. She couldn’t before, not with the collar on her. But now, the thrum of movement, of sparring, of training to be an idol all mix together into a potent and pleasant practice.
Days turn into weeks, and Rumi’s barbs slowly trickle to a stop. Not on purpose, but because she started to accompany them on hunts. Shes seen what demons can do firsthand now.
She still doesn’t forgive them, or Celine, but she finally knows why they were so desperate for her to be a hunter.
Weeks turn to months, as their training starts to reach its end. Rumi doesn’t verbally hurt Celine anymore. The woman clearly does that enough to herself for both of them. She’s also found herself growing closer to Mira and Zoey, actually starting to enjoy their company instead of just tolerating it.
When the training finally ends, Celine’s somewhat stable. Shes able to return to her duty’s at Sunlight entertainment, and the girls agree to be under contract there.
Years slowly blur together after that. Huntrix takes the world by storm, their songs and bold image of “tattoo’s” reinventing the idol world. Celine slowly gets to know Rumi, the real Rumi, underneath all the trauma and hurt she’s responsible for.
Thirdlight ends up talking to Celine a lot, too. She was terrified when she found out about the death of two new hunters and the escape of the third. But now that they’re all somehow back, she’s instead trying to help Celine feel better about everything.
She’s not very successful, but at least Celine isn’t actively wishing to die anymore.
The Saja boys come, but Huntrix is stronger than they ever were and kills them all.
Mira and Zoey start to fall in love with Rumi, around then. It’s been years, and the time in captivity feels like an odd dream to her by now. But it did happen. She still had the scars, her neck still has two little black spots that never really go away.
She still remembers the pain.
What follows it a year of desperate pining where Mira and Zoey refuse to approach the topic, and Rumi runs away from it.
Eventually, it comes to a head during a particularly quiet night. They’ve all drink in a little more than they should’ve, and start talking. They’ve say some things, things that they refused to while sober.
Mira and Zoey admit that they’re scared. Scared that their loving Rumi will mean that if they hurt her again it means that they really are evil. They say they don’t deserve her love, not after everything they’ve done.
Rumi admits she’s afraid. She’s afraid what it would mean to love them, because it would mean forgiving them for what they did to her. She’s afraid they might do something like it again.
They keep talking after that. A conversation that slowly becomes more lucid as the alcohol works its way out of their systems. They talk about everything they’ve been through together since then. Every time they’ve almost died, every time they’ve saved each other, every time they cared for each other.
The sun slowly starts to rise as a quiet falls over them. Rumi’s the one to break it first, quietly asking if they really meant what they said, about being scared of hurting her like that again.
They say they meant every word.
Rumi hesitates. She quietly asks if they meant what they said about loving her. They both freeze at that, they forgot they said that, but ultimately say yes, they meant that, too.
Their relationship is a careful affair. Constantly talking about everything before moving to any kind of intimacy.
Bobby has a talk with the girls, after finding out about it. (This is when Bobby has a gun. Yes.) Celine hears about it, and sends well wishes. She doesn’t want to spend time with Rumi, doesn’t think she wants it and that Rumi still hates her.
She’s somewhat right. Rumi doesn’t want to spend time with her. But Rumi doesn’t hate her, at least not as much as she once did. It’s been half a decade, long enough for Rumi to grow tired of always hating her.
They become civil to each other, instead of the awkward silences or constant reminders of what Celine had done. Mira and Zoey forgave their mentor for what she did to them a few months afterwards, they understand it was an accident.
But if they flinch sometimes when Celine is suddenly there, well, they don’t mention it and neither does she.
Bobby keeps a careful eye on them all, and ensures they end up going to therapy. (They’ve refused for years). Apparently being soul bonded to your kidnappers has an adverse affect on mental health, who knew?
It’s a slow process, and they all mess up. Rumi sometimes throws their part in everything at Mira and Zoey, hurting them. Mira and Zoey sometimes get into arguments with Celine about what she did to Rumi. Celine argues with Rumi about why it was all necessary.
But they all make the effort to do better. To be better.
And it shows. It’s a very long road, with ups and downs, dangers and anxiety attacks galore, but eventually, almost painfully, Huntrix becomes a stable group that truly loves and trusts each other.
And Celine… she eventually learns to live with herself after everything she’s done.
—
Man this one was tough. I’ve been going at it for three days now, I kept trying to think “how does one recover or move past this”. Hope y’all liked it!
sorry I can't help but think that while yes, the percentage of blender and angst is High,,,, Rumi also kinda has de opportunity to be a real fucking pain for all involved
bc (and forgive me if I'm wrong) the idea of a shock collar generally is to like,, avoid certain behavious, in this case it could be to attack them or to not let her leave/escape
but here they also want her/beer her to train and fight and she can literally just,,, not
what are they gonna do? torture her more? they very well said they need her alive! and in good condition to fight!
just sorry, but I can very well picture Rumi being even more defiant and antagonistic here
mostly because welp,,, she doesn't have much to lose now, has she?
might as well give as much fight as she can
Oh my gosh wait yes. Yes yes yes this would be so good.
Ok so in Kidnapped AU the shock collars been turned up a bit since it’s on a person not a dog, and Celine is using it to try and get Rumi to train. But like you said, it’s there as a deterrent for behaviors, and Rumi is anything if not creative.
I’m picturing…
They bring her out to train, Rumi just throws rocks at them.
*shock collar*
Rumi is now aggressively singing let it go while throwing the rocks.
Stuff like that. Just being as annoying as possible because that’s pretty much all she can do to them right now. Mira and Zoey are actually kinda charmed by it (they weren’t fully on board with the whole “shock collar” idea but went along with it since they knew Rumi would run first chance she got) but it’s driving Celine up a wall.
Rumi finally manages to summon her sword and the first thing she does with it? Cut the front door of the house open.
She learns to disarm someone? She’ll interrupt sparring sessions between the others to just knock their weapons away then just back off.
Gets taught to cook in a desperate attempt to by Mira to get to grow closer to her? Laxatives.
Celine would probably lose patience with Rumi during one of her first hunts, where she just let a demon walk past her and get in a cheap shot on Celine (or for some angst one of the other girls). She’d demand to know what the hell Rjmi was thinking, she’s supposed to be watching the backs of her hunters.
“Oh, sorry. I must’ve gotten hunters mixed up with jailers. Whoops.”
Celine would be a bit peeved about that, and would restrict her collar to her room for the rest of the day. But something fun that Rumi learned from Zoey? How to pick locks. She ends up escaping that night while Celine’s patching up whoever got hurt.
Que Rumi actually going to the police this time, and an investigation into the hunters compound. Of course Poppy does what she can to throw police off their trail, and it helps that there’s no actual evidence of what Rumi claims at said compound.
After the investigation ceases, I imagine Rumi would be a lot more paranoid, always having at least three security members around her at all times and only trusting food Bobby or she Made.
Zoey and Mira can’t find any chances to talk to her, she refuses to even acknowledge them.
Overall, I think her being as snarky as possible would be the best chance for her to eventually escape. Thanks for the fun ask anon!
