pisoprano

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Someone remind me in an hour or better two to write an essay explaining why it’s not bad writing that Gabriel Agreste got to make a wish at the end of season 5.

Actually I reserve the right to lose interest in that topic again until then, because we’ve had so many end of season 5 debates. But this is a common complaint that I still see to this day and I just think it’s not compelling.

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I finished the Kaladin and Zahel animation and also made a sticker!

If you would like your very own 4x4 inch water prof vinyl "Wit Is An Asshole" sticker you can use the link to preorder one using the link. They’ll be shipped out mid to late June.

Audio Credit

Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson 

Narrated by Micheal Kramer

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For some reason, I have the Bal des Ardents stuck in my mind tonight. Also known as the Ball of the Burning Men in English. It was a masquerade ball held in France in 1393, in which several members of the French nobility, including fucking King Charles VI, decided to dress up as ‘wild men.’ Which, okay, whatever, but the costumes were made of linen soaked in resin and flax. Does that sound extremely flammable? Because it was extremely flammable! They also sewed the costumes into their clothes for reasons I can’t comprehend.

Anyway, they weren’t completely stupid about it, because torches were banned from the ball. So the king and the rest of the dancers burst into the hall, hooting and hollering and acting wild, which might have been fine. But then who comes in but the king’s brother Louis, Duke of Orléans, late to the party, drunk, and carrying a torch because he didn’t get the memo! And he’s like, hey, who are these crazy guys? And approached these extremely flammable guys with his torch to get a better look at them.

Guess what happens. Just take a shot in the dark there.

That’s what happens.

It was actually a pretty horrific scene despite the whole situation being kind of comically stupid, because these guys were trapped in their costumes and burning to death. Most of the crowd didn’t realize the king was among the dancers, except for the Charles’ wife Isabeau, who understandably fainted, and the 15 year old Duchess of Berry who thought fast and used her skirts to protect Charles and keep him from catching fire too. Aside from Charles, the only other survivor among the dancers was the son of the Lord of Nantouillet, who jumped into a vat of wine to put out the fire.

Charles’ had already been suffering from mental illness and had episodes where he believed he was made of glass (known as glass delusion, which is a really interesting subject itself,) and this incident did not help things! He would have severe psychotic episodes for the rest of his life.

And that’s the story! Merry Christmas! Medieval history is wild!

[pisoprano]

she was a 26 year old teen deadbeat mother…..

bonus sketch under the cut

[pisoprano]

Hello, friends!

I reworked the ol' "Schweizer Guide to Spotting Tangents" lecture from my comics-teaching days, figured I'd share it here. If you want a free, printable PDF for yourself or to share (especially if you're an educator), you can find it at the bottom of this same lesson on my website.

-Chris

[pisoprano]

it's a weird emotion when somebody goes "doesn't this just shake you to your core and rewrite your dna and change who you are as a person" and your honest experience of it was that it was ok

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i could blog better than this but i won't

[pisoprano]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you! Get to know your mutuals and followers — only if you want 🩷

Happening upon weird things people make/do. Highlight of my day is usually the dawning realization, "Oh wait, that's what they did??" Most recent one of these would be a serenade composed back in the 1960s for the birthday of Luisa, a dinosaur barbecue.

Variant sudoku puzzles. I don't usually have time/mental capacity to solve the monstrous ones people come up with nowadays, but I like watching live solves by people who can, who explain their logic as they go. I'd recommend Marty Sears' Snack Box series for a sampling of the types of interesting logic there is to be found.

Kitty cats! They cute! (Wish I wasn't allergic to them.)

Stained glass windows. The way that the sun hitting the window just right can create something so bright and colorful and beautiful makes me want to learn how to do that.

Soup. Been sick lately, but having a big warm bowl of goop that warms the tummy makes everything feel 10-50% better.

[pisoprano]

adrien prying the truth out of marinette by asking her 1000 yes or no questions while she raises her hand transmission-style but she keeps forgetting her right and left and every question sends them both further into acute despair

[pisoprano]

Your trademark ™️ is runaway Catwalker.

Yeah, that very much tracks.

[pisoprano]

New ask game:

Reblog if you want your followers to tell you what your trademark ™️ is. Like, what’s that thing that really identifies you.

[pisoprano]

Runaway Catwalker Alternate Scene 2

For my own enjoyment, I've written out two alternate versions of the scene of Runaway Catwalker that takes place on Page 32 and Page 33.

Below the cut, you'll find Alternate Scene 2, which is a non-canonical exploration of a different path. The other non-canonical exploration of an unexplored path, Alternate Scene 1, can be found here. Please see @runawaycatwalker for the canonical update.

I hope that you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it :)

The path not considered

Ladybug bites her lip.  “I know you said I shouldn’t worry about what Catwalker did to Adrien, but it just keeps nagging at me.  Like, where did Adrien go when he disappeared?  I looked everywhere and I couldn’t find him.  If Catwalker didn’t drop him down a hole, then he’d have had to flown and—wait…”

“Ladybug?” Chat Noir asks.  “I don’t like that look on your face.”

“I know how he did it,” Ladybug breathes.

“Are you sure?  You might have missed something.”

“I did miss something.  So big that I couldn’t see him staring me right in the face.”

“’Him’?”

“Adrien Agreste.  He’s Catwalker.”

Chat crosses his arms in an attempt at nonchalance.  “Interesting guess.”

“No, it’s not a guess,” Ladybug asserts.  “Everything about him… his mannerisms, the way he speaks, his eyes?  How could I have not recognized it when he was standing right in front of me?”

Chat Noir, standing right in front of her, grimaces.  “And you think Adrien is capable of everything he’s been pulling behind your back too?”

Ladybug waves him off.  “Half of that stuff was just how he treated Adrien.  But it makes perfect sense if he was Adrien—he’s the type of guy who’d toss himself off a building if he thought it’d help someone.  He’s selfless and self-sacrificing.”

“And a liar.”

“So am I!” Ladybug snaps.

“Sorry!” Chat squeaks.  “I just meant… does the thought that Catwalker might be Adrien really change so much of what you think of him?  You’d know where his ability to act ‘perfect’ came from, but I doubt you’ve spent enough time around him to know what he’s really like when the mask comes off.”

“His friends have.  They’ve seen how much Adrien goes out of his way to comfort people who’ve been hurt, to see the best in others and believe they can become better.  The type of boy who’d hand you his umbrella without expecting anything in return.  He’s not a person who could hurt anyone.”

“You do remember that he tried to beat Mayura up with a stick the moment she showed up, right?” Chat asks.

“Oh yeah, I forgot he did that,” Ladybug says, not particularly concerned.

“You... forgot?”

Ladybug shrugs.  “I mean, it’s Mayura.  If Catwalker hadn’t rushed in first, I’d probably have tried to punch her in the face too.  She'd certainly deserve it: it is all her fault that I don’t have you anymore.”

“And if you’re right that he’s Adrien,” Chat Noir says, “that means you can’t have him either.”

“I… I know,” Ladybug chokes out as the gravity of her accidental revelation sets in.  “I know I can’t live with the risk of having Catwalker as my partner anymore.  It probably wasn’t even possible that we could have been good partners in the first place...”

“So you think he was a bad partner?”

Ladybug shakes her head.  “That’s not it.  You weren’t around for this, but Adrien spent three months with the snake miraculous, rewinding time over and over to help me.  That’s three months of proof, backed up by every battle I’ve fought with Catwalker: I physically can’t think straight around him.  Even when I didn’t know who he was, I got so distracted I couldn’t be Ladybug the way I needed to be.”

“I bet there was some way you could have gotten it to work,” Chat tries to assure her.  “Not that we can try it anymore, now that the whole cat is out of the bag.  Allegedly!”

“No, it’s definitely out of the bag, Chat,” Ladybug says, patting her partner’s cheek.  “And he can’t get put back inside.  But maybe…”

A light appears in Chat’s eyes.  “Maybe…?”

“This is a longshot but… what if I brought you back without Mayura realizing it?”

***

“Rena!” Ladybug calls from the trap door.  “Are you still out there?”

Rena Furtive pops out from behind the wall of Marinette’s balcony.  “Still out here.  No signs of Catwalker or any other potentially untrustworthy people secretly trying to spy on your meeting.”

“Good, good,” Ladybug says.  “I need you to make an illusion for me: see if you can turn Chat Noir into Catwalker.”

“Excuse me?”

“I figured out Catwalker’s identity, so—”

“Say no more,” Rena says.  “Give me a minute alone with Chat and I’ll see if we can come up with a solution that will withstand public scrutiny.”

Ladybug nods and sends Chat Noir up onto the balcony, before closing the trap door on herself.

“So…” Rena says, “did you want me to handle creating the illusion, or did you want to keep using your camouflage trick?”

Chat’s eyebrows raise.  “You know?”

“You mean did I see Astrocat fly out of a building Catwalker was in, hide behind a wall several blocks away, only for Astrowalker to emerge from behind that wall a moment later?” Rena asks.

Chat groans.  “I should have known you didn’t get frozen by Oni-Chan with everyone else…”

“All the Adrien posters became Adrien-less before I could get a good look at them,” Rena explains.  “Speaking of, do you know what’s the deal with him?”

“Yes, but I can’t talk about it much.  Just that he can’t come home, but he is alive and well.”

“Good, Nino will be happy to hear that much.”

“Wait…” Chat says as his eyes light up with an epiphany.  “You’re the ‘little birdie’ who asked Nino to look into Catwalker, aren’t you?”

“Guilty as charged,” Rena admits.  “Who did you think it was?”

Chat avoids her gaze, mumbling, “…Mayura.”

“Hah!  Definitely not!  Nino would rather smash all his records to bits than work for her!”

“I’m not saying he would have known it was her!” Chat protests.  “But at least I can be pretty sure you and Mayura are different people, since I called you while literally looking at her.”

“You should know that I’m still salty that you stole my personal phone number from my flute, even if it did come in handy,” Rena pouts.

“I didn’t steal anything.  I got it legitimately.”

Rena’s eyes widen.  “That raises so many questions.”

“And I can’t answer them right now.”

Rena puts her churning thoughts to the side.  “We do have other things to worry about right now.  Ladybug is still expecting an illusion of Catwalker.  We’ll need to make it look not just good, but perfect.”

Chat Noir grins.  “I think I can handle that.”

***

Ladybug sits on her bed, waiting.  Above her she hears three knocks.

“We’re ready for you!” Rena says.

Ladybug returns to the balcony, where one ‘Catwalker’ stands with hands behind his back and a pleasant smile.

“Good evening, Ladybug.  I’m the new Catwalker.”

Ladybug gives ‘Catwalker’ a once-over.  “Hmmmmmm… No, sorry, this isn’t going to work.”

‘Catwalker’ furrows his brow.  “You think it’ll be too hard to work with this face, even though it’s just me?”

“No, that’s not it,” Ladybug sighs.  “You’re just too obviously you.  Everyone’s going to see that you’re really Chat Noir.”

Rena laughs.  “I sincerely doubt anyone is going to notice a thing.”

“Look at his eyes!  Look at his tail!  Even the way he breathes just screams that he’s in disguise!”

“You only think that because you know who you’re looking at,” Rena says.  “I bet if we showed you the real Catwalker and Chat Noir in disguise, you wouldn’t be able to identify the fake.”

“You’d need to have the real Catwalker for that,” Ladybug points out.

“I can go get him,” ‘Catwalker’ offers.  “He’s not far.”

“We’ll have each one come over here at random, Chat wearing the illusion and Catwalker as himself,” Rena suggests.  “Let’s see if you can really tell them apart, Ladybug.”

***

A catboy with green hair lands on the roof in front of Ladybug.

“Hello, Ladybug, I’m Catwalker.”

Ladybug walks around Catwalker and ogles him thoughtfully.  “Hmm… well… I guess if…maybe…?”

“Yes?” he asks.

“I’m pretty sure I know,” Ladybug says confidently.  “But... send in the other one just to be sure.”

“As you wish,” Catwalker replies with a smile.

***

A catboy with green hair lands on the roof in front of Ladybug.

“Hello, Ladybug, I’m Catwalker.”

Ladybug laughs triumphantly. “Okay, now it’s definitely obvious which one’s which!  The last one was Chat Noir, so you’re clearly Catwalk—” Ladybug pokes his chest, only for the illusion to disappear as she touches a bell, leaving Chat Noir in his place.

“You were saying, m’lady?” Chat asks.

Ladybug’s face reddens.  “That!  You!  He’s!  I’m!”

“And what did I tell you?” Rena says, completely smug.  “He’s indistinguishable from the real thing.”

“Fine, you win!  Chat can become Catwalker!”

“I’ll let Catwalker know I’ll be keeping the ring.” Chat moves to jump back towards where Adrien is supposedly hiding.

“Wait!” Ladybug calls out, grabbing Chat Noir’s wrist.  “I just… I want to say goodbye to him.  Can you send Catwalker here again?  I think I need some closure…”

“Of course,” Chat replies, smiling.  “I’ll send him right to you.”

***

“Are you sure you don’t want to get a peek behind Catwalker’s mask?” Ladybug asks while waiting for Catwalker’s return.

“I’m sure,” Rena says.  “Trust me, it’d be a really bad idea.”

“Ladybug?” Catwalker asks, landing light on his feet.  “You needed me for something?”

“Yes, follow me,” Ladybug says as she leads him through the trap door to Marinette’s bedroom.

“Can you detransform?” Ladybug asks once they’re in private.

“Chat Noir is replacing me permanently, then?” Catwalker asks.

“He is,” she confirms.

“I’m glad.  It’s better that you’ll have someone you know and trust by your side.  Claws in.”

Catwalker’s costume falls to reveal Adrien Agreste.

“Adrien…” Ladybug says, trailing off before gathering her resolve and trying again.  “Adrien, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright,” he says, giving a reassuring smile.  “I always understood why you felt the way you did about me.  And I wasn’t exactly making your job any easier.”

“But I was such an awful partner to you!  It’s my responsibility to be a leader people can look up to and I only ruined everything.  I never wanted to hurt you, Adrien… but I did.  And that never would have happened if I’d just trusted my partner.”

Adrien takes Ladybug’s hand.  “One of the reasons you’re Ladybug is because you use your brain to ask questions about what’s really going on in a situation.  Chat Noir was usually above suspicion since you got to build that trust with him naturally.  I think you only trusted me as long as you did because I was a similar hero and might have subconsciously reminded you of him.  But the second it became obvious that my approach to secrets was fundamentally different from Chat Noir’s…?”

Ladybug shakes her head.  “It’s more than that.  Adrien… I can’t say how or when, but you’ve become incredibly important to me.”

Adrien’s eyes widen.  “I… really?”

“Yes.  I get tunnel vision whenever you’re involved.  More than most of the people I save.”

“Like trying to stuff me in a sarcophagus to keep me safe,” Adrien realizes.  “Or almost giving up your miraculous to save an illusion of me.”

“Or completely losing it when you vanish without a trace,” Ladybug finishes.  “But since you won’t be Catwalker anymore, you can come back home without having to worry anyone ever again!”

Adrien winces, looking down.  “Sorry, Ladybug.  But—”

Ladybug’s heart sinks.  “No…”

“I have to stay missing,” Adrien tells her.  “If it was just about having the freedom to be Catwalker, I wouldn’t have done something as drastic as going into hiding for it.  I still have secrets to keep from someone who knows that ‘Adrien Agreste’ has the answers they seek.  Someone who has gotten close to my friends with no one realizing.”

“Who…?”

“I don’t know for sure yet.  But Chat Noir will have to take the lead in trying to find out.”

“You trust him,” Ladybug realizes.

Adrien smirks.  “Almost as much as you do.”

“I’m glad you have him.  Chat’s the best friend anyone can ever ask for.”

“And he’ll still be the best partner you’ll ever have, Ladybug, even if he’s borrowing my face to do it.”

Ladybug looks down.  “I’m just scared that one of us is going to break character and everyone will find out about him.”

“Maybe I can put in a few appearances as Catwalker?” Adrien suggests.  “If you’re not still mad at me?”

“I’m not mad at you,” Ladybug says.  “Not anymore.  Just... if you do show up, don’t tell me when you’re using the miraculous or I’m going to be completely useless in a fight.”

“You’re never useless,” Adrien says, placing a hand on Ladybug’s shoulder and looking into her eyes.  “You’ve been there for Paris with every attack we’ve faced.  Even at your lowest, you’ve figured out a way to win every single time.  And I have faith that you’ll be able to do it no matter which of us is there to help you.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re really good at encouraging people?” Ladybug asks, wiping away a tear.  “Like scary good, it’s almost as helpful as when Chat Noir does it.”

“I’m honored to receive such high praise.”

“You deserve it.  You deserve the world, Adrien,” she says, hugging him.  “I wish I could give it to you.”

“You already have,” Adrien says, basking in the embrace.  “You’ve saved me so many times just by being you, Ladybug.  I could never ask for anything more.”

“If you don’t want anything…” Ladybug muses, “could I ask a favor instead?”

“Anything, Ladybug.”

She looks straight into his eyes.  “Treat Adrien Agreste better.”

Adrien blinks.  “I…”

“I know you’re too selfless to count yourself as a person worth protecting,” Ladybug says, squeezing his hand, “but you have people who love you so much.  We couldn’t bear it if you disappeared and came back broken or not at all.”

“I won’t let anything happen to me— at least, nothing that can’t be fixed with a little miraculousness,” Adrien promises.  “You won’t need to worry, Ladybug: I’ll be back before you know it.”

[pisoprano]

Runaway Catwalker Alternate Scene 1

For my own enjoyment, I've written out two alternate versions of the scene of Runaway Catwalker that takes place on Page 32 and Page 33.

Below the cut, you'll find Alternate Scene 1, which is a non-canonical exploration of an unexplored path. The other non-canonical exploration of a different path, Alternate Scene 2, can be found here. Please see @runawaycatwalker for the canonical update.

I hope that you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it :)

The path not taken

Ladybug doesn’t meet her partner’s eyes.  “I’m sorry, Chat.  But the mission comes first.  I need to understand him.”

Chat smiles, placing a hand on Ladybug’s shoulder.  “Don’t beat yourself up about it.  I want you to understand him too.”

“Then tell me.  If it really is possible… change my mind about him.”

“Then you should hold onto this until I explain everything,” Chat says, pointing at the fourth finger on his right hand.

Ladybug blinks in surprise.  “Your ring?”

“Trust me.  If anything, you’ll want Plagg here to back up everything I say.”

“Well, technically, you could have ordered him to lie,” Ladybug jokes, poking him in the chest.

“Good point.”  Chat grabs the blanket on Marinette’s bed and throws it over his head.  “Claws in.  Plagg, I renounce you.”

Plagg shrieks as he unceremoniously comes out of the ring, only to be forced right back in as the miraculous goes inactive.

“I wasn’t serious about that!” Ladybug protests.

“It’s a good idea,” Chat says as he places the ring on Ladybug’s finger, “and I don’t want there to be any room for doubt.”

Plagg emerges from the ring.  “Kid, you absolute idiot, you don’t just give me up again!”

“It’s temporary, I promise,” Chat says.  “At least… if Ladybug agrees after she finds out what happened.”

Ladybug’s brow furrows.  “What on earth did you do that makes you worried that I won’t?”

Plagg looks at Chat.  “I don’t want to be the one to tell her.”

“It was literally your idea in the first place!” Chat reminds the kwami.

“And it was your decision to go along with it!” Plagg retorts.

Ladybug interrupts, “Will one of you please tell me what’s going on!”

Plagg and Chat Noir look at each other.  Simultaneously, both begin to speak.

“Chat Noir is—"

“Catwalker is—"

“No, Plagg, I’ll tell her.”  Chat takes a breath.  “I’m Catwalker.”

The room hangs in silence.

***

“Huh?”

Plagg groans.  “Chat Noir is Catwalker.  Catwalker is Chat Noir.  Same guy, whole time.”

Ladybug shakes her head.  “No.  No, that doesn’t make any sense.  You told me that Master Fu was considering Catwalker for the miraculous before choosing Chat.”

“Master Fu did consider Catwalker for my miraculous,” Plagg says.  “He just didn’t consider anyone else.”

“Chat doesn’t act a thing like Catwalker!” Ladybug insists.  “He can’t be… that.”

Chat Noir straightens his posture and speaks with a perfect eloquence that is instantly recognizable, even with the blanket obstructing the view.  “I assure you, Ladybug, that I indeed can.”

“You misled me,” Ladybug breathes, in a daze.  “Both of you.”

“Isn’t this a good thing?” Plagg asks.  “Catwalker’s really the guy who you know would never hurt a fly, so all your worries were for nothing!”

“But I don’t know him,” Ladybug says, stepping back.  “Clearly I don’t.  I don’t know anything at all.”

Plagg looks at how Chat’s shoulders have slumped and sighs.  “You know I can’t lie anymore if you order me to, Ladybug.  Order me to.”

“Plagg, I order you to stop lying to me.  Is Chat Noir really Catwalker?”

“He is.”

“Tell me why.”

“Because we all wanted Chat Noir to come back.  You, me, Sugarcube, and Chat Noir himself all wanted it, even if you and him didn’t want to admit it.  You thought you needed a new holder, and I handed you one on a silver platter.  And Chat Noir only wanted to be wanted, so I helped bring out the side of him that you thought you wanted.”

“Your plan failed,” Ladybug says, looking downwards.  “I rejected him.”

“My plan worked,” Plagg counters.  “Because you realized you needed the camembert you already loved.  And he realized he was still loved even if he didn’t try to fit himself to your mold.”

“But what about when he came back after Mayura?” Ladybug asks Plagg.  “Why didn’t he tell me the truth then?  Why didn’t he give up the miraculous to someone else?”

“I was scared of losing this,” Chat Noir whispers.  “Losing us.  Again.  I hoped that if I kept my secrets as intact as possible, I might be able to be your Chat Noir again someday.  It was a ridiculous thing to wish for, I know.  If Mayura blabbed my identity like I expected her to, I would have lost any chance of reclaiming my old mantle.”

“And by the time Mayura indicated that she wanted to keep quiet about his identity,” Plagg adds, “you wrote off Catwalker completely and pushed him away until he was barely your partner anymore.  Even though he did nothing wrong, you trusted Catwalker even less than you did on his first day as Chat Noir when he didn’t have a clue how to use his powers!”

“I did plenty wrong,” Chat counters.  “I tried to be perfect, but I just messed everything up.  Ladybug can attest to that.  How many times was I late or missing?  How many times did I act like I didn’t care and was just an unfeeling mannequin?  How many times did I go behind her back to cover up the truth about me and Adrien?”

“You know exactly why you’re protecting Adrien like that,” Plagg refutes.

“I don’t,” Ladybug interrupts.  “Plagg, what happened to Adrien?”

“You don’t want to know.  I mean it.  Don’t order me.”

Ladybug is taken aback, but knows she can’t leave the matter there.  “Is Adrien even alive?”

“He’s fine.”  Plagg sighs, then floats up to Ladybug’s face, speaking quietly.  “Look, I get why you’re worried about Adrien.  I know why you care.  But you don’t know nearly enough about what he’s going through to know what’s really best for him.  Let Adrien make his own choices.  He’ll come back home when he’s ready.”

“Okay,” Ladybug concedes, though still conflicted, “just… if you think you can help Adrien in ways that I can’t…”

“We’ll take good care of him,” Plagg promises.  “He’s important to Chat Noir too.”

“Oh, just to me, is he?” Chat Noir taunts Plagg.  “He’s not important to you at all?”

Plagg sticks his tongue out at Chat in response, who laughs.

“What’s that about?” Ladybug asks her partner.

“I think Plagg here has a bit of a soft spot for our former walking body spray advertisement,” Chat mock whispers.

“If you’re going to bring that up, then I will say, unequivocally, that I cannot stand Adrien …” Plagg says.  Then, in a very tiny voice he adds, “(the fragrance).”

Ladybug frowns.  “What’s this about Adrien’s cologne?”

Plagg groans.  “That stuff smells so bad, Ladybug, it cancels out the smell of my glorious camembert!”

“Most of us don’t like smelling like cheese, Plagg,” Chat Noir points out.

“Such unrefined tastes…” Plagg laments.  “I bet Pigtails has some good stuff.  You don’t think she’d mind if I raided the kitchen, do you?”

“Plagg!” Ladybug protests, but the kwami phases through the floor, presumably going to wherever the Dupain Chengs keep their cheese.

“Sorry about him,” Chat says.

“It’s fine.  I’ll sort things out with Marinette later if he eats anything important.”

They fall into uncomfortable silence again.

***

“I’m still not fully able to wrap my head around all this,” Ladybug admits quietly.

“Just think of it as me going above and beyond for you,” Chat suggests.

“It’s not that I don’t doubt you’d try to do anything for me,” Ladybug says.  “Of course you would.  It’s more about the… skillset.”

“You thought that I’d have failed all my etiquette classes, didn’t you?” Chat teases.

“You’ve taken etiquette classes?” Ladybug asks, eyes widening in surprise.

“It wasn’t my decision to enroll in them,” Chat Noir qualifies, “but yes.  Never expected it to come in handy for our superhero gig.”

“I guess I never thought I’d have such big blind spots when it came to you,” Ladybug admits.  “You’ve always been all about never hiding your true feelings no matter what.  Even when it hurt us both to confess your love for me, you couldn’t stop.”

“That’s because… there are times where I’ve had to hide my true feelings before,” Chat admits.  “With people I love dearly.  And every time I started suppressing myself, our relationships were never the same—there would always be a wall that I couldn’t quite breach.  Every time I tried to get past the barrier, the wall would only grow even higher, our bond fraying to almost nothing.

"I never wanted that to happen to us, Ladybug.  But I could see the possibility of the insurpassable wall materializing all over again when you started pushing me away.  I ran before it got any worse.  And then after Plagg came for me, I came back as Catwalker.  I hoped it’d be better to be someone whose wall was already in place, so you wouldn’t feel the need to block me out even more.  But then everything with Mayura happened, plus the whole mess with Adrien, and for the first time, I felt like I needed to reinforce our walls.  And I didn’t realize until it was too late that blocking you out was never the answer to any of this.  It was letting you back in.”

Ladybug is quiet a moment, letting all this new information sink in. Then, she takes off Plagg's ring and extends it to Chat Noir.  “Show me.  The other side of you.”

Chat Noir takes the ring and places it on his finger, the action summoning Plagg as he reclaims his miraculous.  He and the kwami exchange a silent nod, before Chat says, “Plagg, claws out.”

He becomes Catwalker, dropping Marinette’s blanket to let Ladybug see this version of him.

Ladybug examines his face, brushing back a lock of hair to get a closer look into his shining green eyes.  “I’m completely blind, aren’t I?” she whispers.

“Of course not,” Catwalker assures her.  “You just never thought to question who might be hiding behind this particular mask.”

Ladybug’s mouth contorts in thought.  “You told me that Chat Noir was hiding in the last place anyone would expect.  I guess you were right about that.”

“Perhaps not the last place,” Catwalker points out.  “Hiding as Shadowmoth’s secret identity would be less plausible.”

Ladybug’s eyes narrow.  “You wanted to say ‘paws-ible’ there, didn’t you?”

“Perhaps,” Catwalker says with a small smile.  “But I need to keep up appearances.”

“Appearances,” Ladybug repeats with a groan. “I’m probably going to have to act like I still have a huge problem with you. Shadowmoth must have noticed how I’ve treated you before now.  He’ll suspect something if I don’t try to throw you in the trash the next time we show up to an akuma.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time I ended up in the trash,” Catwalker says with a shrug.  “At least you won’t mean it this time.  Though I probably deserve it for what I’ve put you through.”

“No, you don’t!” Ladybug says.  “You don’t deserve anything I’ve done to you!”

“It’s fine,” Catwalker insists.  “I can take it.”

“You shouldn’t have to,” Ladybug says.  “You shouldn’t have to suffer for everyone else’s sake.  You mean the world to me, you know?”

“I know.”

“That even includes the parts of you I complain about,” Ladybug says, cupping Catwalker’s cheek.  “It’s not your fault that I’m always trying to fix every little thing—everything you are is already perfect.  And maybe I can’t promise to reciprocate your romantic feelings in the way you’ve always wanted, but I will make sure that no wall comes between us ever again.” Ladybug takes Catwalker’s hand, lacing her fingers between his.  “I’m not letting you go, kitty.  Never again.”

[pisoprano]

@sadrien-week I know that this isn't quite in the intended spirit of Sadrien Week, but at least Adrien is in distress?

(Also, you never specified that it had to be Adrien's bones that were broken...)

[pisoprano]

Happy Holidays @pisoprano ! You might accidentally get @ ed again because I had a scheduled post without @mlsecretsanta pinged, but this is the drawing! Winter Marichat!

[pisoprano]

super secret special mission!!

(want a chance to get a comic or illustration by me? I'm doing prizes for a charity raffle for @fandomsforpali, more info here!!)

[pisoprano]

Some days I want to find whoever decided that “I” and “l” were both perfectly fine like that and shake them silly for making it normal and accepted in font design.

Like,

lIllllllIllllll I lIlllllll l llllIlllllIIIIIIIII

Can YOU tell which is an L and which is an i?