Animation, live Action & the real world

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.

Celine whined once more and pushed herself further into the darkness of the forest.

“Don’t approach her.” Eunji warned.

“Will she attack?”

“No, but she’s very scared right now and, honestly, depressed. You have to let her move on her own or she’ll run again.”

“She’s my moth—my mentor. I know how to talk to her.” Eunji fought the urge to narrow her eyes at Rumi’s glowing patterns. She had never seen demon patterns glow but it appeared as though they glowed based on the person’s emotions. Rumi’s anger vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared, leaving her with the multicolored patterns she’d arrived with, “Celine? It’s okay. It’s me. Remember, Rumi?”

“Does she remember us?” Mira asked.

The exchange echoed in her mind on a constant loop.

“Why couldn’t you love me?”

“I DO!”

“ALL OF ME!”

The idea that those could be some of the last words they share scared Rumi to the core. She hadn’t been thinking. She had been so worked up, so distraught over everything, she hadn’t realized just how much of a blow those words - that accusation - would be.

“Rumi.”

Her gaze shot up, finding Mira’s. The dancer didn’t look much better than the rest of them, but as always she had a facade of cool strength and calm Rumi envied her for at times. Mira gave her a nod, adding, “You ok?”

Rumi wanted to lie. To brush it off with a quick “I’m fine” and continue to let her own negative emotions fester. But they had agreed not to keep things from each other, and lying now felt just as wrong as everything else about this situation. So she shook her head, and decided to tell the truth.

“I…I think I caused this,” she admitted quietly.

Everyone turned to her, quiet and patient. Somehow, she could even sense the pair of eyes in the woods lock onto her.

“No wonder Celine freaked out.”

“I did this.”

Rumi’s voice was soft and subtle. Quiet enough that it pierced through the silent grounds as much as it would have if she had yelled the words at the top of her lungs. Did she regret getting angry at Celine? No. There were things she needed to get off her chest. Did she regret not reaching out to Celine earlier? Yes. Maybe all of this could have been avoided if Rumi had called her after the fight with Gwi Ma and spoken to her for more than five minutes, if she had thought about Celine’s words.

Why couldn’t you love me?!

I do.

I do!

I DO!

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.

Celine whined once more and pushed herself further into the darkness of the forest.

“Don’t approach her.” Eunji warned.

“Will she attack?”

“No, but she’s very scared right now and, honestly, depressed. You have to let her move on her own or she’ll run again.”

“She’s my moth—my mentor. I know how to talk to her.” Eunji fought the urge to narrow her eyes at Rumi’s glowing patterns. She had never seen demon patterns glow but it appeared as though they glowed based on the person’s emotions. Rumi’s anger vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared, leaving her with the multicolored patterns she’d arrived with, “Celine? It’s okay. It’s me. Remember, Rumi?”

“Does she remember us?” Mira asked.

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.

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.

Only when they return, Celine is gloriously happy working as a gardener and executive member at Sunlight Sister Entertainment, Miyeong is still alive, married to Celine and Thirdlight, and works at Sunlight Sister Entertainment along with Celine and Thirdlight is still around working as the CEO of Sunlight Sister entertainment.

and she will never get to experience that again. she will never get to be that young, that popular ever again.

>:3

(Merging this ask with @waterfire1848 's demand for more werewolf pup Celine)

So I'm thinking this is actually going to be different than the werewolf!Celine AU or the gumiho!Celine AU in that the mentors didn't know they had a werewolf/demon/spirit (whatever you want to classify it as) at first.

Like imagine Celine's family being wolf shifters, emphasis on the wolf. Where for the most part, they stayed wolf-creatures and lived as wolves, shifting into their half-forms during the full moon or for celebrations, shifting into their human forms rarer.

(Thinking they get stuck in the half-form for the full moon after they shift for the first time)

But of course, it's dangerous being a wolf in a world dominated by humans. And when Celine is very young, before her first shift, her parents simply... don't return from a hunt.

Hungry, she wanders through the forest trying to find mama and papa when she stumbles onto the hunter's hanok; drawn there by the smell of meat being roasted.

Now, a wolf pup and a dog pup looks basically the same and when the hunters found an abandoned puppy on their doorstep, they took her in without question.

In the time Celine was born, her parents probably still kept in contact with their parents and maybe one or two packs that their territory bordered. So I think it takes a long time before anyone notices that this family is just gone.

I'd say Celine probably starts to shift around five or six. I imagine it's a skill that takes a while to develop and figure out.

I think the hunters start realizing that there's something deeply not normal about their puppy when Celine starts to try and emulate them (like toddlers do). As in, figures out how to work a TV and radio and change the channel to something she found interesting. Or, trying to walk on two legs. Or, the hunters waking up to their puppy dragging pots and ingredients around the kitchen, clearly trying to cook.

The mental image of little wolf pup Celine proudly carrying a pot in her mouth around the kitchen because she saw the hunters do it and wants to make delicious smelling food too is adorable. She doesn't exactly know how they got the good smelling food but she is ready to try. When she starts walking on two legs is when the hunters will probably get on the "she's a demon" wagon.