I love bedroom scene Mira making blunt statements about Who She Is to someone she’s known for 6+ years. I love bedroom scene Mira deescalating by saying she’s acting crazy
I love post-train convo Mira again firmly Defining Herself and doing so according to the worst things she’s ever been, even though she hasn’t once lost her temper in the preceding runtime and her very slight aggression has been extremely controlled
I love fansign Mira with her voice pitched up and her emotiveness on for the fans because she needs them to look at her and see someone better than those worst things
I love train scene Mira being scared for her friend and scared of being lied to and scared of being unloved. I love train scene Mira having someone actually lash out at her and not lashing out back but instead freezing because she’s taught herself her first impulses aren’t safe
I love backstage at the Idol Awards Mira (over six years in!!!!) saying she knew this was “too good to be true”. I love Gwi-Ma attack Mira blaming herself and finally truly lashing out at someone in her own self-hatred as she isolates because she doesn’t get to have a family
I love the way trauma blatantly informs Mira’s characterization and they don’t need to say much more than “apparently, she’s the black sheep of her family”
I think you hit the nail on the head with 'beautifying' things. The patterns probably aren't beautiful to Hunters who've spent their whole adult lives learning to identify the enemy by them and attack.
Rumi's claws probably aren't 'hot' they're something that both girls have had to dodge in battle, wielded by full demons, and have probably been hurt by more than once.
They don't have to be beautiful, or desirable traits though, because they love the person who has them.
[No I would not use the peak Autism Mom!speak of 'loving her DESPITE' but instead 'loving her including' because loving Rumi means loving all of her, even the parts that they have to adjust to, and learn to love all the same]
Exaaaaaaactly. You get me anon. Okay not quite exactly bc I don’t hc Rumi as really having traits like claws post movie but that’s completely beside the point so it doesn’t count
Anyway. [hands you this]
The day after the Idol Awards, Mira woke up first.
She rolled away from the warmth of the bodies around her, searching around until she nearly knocks her glasses off the coffee table, and jammed them blearily onto her face.
She rolled back over.
It took approximately two seconds for her to remember what had happened the night before.
It took approximately one and a half seconds for her to process the patterns, jump to her feet, and summon her gokdo.
Mira proceeded to run to the kitchen sink and vomit until she was dry heaving.
She’d drawn her weapon on Rumi. Again.
I don't get to have a family.
Slowly, Mira sank to the floor, tangling her fingers into her hair and digging her nails into her scalp.
That was where Zoey and Rumi found her, eventually.
//
Rumi wasn't a demon. Rumi wasn't a threat. Rumi was her leader-best friend-soulmate-partner-family.
Mira knew those things.
Her heart still stopped when she saw Rumi out of the corner of her eye. Her fingers still twitched instinctively—habitually.
It was a habit. And habits could be broken.
"Hey," Rumi said softly. Like she didn't want to spook Mira.
Just the way she used to back when they were kids, and she was still a fucking ghost who didn't know how to make noise before she'd come around a corner, and—don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it—Mira had smacked her right in the face for startling her.
"Hey," Mira said. "Nice shirt."
Rumi raised her eyebrows, amused, tugging a little on the tank top. "It's Zoey's."
She forced an awkward smile. "I know. You'd look good in some of mine, too."
"Yeah," Rumi said. Her eyes were warm. Mira felt like a disgusting liar. "You've said so before."
//
Zoey hesitated. Mira doubted any of the staff noticed, but she did. And she knew Rumi did.
They were all too professional to look stiffer for the next shot, Zoey's hand settled on Rumi's bare skin rather than her sleeve, but it was there.
It felt disgustingly good not to be the only one. It just felt disgusting, how pathetic they were, unable to stop hurting Rumi.
Mira could feel it trembling under her skin as they kept going with the shoot, even as she played the perfect puppet.
And then the director smiled and he said, "Now maybe we try some with the jacket? Before we lose this light?"
Rumi stiffened. Mira doubted any of the staff noticed, but she did. And she knew Zoey did.
"I know I get cold easily," she said, warmly joking, utter bullshit, "but I didn't think you'd have issues with my goosebumps in the shot."
"Oh, no, I think he meant me!" Zoey added, wide-eyed and cheerful, the barest hint of a threat in her smile. "I saw them pulling one earlier that went with this top, right?"
"I, uh, yes, of course," the director said. "That's exactly what I meant."
And Rumi, their stalwart defender, relaxed a little for once. No asshole would be trying to talk around making her cover up her "skin condition" today.
//
Rumi breathed slow against Mira's shoulder, mostly asleep as the "interesting" part of the credits faded to black, replaced by the less aesthetically formatted scroll.
As the light from the television dimmed, contrast shifted over her patterns, making them look almost purple in the light.
Mira hummed softly and whispered, "Don't move."
Rumi didn't—which was good, because Zoey was half on top of her, and if she'd startled, then Mira's whispering would've been for nothing.
(It was a fifty-fifty chance when Rumi fell asleep around them these days. Far better than the way it had been before, when she'd only fall asleep outside of her own room when she was completely exhausted, and Mira and Zoey would spend the whole time trying not to make a sound for fear of watching Rumi heave to her feet, sputter something incoherent about manners, and race off to her own bed.)
Mira fished her phone out from where it had slipped between the couch cushions, opening up the camera and switching the flash off. She didn't bother repeating the instruction to hold still as the shutter took one, two, three seconds—the point was the colors anyway, not the focus.
She turned her phone back off, trusting herself to remember what she'd been thinking and save the picture to the right folder in the morning.
"Is it bedtime?" Rumi mumbled sleepily.
"Probably," Mira said. "But I'm pretty comfortable here."
That roused Zoey, predictably. "Our couch is not for sleeping!"
Rumi snorted, sharing a bemused look with Mira before they allowed themselves to be tugged up to help with the necessary cleanup—getting the television turned off, removing bowls from where they might get tripped over in the morning—and shuffled out of the living room.
"Bed! Bed! Bed! Bed!" they chanted softly, and it was almost without thinking that they all ended up in Zoey's room.
Mira wrapped herself around Rumi, tugging her down in between them.
"You're cold," Rumi grumbled.
Mira smugly tucked her chin closer to Rumi's shoulder. "And you're warm. Thanks."
"Thermodynamic equilibrium!" Zoey whisper-shouted with a grin, and wrapped herself around Rumi from the other side, which was just the kind of suffocating pressure Rumi apparently enjoyed at night.
Mira was very glad to have a complementary middle spoon of a partner.
Rumi sighed, and Mira tangled their fingers together so she could drag her hand up for a kiss right before she leaned over and kissed Zoey's cheek.
"Love you both," she said, something in her still fearful and embarrassed at saying it out loud.
But Rumi and Zoey never got tired of hearing it, and their smiles were enough to make it so, so worth it.
It was after, as they were drifting off to sleep, that Mira realized what she'd done—saved a picture with purple patterns, demon patterns, without thinking about it anything but colors.
Zoey is the one who is mostly likely to initiate physical contact between the girls—lots of her grabbing and leading Mira off—though all three of them are very touchy with each other (and it’s worth noting that Celine, in most of her scenes, is in contact with Rumi)
She’s also a chanter (gaja gaja gaja a few times, couch couch couch at others) the latter of which Mira picks up through the film and Rumi does at the end. (Though happy fans, happy Honmoon and other intentional group things seem to be for Rumi to initiate.) I like to think it’s kind of a vocal stim for her in general!
Zoey also has an interesting sense of purpose as a Hunter—she’s coming back to “for the world”, she’s the one freaked out about Rumi as a demon and not just a liar, she’s talking harmonies before getting attacked by Gwi-Ma, etc—which is an interesting complement to lines like Tried to play both sides/But I couldn’t find my own place
I’m working on figuring out my hc’s for Celine’s family, but I can’t tell if she seems like an only child or someone with siblings.
Well, to me she seems like a character with two minutes of screen time /lightheartedly
There are, in fiction, an overabundance of only children, much as there are an overabundance of orphans: you’re telling me that not only do I have to make up The Character, I have to do add-ons too??
But Celine is an extremely lonely character—and (as I’ve said before) I think any siblings she might’ve had either suck or, by the time we meet her in canon, are dead—so, in her case, being an only child makes sense
However, she’s also highly family oriented, so her having a singling/siblings would also draw out some interesting elements—just off the top of my head, do you want her to be a leader and eldest daughter, because she’s always been the responsible one, or the baby of the family who struggles a bit with not being the maknae of the SLS for contrast?
One of my stances is that Celine’s family situation, whatever is was, had to be well and truly fucked. She’s the mom doing a C+ job of breaking the cycle of abuse, so it can’t start with her, yeah?
And if you choose to agree with me on that and you choose to give her siblings… be careful? I’ve seen a lot of people fail to understand the dynamics that siblings in abusive households have—which, much like any other familial relationship, are complex and varied—and it’s often very very frustrating. Weird niche to cling to but it’s mine
