#ruminate

HAVE FUN 👇🏽

Rumi's humanity is buried under all that physical and mental trauma that Gwi-Ma did to her. She's just a mindless puppet/mutt to him at this point, and he constantly has to use pain and flashbacks to keep her obedient.

Her body is just a shell of her former self at this point. The Honmoon though...

I would like to think that Rumi had to focus on her happiest memories and moments to make the new Honmoon out of her soul. Since memories are also how your personality is shaped, I'd say that almost all her memories are with the Honmoon, which only makes it stronger than the older one.

The fans' support or their voices aren't the only things that hold it strong. Rather, it's also her memories of Zoey, Mira and Celine (Bobby as well), and how they remember her that keeps it strong.

Zoey and Mira remember Rumi as their leader, a third of their soul. So their connection to the new Honmoon is obviously strong. To their surprise, however, Celine's connection to this new Honmoon is just as strong, stronger than the one she had with the older Honmoon.

Rumi and Celine were daughter and mother in everything but blood. Say what you will, but I believe that Celine is just misunderstood. She tried her best to raise Rumi, and despite not wanting to take Miyeong's place as Rumi's eomma, that was just how Rumi saw her.

Being her only family ever since the moment Rumi first opened her eyes, it's only fair that Celine has a huge impact on Rumi, especially on her soul.

After the incident under the tree, Celine is devastated, because she had failed Rumi. Rumi, who was her ward, her only family after Miyeong died, her daughter.

Meanwhile, in the demon realm, Rumi is trying to hold on to the happier memories of her soulmates friends and her eomma Celine. But it is not easy when you've made a soul barrier with them, and choose to forget them willingly because you do not want the demon king to corrupt the only light in your life.

Only a handful of memories are used by Gwi-Ma to break her down. Zoey and Mira pointing their weapons. Zoey saying they can't be together if they can't tell her lies from her truths. Mira saying that it was too good to be true. When Celine pointed her sickle at Rumi, after feeling a demonic presence behind her under the hunter's tree. The one time Celine was making a much younger Rumi breakfast on her birthday, only to point a knife at her when she saw the purple patterns on her exposed arm when Rumi tried to sneak up on her...Gwi-Ma twists them to his will, making those memories near impossible to bear when accompanied by the pain of scorching flames enveloping you.

But I remember it very clearly because I was getting to grips with SimCity and all its various tools, having lots of fun with setting giant robots and volcanoes on the wealthy neighbourhoods who complained about taxes but also about potholes, and I found the 'ruminate' button. I didn't know what 'ruminate' meant at the time, or if I did, I thought it had something to do with cow digestion. I clicked on it.

The mental whiplash from "mwhahaha fear my god-mayor wrath!" to having my preteen mind blown was quite the experience.

I then had my mind blown again about a decade after this when I discovered that the rumination was written by you.

Stop

I think familiarity ceases playing a part in a person's sense of belonging, nostalgia, or identity if it was not something meaningful, or if they find something more greatly aligned with their niches.

Some people's identity is tradition-heavy, for some it might be afterlife oriented, but really? I think it comes from everything we interact with from books and people to Dua and Salah, So really... identities ideally always keep building. Just like the way Allah has made us into different groups / tribes so that we're supplementary to one another, know and integrate.

I once learnt from a khutbah that Allah created some nations with perks he did not bestow others with, so that haughtiness due to perfection does not precedent. These deficiencies are filled by coming together.