Unique!Au: Celine finds out: Zoey
Alright, it's been a moment, but I'm back on my bullshit.
As always, here's the obligatory 'fuck all of you, Celine loves Rumi and Mira and Zoey, she's just traumatized as all hell and dogshit at showing it.' But this is also my Au and I am incapable of making characters sad. (There will be no-one found in the dirt by the fucking tree in this au)
Now, Zoey was a little ball of sunshine when Celine started training her. She was also like the sun itself, slowly burning itself out, killing itself giving warmth and light to everyone around her.
It was concerning to say the least, something that Celine brought up in privacy with the girl. That is what earned her a place on Zoey's list of trusted people. Not even her own parents were on it given how much they worked and how distant they were after the divorce. Her grandparents(and Rumi and Mira) were the only ones on it before that. They're the only ones that noticed.
Now that the background is done, on to the reveal:
Celine had been slightly suspicious of Zoey even before she discovered that Mira wasn't fully human, but now she kept an even closer eye on the girl. It hadn't been any bad suspicions, just maybe that the girl had some form of neurodivergence that she needed to account for(which she has but that's besides the point).
But now, with new information to work with, she paid more attention.
She spotted the way Zoey would bend herself a bit more than was normal for humans(and she wrote it down at first as her potentially being double-jointed)
She noticed her ease and basic control of every weapon that was placed in her hands. And her proficiency with anything ranged.
She remembered how quickly Zoey had connected to the honmoon in the first place. Almost on par with the speed that Rumi had connected to it, and she had been born connected to it to some extent.
She'd see her move faster than a human should be able to, and knew it wasn't the honmoon. She knew what a boost like that looked like and despite her quick connection, actual usage of the honmoon took a little longer for her to proficient in.
She saw the strange otherness of the child she was training. That little voice in the back of her own head that was screaming at her that the smiling youngling wasn't human.
And lastly: She saw the patterns
Had Celine had any less training and experience, it might've ended in a disaster.
Because Zoey was sleeping in the grass under one of the trees, recovering from a fever while Mira and Rumi were out running errands.
She had been young and still a bit sick, so despite her lifelong training of keeping her illusions up even when unconscious, it dropped. And Celine had been there, gardening only a few feet away. If asked about it, she'd deny it till her dying breath, but Celine had damn near summoned her blades in that moment.
It was engraved deep in her. Patterns meant demons. Demons meant death if you hesitated.
But Celine was experienced, she knew what a demon looked like. She was also now aware of other creatures besides demons existing. And the patterns didn't match. Despite the patterns, along with the tusks peeking out from her mouth and the pointed ears not hidden by her pulled-back hair, they didn't match.
Zoey's patterns were linear and geometrical, not jagged. Black, not sickly purple.
So she'll swallow down her instincts, get up, leave her sickle in the grass and approach Zoey. Purposefully loud so that she'd wake up, before plopping down straight-legged to her side, leaning back against the tree-trunk. The second Zoey regained some awareness, the illusion was back up. It was subconscious, so she doesn't even realize that Celine saw at first.
"How long have I been out?" She'll be a bit bleary, squinting in that 'i just woke up' way.
"Only an hour or so. Mira and Rumi are away." Celine will say, calm through practice.
But Zoey is a smart cookie. She'll pick up on something being amiss. Particularly because of the song. She senses magic, remember? And every hunters' magic is musical. Zoey rarely listens in on the song that Celine's magic produces. It's very solemn. But right now it's also tense; cautious.
"Did something happen?"
Celine will weigh her words for a moment, closing her eyes and tilting her head up towards the sky a bit.
"Before I tell you that, I need you to know that no harm will befall you from me." She'll start, and alarm bells will immediately start ringing in Zoey's head. "You are a hunter, and I am training you as such."
She'll look back towards Zoey and her face will be gentle, but serious.
"But you are not human. At least not fully." And Zoey will feel her heart dropping down to her feet. She is still laying on her back, Celine sitting beside her. Celine was at an advantage, even leaning -seemingly relaxed- against the tree. Deception it is.
She'll laugh a bit, strained and not convincing in the slightest. She'll try to brush the older hunter off, 'what are you talking about?' 'strange joke haha!'. Celine will just watch her, wait her out.
"Zoey. I saw patterns and tusks." This is when Zoey will jump to her feet, Celine will stay seated.
"I'm not a demon!" it's not as judgmental as Mira's was, but it's panicked. Like being a demon was the worst thing she could be. And in from of a demon hunter, it kind of was. Celine will have to suppress a flinch anyway.
"I never said you were. Your patterns are different, but they are there." She is still speaking calmly, still just sitting there with her hands folded in her lap.
"Zoey. I will need to know about your nature to accommodate you."
"...Accommodate me?" Baffled.
"Yes. You are not fully human. I need to know if you have any dietary necessities that I don't know about, any urges or any other needs that I should be aware about."
Zoey will be loosing her fucking mind on the inside. To the point where she just has to kneel down and stare wide-eyed.
"...you're not going to kick me out or kill me?"
Celine will frown slightly. Genuinely disturbed that this child thought she'd kill her.
"I am a demon hunter. Not a dragon hunter."
And Zoey will laugh. Shell-shocked, relieved and slightly hysterical.
"I'm not a dragon." She'll laugh a bit more genuinely. "Could you imagine? Oh, it'd be sick! I would have had such cool horns!"
And with some of the tension broken: they'll talk.
Zoey will tell her about her abilities, her nature and her species. She's a lot more open than Mira about the whole mythical creatures aspect of everything, but she is still more tight lipped than Celine ever thought Zoey capable of.
She won't take the illusion down though. Celine doesn't make her.
Zoey too, will beg Celine not to tell the other two, and she won't. But the entire conversation and situation sticks in her head.
Zoey genuinely thought that Celine would hurt her. But Celine only hunts demons. That's something she hopes she's made abundantly clear, always.
But Rumi is a demon. Or half-demon.
Is Rumi afraid of her? Is her daughter in everything but blood afraid?
She isn't, but that is not something Celine will know, and the thought strikes her like fucking lightning.
But this post is just about Celine finding out about Zoey, I'll make another one for the full reveal later.
(Also, the first time Celine sees Zoey's full self is late at night. The other two are already asleep, but Celine is working(three guesses who Rumi got her workaholic tendencies from) and Zoey snuck out to get a snack from the store.
Zoey will spot some demons on the way back, a group of them. She thought she could take them on her own, and she could. But not without some pretty extreme injuries. Injuries' serious enough that she has to drop her illusion to preserve her strength.
She'll call Celine, she can call no one else. And Celine's responsible, she's an adult. She'll know what to do, how to make it better.
It's a 30 min walk to town from the compound. Celine is a veteran hunter more than familiar with the power of the honmoon. She makes the run in 7 minutes.
There will be no hesitation, maybe a bit of panic when Zoey smiles a toothy smile and the darkness makes it seem like her black gums are dark because of blood instead of it being their natural colour, but still no hesitation. She'll stabilize what she can, then she'll scoop her up piggyback and get them back to the compound in the same amount of time, despite the added weight.
Once there and in proper lighting, She'll simply ask 'is this normal for you?' on the aspects that might be a bit concerning (dark gums and sclera, arm that's bent unnaturally etc). Nothing else. Just making sure she's alright.
The next day she'll explain what happened to the other two, leaving out the parts about Zoey's dokkaebi features. Zoey will be whole enough to have put her illusion back up.
But from then on, whenever Celine and Zoey were alone on the compound, or the other two were training or something, the old hunter would catch glimpses of black patterns and pointed ears.)
(Oh, and just to clarify: Mira was around 17.5 yrs old when Celine found her out, Zoey got found out about 3 months after, and then 5 months after that is when the demon incident happened. So this was all before their debut.)
