We Change Together

"So, this is you." Zoey says.

Rumi turns to face Zoey, who is watching her intently. Zoey's eyes dart around cataloging every part of her that she can see. Tracking the patterns from her abs up to her neck and across her face, her mussed purple hair, her pointed ears, canines that are too long, and her deep brown eyes; eventually she settles on her cracking golden scars.

Rumi hums, "This is me."

~~~~~~~

I drew these a bit ago and have been sitting on them for too long, so you get both together! The first one is zoey's pov for sure haha. never underestimate the power of a cheesy plant pun shirt 🪴

Rest in peace to the incredible Anthony Stewart Head (20th February 1954 - 1st June 2026)

their (live!) young gestate for. wait for it. eight to eighteen (??) YEARS. can have up to 10 at a time. good grief.

longest lifespan of any vertebrate, up to five hundred years

toxic flesh

has giant eyes but is usually blind because of a weird little crustacean that's evolved to live on and eat their eyes. this doesn't seem to bother them much.

lives in deep cold water and has the lowest swim speed and tail-beat frequency for its size across all fish species. just generally lives life in extreme slow motion

largest genome of any shark

eats everything including moose and polar bears

This is in part because Celine herself had a severe eating disorder as a younger person, and while she’s recovered to the point where she understands that what was happening with her and the other Sunlight Sisters was Not Okay and she really really wants to make sure that it never happens with her girls, she… has some weird ideas about what food is Okay and Healthy and Safe for her especially and about how to get people to eat in general

Which is why Rumi is the most chill around food but also does just kinda treat it as a necessity sometimes. She heard “food is fuel and you should give your body what it needs” constantly growing up, and so like she doesn’t do messed up “food as reward” or “food as overindulgence” viewpoints really but

She will just get disconnected from her body and forget to take care of it. Or sometimes, eventually, lowkey avoid taking caring of it. Because fuck it, she’s not a machine, she doesn’t need to be in perfect shape, why not go on an insane spiral and do something that sucks the whole way down instead?

For Zoey, it’s not the “what is having a body” autism as much (though that does happen to her), but the “I have sensory issues and food is An Experience” autism

Of course, it’s not like she can say that she doesn’t like mushrooms or that the texture of rice turns into something Evil the moment it’s even a little overcooked or she just finds lentils really very unpleasant. She can’t be picky and cause problems and make someone make a special meal just for her

(Her parents had a tendency to lash out. Maybe. Just a little. It’s fine! She’s not going to be a problem! It’s fine!)

Getting Zoey to express an opinion about food is a level four friendship achievement

Mira, meanwhile, grew up in the dance world, and so that came with a lot of bodyshaming—both from her teachers (too tall, anyone with an ounce of fat on them was fat (derogatory)) and from her family (too muscular, not feminine enough, etc)—and a lot of pushes towards restricting how much she ate and what foods were acceptable

Celine likely developed a lot of unhealthy eating habits for herself, but I imagine didn't apply those same things to Rumi, especially as Rumi was growing up. Before it became apparent that Rumi was going to be an idol, I think all Celine cared about was that she was eating healthy. And they've already got a leg up on that because they can grow most of their own fruits and veggies. There was probably a period of time in Rumi's life where "Cece I'm hungry" was answered with "The mandarins on the tree out back should be ripe by now".

And I can see that helping Celine's view on eating, somewhat. It gives a bit of control back to her. It's not just that she's eating "healthy" things like vegetables and fruit, but it's food she grew. She knows it's ok because she watched it develop from a seed. She was there for every step of the process, from the initial planting all the way up to the cooking or canning, depending on what she's doing with it. And the act of cooking - mostly for Rumi at the start - opened up the ability to see food in a different light. She started with the Most Healthy options: a lot of veggie or vegan dishes, ones touted as "the best for you and your kids" with a lot of organic ingredients and nutritional information. But slowly, very slowly, she starts to learn that it's ok experiment. Try new things. Indulge a little. Food is fuel, but it could be good fuel and she's always wanted to learn how to cook the abalone she always sees at markets.

It helps Zoey, as cooking means certain ingredients can be omitted or modified to suit her needs. And it's never a problem because it's a new way to try something. Celine keeps a recipe book of her own, one almost as messy as Zoey's notebooks thanks to all the notes about modifications and experiments. And the idea of cooking to take some control back is something she passes on to Mira. Celine recognizes similar patterns, though thankfully not nearly as ingrained in the teen...Yet. Thankfully Mira got out of there before it could get worse. Whenever Mira starts to get that "I'm hungry but it's not dinner yet and I don't need to eat right now" look Celine calls Rumi over. "Go show Mira the mandarin tree."

I think at some point, she got a dehydrator (or got gifted a dehydrator) that she doesn't really use but the girls found and there was a whole summer where they just put random food in the dehydrator to experiment.

But most importantly, she likely has these from the joseon hunters.

옹기 or onggi are earthware used for fermenting food but most importantly the 3 Jangs — 간장 (Ganjang/Soy Sauce), 된장 (Doenjang/Fermented soy bean paste) and 고추장 (Gochujang/Red chili paste). They probably have an onggi of doenjang that's decades old (not centuries old, that would be unedible) that it's strong enough to make an entire batch of soup salty from one teaspoon but it's what makes it so prized. That one jar is like a sourdough starter that a small portion of it is typically used to make fresher batch of doenjang

I've gone. Not one for goodbyes, I thought it best to slip out quietly. Love to you all, Giles.

Pampering the old wolf

Toph! Because it sounds like TOUGH!!!