#tiny rumi

“When you were a baby, Miyeong insisted I held you. I was always so worried that I’d drop you.”

This shit is still stuck in my brain, daemon au's are just so fun. God, if I wasn't already writing another fic I might've actually bitten the bullet and written this one. Anyways-

I am literally incapable of making my blorbos too sad, so while I do enjoy putting Celine in the blender, that means I have already used up all my angst and therefore; Rumi will be spared the worst of her trauma in this au! Yayyy :) (Celine is still very much being blended as we speak tho)

Basically: Because Taehan and Argos are still there, Celine didn't fully loose all of her fellow hunters/lovers. They were there to reign in the worst of her impulses and trauma responses. Argos was not having it with the 'conceal don't feel' approach to Rumi's patterns. And Taehan was smart enough to realize early on that the shame actually made them spread.

They're the ones who dragged Celine back from her worst moments, the ones who tried so hard to make things better and they succeeded. Because Celine promised. So long ago, she promised to always listen to them. Always listen and always take their opinions and thoughts into consideration. She was their leader, and she used to be kind and patient and she promised them the day their mentor assigned their roles. Argos and Taehan aren't them, but they also are, and Celine promised.

And there was a ferret there as well. Albino, white in an unnatural way, but still the same colour as Argos' pelt. A playful thing that was always scurrying up all of their shoulders, if it wasn't dangling around Rumi's neck.

Demons didn't have daemons. But Rumi did.

Maybe, just maybe, nurture would win out over nature. The child was an unknown, and Celine didn't know how she'd grow up. Anything demonic should be repressed, so that nature would never have a chance of winning out. The risk was too great.

But now it was a humming bird.

Sitting stock still on Nara's beak.

What nature could create such a scene?

One where little Rumi is nestled comfortably against a resting Argos, Taehan curled protectively around them both. Celine standing only a step away, previously looking at the small purple markings making their way across the child's collarbone, now looking at the tiny white daemon roosting on Nara wo was perched on her own shoulder.

There just couldn't be anything cruel about it, beyond the fact that Soo-min and Mi-yeong weren't there to see it.

That is the day Celine settles down, ever so slightly. Rumi is 3 years old, and Celine lays down next to her, leaning against both Argos and Taehan. The humming bird turns into a little mouse that Rumi subconsciously cradles to her chest, and Nara settles down on Taehan's back, keeping an eye out. Even if they are in the middle of the living room floor.

They will all sleep.

And they will wake up.

i've been keeping up with your fic, Way to Go Tiger and I just rly appreciate the way you have Lil Rumi look up to Big Rumi bcuz damn...for a while, that'd be a pretty one-sided relationship...

Big Rumi in a way, wouldn't be particularly fond of Lil Rumi because she's seen herself as a mistake for as long as she has patterns, and 9 years old would be around the age she'd started to develop her shame and her patterns grew, so that age would be the exact epitome of her frustration.

Meanwhile, Lil Rumi loves regular Rumi so much-She made the Honmoon gold, she's super cool and leads a brilliant band. Who cares if she has patterns as well, she's just the best! Paired with how much she's growing then, welllll

Once Rumi re-ages this realization will just be so perfect...An excellent contendor for self love and appreciation. De-aging was actually a pretty great choice for her!!

Anyway I wanted to comment this on the actual fic but I didn't know if I'd get the chance to in any of the upcoming chapters(ik they'll prob be a bit more action-packed rather than character-focused) so I js wanted to drop by and ask if you had this in mind when creating this fic and ur thoughts on it b4 Rumi re-ages:)

Gosh!

Thank you so much!

Getting this comment was such a delight.

This is kinda exactly what I was going for with Rumi's journey. Poor Rumi spends so much time in the movie running away from her past and hiding who she is. Little Rumi is the combination of her past and her true self (with no filter... well a nine-year-olds level of a filter... and that's not a predictably reliable filter).

So Little Rumi is a real combination of all the things Rumi doesn't love about herself. But that little girl learning to love herself is going to be crucial for Rumi too also be kinder to herself. Little Rumi admires her Big Self so much, and has nothing but love and adoration for her and thinks she's a badass - so those feelings are definitely going to be a bit of a confidence boost for Rumi and help her get to a place where she can honestly feel 'you know what? I'm actually awesome' and believe it fully.

Rumi also holds everyone at arms length. As a result of having to hide her patterns, she doesn't let any one close or trust anyone to help her. She tries to solve everything on her own and doesn't reach out for help easily.

One of the other reasons I went with de-aging was because I wanted to put this character that holds everyone at a distance and bottles all her emotions in a situation where she needed to learn to reach out to others and to express herself. Little Rumi has been growing so much in self-acceptance and being able to express her true emotions, and this is going to translate in literal growth (both physically and emotionally).

It's also been a clarifying experience about who the good people in her life are. She now better understands who is trustworthy and fully on her side. She can see who was actually there for her and respectful of her personhood, even when she was small and vulnerable and easy to talk over.

Thanks so much for the lovely ask!