trashpandadreamer

Ohhhh that would be. Not good! Seeing as this is an au where Rumi was conceived during rape.

Might be a little like this:

Celine is turning to her, oh no, turning the full brunt of her fury on Rumi—

And the anger dissolves into something else, something horrible, like terror, like abject pain.

Zoey’s hands squeeze the mutt’s shoulders; she hadn’t noticed them touching her at all.

Mira huffs. She’s planted herself directly in front of the mutt. “Let's try that again, huh? Kid, this is Celine, who is usually cooler than this. Celine, say ‘hi, kid who can barely squeeze a lemon without feeling bad about it’.” 

Celine abruptly schools her expression into perfect neutrality. She’s looking directly at the mutt from behind Mira’s shoulder. Something in her intent focus is almost reminiscent of Rumi. Truly, this is the gaze of a hunter.

The mutt swallows, the urge to run fighting with the urge to placate the Hunter fighting with the urge to duck herself closer behind Mira and all resulting in her doing nothing but shaking like the miserable, useless creature she is.

Zoey’s hands squeeze her shoulders again, comfortingly, pulling her back to her body.

Celine bends down to pick up her bag, finally looking away.

“Do you want to go back into the kitchen?” Zoey asks quietly. “You can stay in there as long as you want.”

The mutt shakes her head. If she went, she would never come back.

“You’re sure? I can go with you if that helps,” she adds.

But the mutt—the mutt looks over at Rumi, and Celine, and their intense gazes. She’s like me. Her voice shakes, but she still manages to force herself to speak. “I want to be brave.”

The silence on the way to the couch is deeply awkward. And when they sit down.

“I am sorry,” the mutt says, remembering.

Everyone looks at her.

“About your tupperware,” she clarifies for Celine. “I should not have stolen it.”

And despite how Rumi and Mira and Zoey had talked about how upset Celine would get over the good tupperware being gone—though only ever when they thought the mutt could not hear, which meant the consequences very much would impact the mutt—Celine does not get angry.

“It’s alright,” she says. She does not sound like she means much it, everything flat and hollow, but she says it. “The girls can get new ones.”

The mutt wishes that she would just be upset. It is easier than kindness, even real-kindness and not false-kindness, though she knows it would make Mira, Zoey, and Rumi sad if she said that. Even so, it can feel like waiting to be hit.

Her voice had been so warm and alive, behind the door, when she was speaking to Rumi. And then she had seen the mutt, and became quiet and careful.

The mutt understands. When you’re dealing with an unknown threat, it is smart to wait and observe. But she is in no way a threat to Celine, and she knows how dangerous it is for her to be perceived that way. What she doesn’t know is how to fix it.

Mira catches her eye and wiggles her eyebrows. The mutt does her best to wiggle back.

“Orange slices, anyone?” Mira says in a perfect monotone.

“Yes, please!” Rumi and Zoey say almost in tandem, and then smile warmly at each other.

The mutt collects all these looks for morale and looks at Celine. “You—you have raised Rumi well,” she stumbles. “She’s—great.”

Rumi smothers a laugh with an orange slice. But Celine frowns.

“Thank you,” she says slowly. “She is.”

Rumi chokes the orange down and fans herself. “Oh, go on.”

Celine eyes her sidelong. “With an ego to match, I’m sure.”

“I do nothing by half measures,” Rumi agrees.

“Mm,” says Celine, and is silent again.

Mira turns to Celine. “How about you ask her a question?” she says bluntly.

Celine obligingly turns to look at the mutt, and the mutt does her very best to meet her eyes. She manages only a glance. There’s something unfocused in Celine’s gaze. “How are you finding your room?”

“Good,” the mutt forces herself to say. “It’s—it’s very good.”

“Hm,” says Celine.

The mutt wants to wipe her sweaty palms on her nice new linen pants, but she resists.

“She’s been into linear algebra lately,” Mira says pointedly. “She thinks eigen decomposition is elegant.”

“I see,” says Celine.

The mutt has something stuck in her throat, she’s pretty sure, although she hasn’t touched the orange slices.

She takes a deep breath through her nose, grabbing her temper tight. “I don’t know what your issue is, but you better work it out before we get back in there.”

Celine doesn’t say anything.

Rumi doesn’t know what she expected, but it wasn’t that.

She turns around.

Celine is still standing at the door.

Rumi presses a hand against her temple, tired. “Look, I—I know I’ve done a lot of things that weren’t necessarily what you’ve wanted, but—“

“What?”

“She’s just a kid,” she finishes, nonetheless. “Whatever it is, don’t take it out on her.”

Celine looks—stricken, for some reason, at this remark. “Rumi-ya, I—I didn’t mean—I’m sorry, I never meant—I promised—“

“To protect all that was left of my mother, I know.” Rumi’s only heard it a million times. “Is that all you care about?”

“No, I—“ Celine closes her eyes and leans back against the door. “Before that. Miyeong made me promise her that I would never hold the demon against you.”

And Rumi’s breath stops. Her anger falters.

The demon means her father, however rarely Celine has spoken of him. Rarely enough that Rumi’s never heard this before.

“And I know she isn’t guilty of…” Celine pushes the heels of her hands into her eyes. “She looks so much like him.“

“Guilty?” Rumi echoes, the lump in her throat a violent and living thing.

(She doesn’t remember when she first came to the quiet, sickening conclusion that her father had raped her mother. She does remember the moment—the exact moment, watching Jinu look at that little girl with her hand drawn card—when she’d let herself consider anything else.)

Celine opens her eyes. “I never once looked at you and saw anything other than someone your mother loved. I know she isn’t your father. I’ll get over it, I promise. I just need a minute.”

(The consideration turns to ash.)

“No, you’re not,” Mira grumbles, visibly annoyed. “Celine is.”

“You were cute as a button!” Zoey agrees, and takes her hand so that now the cuticle-worrying is a much greater logistical challenge.

“Are buttons very good at making a good first impression?” 

Zoey giggles. “Well… Celine is notoriously hard to impress.”

“It’s not your fault,” Mira says firmly.

The mutt frowns. None of that sounds right. “You don’t need to lie,” she says.

Mira looks offended. “I don’t lie.”

“She’s a Hunter,” says the mutt. “I’m a demon.”

“Can I make it any more obvious?” says Zoey. “No, Mira’s right, though. Even if that was her problem, no way that’s your fault. She knows better by now.”

“I think she’s… scared of me,” says the mutt.

They both laugh. 

The mutt slips her hand away and tucks it in her lap.

“Nooo, sweetie, I’m sorry,” Zoey scrambles. “It’s just, we know Celine. She doesn’t get scared like that.”

“I’m pretty sure she’s a block of granite brought to life,” says Mira.

The mutt stares at her lap. She trusts their judgement, so much more than her own. But she knows what fear looks like.

On the streets, in a situation like this, the best strategy was to run. But, maybe here there could be a better option. She had rarely had the opportunity to clarify her intentions. Well, except—except for the woman who had taken the containers. And now she’s gotten to apologize for that too.

For all the good that did. In order to explain herself, she needs to be able to explain stuff. 

Mira snickers.

The mutt considers her plan. Her thumb starts to drift towards her cuticle again.

“We should do your nails sometime,” Mira says, passing her an orange segment, not casually at all.

Unfortunately, they took the peels off earlier, so all the fiddling that she could do with the orange would be messy. She takes it anyway.

“Ooh, yes!” Zoey agrees. She holds her hands out in front of her, examining her nails. “Since we’re on hiatus right now, glam won’t even yell at us for at-home mani-pedis; we could have a chill hangout here or we could make a whole thing of it.”

The mutt knows this is an attempt to distract her from thinking about Celine. She hides her smile behind the orange segment. Lucky that she came up with an idea already.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Mira adds. She gestures between herself and Zoey. “We might be beholden to makeup culture and shit, but you shouldn’t be.”

The mutt considers this, for a moment. Zoey had helped her clean and trim her nails once, on the same day she had taught her how to wash her hands properly (all while rambling about how being several centuries old did not mean that a demon couldn’t keep up with advances in hygiene).

It was nice, having someone hold her hands so gently.

“Maybe,” she says. She would need to know more about what ‘a whole thing of it’ means first.

Before she can explain that, she hears footsteps down the hall, and goes still. Now it is time for her to put her plan into action.

Rumi comes in first, and she looks at the mutt, and she is… devastated. It is such an expression that the mutt looks down at herself, half-expecting to see blood spreading across her warm new shirt.

But there is nothing. And now her timing is off.

Celine's body who had to take so many injuries to fight demons. Making sure the company is strong for Rumi and her girls to be comfortable being an idol. Pushing herself to the limit ever since Rumi was a wailing baby.

Post movie and it took her entire strength to be brave and call Rumi. Her calls and voicemails get ignored, but doesnt mean she'll give up. However, time passes quickly (months to nearly a year) and in a blink of an eye, Celine has started to use a cane bcs her personal assistant was insistent when she saw how Celine looks close to falling during a meeting. Still to this day, her calls get ignored. She wants to make amends for failing her daughter ward before it's too late.

Mira was the one who reached out first. Though it took time to think things through, Mira knows where Celine is coming from. When Mira visits Celine in the company office, she sees how.. old... Celine is. Celine was surprised seeing her but she's not going to complain. They talked awkwardly at first before they both become comfortable. When Celine gets up, Mira is shocked to see her using a cane. When prompted, Celine sighs tiredly and mentioning she's getting old. Her body isnt what it used to be. Quietly, she mentions she doesnt know how long she has left.

[tags by @frozenwolftemplar]

Mmmmm tasty,, Rumi who is so stubborn, refusing to listen to Mira who is telling a cold, hard truth. Slipping on the mask she wore back when she was still hiding her patterns. Mira has a lot of work to do and this time, she's not going to let Rumi off so easily this time. At least she got Zoey.

Chapters: 6/? Fandom: KPop Demon Hunters (2025) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Celine/Ryu Miyeong | Rumi’s Mother/Third Sunlight Sister Characters: Celine (KPop Demon Hunters), Original Characters, Original Female Character(s), Original Male Character(s), Ryu Miyeong | Rumi’s Mother, Third Sunlight Sister (KPop Demon Hunters) Additional Tags: Angst, Character Death, Minor Character Death, Implied/Referenced Violence, Backstory, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, No beta we die like Celine wants to, who said that???, I promise there are going to be happier tags added later, i think, probably?, I lied, it gets worse before it gets better lmao, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, not much comfort so far, i’ll admit that much, Canon-Typical Violence, we’re getting there towards teh comfort tags guys :D, Reunions, Avengers level threat Celine, Kissing, Song fic, Comfort, Smut, Fluff and Smut, Cunnilingus, Vaginal Fingering Series: Part 5 of KPDH Socials Summary:

Okay well, the sun has risen.

Now it’s time for the sun to go down ;) (badum tsh!… I’ll see myself out)

—

Or the smut you’ve lot have been waiting for!

Someone touched Regina.

I mean, stopped her physically from doing something while in EQ mode and she LET them and not only LET them, but clearly got pulled out of EQ mode by the touch.

Who can dare do this?

Only Emma.

They talk it through. Emma uses her personal experience to communicate why she thinks her approach will be more effective (not “good” vs. evil methods). Regina accepts this after they both discuss the best approach. They treat each other as equals, they defer to each other (previously, Emma accepted that sometimes you have to do morally grey things to get results, e.g. when Regina took the lost boy’s heart in order for them to communicate with Henry).

So I think after debute and before Miyeong died, Celine's favorite mentor -- her second mother, if she was being honest -- died. Her other two mentors had always been a little more leery of Celine shifting so she tried to limit it around them.

When Miyeong and Third died, Celine just fell apart. She shifted into a wolf and just disappeared for months after leaving baby Rumi with the (remaining) mentors. When she came back, the mentors sat her down and told her that she had a responsibility to a baby now and she couldn't just shift into a wolf and run away from her problems anymore.

"No more shifting, no more running away, Celine-ya," Eunji said.

And Celine had agreed.

So there really had been no point in telling Rumi (and Mira and Zoey); she wasn't planning on shifting again. They had no reason to be told something that would only scare them.

After the Idol Awards, Celine feels like the worst person in the world so she shifts into the worst version of herself -- a giant, monsterous half-wolf, half-human creature with none of the good qualities of either side of her.

When the girls come up to the hanok to speak with Celine, because Celine hasn't responded to any of their texts or calls, they see Eunji-nim outside, with a giant butcher knife, cleaning a whole sheep.

"Grandmother?" Rumi asks, tilting her head.

The last surviving mentor spent most of her time in her villa, in a community of equally old retirees. And rarely came out this far. It was usually her and Celine visiting Eunji-nim.

"Oh, did Celine-ya finally come to her senses and let you three know she's alive?"

When the three of them shake their heads, Eunji sighs.

"That girl has always been so dramatic," she says. "Ever since she crawled out of the woods and we took her in --"

"Wait what?" Zoey asks.

"Crawled out of the woods?" Rumi looks confused.

Eunji comes to the hanok when she sees the aftermath of the Idol Awards (that Huntrix had apparently broken up briefly and that the CEO of Sunlight Entertainment, Kang Celine, will not be making any public statements).

She knows that when it comes to overwhelming life events, Celine hides inside of her wolf self and will not come out until her heart has calmed. So does not surprise her that she arrives to the hanok and finds that a wild animal has torn it apart. Nor does she find it disconcerting to hear anguished howls outside in the middle of the night.

It was times like this she missed Hana the most. Their youngest always had a special bond with the pup they'd taken in and when she'd died, their pup had acted like she'd lost her mother.

Hana could get Celine to transform back just by calling her name. She certainly would not need to find a sheep to butcher and grill and hope the smell lured the pup close enough to her that she could talk some sense into her.

When her grandchildren -- true, they shared no blood but they shared a duty and a history and that made them family -- arrived, she realized that Celine hadn't bothered to tell these hunters what she was. And had also neglected to tell Eunji what Rumi was.

"So Celine's a demon!?" They had yelled.

"A wolf spirit of a sort," Eunji said. "Never under the control of Gwi-ma like I assume your father must have been?"

The grilling meat had lured Celine close. But the moment she laid eyes on Rumi, she whined and lowered her head. And started to slink back into the forest.

Ford has rehired hundreds of senior engineers after replacing them with AI backfired and has cost the company billions of dollars.

Shifter!Poppy: :D

Celine: I am not calling you a good girl, Poppy. You wrecked my garden again.

Shifter!Poppy: *Whines sadly.*

Celine and Shifter!Poppy are the embodiment of that one meme.

I had to

Currently: most of the way to Seoul, the gang stopped in a hotel for the night… only to have to battle off wraiths who came looking for Minji. With Celine injured, and some questionable piles of ash on their hands, their plan has not survived first contact with the enemy.

After the reveal that Minji was actively targeted - going back to her apartment was very much not an option. At least until Celine got cleared for going back to risking her life, "let the wraiths follow us back from a known place" was not an option. And Rumi and Mira had been going everywhere in the apartment complex laying, tucking defenses and other things to ward off wraiths everywhere that they could slip something out of sight - with even more without the out of sight portion in Miyeong's apartment. Also the apartment of her neighbors, an old retired couple. When Mira and Rumi had almost been caught putting the defenses up the two had played the superstitious old people to the hilt - and that is how there was a second apartment in the complex that Mira had given a begrudging approval of. The two had decided that the pack of people that were tucked into Miyeong's apartment were apparently "lovely". Given that Miyeong knew that Yeonngi had been in the upper register of their opinion by the pair being politer in their comments about him when he wasn't around Miyeong felt perfectly reasonable in asking Rumi if her neighbors had been replaced by something supernatural. Because the pair had never in all her years of being in the complex had a positive thing to say about a guest of hers that had stayed more than one night in a row. Up to rescuing everyone from Miyeong's terrible cooking when Minji finally slept. And also that the two had been completely not asking any questions what so ever when the police had finally gotten around to contacting Miyeong. Which it was something to put on the white board for discussion of whether that was due to corruption from the Kang's being filthy rich, general lack of noticing the supernatural, something targeted or whether there was cult apparatus embedded. Because somehow it had taken two days for the Seoul police, who had been trying to find Minji to actually make contact. Who was merely the only staff member who had worked the night shift of the ER on one of the two days immediately prior to the fire who was still alive. (The demons had hit during the shift change. When Minji finally got that information while Celine and Zoey was out, Mira and Rumi had gone to see the neighbors. Miyeong had pretended to not notice that Minji was crying. Despite feeling Minji's body shudder as Miyeong uselessly curled around her friend) Okay - that Miyeong was sure was due to supernatural shenanigans. Because the police hadn't called Minji, or even Minji's family. Somehow every single attempt at finding the numbers and records kept coming back without bearing fruit. Hospital records - everything on site destroyed, with the offsite backup managing to hit with corruption that ate Minji's contact information. Family members of the coworkers - memory problems or phones ending up taking swims... into rivers. One by being hit by a pigeon apparently spontaneously forgetting how to fly.

The police officers—who looked like the photos of themselves in dress uniform that Miyeong had looked up just in case, thank God—were waiting where they said they would be, settled on a bench and facing in opposite directions.

She watched as Park Yeongjin spotted them, nudging Kim Seongho to turn. The men stood, offering a quick and professional greeting that Minji and Miyeong returned.

Park Yeongjin eyed the bench criticially. “That seems a little small for four. Shall we walk and talk, Minji-ssi?”

“That sounds fine to me, Inspector,” she agreed. That was the end of the pleasantries.

“We might as well get down to it,” Kim Seongho said, his voice surprisingly low and rough—maybe a smoking habit? “What can you tell us about the events of the last few days from your perspective? We’ll ask you to clarify anything or come back to any important-sounding details, so don’t worry about them, just give us what you think of.”

So Minji told them.

What they got back was little, at first—casually noting that it didn’t appear anything had been stolen from Minji’s apartment, and how difficult it had been for the firefighters to manage the blaze, but at least it hadn’t spread to any nearby buildings.

A request that they not speak to any other officers about this, at least not without a direct introduction by the both of them, which indicated that there very much were ongoing concerns about corruption in the department, even if Miyeong hadn’t been willing to risk saying the name Kang and watching this whole mess crumple up and blow away just yet.

It was the casualty count Kim Seongho gave stuck in the back of Miyeong’s head, though: all of the staff, thirty-five patients so far, and one civilian.

Only one.

She warns it will still take a while, and Celine's spirits and Mira's half-remembered auguries are also still days from bearing fruit, but it's a lead, and it's enough momentum that Celine wants them all on the same page about wraiths. So she spends dinner holding forth on demonic metaphysics, like Miyeong's tiny dining room is a lecture hall and they're all halfway through some supernatural PhD.

"Spirits are a natural part of the world," she's telling them, between annoyingly elegant spoonfuls of soup. "Even demons are, by most definitions." She doesn't look at Rumi, there, but Zoey and Mira both do. Rumi looks at the table.

"Wraiths are neither. They're not truly alive, or independent; they're shards of Gwi-Ma himself, connected to him, with all his abilities and malice. Like him, they grow in strength as they corrupt and consume, and as they grow stronger, so does he.

"The wraiths we face have fed to a degree I've never heard of, and we should not underestimate the danger. But I have met stronger spirits in my time. Now that I have their measure, I can prepare us better for the rest of them."

She sounds more than a little put out. Which is pretty funny from where Mira's sitting. Four hours of sleep, no implements, and two wraiths packing as much power as a higher-order gwishin each? Mira's abeoji wouldn't have made it out the door. Jageunabeoji might have made it as far as getting his shoulder ripped open before his defenses dropped, but physical pain is a great antidote to spiritual composure, in Mira's experience, and he'd still have been dead before Rumi woke up. But Celine froze the thing with a half-remembered spell on a piece of paper and a quarter of her blood volume in the carpet, and somehow her pride is still bothering her more than her arm.

"So do we have to use magic?" Zoey wants to know, tragically oblivious to how ridiculous the shaman is being. "We can't just, I dunno, shoot them?"

Mira answers before Celine can. "Think zombie rules. Injuries don't matter but if you destroy the whole body that'll work."

From the look on her face, it would have pained Celine less if Mira had actually physically slapped her, but she admits, grudging, "That is… a functional comparison."

"And they have to have made a deal with Gwi-Ma," says Miyeong, slow and resigned, not really a question.

"Yes," Rumi confirms, with deep sympathy. "Not all who die in his service become wraiths, but all those who are wraiths died in his service."

There's something a little haunted, or maybe hunted, in her eyes, when she says it. Mira wonders who she's thinking about, if it's a face she's afraid to see or one that she had to strike down and can't let go of. Both are the sort of petty torment Gwi-Ma loves.

The next question is Minji's, quiet and uneasy. "You said they're… fragments of him. What about the person they used to be? Is there anything left, anything to… reach? Save?"

Mira looks at Rumi for guidance, Rumi looks at Celine with an expression that Mira cannot bear to see, and Celine looks at Minji, her face grim, her tone sad. "No one knows. They remember what they knew in life, they go to the same places, follow the same routines, when they're not advancing the whims of their summoners or their lord. It could be a sign that they are the souls of the dead in truth, and not merely stolen images."

Celine hold's Minji's eyes for a moment, intent, then Miyeong's, then Rumi's, and her voice goes iron.

"It is not a sign worth betting your life on."

Rumi closes her eyes, and breathes out, long and slow.

"No," she agrees, sad but steady. "It is not."

She’s taught Rumi just about every way she knows to fold a paper airplane, and gone down an internet rabbit hole about them besides, and is (to her horror) starting to get used to being woken up first thing in the morning to go practice a basic self-defense regimen in the courtyard. Which is good, because Rumi doesn’t sleep much, but she will zone out into a napping meditation once Zoey gets to the target practice part.

Beyond that, though, not exactly useful yet.

She’s picked up enough to sort of follow some of what Celine and Mira do without asking too many annoying questions—though absolutely any of those were too many for Miyeong, who flashed her a very tight, polite smile and… Zoey was bad at a lot of things, but she knew that smile pretty well. She skedaddled.

(The smile was at least better than Minji finding out that she hadn’t called her mom—that was scary.)

So: Zoey hangs out with Rumi and hangs out with Mira and hates herself for being bored when she’s doing something this important and terrifying and wishes she could be better and wishes her brain would just shut up and—

A magpie appears at the window.

Zoey does not, at first, really think anything of it. It’s a bird. It’s pecking at the glass, which isn’t the most normal bird behavior, but she’s sure that some of them have to try to investigate those invisible forcefields sometimes.

It squawks. At her. And then hops up onto the sash and pecks right across from the one of the locks.

“Um,” says Zoey.

The magpie gives her a look that indicates she’s being a fucking idiot.

“Are you going to kill me if I let you in?” she asks, leaving behind her bowl of cereal to come squint right back at it. “No—don’t give me that look, I know you wouldn’t admit it if you were going to kill me!”

The magpie blinks, and opens three eyes to keep giving her its magnificent side eye.

Zoey squeaks and jumps backwards. It remains unperturbed, pecking again at the sash. Which, well…

She can only die once?

“Fine,” Zoey says, and the magpie hops back down onto the sill, allowing her to flick the locks and slide up the window.

It doesn’t move.

“Well?” she asks, bracing her hands on the ledge as she leans forward it look at it. “All that and you—“

This is when the magpie bites her.

Admittedly, it has a minimum of six eyes and is behaving with an uncanny level of intelligence, so if there was a bird worth having a conversation with, Miyeong figures this is probably the one. But despite all the insanity that she's seen since the day she got that call from Minji, an overgrown corvid sitting coolly and imperiously on the top of her kitchen chair while the most elegant and dignified woman she has ever met bows to it and gravely offers up a small hardboiled egg still somehow feels like a bridge too far.

"Thank you for answering my call, Kkachi-ssi," Celine is saying. Zoey, a napkin wrapped around one finger and a great deal of nervous energy vibrating through her body, gives Miyeong a look like it's not her fault nobody told her to expect magical avian visitors and maybe if Miyeong were a little more forthcoming she wouldn't have gotten bit and had to come drag them in here.

Miyeong tries her best to silently convey don't yell at me I don't have any idea what the fuck is going on either without offending the bird, which can see both of them, or Celine, who has only the normal number of eyes as far as Miyeong is aware but still seems to know what's happening behind her with a frightening level of accuracy.

And indeed, almost immediately, Celine says, without looking away from the bird, "Stop fidgeting back there, and go assemble the others in the sitting room."

It's said with a certain level of affection, but Miyeong and Zoey both walk out like scolded teenagers. They split without discussion, Miyeong going after Minji and Zoey collecting Rumi and Mira, and by the time they all make their way back together, Celine is standing by the picture window waiting for them. The magpie is on her shoulder. It only has two eyes, now. Miyeong decides to stop looking at it.

Rumi also bows to the bird, when she sees it, which isn't that surprising. Mira politely nods her head, which sort of is. Minji looks baffled, but less concerned than Zoey or Miyeong were, which is unfair. Of course, she hasn't seen the extra eyes yet.

"Kkachi-ssi has agreed to help us," says Celine, like this is perfectly reasonable. "She reports malign spiritual energy in a district northwest of here, and is willing to explore more closely and tell us what she finds. She also knows of a healing spirit who may be able to assist Mira and myself in returning more quickly to a more combat-ready state, if I am able to contact him."

Miyeong is impressed with Celine's ability to say that last bit like it's just a normal piece of news, and not something that might free her from Minji's reign of healthcare tyranny and thereby save her last drop of sanity. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see that Minji is somewhat less impressed. Though possibly just as amused.

Celine continues blithely along, as though she can't read all of that on their faces. "I thought it might be beneficial for us to gather and consider if there would be anything in particular she might look out for. I know, of course, what spiritual considerations to look out for, but I'm not well versed in tactics or the mundane details of investigation. If Rumi-nim or Miyeong-ssi, in particular, have any suggestions for what they'd like to know about our enemy's lair, we would like to hear."

"Of course, honored shaman. Kkachi-nim," agrees Rumi, with another elegant bow, and then furrows her forehead, clearly already trying to compile a list of options.

Celine raises a brow at Miyeong, a flicker of warm humor behind her eyes, and Miyeong realizes, quite suddenly, that the shaman knows exactly how unsettled she is by this and is delighting in it.

Mira’s heart skips a beat.

The magpie spirit croaks haughtily.

“Oh, well, if you want a more personal name—“ Zoey starts, again interrupted by a croak.

She recoils in surprise, and her eyes light up. “That’s so cool—uh, I mean… Thank you for honoring me with your name, Suspicion-ssi?”

Mira’s heart is no longer skipping beats. It’s doing a goddamn tap dance—what the fuck does she mean, the spirit just gave her a name?

And, like, Rumi and Celine look just as absolutely fucking poleaxed about it, so Mira can assume this isn’t just a “evil cult that thinks you have to steal everything has taught her you have to steal a spirit’s name when really they’re chill about it with normal people” situation.

The magpie spirit blinks her extra eyes open and then shuts them again, looking distinctly satisfied.

“The rest of the room cannot understand her quite so well,” Celine says, faintly strangled.

Which, yeah. If Mira had spent several decades honing her ability to connect with various spirits, only for one to show up and bite some random into alignment, she’d probably feel a little wild too. As it is, she’s just glad the spirit had the good sense to pick Zoey.

A lot of other people wouldn’t be smart enough or kind enough about it.

“Oh,” says Zoey. She looks down at her bandaged finger with wide eyes.

“It is a great honor,” Rumi tells her earnestly. “Were we able, we would have a feast thrown for Kkachi-nim—and yourself, of course—in recognition of this connection, and the sight that she has blessed you with. I am certain we shall do so once the danger is passed.”

“Promises,” Mira says dryly, unable to help herself. Thankfully, the magpie spirit doesn’t take offense, only tilting her head in what might be amusement.

Neither of these statements do anything but make Zoey look really nervous again. So Mira feels great about it overall, really.

“…Right,” Miyeong says, sounding a little like she’s going to fall over. “We can probably start with what kind of building it is—an apartment? How big? Whether or not there are multiple occupants?”

“How many showers there are?” Minji mutters, probably just to make Miyeong elbow her and insist that she said she was sorry.

Suspicion-ssi croaked primly, drawing herself up haughtily. Yes. You were. There are reasons Gwi-Ma's forces avoided this building, and they have everything to do with amenities; there are some torments they are not willing to face.

Zoey probably should have expected an attitude like that, considering the way Suspicion-ssi was looking at everyone, but…well. It's one thing getting a stinkeye from a bird (she's gotten plenty from the pigeons and gulls back in California); it's another thing hearing their critique of humanity.

"And that was…?" Miyeong asked suspiciously (oh…wait…now that name's making sense), eyeing the bird like it was a coiled snake.

Zoey saws her teeth across her lower lip, trying to think how to honestly but accurately answer. It reminds her too much of standing in the kitchen of her childhood house, the one her parents sold after the divorce, trying to placate two warring people and only further angering both. Only now one's a bird. Or, well, spirit-bird.

This must be what people mean when they say 'great power comes with great responsibility.'

Fortunately, Celine steps in.

"Just her thoughts on the building, namely that it is safe from incursions by Gwi-Ma's wraiths," she says, outwardly cool and professional but her lips quivering at the edges like she's fighting a grin.

Suspicion-ssi smirks (birds could do that?), and Miyeong 'hmph's in response, able to listen between the lines; Zoey wasn't sure what Miyeong's opinion on birds was before, but something tells her it is tanking fast.

Rumi steps forward, bows to Suspicion-ssi, who fluffs her feathers and preens under the display of deference. "Honorable Kkachi-nim, can you enlighten us as to the type and location of the building the wraiths have made their stronghold so that we may better locate it?"

Suspicion-ssi makes a series of low croaking-clucking sounds that scrape through the air like a spoon against the sides of a pot. She directs her eyes to Zoey as she answers, so Zoey reasons that she's meant to translate.

"She says it's an apartment building, nicer than this one-" Miyeong is clearly never bringing breadcrusts to the park again "-a few blocks from the hospital. Like, you could walk it which would be good for the wraiths, I guess?" She looked around the others. "Do wraiths remember how to use the public transit system?"

"I mean," Mira shrugged. "They can be fast learners if they have to be. My dad once taught one to drive a little."

Zoey tucked that tidbit away to properly become paranoid about later and focuses back on Suspicion-ssi. Her eyes narrow, not with the judgment she's been raining down on everyone or that smirking satisfaction, but something...heavier.

Winging off Celine's shoulder, she settles herself on Zoey's, claws pricking little indents of pain through her shirt. Beak close to Zoey's ear, she croaks again, low, creaking, portentous, and Zoey gulps. Celine's expression hardens, and the rest of the room looks at Zoey, collectively on edge and holding their breath, waiting for her to speak.

The words ring chillingly in Rumi’s mind, even still, for all that Zoey had tried to offer them lightly.

Is she the beast? Is Jinu? (Worse?) What moment will come when she must be able to see the difference?

Prophecy has rarely been any comfort to Rumi, and this one is no exception.

At least, she supposes, Mira had perfectly understood what the most honorable whispering magpie meant on saying “Though a bat is not truly blind, it is still smart enough to use its ears to see.”

“C’mon,” Mira declares, as if Rumi had not spent the past several minutes waiting for her arrival, “it’s time for your introduction to public transit.”

Rumi grins, hoping her cheer will help soothe some of Mira’s edginess. (She is, of course, truly delighted by the existence of public transportation systems such as had been described to her the night before—if only they were fully free and accessible to the unlucky!) “The bus station it is.”

Mira rolls her eyes fondly, which is enough.

“The listening ear was a favorite of my eomeonim’s,” she explains, keeping her gaze off on the passersby. “It, uh, it lets you sense intent. What a person wants, that sort of thing. Probably pretty useful for spotting wraiths, yeah?”

“Very much so,” Rumi agrees.

“She liked to use it as a party trick,” Mira explains, tugging Rumi to one side of a moving staircase, so that they may merely stand upon it and not walk down. “Abeoji would throw them, and she’d get so fucking bored that she’d just set herself a goal—like seeing how many marriages she could destroy in one night. Stuff like that.”

“Petty cruelty.” Rumi’s lip curls.

“Yeah.” A slight smirk twists Mira’s mouth. “She’d hate knowing that I was about to use it to ‘destroy Jaeho’s last work’, God. Kinda perfect.”

“Did she—“ Rumi’s question is lost as Mira withdraws her card, starting to explain how the ‘turnstile’ works.

It should probably be less entertaining when it's actual life and death, but Miyeong has never claimed that her sense of fun is remotely appropriate.

She looks at the order of the ones they've figured out, again; Rumi first, Mira sixth, Celine third (supposedly. She won't explain why she thinks that and she doesn't know what it means if it is her, so Miyeong's not exactly sold). No obvious pattern, not by age or when they joined this adventure, no clues there.

She taps at the second line. A healer cannot heal from the belly of her foe.

"A healer." It seems pretty unhelpful, as prophecies go, being a fairly obvious statement, but it's at least also fairly specifically targeted. "That has to be Minji, right?"

Minji shrugs. "Zoey's a med student, she does more hands-on healing than I do, these days. Barring current exceptional circumstances."

Zoey looks up from her own, extensively scribbled-on copy of the prophecy, and cringes. "I mean I haven't shown up for almost three weeks now which is way more than enough truancy to get bounced from the program, so, probably not so much, actually."

"Zoey," says Minji, like Zoey's one of her nurses who she just knows can do better.

"Forgive me for being slightly kidnapped," Zoey protests. "I've been a little too busy to make calls to my residency director!"

Minji eyes her, and says, like a diagnosis just clicked, "You haven't been busy, you've been unmedicated, so you avoided a stressful conversation until it was too late and the anxiety of choice was taken away from you."

Miyeong hisses quietly between her teeth, and Celine's eyes narrow slightly. Zoey, for her part, goes pale, but still manages to put some bite behind it when she answers,

"Wow, okay. Didn't ask to be quite so perceived, today." Miyeong catches the sideways flick of her eyes, the briefest, anxious glance at Celine. "I'm not, it's not like I'm a flake, I'll write the letters and do the apology tour and get back in next semester. I just think the whole evil cult thing is kind of more important right now—"

"No one's judging you for getting caught in all this, Zoey," says Celine, in a way that manages to be simultaneously gentle toward Zoey and fairly pointed in Minji's direction.

Minji pinches the bridge of her nose. "She's right, yes. Sorry if that came out harsh. I was trying to say that you have a disability, which means that you not actively being in a program right now has nothing to do with whether or not you're actually a 'healer' and everything to do with being denied appropriate accommodations. Which we should have dealt with by now. Do you have a provider you can call about getting a new script?"

The slightly wounded, extremely wary expression on Zoey's face flips instantly away in the face of sudden opportunity, her eyes lighting up.

"I mean." She tries for nonchalance, anyway, and fools no one. "I know we're avoiding places the cult might be watching. Buuuuuut I do have most of a month of XR still, sitting uselessly in my dorm, we could always just go get that."

She's pulled out the puppy dog eyes.

Miyeong might, possibly, add her own to the mix.

It's still a bit of a surprise when Celine just sighs, and says, "Take some shinkal and please be careful."

And, because today is apparently Minji Fucks Up Day, makes Celine’s mouth tighten slightly as she focuses down on the papers in front of her.

Minji half-expects an immediate redirect to the tune of “maybe we should start lunch—it seems like time to start lunch to me, hm?” but, instead, Celine sighs and shakes her head. “Healing is a magic that requires an ability to connect with others. Not just to have compassion for them, but to truly engage.”

“Sounds intense,” she prompts gently.

It’s enough for Celine to spit the last bit out: “I wouldn’t know. Hopefully, this spirit Kkachi-ssi referred to doesn’t require a skilled partner. Shall we make lunch?”

She sweeps herself up and towards the kitchen, deftly avoiding the air mattress, and leaving Minji with the bitter satisfaction of having seen it coming.

Miyeong is a little touchy about her kitchen, as they’ve all learned, but they should be able to clean up before she’s back, so Minji’s only worries as she follows are about Celine.

She’s already digging in the pantry, for one, looking entirely ready to grab something with her dominant hand and pop several stitches in the process.

Minji does not think about where they would go in that event. She just clears her throat.

Celine straightens, without a single hint of guilty speed, showing off the bag in her left hand. “I was just getting the rice. I can manage it one handed, I think. Do you want to get some vegetables started?”

“Certainly,” Minji says dryly.

They work in silence for a while, as Celine is very safe with the rice cooker and Minji barely even notices what’s under her knife, too busy spinning away platitudes and trying to think of something real to say.

“Unskilled,” she says at last, “is not incapable.”

Celine looks over from where she’s leaning against the stove, expression momentarily unguarded.

Minji smiles at her, just slightly. “If I happen to say that I find you very capable, will you keep believing me?”

Celine watched Minji''s back ruefully. "Alright - why are you so confident?" Minji's chopping slowed - the slow dawning realization of a teenager with their bluff called. "I bit Miyeong last night." Carefully staccato cuts chopped down the vegetables.

Celine, secure with Minji not looking at her, allowed one eye brow to rise. Miyeong had not been a fifth red enough for anything with even aspirations to be foreplay to have occurred. More importantly - Miyeong had not done the requisite a hundred and twenty offerings to the fates, spirits, ancestors and everything else in between for Minji to realize that Miyeong had an interest. The nurse was many things - and stubbornly oblivious was unfortunately one of them. (If it wasn't for the fact that Minji thought so well of Miyeong, Celine would have felt sad for the reporter. Instead Celine was finally understanding the reason why some romantic comedies were actually funny. The two would figure it out eventually- Celine just needed to get every one through their hunt alive to give them the time.) "I rather need context." Celine glanced over at the rice cooker - which chugged along without further direction. "If your long time friend deserved it, you would have started with that this morning." (Meanwhile if Miyeong had asked for it, Celine would have been forced to congratulate the other woman for finding her voice and saying what she wanted in her relationship with Minji.) A smile stretched slowly on Celine's lips. "I had a nightmare - and I thought I had been biting into my fist as some wraiths passed my hiding spot." Celine's mirth vanished. "That's not a failing." Celine began - but the crescendo of Miyeong's chopping cut her off. "I woke up due to her yelping from being hurt by me." Minji was now more crushing the vegetables instead of chopping them now. "And all she did when I woke up was ask if I was alright." Celine carefully did not pinch her the bridge of her nose and sigh. Rumi hadn't leaped up in alarm from hearing a yelp of pain - and Rumi would definitely have noticed if Minji had gotten the first aid kit. So Minji hadn't broken the skin probably.

Having previously help rescue Miyeong from a combination of Minji impersonating a squid and sheer... hmm feeling stuff due to Minji burrowing her head into the crook of Miyeong's neck and curling tightly to the source of heat... Celine highly suspected that what actually woke Minji up was Miyeong moving during the nightmare. And probably in surprise or... Again, Minji was extremely oblivious that Miyeong hadn't been blushing out of just embarrassment for walking into the bathroom while half asleep to shower while Minji was already washing her hair.

The guy working security looks at her ID with an awkward grimace that says he’s been told off for trying to see someone in her family’s before. Usually she’d say something to make him feel better.

Today, she points at Rumi and says, “She’s a guest.”

He gets a look on his face, like he hates her rich ass and his shitty paycheck, but nods.

They have to send Rumi’s sword through the x-ray machine. The security guy looks miserable, but says nothing. Mira resolves to figure out if she can give him a bonus for dealing with their shit.

Rumi bows to him on getting it back, way too low for the modern day. “Thank you for returning this unharmed. It is very dear to me.”

“Uh,” the security guy says, bewildered. “No problem?”

He remembers to bow back a moment later.

“What is he guarding?” Rumi asks, as they head up.

“The family ego, mostly,” Mira jokes.

Rumi laughs, grinning in that goofy, too-wide way of hers, her ever so slightly too long canines catching in the shitty fluorescents. “I have met many of his ilk.”

“Enough about my shit, what about you?” Mira asks, hurrying to deflect before she gets emotional again. “You said you’re part-demon, right? Had to be some monsters on that family tree.”

“I suppose,” Rumi says, looking thankfully untroubled by a question that could’ve gone incredibly wrong. “I never knew my mother, though my father always spoke highly of her, in spite of her nature.”

The closest Mira’s ever come to a proper demon is that time Jaeho tried to cultivate a dokkaebi in his closet like it was a sourdough starter. She tries to imagine what the fuck Rumi’s parents must have been like, and the resulting concept is too nonsensical for words. “Huh.”

Rumi shrugs. “He had a very kind heart. I have always sought to emulate it, but—“

She waits.

Rumi is not dumb enough to finish the sentence, instead eyeing the floor counter and asking, “How high are we going?”

Celine's body who had to take so many injuries to fight demons. Making sure the company is strong for Rumi and her girls to be comfortable being an idol. Pushing herself to the limit ever since Rumi was a wailing baby.

Post movie and it took her entire strength to be brave and call Rumi. Her calls and voicemails get ignored, but doesnt mean she'll give up. However, time passes quickly (months to nearly a year) and in a blink of an eye, Celine has started to use a cane bcs her personal assistant was insistent when she saw how Celine looks close to falling during a meeting. Still to this day, her calls get ignored. She wants to make amends for failing her daughter ward before it's too late.

Mira was the one who reached out first. Though it took time to think things through, Mira knows where Celine is coming from. When Mira visits Celine in the company office, she sees how.. old... Celine is. Celine was surprised seeing her but she's not going to complain. They talked awkwardly at first before they both become comfortable. When Celine gets up, Mira is shocked to see her using a cane. When prompted, Celine sighs tiredly and mentioning she's getting old. Her body isnt what it used to be. Quietly, she mentions she doesnt know how long she has left.

Zoey doing the "roadkill pose" when she's so comfortable makes everyone worried. Even Celine, who knew Zoey the longest. Having to actually check her ward that she's still alive. It's not their fault when she looks like this, having the best nap:

Okay, so he’s got a girly face, and he wears tights and some high boots. Sure.

But check out that noble steed. That’s one ready-to-kick-ass-and-take-names steed.

While other princesses just run away and leave nothing, Philip gets AN INVITE TO HER HOUSE. He gets a song, a dance, and a first date.

He comes home, just to tell his dad he’s not going to marry the princess because he’s in love.

No. Other. Reason. He rides in and is just like, “I met the girl I’m going to marry. Now I’ve got a birthday party to be at. Bye Dad.”

Now how much do you think his dad weighs? That short fat little man? Probably pretty heavy.Not a problem for Prince Philip.

And then he gets jumped by goblins, both hands tied behind his back

But that’s not enough to stop Prince Philip.Oh no.

He breaks his hands free and starts chucking goblins.

Look at that face. That face. The “BITCH JUST YOU WAIT” face. He may be tied down by a dozen goblins but he’s not gonna take no shit from this witch.

In fact, he’s so strong, she ends up keeping him chained to the wall, but he still fights back.

Now when he finally does get free–

He’s ready to go into battle UNARMED. He don’t need no shield or sword, he’s going to go punch Maleficent’s face in with his fist. If Flora didn’t stop him, he probably would have, too.

Backed up against a cliff edge, nowhere to go. Fighting off goblins. But there’s so many and just one Philip.

NBD I’LL JUST JUMP AND SLIDE DOWN THE ROCK PILE IN MY SKIN-TIGHT TIGHTS.

Gate closing?

who gives a fuck? certainly not prince philip.

Lighting hitting rocks around me?

NBD BRO

Giant forest of thorns?

Bitch, get out of my way. I’ve got a princess to save.

Giant dragon of hell?

CHARGE HEAD ON.

Fire? Dragon? Burning dry twigs? No. Fucking. Problem.

Just smack that bitch on the nose.

Sheer cliff face? Fire burning behind me? Back to a wall?

Calm down guys, I got this.

I’LL JUST FUCKING SCALE IT ONE-HANDED.

And fight the bloody beast from 500 feet high, with literally nothing to save me if I fall.

Lose the shield off the cliff?

JUST STAND THERE AND SMILE ‘CAUSE I’VE GOT A FUCKING MAGIC SWORD THAT’S GOING THROUGH YOUR HEART BITCH.

Just chuck it. Straight through.

Then jump out of the way…

And survive. That’s what happens to bitches who mess with the woman I love.

Get the horse.

Get the girl.

EXPLAIN NOTHING.

that’s how he EARNED his happily ever after.

…on well-researched medieval paintings and manuscript illustrations…

…though a late-1950s American film probably backed away from the complete bosom-tights-crotch-and-buttocks accuracy of late-15th century costume, which is fair enough. 

Olivier’s “Richard III” did it, but that wasn’t exactly a Disney cartoon…

These are from the Duke of Berry’s Book of Hours:

(NB, look at what’s happening in the background of this next one. Peasants, bathing in the river.)

Such images prove - as it needs proved every time some “everyone knows” pop historian or Major Hollywood Movie shows otherwise - that the medieval period was NOT mucky monochrome. 

Yes, the art is idealised and yes, these colours remained vivid because paint in a book doesn’t fade like dye on daily-worn fabric…

For anyone just arriving: Celine swapped places with her evil, abusive AU counterpart, and has been attempting to fix things for Rumi’s counterpart, Sarang. Their relationship is currently tense, in between Celine’s arguable projection of main!Huntrix into mirror!Huntrix and mirror!Huntrix’s bluntly rejected proposal of therapy.

Currently: most of the way to Seoul, the gang stopped in a hotel for the night… only to have to battle off wraiths who came looking for Minji. With Celine injured, and some questionable piles of ash on their hands, their plan has not survived first contact with the enemy.

After the reveal that Minji was actively targeted - going back to her apartment was very much not an option. At least until Celine got cleared for going back to risking her life, "let the wraiths follow us back from a known place" was not an option. And Rumi and Mira had been going everywhere in the apartment complex laying, tucking defenses and other things to ward off wraiths everywhere that they could slip something out of sight - with even more without the out of sight portion in Miyeong's apartment. Also the apartment of her neighbors, an old retired couple. When Mira and Rumi had almost been caught putting the defenses up the two had played the superstitious old people to the hilt - and that is how there was a second apartment in the complex that Mira had given a begrudging approval of. The two had decided that the pack of people that were tucked into Miyeong's apartment were apparently "lovely". Given that Miyeong knew that Yeonngi had been in the upper register of their opinion by the pair being politer in their comments about him when he wasn't around Miyeong felt perfectly reasonable in asking Rumi if her neighbors had been replaced by something supernatural. Because the pair had never in all her years of being in the complex had a positive thing to say about a guest of hers that had stayed more than one night in a row. Up to rescuing everyone from Miyeong's terrible cooking when Minji finally slept. And also that the two had been completely not asking any questions what so ever when the police had finally gotten around to contacting Miyeong. Which it was something to put on the white board for discussion of whether that was due to corruption from the Kang's being filthy rich, general lack of noticing the supernatural, something targeted or whether there was cult apparatus embedded. Because somehow it had taken two days for the Seoul police, who had been trying to find Minji to actually make contact. Who was merely the only staff member who had worked the night shift of the ER on one of the two days immediately prior to the fire who was still alive. (The demons had hit during the shift change. When Minji finally got that information while Celine and Zoey was out, Mira and Rumi had gone to see the neighbors. Miyeong had pretended to not notice that Minji was crying. Despite feeling Minji's body shudder as Miyeong uselessly curled around her friend) Okay - that Miyeong was sure was due to supernatural shenanigans. Because the police hadn't called Minji, or even Minji's family. Somehow every single attempt at finding the numbers and records kept coming back without bearing fruit. Hospital records - everything on site destroyed, with the offsite backup managing to hit with corruption that ate Minji's contact information. Family members of the coworkers - memory problems or phones ending up taking swims... into rivers. One by being hit by a pigeon apparently spontaneously forgetting how to fly.

The police officers—who looked like the photos of themselves in dress uniform that Miyeong had looked up just in case, thank God—were waiting where they said they would be, settled on a bench and facing in opposite directions.

She watched as Park Yeongjin spotted them, nudging Kim Seongho to turn. The men stood, offering a quick and professional greeting that Minji and Miyeong returned.

Park Yeongjin eyed the bench criticially. “That seems a little small for four. Shall we walk and talk, Minji-ssi?”

“That sounds fine to me, Inspector,” she agreed. That was the end of the pleasantries.

“We might as well get down to it,” Kim Seongho said, his voice surprisingly low and rough—maybe a smoking habit? “What can you tell us about the events of the last few days from your perspective? We’ll ask you to clarify anything or come back to any important-sounding details, so don’t worry about them, just give us what you think of.”

So Minji told them.

What they got back was little, at first—casually noting that it didn’t appear anything had been stolen from Minji’s apartment, and how difficult it had been for the firefighters to manage the blaze, but at least it hadn’t spread to any nearby buildings.

A request that they not speak to any other officers about this, at least not without a direct introduction by the both of them, which indicated that there very much were ongoing concerns about corruption in the department, even if Miyeong hadn’t been willing to risk saying the name Kang and watching this whole mess crumple up and blow away just yet.

It was the casualty count Kim Seongho gave stuck in the back of Miyeong’s head, though: all of the staff, thirty-five patients so far, and one civilian.

Only one.

She warns it will still take a while, and Celine's spirits and Mira's half-remembered auguries are also still days from bearing fruit, but it's a lead, and it's enough momentum that Celine wants them all on the same page about wraiths. So she spends dinner holding forth on demonic metaphysics, like Miyeong's tiny dining room is a lecture hall and they're all halfway through some supernatural PhD.

"Spirits are a natural part of the world," she's telling them, between annoyingly elegant spoonfuls of soup. "Even demons are, by most definitions." She doesn't look at Rumi, there, but Zoey and Mira both do. Rumi looks at the table.

"Wraiths are neither. They're not truly alive, or independent; they're shards of Gwi-Ma himself, connected to him, with all his abilities and malice. Like him, they grow in strength as they corrupt and consume, and as they grow stronger, so does he.

"The wraiths we face have fed to a degree I've never heard of, and we should not underestimate the danger. But I have met stronger spirits in my time. Now that I have their measure, I can prepare us better for the rest of them."

She sounds more than a little put out. Which is pretty funny from where Mira's sitting. Four hours of sleep, no implements, and two wraiths packing as much power as a higher-order gwishin each? Mira's abeoji wouldn't have made it out the door. Jageunabeoji might have made it as far as getting his shoulder ripped open before his defenses dropped, but physical pain is a great antidote to spiritual composure, in Mira's experience, and he'd still have been dead before Rumi woke up. But Celine froze the thing with a half-remembered spell on a piece of paper and a quarter of her blood volume in the carpet, and somehow her pride is still bothering her more than her arm.

"So do we have to use magic?" Zoey wants to know, tragically oblivious to how ridiculous the shaman is being. "We can't just, I dunno, shoot them?"

Mira answers before Celine can. "Think zombie rules. Injuries don't matter but if you destroy the whole body that'll work."

From the look on her face, it would have pained Celine less if Mira had actually physically slapped her, but she admits, grudging, "That is… a functional comparison."

"And they have to have made a deal with Gwi-Ma," says Miyeong, slow and resigned, not really a question.

"Yes," Rumi confirms, with deep sympathy. "Not all who die in his service become wraiths, but all those who are wraiths died in his service."

There's something a little haunted, or maybe hunted, in her eyes, when she says it. Mira wonders who she's thinking about, if it's a face she's afraid to see or one that she had to strike down and can't let go of. Both are the sort of petty torment Gwi-Ma loves.

The next question is Minji's, quiet and uneasy. "You said they're… fragments of him. What about the person they used to be? Is there anything left, anything to… reach? Save?"

Mira looks at Rumi for guidance, Rumi looks at Celine with an expression that Mira cannot bear to see, and Celine looks at Minji, her face grim, her tone sad. "No one knows. They remember what they knew in life, they go to the same places, follow the same routines, when they're not advancing the whims of their summoners or their lord. It could be a sign that they are the souls of the dead in truth, and not merely stolen images."

Celine hold's Minji's eyes for a moment, intent, then Miyeong's, then Rumi's, and her voice goes iron.

"It is not a sign worth betting your life on."

Rumi closes her eyes, and breathes out, long and slow.

"No," she agrees, sad but steady. "It is not."

She’s taught Rumi just about every way she knows to fold a paper airplane, and gone down an internet rabbit hole about them besides, and is (to her horror) starting to get used to being woken up first thing in the morning to go practice a basic self-defense regimen in the courtyard. Which is good, because Rumi doesn’t sleep much, but she will zone out into a napping meditation once Zoey gets to the target practice part.

Beyond that, though, not exactly useful yet.

She’s picked up enough to sort of follow some of what Celine and Mira do without asking too many annoying questions—though absolutely any of those were too many for Miyeong, who flashed her a very tight, polite smile and… Zoey was bad at a lot of things, but she knew that smile pretty well. She skedaddled.

(The smile was at least better than Minji finding out that she hadn’t called her mom—that was scary.)

So: Zoey hangs out with Rumi and hangs out with Mira and hates herself for being bored when she’s doing something this important and terrifying and wishes she could be better and wishes her brain would just shut up and—

A magpie appears at the window.

Zoey does not, at first, really think anything of it. It’s a bird. It’s pecking at the glass, which isn’t the most normal bird behavior, but she’s sure that some of them have to try to investigate those invisible forcefields sometimes.

It squawks. At her. And then hops up onto the sash and pecks right across from the one of the locks.

“Um,” says Zoey.

The magpie gives her a look that indicates she’s being a fucking idiot.

“Are you going to kill me if I let you in?” she asks, leaving behind her bowl of cereal to come squint right back at it. “No—don’t give me that look, I know you wouldn’t admit it if you were going to kill me!”

The magpie blinks, and opens three eyes to keep giving her its magnificent side eye.

Zoey squeaks and jumps backwards. It remains unperturbed, pecking again at the sash. Which, well…

She can only die once?

“Fine,” Zoey says, and the magpie hops back down onto the sill, allowing her to flick the locks and slide up the window.

It doesn’t move.

“Well?” she asks, bracing her hands on the ledge as she leans forward it look at it. “All that and you—“

This is when the magpie bites her.

Admittedly, it has a minimum of six eyes and is behaving with an uncanny level of intelligence, so if there was a bird worth having a conversation with, Miyeong figures this is probably the one. But despite all the insanity that she's seen since the day she got that call from Minji, an overgrown corvid sitting coolly and imperiously on the top of her kitchen chair while the most elegant and dignified woman she has ever met bows to it and gravely offers up a small hardboiled egg still somehow feels like a bridge too far.

"Thank you for answering my call, Kkachi-ssi," Celine is saying. Zoey, a napkin wrapped around one finger and a great deal of nervous energy vibrating through her body, gives Miyeong a look like it's not her fault nobody told her to expect magical avian visitors and maybe if Miyeong were a little more forthcoming she wouldn't have gotten bit and had to come drag them in here.

Miyeong tries her best to silently convey don't yell at me I don't have any idea what the fuck is going on either without offending the bird, which can see both of them, or Celine, who has only the normal number of eyes as far as Miyeong is aware but still seems to know what's happening behind her with a frightening level of accuracy.

And indeed, almost immediately, Celine says, without looking away from the bird, "Stop fidgeting back there, and go assemble the others in the sitting room."

It's said with a certain level of affection, but Miyeong and Zoey both walk out like scolded teenagers. They split without discussion, Miyeong going after Minji and Zoey collecting Rumi and Mira, and by the time they all make their way back together, Celine is standing by the picture window waiting for them. The magpie is on her shoulder. It only has two eyes, now. Miyeong decides to stop looking at it.

Rumi also bows to the bird, when she sees it, which isn't that surprising. Mira politely nods her head, which sort of is. Minji looks baffled, but less concerned than Zoey or Miyeong were, which is unfair. Of course, she hasn't seen the extra eyes yet.

"Kkachi-ssi has agreed to help us," says Celine, like this is perfectly reasonable. "She reports malign spiritual energy in a district northwest of here, and is willing to explore more closely and tell us what she finds. She also knows of a healing spirit who may be able to assist Mira and myself in returning more quickly to a more combat-ready state, if I am able to contact him."

Miyeong is impressed with Celine's ability to say that last bit like it's just a normal piece of news, and not something that might free her from Minji's reign of healthcare tyranny and thereby save her last drop of sanity. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see that Minji is somewhat less impressed. Though possibly just as amused.

Celine continues blithely along, as though she can't read all of that on their faces. "I thought it might be beneficial for us to gather and consider if there would be anything in particular she might look out for. I know, of course, what spiritual considerations to look out for, but I'm not well versed in tactics or the mundane details of investigation. If Rumi-nim or Miyeong-ssi, in particular, have any suggestions for what they'd like to know about our enemy's lair, we would like to hear."

"Of course, honored shaman. Kkachi-nim," agrees Rumi, with another elegant bow, and then furrows her forehead, clearly already trying to compile a list of options.

Celine raises a brow at Miyeong, a flicker of warm humor behind her eyes, and Miyeong realizes, quite suddenly, that the shaman knows exactly how unsettled she is by this and is delighting in it.

Mira’s heart skips a beat.

The magpie spirit croaks haughtily.

“Oh, well, if you want a more personal name—“ Zoey starts, again interrupted by a croak.

She recoils in surprise, and her eyes light up. “That’s so cool—uh, I mean… Thank you for honoring me with your name, Suspicion-ssi?”

Mira’s heart is no longer skipping beats. It’s doing a goddamn tap dance—what the fuck does she mean, the spirit just gave her a name?

And, like, Rumi and Celine look just as absolutely fucking poleaxed about it, so Mira can assume this isn’t just a “evil cult that thinks you have to steal everything has taught her you have to steal a spirit’s name when really they’re chill about it with normal people” situation.

The magpie spirit blinks her extra eyes open and then shuts them again, looking distinctly satisfied.

“The rest of the room cannot understand her quite so well,” Celine says, faintly strangled.

Which, yeah. If Mira had spent several decades honing her ability to connect with various spirits, only for one to show up and bite some random into alignment, she’d probably feel a little wild too. As it is, she’s just glad the spirit had the good sense to pick Zoey.

A lot of other people wouldn’t be smart enough or kind enough about it.

“Oh,” says Zoey. She looks down at her bandaged finger with wide eyes.

“It is a great honor,” Rumi tells her earnestly. “Were we able, we would have a feast thrown for Kkachi-nim—and yourself, of course—in recognition of this connection, and the sight that she has blessed you with. I am certain we shall do so once the danger is passed.”

“Promises,” Mira says dryly, unable to help herself. Thankfully, the magpie spirit doesn’t take offense, only tilting her head in what might be amusement.

Neither of these statements do anything but make Zoey look really nervous again. So Mira feels great about it overall, really.

“…Right,” Miyeong says, sounding a little like she’s going to fall over. “We can probably start with what kind of building it is—an apartment? How big? Whether or not there are multiple occupants?”

“How many showers there are?” Minji mutters, probably just to make Miyeong elbow her and insist that she said she was sorry.

Suspicion-ssi croaked primly, drawing herself up haughtily. Yes. You were. There are reasons Gwi-Ma's forces avoided this building, and they have everything to do with amenities; there are some torments they are not willing to face.

Zoey probably should have expected an attitude like that, considering the way Suspicion-ssi was looking at everyone, but…well. It's one thing getting a stinkeye from a bird (she's gotten plenty from the pigeons and gulls back in California); it's another thing hearing their critique of humanity.

"And that was…?" Miyeong asked suspiciously (oh…wait…now that name's making sense), eyeing the bird like it was a coiled snake.

Zoey saws her teeth across her lower lip, trying to think how to honestly but accurately answer. It reminds her too much of standing in the kitchen of her childhood house, the one her parents sold after the divorce, trying to placate two warring people and only further angering both. Only now one's a bird. Or, well, spirit-bird.

This must be what people mean when they say 'great power comes with great responsibility.'

Fortunately, Celine steps in.

"Just her thoughts on the building, namely that it is safe from incursions by Gwi-Ma's wraiths," she says, outwardly cool and professional but her lips quivering at the edges like she's fighting a grin.

Suspicion-ssi smirks (birds could do that?), and Miyeong 'hmph's in response, able to listen between the lines; Zoey wasn't sure what Miyeong's opinion on birds was before, but something tells her it is tanking fast.

Rumi steps forward, bows to Suspicion-ssi, who fluffs her feathers and preens under the display of deference. "Honorable Kkachi-nim, can you enlighten us as to the type and location of the building the wraiths have made their stronghold so that we may better locate it?"

Suspicion-ssi makes a series of low croaking-clucking sounds that scrape through the air like a spoon against the sides of a pot. She directs her eyes to Zoey as she answers, so Zoey reasons that she's meant to translate.

"She says it's an apartment building, nicer than this one-" Miyeong is clearly never bringing breadcrusts to the park again "-a few blocks from the hospital. Like, you could walk it which would be good for the wraiths, I guess?" She looked around the others. "Do wraiths remember how to use the public transit system?"

"I mean," Mira shrugged. "They can be fast learners if they have to be. My dad once taught one to drive a little."

Zoey tucked that tidbit away to properly become paranoid about later and focuses back on Suspicion-ssi. Her eyes narrow, not with the judgment she's been raining down on everyone or that smirking satisfaction, but something...heavier.

Winging off Celine's shoulder, she settles herself on Zoey's, claws pricking little indents of pain through her shirt. Beak close to Zoey's ear, she croaks again, low, creaking, portentous, and Zoey gulps. Celine's expression hardens, and the rest of the room looks at Zoey, collectively on edge and holding their breath, waiting for her to speak.

The words ring chillingly in Rumi’s mind, even still, for all that Zoey had tried to offer them lightly.

Is she the beast? Is Jinu? (Worse?) What moment will come when she must be able to see the difference?

Prophecy has rarely been any comfort to Rumi, and this one is no exception.

At least, she supposes, Mira had perfectly understood what the most honorable whispering magpie meant on saying “Though a bat is not truly blind, it is still smart enough to use its ears to see.”

“C’mon,” Mira declares, as if Rumi had not spent the past several minutes waiting for her arrival, “it’s time for your introduction to public transit.”

Rumi grins, hoping her cheer will help soothe some of Mira’s edginess. (She is, of course, truly delighted by the existence of public transportation systems such as had been described to her the night before—if only they were fully free and accessible to the unlucky!) “The bus station it is.”

Mira rolls her eyes fondly, which is enough.

“The listening ear was a favorite of my eomeonim’s,” she explains, keeping her gaze off on the passersby. “It, uh, it lets you sense intent. What a person wants, that sort of thing. Probably pretty useful for spotting wraiths, yeah?”

“Very much so,” Rumi agrees.

“She liked to use it as a party trick,” Mira explains, tugging Rumi to one side of a moving staircase, so that they may merely stand upon it and not walk down. “Abeoji would throw them, and she’d get so fucking bored that she’d just set herself a goal—like seeing how many marriages she could destroy in one night. Stuff like that.”

“Petty cruelty.” Rumi’s lip curls.

“Yeah.” A slight smirk twists Mira’s mouth. “She’d hate knowing that I was about to use it to ‘destroy Jaeho’s last work’, God. Kinda perfect.”

“Did she—“ Rumi’s question is lost as Mira withdraws her card, starting to explain how the ‘turnstile’ works.

It should probably be less entertaining when it's actual life and death, but Miyeong has never claimed that her sense of fun is remotely appropriate.

She looks at the order of the ones they've figured out, again; Rumi first, Mira sixth, Celine third (supposedly. She won't explain why she thinks that and she doesn't know what it means if it is her, so Miyeong's not exactly sold). No obvious pattern, not by age or when they joined this adventure, no clues there.

She taps at the second line. A healer cannot heal from the belly of her foe.

"A healer." It seems pretty unhelpful, as prophecies go, being a fairly obvious statement, but it's at least also fairly specifically targeted. "That has to be Minji, right?"

Minji shrugs. "Zoey's a med student, she does more hands-on healing than I do, these days. Barring current exceptional circumstances."

Zoey looks up from her own, extensively scribbled-on copy of the prophecy, and cringes. "I mean I haven't shown up for almost three weeks now which is way more than enough truancy to get bounced from the program, so, probably not so much, actually."

"Zoey," says Minji, like Zoey's one of her nurses who she just knows can do better.

"Forgive me for being slightly kidnapped," Zoey protests. "I've been a little too busy to make calls to my residency director!"

Minji eyes her, and says, like a diagnosis just clicked, "You haven't been busy, you've been unmedicated, so you avoided a stressful conversation until it was too late and the anxiety of choice was taken away from you."

Miyeong hisses quietly between her teeth, and Celine's eyes narrow slightly. Zoey, for her part, goes pale, but still manages to put some bite behind it when she answers,

"Wow, okay. Didn't ask to be quite so perceived, today." Miyeong catches the sideways flick of her eyes, the briefest, anxious glance at Celine. "I'm not, it's not like I'm a flake, I'll write the letters and do the apology tour and get back in next semester. I just think the whole evil cult thing is kind of more important right now—"

"No one's judging you for getting caught in all this, Zoey," says Celine, in a way that manages to be simultaneously gentle toward Zoey and fairly pointed in Minji's direction.

Minji pinches the bridge of her nose. "She's right, yes. Sorry if that came out harsh. I was trying to say that you have a disability, which means that you not actively being in a program right now has nothing to do with whether or not you're actually a 'healer' and everything to do with being denied appropriate accommodations. Which we should have dealt with by now. Do you have a provider you can call about getting a new script?"

The slightly wounded, extremely wary expression on Zoey's face flips instantly away in the face of sudden opportunity, her eyes lighting up.

"I mean." She tries for nonchalance, anyway, and fools no one. "I know we're avoiding places the cult might be watching. Buuuuuut I do have most of a month of XR still, sitting uselessly in my dorm, we could always just go get that."

She's pulled out the puppy dog eyes.

Miyeong might, possibly, add her own to the mix.

It's still a bit of a surprise when Celine just sighs, and says, "Take some shinkal and please be careful."

And, because today is apparently Minji Fucks Up Day, makes Celine’s mouth tighten slightly as she focuses down on the papers in front of her.

Minji half-expects an immediate redirect to the tune of “maybe we should start lunch—it seems like time to start lunch to me, hm?” but, instead, Celine sighs and shakes her head. “Healing is a magic that requires an ability to connect with others. Not just to have compassion for them, but to truly engage.”

“Sounds intense,” she prompts gently.

It’s enough for Celine to spit the last bit out: “I wouldn’t know. Hopefully, this spirit Kkachi-ssi referred to doesn’t require a skilled partner. Shall we make lunch?”

She sweeps herself up and towards the kitchen, deftly avoiding the air mattress, and leaving Minji with the bitter satisfaction of having seen it coming.

Miyeong is a little touchy about her kitchen, as they’ve all learned, but they should be able to clean up before she’s back, so Minji’s only worries as she follows are about Celine.

She’s already digging in the pantry, for one, looking entirely ready to grab something with her dominant hand and pop several stitches in the process.

Minji does not think about where they would go in that event. She just clears her throat.

Celine straightens, without a single hint of guilty speed, showing off the bag in her left hand. “I was just getting the rice. I can manage it one handed, I think. Do you want to get some vegetables started?”

“Certainly,” Minji says dryly.

They work in silence for a while, as Celine is very safe with the rice cooker and Minji barely even notices what’s under her knife, too busy spinning away platitudes and trying to think of something real to say.

“Unskilled,” she says at last, “is not incapable.”

Celine looks over from where she’s leaning against the stove, expression momentarily unguarded.

Minji smiles at her, just slightly. “If I happen to say that I find you very capable, will you keep believing me?”