#A cat known for Bad Luck // Adrien/Cat Noir

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Thank you for answering my Origins Dragon!Marinette and Turtle!Adrien question! Please don’t worry about disagreeing with the idea; I asked for YOUR opinion and analysis on why it would OR wouldn’t work, and that’s what I got. 😌 It also made me consider meta and in-show stuff that I hadn’t before, which is cool. You mentioned wanting all of the Kwamis to be part of some sort of set of two or more, and I’d love to hear what those sets are in your head going down the full Chinese Miracle Box list and why you’d pair them together with consideration towards both the Kwami themselves and their Powers.

(Post this ask is referring to)

Oh good, I'm glad that you found it useful and not discouraging!

Talking about how to pair the Kwamis is a little tricky because of an issue that I've discussed before. That issue being that the "Chinese" miracle box seems to be about as Chinese as fortune cookies. That makes me uncomfortable because - as far as I'm aware - the Chinese zodiac is a major part of Chinese beliefs and traditions. As such, I personally feel like the box should reflect those beliefs and traditions, but I also don't know those beliefs and traditions, so I can't tell you how I'd effectively group the zodiac Kwamis in order to honor their cultural origins. I can't even be sure if my criticism is valid or just me being overly cautious!

In an ideal world where I had money to invest in this sort of thing, I'd hire a cultural consultant to work with me to design a Chinese miracle box that feels Chinese (or to tell me that I'm overthinking this and to just do whatever I want). Assuming that I'm not overreacting, this would probably mean redesigning a lot of the powers and looks so that they honor Chinese lore and not Western lore.

For example, one thing that I know for sure is that black cats are not unlucky in China. They're actually symbols of good luck (all cats are), so a Chinese box would not have the implied good luck/bad luck thing that we get with Ladybug and Chat Noir. My limited research has also raised some doubts about ladybugs being a go-to symbol of good luck or creation in China, but I'm a lot less confident about that one being a bad choice as the association may exist. I couldn't find anything definitive one way or the other. This leads me to think that, if the association exists, then it's probably a bit obscure, meaning that a Chinese box would probably go with a different animal if we were trying to be culturally accurate to what a Chinese-inspired box would really look like.

I can say with reasonable certainty that Creation is associated with the masculine yang and Destruction is associated with the feminine yin, so Tikki should possibly feel masculine to feminine Plagg. At the very least, their spots in the miracle box should probably be reversed with Plagg in the black and Tikki in the white since yin is black and yang is white?

[Image Description: center of the original miracle box showing that ladybug earrings are placed in the black part of the yin yang symbol while the black cat ring is in the white]

I also known that white rabbits being associated with time, watches, and umbrellas comes from Alice in Wonderland and not China. Are you starting to see why I'm doubting the cultural accuracy of the miracle box?

The alternate way to approach this is to remove the possible issue of Chinese culture being treated as "mystical" or nothing more than ornamentation by making the Chinese miracle box into the miracle box of no specified culture. Since that's kind of what the box already is in terms of deeper meanings and cultural ties, I think we can go that route for this discussion since we have taken a moment to acknowledge the potential issues with the box's existing design and why that's leading me to take this route as - to me - this seems to be the only way to stick to canon's lore while avoiding potential further insults to Chinese culture.

If we went to my ideal extremes with this approach, we'd actually massively cut down the number of miraculous in the box because I think that there are way too many miraculous! Who needs nineteen "unique" powers to arm and fight one villain? This is extra true since there's no real theme to the miraculous beyond the initial setup of Creation/Destruction + five random powers followed by the addition twelve more random powers with no clear ties to any culture or theme other than the look of the Kwamis that grant the powers.

But that's getting real extreme, so for this ask, we won't go there. Instead, I'll talk about some general ideas for grouping the powers that we already have and some ideas for how you could fix the randomness of our current powers to make them feel like they make sense.

To start, I love the fact that our two main heroes are supposed to be a pair power wise. That's a lovely way to approach your lore and is why I think that they should have grouped the other miraculous, too. Why are Creation and Destruction the only set? Why aren't the others in any sort of group? Why do these miraculous have the powers they do? What ties them to this box and not another box?

There are a few ways to approach pairing the other miraculous. You can come at it from a theme perspective such as the fact that both the snake and the rabbit are all about time. You can also look for opposites such as the turtle being all about defense and the dragon being more about offense. You can even go more broad and say that a given group of miraculous is all aspects of one type of power such as the peacock, the goat, and the ladybug all feeling like aspects of creation. There's really no clear way to go about this because the current powers are so freaking random!

When I approach this stuff, I don't just come up with powers. I come up with the lore and let that help guide the powers or I shape the lore around the powers I want to use until both things make sense. For example, it makes sense that Creation would have some magical being guiding it. It also makes sense that Creation would either create Destruction for balance or that they both popped into existence together so that there was always a balance. Once you have that, you say, "Okay, what other Forces would these two want in order to help guide the universe? What can't they do or what do they do consistently enough that they might want to hand it off?"

Going from there, you start to come up with ideas like maybe they wanted Time to have a physical embodiment so that they could get some guidance on the long term effects of the things that they were making, so that's Fluff coming online. But Time is a lot and they liked their balance, so maybe Sass was brought online too in order to balance Fluff with Fluff being focused on what was and what could be while Sass is focused on what is, thereby giving Fluff someone to ground her. Or maybe you even add in a third Kwami to be some sort of historian who remembers the past while Fluff is the future and Sass is the now.

Another thought path is that most things are not pure Creation or pure Destruction. You must destroy to create. When you make bread, yeast consumes sugar to create air bubbles. Creation and Destruction working together. So maybe Tikki and Plagg wanted to make "children" who could do what they couldn't do solo and that's how we got the peacock?

No matter how you go about this, I really don't think that there's a great way to explain/group all nineteen miraculous, especially if you add in the eagle and Fei's wacky prodigious with it's animal abilities. It's just too random! But I do think that there's a lot of potential in strong subsets of the ones we get in canon, especially if you're allowed to edit the powers or the Forces a bit to make them fit their supposed Force or granted power better. I've talked before about how I'd mess with Lucky Charm to remove the odd Luck association and focus on Creation and that's what I'd do with most of the miraculous because, right now, most of them don't make much sense.

For example, Ziggy - the goat - is supposed to be the Kwami of Passion and that somehow gives the power to create anything you want? I know creatives are passionate, but that still doesn't fit in my mind. It would make more sense for this to be an inspiration power like the pig or for the Force to change to Creation and Ziggy is just a lesser ladybug for some reason? And Stompp - the Ox - is Determination, but I'd actually label his shield power as an aspect of Protection, making him in some sort of pairing with the turtle. Self defense verses defense of others?

In short, the canon lore is a disaster that needs major work to feel solid which leads to lots of paths for fixing the mess. In my opinion, the best way to go about fixing it is to take the element that worked best - the Creation/Destruction pairing - and expand that out to make strong, logical lore for the other Kwamis and their associated powers. Lore that probably won't be rooted in any one culture because no culture seems to be a solid match for the lore that canon is using, which is only concerning because of the current obvious associations with China and that's not even touching on the whole Tibetan monks + Chinese culture issue. Go check out the post I linked at the start for my thoughts on that which basically sum up to, "I am not even remotely qualified to talk about this one, but it seems like a terrible idea."

(Once again, reminder that I'm not Chinese or otherwise deeply informed on Chinese culture. I'm just a person who tries her best to respect other cultures and the miracle box sets off a lot of warning bells for me. Those warning bells could always be a false positive, so you shouldn't take my thoughts as some sort of final say on this topic. Please feel free to look into this on your own and form your own opinions.

If you are Chinese or otherwise educated in these topics, then please feel free to reblog this or send an ask giving me some additional context as I really do love learning about this stuff, but it's near impossible to research! I spent a good hour talking to a local librarian trying to find books or articles in our library that talked about the Chinese zodiac from an academic perspective and we found nothing. I've got a few interlibrary loan requests out to academic libraries in our library network though and I'll follow up on this if those books end up having information that adds to the discussion.)

[uptoolateart]

S5 Finale Re-Write Fic

I wrote what I thought was a one-shot after Representation, called ‘Who We Really Are’. Then the S5 finale crushed my very soul, so I’ve rewritten it and tacked it onto the supposed one-shot. It’s now 3 chapters of catharsis. I’ve taken the script and adapted it so that Adrien / Cat is PART OF THAT FINAL BATTLE LIKE HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN. There’s an identity reveal. There’s confrontation. There’s all the stuff I was hoping for.

PREVIEW:

As Monarch got to his feet, she charged at him. ‘Reconfigure this!’ She whacked him so hard that he flew through the air, crashing through yet another wall, and another, into his office.

Cat stared at her in awe, his breath catching for a new reason.

Yet his father had never known when to give up. Already, Cat could hear him shouting, ‘Venom!’ He charged back at them, portalling and appearing behind her – prepared to hurt her.

Prepared to hurt her….

Cat hit him this time, relishing the satisfaction of catching him with his stick, whacking him into another wall.

Ladybug gave Cat an appreciative look, then hurled her yo-yo, wrapping Monarch in magic string. ‘Life is like fashion. All we have is the illusion of choice – as you put it so well, Mr Agreste.’

Cat blinked at her.

Monarch gasped in shock. ‘How did you know?’

‘Luck! I hear it’s one of my superpowers.’ She started yanking him in with her yo-yo.

Somehow, now that he’d been named, it made all of this so much more real. As she pulled Monarch closer, Cat’s head throbbed harder, hit worse than ever with his nightmare. Because whether he was Adrien or Cat, his nightmare was the same man.

A man who had locked him up every way he could.

Who’d taken advantage of the unsuspecting public, who’d used them to fight his battles while he hid perhaps within this very mansion.

Within my home.

Who’d never had time for him – no doubt because he was absorbed in his double life. Too absorbed in being Monarch than being his father.

Who lied. Who said he wanted nothing more than to fix things, to make up for all the time they’d lost together, while privately planning his next attack.

Who’d hurt Nathalie.

Who may have hurt his mother.

Who was trying to hurt Marinette.

Who was hurting him.

‘No, no, no, no, no!’ He dropped to the floor, hunched over and groaning in pain, eyes clenched shut and teeth gritted. Because he was angry. The world was growing red again it was too easy to imagine that black energy pooling in his hand, seeking a way out….

‘Cat!’ Ladybug cried.

That distraction was all Monarch needed. He unwound himself from the string and laughed. ‘Too bad you’re not invulnerable to your nightmares. And too bad I’m invulnerable to your luck!’

Cat fought down the growl in his throat, his chest heaving and the rage boiling in his veins. He turned his glare on his father. ‘My true nightmare…is you! And it stops right here! Cataclysm!’

He slammed his hand down on the floor and the floor broke apart. In a plume of dust, his father fell right through – and so did Ladybug.

She screamed, and Cat hurled himself at her, grabbing her hand, just in time to be dragged down under the floor with her, the tiles raining down on them.

Keep reading at Ao3

Tags:

Identity Reveal

S5 Finale Rewrite

Fix-It

Episode Fix-it

Conformation and Re-Creation IF CAT NOIR HAD BEEN THERE

lots of kisses

Adrien confronts his father

Adrien goes into that basement like HE SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE EPISODE

I demonstrate that all of this could have easily been done without adding to the runtime

And without changing the fundamental script

And without changing the ultimate ending

And I fit the whole damn love square in there

Catharsis

Sentimonster Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir

[marsrize]

Rewriting my story with you [Part 1 of 6]

Ao3 : Here. Summary : Adrien is not feeling well. He decides to run away from his problems and finds himself in Gotham. But his traitorous heart starts to beat for a certain vigilante. Why did he always have to choose to complicate everything? Relationship : Adrien Agreste x Damian Wayne WARNING: This story makes a lot of references to depression. If you are not comfortable with this kind of theme, I would not recommend reading this fic. 

Chapter 1: I have a problem    

Gotham City was always shrouded in darkness, but for Adrien Agreste, also known as Cat Noir, it was the perfect place to escape his complicated love life. He had left Paris for a while, hoping to find some peace of mind, away from Ladybug and their unresolved feelings.

But Gotham was a different kind of chaos. A darkness that seemed to creep into your soul, and Adrien found himself feeling lonelier than ever. He had always been a lone hero in Paris, but in Gotham, he felt even more isolated.

He was sitting alone in a coffee shop, lost in his thoughts, when he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"Adrien? What are you doing in Gotham?"

He was surprised to see an old acquaintance: Zoe Lee.

The girl had had to leave Paris during their second year of high school to live with her father. Who would have thought that she also lived in Gotham?

"Zoe!" Adrien exclaimed, standing up and hugging her tightly. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm supposed to meet up with some friends, but they just called me and said they'd be late. I came here to pass the time. I didn't think I'd meet you..."

She looked at him, her smile a little hesitant.

"You're definitely the last person I expected to see here in Gotham."

Adrien scratched his head in embarrassment. He couldn't see himself telling his life story to someone he hadn't spoken to in a long time.

"I wanted a change of scenery. You know... See what the world looks like outside my cocoon..."

"I understand the feeling!"

She sat with him for a while. Finally, when her phone began to vibrate, she excused herself to leave.

"Let's exchange numbers, I still have so much to tell you!"

Adrien couldn't bring himself to say no to her. He felt terribly alone, but at the same time, didn't want to talk about it.

What a strange feeling.

So, he did what he always did: he smiled and gave her his number, like the stupid perfect doll he was.

Adrien returned home. He didn't have much to do so he sat at his window. He had chosen to live in a part of Gotham City that had a bad reputation. Why? He wanted to be as far away from the rich as possible. He had been surrounded by those hypocrites all his life, the last thing he needed was to be around those bullies who thought they were above everyone else.

The window had a fire escape. He stood there, just staring into the void. He came to his senses when he felt the cold breeze give him chills. It was already dark, and he had not eaten anything solid yet. All he had in his stomach was the coffee he had drunk with Zoe.

It was time to go out and buy something to eat. Hopefully there would be a robber or someone to put an end to his miserable existence. As if the universe was laughing at him, nothing happened to him during that night. Nor during any other night. He could go out as late as he could, take the darkest alleys. Nothing happened to him. He didn't know if it was luck or a curse.

This went on for several weeks.

He talked to Zoe regularly, and they called each other from time to time. Adrien was still not getting better, but... He had fewer suicidal thoughts. He just had this constant emptiness in his heart.

Then one night, while wandering around the city, he found himself in a dark alleyway. He wasn't paying attention and before he knew it, he was surrounded by a group of dangerous-looking men.

Adrien tried to run (it was ironic, considering the fact that some time ago he had wished to be attacked), but they caught up with him and started to beat him up.

Just when Adrien thought it was the end for him, a mysterious figure appeared out of nowhere and took down the attackers with incredible speed and precision. Adrien was in awe as he watched the masked figure effortlessly defeat the attackers.

As the last attacker was taken down, Adrien stumbled to his feet, unsure of what had just happened. The masked figure turned to him, and for the first time, Adrien saw the bright green eyes behind the mask.

"Are you okay?" the masked figure asked, extending a hand to help Adrien up.

His heart missed a beat. Then his heart began to beat very loudly. It was as if he was able to hear his own heartbeat. Adrien couldn't believe what he was seeing. This figure was unlike anything he had ever seen before. He felt drawn to the stranger, as if there was something about him that made Adrien feel safe and comfortable.

He took a few steps back. His mouth opened and then closed again. He was no stranger to this situation. Something similar had happened to him before. Adrien was petrified. He finally found his voice and managed to thank his mysterious savior in a low voice.

"Thank you."

The masked guy simply nodded and disappeared into the darkness.

Over the next few days, Adrien couldn't stop thinking about the mysterious figure that had saved his life. He wandered around the city, hoping to run into him again. But the masked guy seemed to be nowhere to be found.

One night, while Adrien was walking home from a dinner with Zoe, he heard a commotion coming from an alleyway. He cautiously approached the alleyway and saw that a group of men had cornered him again. Adrien was about to turn and run, but before he could, the masked guy appeared once again. With incredible speed and skill, the masked figure took down the attackers, leaving them dazed and confused. Adrien felt overwhelmed with gratitude and admiration for the stranger but at the same time, he felt like giving himself a slap.

Buddy, you're just getting out of a chaotic situation. You've spent the last few years in love with a great girl, but who only sees you as a partner, and you... You, you idiot, have a crush on the first guy who saves you? What's your problem?!

"Who are you?" Adrien asked, as the masked guy helped him up.

"I'm Robin," the masked guy replied.

Adrien felt a jolt of recognition at the name. He had heard of Robin before, but never thought he would meet him in person.

"Thank you, Robin. You saved my life."

"-Tk- It's what I do."

As Adrien walked away, he couldn't stop thinking about Robin.

[circusclownsam]

miraculous ladybug oc

━━━━━━━━━━━

||Civilian Side||

~Full name~

Min-Ya Choi

~Nicknames~

Minnie, prefers that name only

~Age~

18

~Date of Birth~

3 / 9

~Place of Birth~

Seoul, South Korea

~Nationality~

Korean - Australian

~Race~

Asian

~Known languages~

- English, Korean

~Scent~

- a soft, vanilla smell.

━━━━━━━━━━━

||Appearance||

~Height~

158cm / 5’2

~Weight~

N/A

~Hair Colour~

Chocolate brown

~Eye Colour~

Deep blue

~Complexion~

warm tan

~Scars~

inner thighs, arms and back. prefers keeping them hidden.

~Hair length~

Thigh length

~Natural Hair texture~

2c

~Birthmarks~

She has a small, heart-like birthmark on the back of her right earlobe.

~Face claim~

: https://pin.it/6PfdrLY32

~Body shape~

hourglass, average thickness, small waist, d cup size

~Other features~

dark brown freckled cheeks, nose and shoulders. dimpled smile

━━━━━━━━━━━

||outfit||

: https://pin.it/wbmdczgzE

: https://pin.it/3PgvTKVaN (worn underneath top)

: https://pin.it/2Inwi7FuO

: https://pin.it/3KIki3D3m

: https://pin.it/4yvaAbgTx

: https://pin.it/5JVJFlomB (left wrist)

: https://pin.it/2p7Ag7Ncz (right wrist)

: https://pin.it/5mrxjF6UP

: https://pin.it/37mxmhXlA

: https://pin.it/6ghBl3Bnk

: https://pin.it/26alTPCln

: https://pin.it/5wjI6Zii8

━━━━━━━━━━━

━━━━━━━━━━━

||Personality||

~Good traits~

- Caring

- Kind-hearted

- gentle

- selfless

- flirtatious

- trust worthy

~Bad traits~

- blunt

- Introverted

- Sarcastic

- Cold

- Trust issues

~Hobbies~

- playing the violin

- designing outfits for her mothers clothing brand

- occasionally, gymnastics

~Likes~

- drawing with Marc and Nathaniel

- not being pestered about things

- studying / doing homework with Juleka and Rose

- designing outfits

- reading in her alone time

- listening to her music on the to and from school

~Dislikes~

- being pestered by Chloe and Sabrina

- being put in the spotlight

- having art-block

- slimy textured foods

- mud

- when her father is mentioned

~Fears~

- deep-water (ocean, pools, lakes)

- big dogs

~Insecurities~

- her scars, mainly

- occasionally her looks

~Talents~

- violin

- clothing design

- gymnastics

━━━━━━━━━━━

||Health||

~Mental~

- occasional nightmare, attended therapy once a week, overall okay.

~Physical~

- fit for her age, no known disabilities/defects, overall good.

~Allergies~

- sunflower, mild rash and sneeze

~illnesses~

- mild case of social anxiety, unmedicated

~Hygiene~

- showers/bathes regularly, no bad body odour

~Dental~

- brushes daily, healthy white, no known cavities

━━━━━━━━━━━

||Stats||

-Intelligence 8/10

-Strength 10/10

-Agility 7/10

-Speed 9/10

-Wisdom 8/10

-Reflexes 10/10

-Confidence 5/10

-Empathy 7/10

-Luck 6/10

━━━━━━━━━━━

||Relations||

~Friends~

- Juleka

- Rose

- Nathaniel

- Marc

~Family~

- (Father): Robert Kingly, unknown age, (was) abusive towards Minnie, unknown occupation

- (Mother): Lin Choi, 58, caring towards minnie, well-known clothing designer

- (Brother): Only child

- (Sister): Only child

~Pets~

- a black cat named Noir (ha)

~potential love interests~

- Luka Couffaine

- Chat Noir / Adrien Agreste

━━━━━━━━━━━

||Backstory||

Born on the 3rd of September in Seoul, South Korea to Lin Choi and Robert kingly, Minnie lived there until she was 2 before moving to Sydney, Australia where her father walked out on her shortly after turning 15, it didn’t affect minnie as much- she was just grateful to be free of his abuse.

Soon her and her mother moved to Paris, where she now attends Collège Françoise Dupont, despite being cold to her classmates- she has managed to befriend Rose, Juleka, Nathaniel and Marc- students from her class.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[soulsxunbound]

Tag drop pt.1

[tenebraevesper]

Analyzer - Félix Graham de Vanily (Miraculous Ladybug)

Better known as the former Chat Noir and, in my opinion, the best character in the entire MLB show.

Trigger Warning: This analysis contains rants and fangirling concerning the show Miraculous Ladybug, its characters, story elements and scrapped ideas. If you are unable to handle such content, please move on to a blog that caters to your interests rather than reading my thoughts. I want to keep things as civil as possible here.

You have been warned.

With the airing of the Miraculous Ladybug Season 4 Episode 9 - Gabriel Agreste - MLB has brought back one of the most significant and intriguing characters of the show - Félix Graham de Vanily. However, before I dive into his importance, I’ll give a quick background on his character.

For those who don’t know, Félix was conceived as the main character and partner of Ladybug in the short-lived Miraculous Ladybug PV, when the show had been drafted as an anime adaptation and the main characters, Félix and Marinette (later renamed Bridgette by fans to avoid confusion between the current show and the PV!Verse) had a completely different dynamic than Adrien and Marinette. Unfortunately for PV!Fans, his character had been dropped in favour of Adrien, as confirmed by Thomas Astruc himself.

Despite Astruc’s insistence that Félix wasn’t an interesting character, even going so far to call him an ‘anime cliché’...

...the fans of this character, myself included, believe that with some work, he could’ve made an amazing character with a lot of depth added to him. Having him being cursed by the Ring of the Black Cat to experience bad luck until it is removed by a kiss from Ladybug is a rather unique idea and I was disappointed to see it being scrapped. Fortunately, Astruc gave us writers his consent to do whatever we wanted with him.

Challenge accepted. If you guys want to see my take on Félix, please refer to my story, Up Ladybug, which takes place purely in the Miraculous Ladybug PV Universe. You can find more information about it via this link.

So, accepting the fact that Félix won’t appear anywhere outside the Miraculous Ladybug PV, it was quite a shock when I heard that he would make his debut in Miraculous Ladybug Season 3 Episode 23 - Félix. I was quite excited for him to appear, but at the same point, I was afraid of how he would be written, especially after finding this Q&A:

To keep it short, Astruc went from calling Félix an uninteresting character to outright saying how he is pure evil and doesn’t deserve to be loved, which is... a bit disturbing. The messages left by Astruc imply his growing hatred for a fictional character who was embraced by people who simply wanted to enjoy the potential stories with him.

This is also reflected in the episode Félix, which feels like the writers were after Félix’s blood by trying to write him as unpleasant and ’’evil’’ as possible, his actions ranging from deleting the messages Adrien’s friends sent to him and insulting them while disguised as Adrien to attempting to kiss Ladybug and being punched for this.

While none of this is acceptable (especially the attempted kiss), I can’t say any of these actions made me hate Félix. As a matter of fact, the whole episode just reinforced the idea that PV!Fans are not allowed to prefer Félix over Adrien and that Astruc is going to fight tooth and nail to make sure that Sunshine Boy comes on top while Grumpy Cat is abandoned by everyone.

He failed. Miserably, I might add.

Starting with Astruc’s comment about Félix being an anime cliché, that probably being the Broody Boy to Bridgette’s Gentle Girl, with the addition of Jerk With a Heart of Gold, I have to note that, in comparison, Adrien is also an often-used anime cliché, that being a rich Spoiled Sweet kid with a strict parent who has no social skills and is a Clueless Chick Magnet. Trust me, I’ve watched enough anime to recognize those tropes from miles away, so saying Félix is a bad character because he’s an anime cliché has no merit here when Adrien is in the same situation.

Next, Adrien has been created because Félix didn’t make for good stories. While the creative process can be a huge roller-coaster, and replacing one character with another isn’t unheard of, this issue could’ve been easily fixed - character development. Unfortunately, this show is allergic to consistent character building and gradual character development.

Something I have noticed about Miraculous Ladybug is that there is very little, if zero character development, especially with the main characters, as there is barely any difference from how Marinette and Adrien act in Season 1 and in Season 4. Their dynamic is still the same and the more negative and toxic aspects of it had only been strengthened (for example, Adrichat’s obsessive pursuit of Maribug and his constant disrespect towards her boundaries). Not to mention the show’s greatest example of neglecting character development - the case of Chloé Bourgeois, who instead of growing out of being a bully was declared irredeemable by Astruc and replaced by Zoé Lee, a character who appeared literally out of nowhere and who can be described as ‘Chloé, but if she actually were nice’, which is quite disappointing.

Why am I mentioning this? Because the same thing that happened to Chloé happened to PV!Félix. Instead of working on his character and developing his dynamic with PV!Marinette, the writers took the easy way out by just replacing him with a character who is already perfect. Don’t believe me?

I’ll repeat it for the people in the back: ’’Adrien is perfect... he’s not flawed. The world is.’’

This is a problem on so many story-telling levels, one that many beginner writers make - creating the perfect character, one the universe caters and who can do no wrong is how you get a Mary Sue (link to Overly Sarcastic Studios on that topic), the bane of every writer. 

To quote Red: ’’We are supposed to accept at face value that they’re the most interesting, most important character in the story, because that’s the starting point of their character. Not their backstory, not their motivation, just how invested we’re supposed to be.’’

In the case of Miraculous Ladybug, the story focuses mostly on Marinette, but what does Marinette focus on? Adrien. When it isn’t about the Miraculous lore, every episode somehow shoves Adrien into it and the story is derailed in favor of the Love Square. Even Astruc himself notes how the lore and the goal of defeating Hawk Moth/Shadow Moth is the B-plot.

I will add this, the idea of a show revolving around a love story reminds me uncannily of Twilight, which in turn glorifies abuse, toxic relationships, stalking, co-dependency, emotional manipulation and deception, lying, murder and suicide, and other topics I’m not comfortable talking about (and all in the name of love). If you want to read a more about this, here is a link to a detailed analysis of the Twilight series written by the sporker das Mervin, assisted by other sporkers. However, I consider Twilight to be worse in that aspect than Miracuous Ladybug.

Moving on, the final claim that Astruc presumably wanted to be the nail in Félix’s coffin - calling him evil. It is a claim that I cannot take seriously, especially when he said something similar about Chloé, ranting how she’s irredeemable, then writing her as unpleasant as possible in Season 4, despite what we had seen previously, notably that she was the victim of emotional neglect and abuse, and had potential to grow into a better person.

As I previously mentioned, Astruc’s opinion of Félix and those who like his character is reflected in the episode, most notably by showing him to be a deceitful manipulator who tries to make Adrien look bad in front of his friends, causing an akumatization, mocks him for doing everything Gabriel says, and makes a move on Maribug.

*leans back while crossing her arms, furrowing a brow as she eyes the audience* 

Here’s the issue. Instead of making me hate Félix, it showed me that Félix is the most competent character in the entire show and that we should root for him, while at the same time showing that Adrien really lacks empathy.

For starters, we learn that Félix’s father had died recently and Gabriel and Adrien didn’t even bother to visit their in-laws, and while this can be excused in Adrien’s case, since Gabriel is an established jerkass who wouldn’t let him visit his cousin, I didn’t get the impression that Adrien actually bothered to call Félix to support him. This is especially awful since he should know how it feels to lose a loved one, considering how many times he gets depressed and angsts over the loss of his mother.

Next we have Adrichat insulting Félix, which is quite infuriating: ’’You made a lot of enemies in one day, bet you don't have a lot of friends, acting the way you do.’’

Why is it infuriating? Adrien mocks his cousin, someone who is still processing the grief of losing his father (and also dealing with the loss of his aunt), someone whose only meaningful connection appears to be with his cousin (aka Adrien himself) and his mother, about how he hasn’t any friends despite the fact that Adrien too was going through the same experience. Also, there is the implication that Adrien probably knows that Félix doesn’t have any friends (and Félix’s expression confirms it), as they’re said to be close, which makes Adrichat look like a complete jerkass.

Not to mention, this can also be taken as a message to Félix fans, telling them how they should hate this character and how he doesn’t deserve to be loved. Honestly, I don’t like being told what character I should like, especially when the one who replaced him acts like a hypocrite.

Oh, and speaking of hypocrite - the infamous kissing scene. Again, I do not approve of what Félix did in that scene, but at the same time, I understand the deeper message it was trying to tell us, that being how PV!Marinette could never be with someone as awful as Félix, as this relationship would never work, and how Adrien would never be this pushy.

There is so much wrong with the latter statement.

Time and time again we have been shown that Adrichat has zero respect for Maribug’s boundaries, but we are supposed to hate Félix, who actually only went for the kiss because he knew that Adrien has a celebrity crush on Maribug and hoped he could mess with his perfect image further. Note that in Gabriel Agreste, he doesn’t even care about pursuing Maribug, but Adrichat won’t leave her alone during the whole season (even emotionally cheating on Kagami and genuinely wanting to get someone akumatized so he can hang out with Maribug). Also, for those who claim that Maribug would’ve punched Adrichat too if she actually wanted him to stop flirting with her, may I refer to the time she threw him into a trash can? 

*frowns*

Also, a girl shouldn’t resort to physical violence to be heard. She told him many times ‘No’, but in Adrien’s head ‘No’ obviously means ‘Oh, she’s just playing hard to get. We’re actually soulmates.’

*shakes head in disgust*

Rest assured, despite those moments, Félix was a stand-out character in his debut, showing to be the most competent person in the entire show by managing to steal Gabriel’s ring, being able to handle three akuma, and even having the guts to make a deal with Hawk Moth, but under his own conditions. In one episode, he gets to do achieve his goal by using his own strengths and no magical powers, which is more than can be said for the main cast during the past 3 Seasons.

At the same time, we’re also shown that he has an incredibly wholesome relationship with his mother. Add in a rather sympathetic background and motivations, his mischievous attitude, his competence, the meta backstory of his character and you have a winner in my book.

This gets only reinforced in the episode Gabriel Agreste, which is my favorite episode in this show (albeit only after ignoring the Marinette-Chloé-Adrien Love Square shanenigans). 

Félix shows his mischievous side again by pretending to be Adrien during his conversation with Chloé, which was genuinely funny.

He shows his intellect and craftiness by giving Gabriel a fake ring.

He also shows how much he cares about his aunt by just fondly gazing at her image, which says more than any of Adrien’s dialogue about how much he misses his mother.

He’s adorable! ^_^

And most importantly, he holds his ground against Gabriel Agreste, a character I despise the most in this show and I sincerely hope will get jailed for his crimes. Seriously, if a teenage bully is ’’irredeemable’’ by Astruc’s standards, what does this say about Gabriel?

Establishing their rivalry in Félix, this episode gives us more insight to why they hate each other, including a mind-blowing revelation - Félix knows Gabriel is Hawk Moth/Shadow Moth.

However, there is more to it - it is heavily implied that Félix is a Sentimonster, created for Amelié. Hell, one might conclude that his love for his mother is the reason why he is unable to reveal Hawk Moth/Shadow Moth’s identity by the end of it, as Gabriel would murder him in cold blood if he does and that the amok is in the Graham de Vanily rings.

This scene alone is one of the most intense moments in the entire show and it had me legit worried for Félix, as well as showed how menacing Gabriel can be.

Then, Gabriel attempts to akumatize him to get the ring back. Unfortunately for Gabriel, Félix won’t be manipulated by someone like him.

‘‘I don’t need your powers!’‘

This scene... This scene was absolutely amazing. Note that Félix had never been akumatized before, yet he manages to break out by sheer determination. He is a pure badass!

He then tops it off by breaking a button from his shirt and using it to rip the edge of Gabriel’s dress pants, then runs away, well aware that Gabriel is pissed off.

The battle against SentiCollector is your typical akuma battle (and reveals how Gabriel got the charm he was holding in Dearest Family, which I predicted in a discussion with a friend), leading to the ending where SentiGabriel gives Félix the fake ring, i.e. the same ring Félix gave him earlier claiming that this was the ring he stole.

The ending itself has Félix confirm that Gabriel was indeed HM/SM by showing that the latter didn’t have the damaged dress pants.

In conclusion, Félix Graham de Vanily is the most competent and sympathetic character in the entire show and this episode alone proves it. 

He is the sole reason why I keep watching it, as everything else in the show frustrates me to no end. I consider Miraculous Ladybug a show with great potential, but a lot of its potential is completely wasted, which is sad to see. As a matter of fact, I’d rather take any episode where Félix plays 3D chess with Gabriel and outsmarts him than have to sit through another Love Square episode where someone comments how Maribug and Adrichat are meant to be and the universe itself forces them to be together instead of respecting their choices.

Still, I am worried. 

Because, what are the odds Gabriel that would just murder Félix by removing the amok?

Up Ladybug (Story)

Story Archives (Chapter List/Story Analyzer)

[mochegato]

Even the Losers

Chapter 18

Chapter 1     Chapter 17

Mari waved up at Nightwing before turning toward the café.  He grinned and waved back.  No sense of embarrassment at getting caught like Red Robin had the day before.  She didn’t know enough about him to know if it was because he wasn’t hiding, Red Robin had given him a warning that she knew someone would be there, or because he had no sense of embarrassment, or most likely, a combination of all of those.

Adrien looked up and grinned too.  “What time did he take over?”

Marinette shrugged and cut through the café’s outdoor seating.  “Later than yesterday.  When did Dick leave?  It was some time after that.”

Adrien looked at him for a moment and shook his head. He looked back at Marinette before the memory of sleep deprived Marinette hit him.  He grimaced.  It was hit or miss whether she would be funny, emotional, or a danger to herself. If Batman was the same… “I really hope Batman doesn’t have a day job because with all the all-nighters he’s pulling, he would have to be a zombie at work.”

Marinette giggled at the idea.  “Can you imagine Batman with a day job?  What do you think he does?  Like, could you imagine him as a kindergarten teacher?”  Marinette’s giggles grew into full blown laughter. She finally was able to gasp out, “Batman complimenting some little kid’s rainbow and assuring them that making the entire rainbow the same color was extremely creative and beautiful.  Or trying to guess what animal they drew.”

Adrien laughed and patted her arm to get her to stop.  “Wait, wait. Batman crouching next to a toddler and explaining for the eighth time in the last three minutes that Pete the Cat is in fact a cat, not a dog before patting them on the head and walking away to scream into a nap mat.”

Marinette Laughed hard enough she almost missed the door handle.  She jumped when Adrien suddenly grabbed her arm.  She turned to him wide eyed but she immediately relaxed.  He was bouncing on the balls of his feet with excitement.  “No, no, no.  A PA to some… NO, to M. Wayne!  Batman as M. Wayne’s PA.  Oh my God, can you imagine?”

Marinette giggled and shook her head at him, pushing through the door.  Well, that would certainly explain why the bats seemed so close to the Waynes.  She spotted Duke and waved.  He jumped up and waved them over.  “Hey, Duke.  I hope you don’t mind that I brought Adrien.”

“Not at all,” Duke gave them both a hug.  He looked toward the bathroom with a smile. “Good to see you again, man.  I hope you don’t mind that Cass and I both brought someones too.”  Cass and Stephanie were walking toward them with a red headed woman in a wheelchair. Duke leaned toward them and lowered his voice so the women approaching couldn’t hear him.  “Brought is a really liberal term for what happened.  I am so sorry.  I knew we shouldn’t have mentioned meeting with you in front of Stephanie.”

“Hey Cass,” Marinette called out.  She and Adrien waved at her.  “Good to see you again, Stephanie.”

Cass waved back and nodded with a wide smile. “Marinette!” Stephanie chirped. “I’d say what a coincidence we ran into you guys here…”

“But that would be a lie,” Barbara finished for her. “Hi,” she held out her hand for them, “I’m Barbara.”

Marinette smiled and stepped forward to shake her hand. “It’s nice to meet you.  I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Well yeah we crashed,” Stephanie rolled her eyes and dropped into a seat across from Marinette.  She sent a playful glare toward Duke.  “You guys have been keeping her all to yourselves all week.  It’s our turn to hang out with her again.  Not to mention I wanted to catch up with the woman who fed the Riddler’s own balls to him for everyone to see.”

“And we wanted to see how you’re doing after it,” Barbara added with a chastising look to Stephanie.  She turned to side eye Duke.  “We tried to check with the boys but they were less than helpful.”

Marinette shrugged and leaned back slightly, not enough for anyone else in the café to notice but everyone else at the table picked up on it.  “I’m fine. It wasn’t bad.  More embarrassed he caught me in the first place.”

Stephanie waved her off.  “Please,” she scoffed.  “He had to knock out like an entire block just to get you.  That’s better than some of the bats.”

“Well, you look like you’re healing well,” Barbara nodded with a supportive smile.

Marinette smiled as naturally as she could and tried to control how much she was shifting in her seat.  She really, really hated talking about the whole thing with not only people who didn’t know she had been a superhero, but with the Waynes after that dinner, so that was two strikes against discussing this right now.

She’d been able to joke about it and moan about how contrived the whole setup with Alya and Nino.  They’d laughed all night about the audacity.  Not only had he thought he could stump her with a question about Chat Noir, he thought he would win against her in a game that relied on luck or rather bad luck not striking.  It was almost enough to make her forget the way the dinner had ended.  It was exactly what she had needed.  But she couldn’t do that here.

“Yeah,” she chuckled anxiously.  “My cheek seems to be doing well.  I’m hoping I can cover it with makeup by next week.”

“How’s your shoulder?” Duke asked motioning toward the shoulder she’d rammed into the doorframe when she was running away.

Marinette blinked at him a few times before she quirked her head to the side, her face scrunching in confusion.  “How did you know about that?”

She could see the rest of the table tense up, Adrien included but for the same reason as her, confusion on how he’d known. She had no idea why the rest were tensing up.  Duke chuckled awkwardly, sending looks over to the women at the table.  “He’s covering for me,” Barbara finally spoke up.

“Why is… what is he covering up for?” Marinette asked cautiously.

“My father is the police commissioner,” she said quietly.  “I may have snuck a look at the police report… slightly illegally… and read about your injuries.”

Marinette shook her head.  “But, I didn’t tell them about that.”

“No,” Barbara acknowledged, “but Signal did.”

Marinette nodded, trying to process that information. “Huh,” was all she managed to eke out. Her mind raced trying to figure out what to say next.  She was saved from trying to figure out how to move the conversation along by the waiter. The topic seemed to fade away naturally as everyone put in their order.

As soon as the waiter left, Duke clapped his hands with a bright smile.  “So, Steph, you said again.  I take it you guys have met before?”

“At the gala,” Adrien nodded.  “Only briefly though.  We,” he motioned between him and Stephanie, “spoke for a little bit, but Marinette only spoke with her for a few seconds.”

Stephanie grimaced at the reminder.  “Yeah… not exactly the ideal meeting.”

Marinette waved her off.  “Not your fault.  Don’t worry about it.”  She sent her a sincere smile.

“No,” Stephanie agreed.  “It’s Bruce’s.”

Cass pulled out a credit card with a wicked grin. “On Bruce.”

Barbara nodded.  “Exactly.  Therefore, this lunch is on Bruce.  Maybe we should go shopping after this too?”  She raised an eyebrow at Marinette.

Marinette giggled and shook her head.  “No, thank you.  That’s okay.  I’m good.”

Stephanie’s eyes lit up.  She leaned closer to Marinette like she was sharing a secret. “Speaking of the gala, how did you get tickets to the gala anyway?  We never figured it out.”  Barbara groaned lightly and smacked her on the shoulder.  They had just changed the subject.  Marinette probably did not want to talk about the gala, where they raved about their family and the newest member, which was not her and did not did not include her.

Instead of freezing up or withdrawing, like Barbara worried she would, Marinette started laughing.  Her eyes were sparkling with mirth.  She leaned closer to them over the table and lowered her voice. “I pimped out my friend,” she confided with a smirk.

The rest of the table froze until Adrien groaned and Stephanie and Duke started laughing loud enough to draw disapproving looks from neighboring tables.  Cass raised an eyebrow, but her lips were quirked up in amusement.  “Say that again,” Barbara prompted.

Marinette shrugged and took a sip of her drink.  “I don’t know if it counts as pimping if he did it willingly.  He was willing to do it for Max.”

“Oh my God, Marinette.”  Adrien ran his hand over his face in exasperation.

“What exactly was he willing to do?” Barbara’s voice was now less amused and more wary.

“That was the worst possible way to say it,” Adrien groaned.

“You know, maybe I don’t want to know the answer to that…” Barbara hedged.  She leaned away from Marinette cautiously.

Marinette laughed at Adrien’s frustration and bumped his shoulder with hers.  “I offered up a date with Luka Coffaine to Audrey Bourgeois’ PA in exchange for the tickets she turned down,” she explained.

There was absolute silence for a few seconds until Stephanie broke the silence.  “You know Luka Coffaine?” she yelled.  

Everyone in the café turned slowly to look at them. Marinette’s eyes widened and looked around at them.  She gave them an awkward smile and a wave before turning back to the table.  Before she could chastise Stephanie, Cass was already on top of it.  She pointed sternly around the restaurant and back at Stephanie.  Stephanie nodded guiltily.  “Yeah, yeah.  Sorry.” She turned back to Marinette excitedly. “I just…” she lowered her voice and leaned closer to Marinette.  “You know Luka Coffaine?”

Marinette rolled her eyes at her excitement.  It was always so bizarre to see people’s reaction to Luka.  It was Luka. Just Luka.  Calm, reserved, laidback Luka.  The hysteria around his name just never seemed to fit.  “Yeah, I mean, we dated for a while so… yeah.”

“You dated Luka Coffaine!” Stephanie yelled again, receiving glares from everyone at the table.  Marinette shrunk down in her chair and gave a strained, apologetic smile to the rest of the café.  Cass slapped Stephanie’s shoulder and shook her head.  Stephanie waved her off and focused back on Marinette.  “Yeah, yeah.  Discretion.  Whatever. She dated Luka freaking Coffaine,” Stephanie insisted, motioning to Marinette.

“You dated Tim Drake,” Duke pointed out.

Stephanie snorted.  “That’s just Tim.  He’s just a big dork.  She dated…”

“Yeah we got it,” Barbara cut her off.

“Really, so is Luka,” Adrien shrugged.  “Probably more so, just about music.”  Marinette cocked her head to the side in thought for a few seconds before nodding in agreement.  He really was.

“Holy shit.  Did he introduce you to his dad?”  Stephanie was bouncing in her seat at the idea and the potential for an inside scoop on Jagged Stone.

“No,” Marinette answered.  She smiled internally at the way all their faces, except for Adrien’s fell, just a bit, almost imperceptibly, as if trying to hide their disappointment.  “I already knew him.”

“You know Jagged Stone?” Stephanie yelled. Marinette cringed as she sent the other patrons another apologetic smile.

Duke leaned over closer to her so he could whisper in her ear, though his voice intentionally carried across the table. “Maybe we shouldn’t talk about this anymore.”

“No!” Stephanie screeched, before catching what she did and settling down, a mask of composure settling on her face.  “I’m fine now.  I just needed to get that out.  I’m calm.” She stared at them for a few seconds before almost lunging across the table.  Adrien deftly moved his and Marinette’s drinks before she knocked them over in her zeal.  “Please tell me more.”

Marinette’s eyes widened and she started laughing.  “You realize you’re basically a daughter to the richest man in the world.  If you wanted to meet Jagged Stone, you could.”

Cass shook her head.  “Different.”

Barbara nodded.  “She’s right it is different.  You dated his son.  That’s a different type of knowing someone.”

“So you met Luka through Jagged?” Stephanie pressed.

Marinette suddenly looked uncomfortable.  She was not really excited to talk about their family dynamic and secrets.  It was a little too close to her own and she really, really wanted to move past that, not dwell on it more.  “No… I met Luka through my friend Juleka, his sister.  We went to school together for ages.  They’re both some of my best friends.”

“And she introduced you to Jagged?” Duke asked curiously.  He could tell something was off about this based on the way Marinette responded, but he wasn’t sure what.

“No… um…” she stuttered.  “I met Jagged through a school project.  Designed some sunglasses for him and we’ve been close ever since.”  Adrien grabbed her hand and squeezed it under the table

Stephanie looked between the two of them and plastered on a bright smile.  “So what I’m hearing is you can hook us up with some tickets next time he comes into town.”

Marinette laughed lightly.  “Either one of us could, yes.”

“Or for Clara Nightengale,” Adrien added in. “She loves Marinette, too.  She wanted her in one of her videos.”

“She wanted you in it too,” Marinette reminded him.

“No,” he corrected her, “Gabriel got me into it. She just had to deal with it.  She didn’t choose me.  She chose you.  She worked to get you in the video.”

Marinette opened her mouth to refute that but snapped it shut quickly as the words resonated in her head.  She meant more because Clara chose her.  He was thrust on Clara.  But it didn’t mean he was unwanted.  She looked down at her food and took a bite, trying to cover her sudden inability to breathe.  Trying to give herself time to process.  She needed to pack that away for later when she could properly unpack that statement, deconstruct it, and then finally reconstruct it in some skewed, perverted version of the original situation.

Adrien immediately froze seeing her reaction. He opened his mouth to say something but Marinette squeezed his hand under the table before he could, a silent message they could talk about it later, when they were alone, or at least not with an audience comprised of Waynes.

“So how did you meet Mons…” she stuttered.  It felt strange to call him M. Wayne when everyone else at the table was calling him Bruce.  Should she call him Bruce too?  Like they did.  Like Dick did?  Or B, like Jason did?  “…M. Wayne?” she finally settled on.

Duke grimaced.  They had a cover story, but was he really going to give Bruce’s daughter the cover story?  The truth involved Batman.  But Bruce hadn’t told her about that part of their lives yet, and even if he had told her, he certainly hadn’t told Adrien.  “It’s a long story…”

Marinette smiled encouragingly at him.  “We have time.” She saw him falter and felt her own smile falter.  She took note of the way the women had frozen up as well.  God, what was she doing?  M. Wayne had said how they met.  Why was she bringing that up now?  What was she thinking?  Even if he was okay discussing that trauma, he probably didn’t want to open up about it with a stranger.  

“You don’t have to tell me,” she assured him.  “It’s… it’s fine.”  She looked around desperately for something else to talk about, a change of topic to make the conversation not so awkward.  “You graduate from school next year, right?”  Duke blinked a few times before he let out a breath and nodded.  She let out a breath as well when the rest of the table seemed to relax at her question.  “Do you have plans for after you graduate?  Are you going to take a gap year or go to university or get a job?”

“I haven’t really decided yet.  Go to Gotham University, I guess,” he shrugged.

Marinette smiled disarmingly at him.  “You don’t have to decide now.  You have time.”

The waiter interrupted Marinette’s response with their food.  They gave their thanks and started eating.  “So what have you missed the most while you’ve been here?” Barbara asked.

“My parents’ cooking definitely,” Marinette grinned as she looked at her food. It didn’t look bad, but compared to her parents’ cooking… well not much compared.  “And the atmosphere.  Gotham is…” she looked around them as she thought of an unoffensive way to end that sentence.

“Dreary as Hell,” Stephanie finished for her.  “Yeah, we know.”

“I swear you guys have more gargoyles than we do though, which is just strange to me,” Adrien added.  “We were supposed to have the market cornered on gothic architecture.”

“Oh, you still do.  We just took the most depressing, dismal, gloomy, nightmare inducing parts and ran with it,” Duke grinned.  “But I would like to see Paris sometime.  Go see the Eiffel Tower… and jump off it.”

Barbara, Stephanie, and Cass all groaned at him.  Barbara gave him a stern look and pointed a warning finger in his face. “Not during the day.”

Duke laughed at her.  “Well I’m not going to do it at night.”

“Do it at sunrise,” Marinette advised.  “Less gendarmerie around then and if you angle it correctly, you get the most gorgeous view of the sunrise.”

“Bring sunglasses if you jump that way though.  I didn’t and I saw spots for hours.  Oh, and stretch first too,” Adrien added.  “You’re going to have to parkour for quite a while to try to ditch the GN.”

The rest of the table stared at them, jaws dropped in shock.  There was absolute silence at the table except for the sounds of Marinette sipping her drink and Adrien chewing his food. “You’ve…” Duke started almost too in awe to be able to finish the sentence.  “You’ve jumped off the Eiffel Tower?”

Marinette nodded and motioned between the two of them.  “Both of us have.  Both during an akuma attack and not.  Not was much preferable to during.”

“Isn’t that illegal?” Stephanie asked slowly.  She was like 90% positive it was but during akuma attacks, who knew what was legal anymore and Hell, maybe they had days where they gave exceptions. Stranger things have happened.

Marinette speared a bit of food and pointed it at her.  “Only if you get caught.”  She popped the food in her mouth with a triumphant grin.

Barbara blinked at her a few times and shook her head because dear God, there was another one.  She was going to fit right in.  No wonder she and Duke got along so well.  Both creative, smart, kind, thrill seeking, dumbasses.  “I’m pretty sure that’s not how that works,” she deadpanned.

Adrien shrugged and took a sip of his drink.  “I don’t know.  We didn’t get arrested, so I’m pretty sure it is.”

Duke and Stephanie started laughing hysterically.  They looked over at Cass with raised eyebrows when they settled down. Cass stared intently at Marinette and Adrien for a few seconds, staring into them like she was reading their souls. Marinette and Adrien looked at each other with identical unsure looks and subconsciously leaned back at the same time, shuffling in their seats.  Cass stared at them for just a few more seconds before she nodded.

“Holy shit,” Duke muttered in awe.  “You were telling the truth.”

Marinette looked back over at Adrien for an explanation he clearly didn’t have, judging by the blank look on his face before looking back at Duke.  “Uh… yeah?”

“What just happened?” Adrien asked tentatively.

“Sorry about that,” Barbara sent them a disarming smile.  “Cass is kind of like a human lie detector.  She is exceptionally good at telling if someone is lying.  She just confirmed that you two were not.”

Marinette blinked at Barbara a few times before turning to Cass and blinking at her.  “Huh… good to know,” she nodded slowly.  Her eyes stayed on Cass but it was clear her mind was running a mile a minute behind them.  After a few seconds she spoke up again.  “Can you tell the lies people tell themselves too?”

Cass quirked her head to the side and studied Marinette for a moment and shook her head.  “Have to know.”

Marinette nodded and silently took a bite of her food. “Well, that has to come in handy,” Adrien chirped.  “Remind me to take you with me when I meet people.”

Marinette could feel eyes boring into her.  She looked back over at Cass and raised a curious eyebrow at her.  “Hero,” she finally said.

Marinette coughed for a second and looked back at her with her most convincing blank look.  “I’m sorry.  What?”

Cass nodded toward Marinette.  “Eiffel Tower.”

Marinette chuckled disarmingly and shook her head. “You think I’m a lot more honorable than I am.  You think it’s more likely that I was a hero than that I knowingly, intentionally, purposefully violated the law for fun.”  She leaned closer to Cass with a smirk.  “But I can assure you, I regularly did.”

The others at the table looked to Cass.  She quirked her head to the side and gave a small smile before nodding.  “Truth.”  Cass pointed to herself.  “Next time.”

Marinette grinned and nodded excitedly. “Absolutely.”

Duke cleared his throat.  “And Duke,” Cass added.

Marinette chuckled.  “Of course.  We can make a New Kids Club event out of it.”

“And me!” Stephanie chirped.

Barbara sighed and turned to Adrien.  “Dick said you had a job interview yesterday.  How did it go?”

Marinette beamed at Adrien as he responded. Adrien’s face lit up.  “It went well I think.  I think I’d really enjoy working there!  I met the department chair and other professors.  It looks like a really supportive department and University, very research oriented.”

“Where is it?” Duke asked between bites.

“Metropolis,” Adrien answered, his fondness he’d already developed for the city bleeding into his tone.

“Oooh, Conner lives there.  If you’re still deciding if you want to live there or if you need a tour guide, or recommendations on where to eat, he’d be more than happy to help,” Stephanie offered.

Marinette’s smile turned into a pointed smirk and Adrien groaned quietly.  “Conner, did you say?”

Stephanie looked between them, her brow furrowing in confusion.  “Yeah?”

“That wouldn’t happen to be Tim’s single friend would it?”  Her eyes never left Adrien as she asked, her smirk somehow getting even sharper.

Adrien groaned even louder when he looked over and saw Cass’ smile matched Marinette’s and Duke and Stephanie both had devious, familiar looking glints in their eyes.  This was clearly payback for all his attempts to set Marinette and Chloe up with different people.  “Why yes, yes it is.  How about that,” Duke grinned.

Cass pulled out her phone and moved her finger around the screen for a second then finally looked up with an innocent looking smile.  Adrien groaned and dropped his head into his hands.  “I’m not even in this family.  Why am I being punished?”

Barbara laughed and popped a bit of food in her mouth. “That’s funny.  You think just because there’s no paperwork, you haven’t been adopted already.  I made that mistake at first too.”

Chapter 19

Tags:

@maribat-bdbwm @jayjayspixiepop @redscarlet95 @alice-hazelwood @deathssilentapproach-blog @unoriginalmess @alyssadeliv @emotionalsupportginger @frieddonutsweets @when-no-wings-do-broomsticks @toodaloo-kangaroo @colorfulmongerpsychicranch @iloontjeboontje @wolf-for-life @maribatserver @aespades @prettylittlebutterflie @imarivers8  @ certainmuffinbagelcalzone @ritacrow-blog @unoriginalmess @demonicbusiness @kking13 @lady-bee-fechin @blur-of-colours @kittenmywaythrulife @kashlyn @loysydark @nerd-nowandforever

[arty-shadow-morningstar]

A Failed Betrothal (Part 3)

There were a lack of stuff to read so I posted this instead.

[Masterlist]

(Part 1)(Part 2)

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PART 3

The next day was weird to say the least for everyone but for Marinette, it was another can of worms that she wished she didn’t open. For one thing, Chat Noir’s feelings obsession for Ladybug switched from one black-haired girl to another which unfortunately was Ladybug’s civilian form. Which meant Marinette had to deal with Adrien’s Chat-Noir-level flirting and bad pick-up lines.

Perfect, just perfect.

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Everyone thought that a declaration speech of ‘being soulmates and the only one for him’ in front of the whole class from the ‘love of your life’ would warrant a ‘blushing to death and stammering’ or ‘outright fainting’. Not a facepalm, a groan, “Why me?” and a “I am sorry but NO. I don’t feel the same way about you”. Marinette vaguely wondered if there was some kind of rule for interesting events and confrontations to happen during lunch break while the class waits for Mme Bustier to start the lessons.

Marinette went to sit in her seat next to Chloe in the back row where she and her friends had been exiled to. The class was in stunned silence and questioning about whether or not they had fallen into an alternate universe or dreaming. Nathaniel and Alix tried to hide their snickers. Chloe just started outright laughing, turning very red in the face.

Marinette felt a nudge from Plagg in her bag. Looking down, she saw them holding up her phone to show Lila’s gaping face of horror with a wicked smug grin on their face. She looked through the photos to see everyone’s faces of confusion and shock at her rejection. Eyes wide and jaws dropped on the ground. Different shots of her classmates in the same state. She smirked and showed them to Chloe who calmed down enough, letting out the occasional giggles and took the phone with glee.

“Thank you, Plagg. Here you go.” she whispered, giving them a camembert macaron.(Tom had started experimenting with camembert in his recipes. Plagg is his first taste tester for all of them, making Tom one of Plagg’s favourite people.)

Adrien didn’t take the rejection very well.

“But we are meant to be. You are a designer and I am a model. Our partnership is the one to be envied by many for the ages.”

“And by that logic,” The designer turned to her main model for her MDC website, “Chloe, my love, will you be my one and only? For our love shines so bright ,paralleled only by a thousand suns.” Using the same voice Plagg does when they go on one of their love odes about camembert before losing her straight face and giggling.(Plagg doesn’t know whether to be offended or amused.)

Setting Chloe’s laughter off again. “Mariiiii,...stop….I can’t..*gasps*....I can’t…”

Nathaniel and Alix, finally lost control and joined Chloe in death by laughter. Adrien was flustered, turning red in the face either from anger, embarrassment or both.

“But Chloe isn’t a model.”

Marinette decided to put a stop to this, just on the off chance that Gabriel finally decides to akumatized his own son. She recomposed herself.

“She is the main model for my website and we have a partnership. You, however, work for your father. So does Miss Rossi. Does that sound like the partnership to be envied by many for the ages? Hmmm, Agreste? Anyways, like I said before, I have no interest in dating you.”

“Why not? We are friends and sometimes, friends like each other enough to date each other.” Adrien angrily asked.

“Because-”

“Because, Adrikins,” Chloe cuts in, “friends having to date because one of them is interested in something more makes no sense and is fucked-up. Marinette doesn’t owe you anything. Besides, she already has a long distance boyfriend who lives in America.”

“WHAT!?” Adrien shouted.

“What?!” The class had snapped out of their stupor. Since when had Marinette gotten over Adrien and had a boyfriend?

“What?” Marinette looked at Chloe with wide-eyes. Last she checked she was still single so what the hell was Chloe playing at. For Kwami’s sake, she hadn’t been on a date since the one with Luka which went awkwardly before they agreed that they think of each other as siblings and it will be best to stay that way.

Chloe gave her a look that said ‘I will explain later.’

“Oh yes, they met online a few months ago and now they are all lovey-dovey together. It’s just so ridiculous, so utterly ridiculous how disgustingly in love they are. They have video call dates at least once a week and somehow make it work despite the time differences. He once came all the way to Paris just to see her. He brought her some special flowers that apparently meant-”

Marinette slapped her hand over Chloe’s mouth. “Well, Chloe, Queenie, as much as I love you as my friend, you can stop gushing about my love life now. Because class is about to start.”

She said through gritted teeth as Mme Bustier finished taking her sweet time and walked in. Sadly, Alya wasn’t done with the conversation ,“Wait a minute, since when did Chloe and you become close enough that she is modeling for you? And a boyfriend? Why didn’t you tell me, Girl? I thought we were friends. What about Adrien, he just confessed to you and you had been crushing on him for so long” Many girls gasped, angry that Alya broke the unspoken girl code.

“You have a crush on me?” Adrien looked hopeful. Like a lost kitten that had been stuck in the rain, was let into someone’s home.

“I had a crush on you,” Marinette corrected him, emphasising on the past tense, “and Alya had no business of sharing that information to the entire world despite us not being friends anymore.” She glared at the journalist who at least looked ashamed.

“You wanted to date Kagami so I moved on.”

One of the reasons anyway. I found out that you were my partner who had no concept of boundaries. You are a coward who only wants to maintain the class peace at the price of my mental health, she thought.

“Instead of continuing to pursue you.” She hoped the ever dense and oblivious model would get the hint she gave him. Tikki ,just this once, Grant me that ladybug luck.

“And Mme Bustier, it is time to start the lessons, don’t you think? Instead of focusing on the class drama to gossip about later on.” Marinette glared at the teacher, reminding her to do her job.

“Oh. Right.” Mme Bustier tried to regain her ‘perfect teacher’ image after getting embarrassed at being caught, “Right. Class, turn to page-”

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As soon as the bell rang for the end of school, Marinette dragged Chloe all the way to her room. Alix and Nathaniel followed them because as far as they know, Marinette had no boyfriends and they were as curious to find out what scheme Chloe had cooked up this time. They were as complicated and crazy as Ladybug’s. No offense, Marinette.

“Okay, Queenie, you have to explain why I now have a devoted American boyfriend who I am so in love with.” Marinette crossed her arms with a frown aimed at Chloe. The kwamis got out of their respective hiding places and went to the tray of food set out for them.

The trapdoor to her room opened, revealing the rest of their friend group before Chloe said anything.

“Did we miss anything?” Kagami asked as Longg and Sass joined the other kwamis.

“Juleka said something about an American boyfriend and how he sounds so romantic. Does that have to do anything with the text Alix sent us to come here?” Luka added.

“To recap, Adrien made a love confession to Marinette,” Alix started, biting into some of the delicious pastries the Dupain-Chengs gave them, ”in front of the entire class after an entire day of flirting and bad pick-up lines.”

“Wow, even after having his memories erased of being Chat Noir, he is still after Ladybug.” Luka chuckled, with the others joining in.

Marinette whined, “It was easier when he was Chat Noir. But now as Adrien Agreste, teen heartthrob, it is going to be much more difficult to get into his thick head that I don’t see him that way and it is going to get harder, now that Alya outed my old crush to him.”

“Oof. Sucks to be you.”

“So, our Mari-bug rejected him. He threw a tantrum and sulked, so like Chat Noir, how did we not notice?,” Alix continued, “After demanding reasons why they can’t date, Chloe gave Marinette an American boyfriend who she was in a long-distance relationship with. Speaking of, why did you do that?”

“I have known Adrik- Adrien since we were in diapers and I know how that mangy cat works. He grew up on Disney and had all those fairytales stuffed into his head. If you had told him that you were just not interested in dating at the moment, it won’t work because he will try his hardest to ‘woo’ you, because he still has a chance. He won’t push his luck as much if you were off the market.” Chloe explained.

“I am sure that, judging by the fact that Chat Noir still tries to date Ladybug despite her saying she is in love with someone, Adrien might try to get more proof of this boyfriend to make sure Marinette is just not pretending to have one.” Kagami pointed out.

“Ahh, but luckily I have a back-up plan. I have a friend, Tim Drake. We met at a few galas when we were younger and kept in touch. He also owes me a favor.”

“I hope this Tim Drake is cute.”

“He is and he’s older than you by two years and,” Chloe typed something on her phone, “A fellow caffeine addict so you can bond over that. Here’s a picture of him and his brother.”

On her phone were two extremely attractive and fit young men dressed in expensive suits at what looked like a gala, the older one had a charming polite smile with bright blue eyes, looking somewhat interested at what someone off-screen was saying despite looking like he will fall over any moment. His brother, however, looked like he would rather be anywhere but where he was. He was tanned and had green eyes that promised murder for daring to even breathe in his direction. Marinette noticed that he looked a little familiar but she can’t place why.

“Tim is the one that looks like he hasn’t slept in days and that’s his brother Damian next to him.”

“Wait a minute. That’s Tim Drake and Damian Wayne. The sons of Bruce Wayne, the billionaire co-CEO of Wayne Industries, which Tim Drake is also co-CEO of.” Nathaniel said with wide eyes and looked at Chloe, “You are using your favor to give our Mari here a fake boyfriend.”

“Of course, only the best for our Mari-bug.”

“Chloe, no, he is probably busy as he is with running the company. No need to get him involved in petty teenage drama.” No matter how much she doesn’t want to date Adrien, bothering a busy guy to be her fake boyfriend is not worth it in Marinette’s opinion. Which, of course, gets overruled by the overprotectiveness of her friends.

“I, for one, think this is one of Chloe’s better plans.” Kagami commented, the others agreeing with her. Traitors.

“Hey!” Chloe exclaimed, an offended look on her face, “Anyways, I will call him later.”

“Children, you better go home now before your parents worry.” Sabine’s voice came from below, “Remember we are also going through some drills tonight so try not to be late.” Having a former assassin for a mother is handy when you want to train a team of teenage superheroes.

“Bye, guys. See you later.”

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“Just because you have been trained since birth does not excuse you from the drills. You also need to get used to the black cat.” Lady Mǔ lǎohǔ reprimanded her with her arms crossed. When Ladybug started her new team, she was the first permanent member but as the team got bigger, she stepped back to be back-up and mentor for the team.

“Yes, Maman, I know but I am nearly finished with this commission. I will catch up with you later. Promise.” Marinette stretched, looking up from her latest project. Plagg was napping in the little basket she had made for all the kwamis to sleep in which fit all of them and had some extra space for Nooroo and Dusuu after they had been retrieved.

The reason she had Plagg instead of Tikki who was with Alix was because of the new tactic the Miraculous Team came up with. To keep the balance the Ladybug and Black Cat must be active at the same time but with Adrien gone, someone must wield the ring until a new permanent holder is found and it was not a good idea for both of them to be on the same person at the same time. The team decided to rotate using the earrings and ring between them with Marinette using other miraculouses when the others have them. It also had the added bonus of making it harder for Hawkmoth to find out who has them at any given time.

“See you later, 灵儿 (líng er, means intelligence). I will give you 15 minutes but that’s it. Don’t be late.” Sabine sighed and got out the skylight and went towards the safehouse where the Miraculous team met to get training. (It is one of Sabine’s emergency safehouse to use in times of emergency and it had the required space to train 6 teenagers. Chat Noir never came to training, lazy cat.)

Marinette never made it to the warehouse.

Because a few minutes after her mother left, the skylight opened to let in five figures dressed in dark colours to easily blend into the shadows like they were trained to be. Too bad they weren’t as quiet. Marinette immediately summoned a bo-staff to defend herself.

One of them lunged at her and she retaliated by hitting the end of her staff to their middle, coupled with a couple more blows and landed one that knocked them out. The others threw throwing stars which she dodged by jumping back. Which landed her to be trapped by the two assassins, whom she didn’t notice, had moved. She cursed in every language she knew as she struggled against them. It led to no avail as she was badly out-numbered. There was a prick on her head and her world went black.

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Plagg awoke to a loud commotion. Irritated, they poked their head out to see their new temporary kit knocked out, tied up and hauled away. Recognizing the kidnappers as assassins of the League of Shadows, they scowled. Ra’s Al Ghul was going to pay.

Plagg may not act like it much but the black kwami was patient and smart. Smart enough to leave a note with an explanation somewhere visible with the messy aftermath of a fight before trailing the assassins. Oh, Roarr’s tiger was going to be pissed once she found out what happened. Wherever they were taking Marinette, it would be best to have a kwami of destruction to help her escape. The night made Plagg almost invisible and allowed to move unseen. They caught up easily and hid in their holder’s midnight hair. Now, their patience came into play. It was a matter of waiting for the right moment to pounce.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------Tag list: @alysrose-starchild, @buginetye, @lookatthestars1, @blackroserelina, @macncheesemonster, @mochinek0, @myazael, @tonicxworld, @thewitchwhowaited, @t1dwarrior-of-earth, @kissa-chan, @iwantasecretidentity, @theymakeupfairies, @user00000003, @woe-is-me0, @kashlyn, @mochegato,@moonlightstar64 , @greatcatblaze, @moongoddesskiana, @tazanna-blythe. @tonicxworld, @toodaloo-kangaroo, @frieddonutsweets, @local-witch-of-mn, @lady-bee-fechin, @iglowinggemma28, @indecisive-mess-named-me, @k-tea-and-coffee, @jayjayspixiepop

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(Part 4)

[withinyourimagination]

“You have something in your hair - let me get it for you.” [Zee@Adrien]

Adrien brushed off some of the twigs and dirt that had gotten on him after he accidentally fell into a bush. Hey, he wasn’t the most graceful all the time. Despite who his other persona was. It was unexpected to have Zee help get any that made their way into his hair.

 “Heh. Thanks Zee. I gotta learn to be more careful though.”

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

Gabriel Agreste: Interesting Villain, Horrible Character (400 Follower Special)

I'm honestly surprised more people didn't want me to talk about Gabriel, especially with how often I rag on how horrible of a person he is. But, three character analysis posts later, and we're going to talk about why the main villain of Miraculous Ladybug is a real letdown.

Gabriel Needs to give the Whining a Rest

The interesting thing is one of the few things I actually liked in Season 3 was Hawkmoth. His plans actually made sense (for the most part), and by playing the long game, he managed to turn Chloe against Ladybug and deprived her of several key allies. Granted, Season 4 immediately undid the latter, but I was still impressed by his strategy.

Generally, one of the better aspects of Gabriel as a character was just how over the top he was as Hawkmoth. Keith Silverstein is clearly giving it his all with his performance, and he is just so enjoyable to watch as a cartoonish supervillain.

And therein lies the first major problem with Gabriel as a character. While he is fun to watch as a simple supervillain, the show tries to give him more depth and unintentionally makes him worse.

In Season 2, when it was revealed that Gabriel was Hawkmoth, many fans speculated on what he needed the Miraculous for, until the Queen Bee Trilogy showed it was to save his possibly dead wife, Emilie. The idea of that is so the show can give more depth to its main villain, and I think it's an interesting idea in concept. After all, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

The problem is just how radically different Gabriel is normally compared to how he is as Hawkmoth. He always goes on about how he's “doing this for Emilie”, but it's hard to really sympathize with him when you consider he constantly gives evil monologues and evil laughs, really getting into the supervillain role. And let's not forget all of the “I'm going to wear Ladybug's skin as a suit” faces he loves to make.

Clearly this man is the picture of mental stability.

Gabriel's motivation for being Hawkmoth when compared to what he actually does as Hawkmoth is shady enough, but the thing is that the writers clearly want the audience to at least feel a little bad for him. They want to make the audience sympathize with him despite the way he acts with or without the mask. Without Miraculous Ladybug, he is routinely putting innocent lives in danger and never once shows regret for his actions. All he talks about is how “he's doing this for Emilie”, or that “he'll get their Miraculous soon”. There's no real reason to feel bad for him other than “because the script says so”.

Let's compare Gabriel to Malcolm Merlyn from Arrow. His big plan in the first season of the show is to create a machine that will cause an earthquake to destroy a crime-infested portion of Starling City, claiming to be trying to help everyone, but it's clear he is only doing it out of revenge for his wife getting killed by a criminal from that part of the city. In addition, throughout that season and future seasons, he always makes sure his plans lead to him benefiting in some way, showing he isn't just some noble man trying to achieve his goals with a less than noble method.

If we got some moments that showed that what Gabriel was doing was selfish, it would make him a more complex villain. But we don't get anything like that. What do we get instead? Well...

I Could Really Care Less About Emilie Agreste

We have known Gabriel's motivation has been to save his wife for a little over two years at this point, but at the same time, it's hard to believe that motivation because of how underdeveloped Emilie is as a character.

There have been a total of two lines in the entirety of the show that explain what happened to Emilie, and they're both vague as hell. One of them was from “Feast” that implied Emilie used the broken Peacock Miraculous.

Adrien: My mom used to have dizzy spells… just like Nathalie.

And the other that outright tells the audience what's happening to her in a clip show that most people will skip.

Nathalie: As I've watched Emilie falling deeper into an endless sleep, my sadness for her has deepened, too

That is literally all we get for an explanation, and nothing else. We have no idea of what she's like as a person or what her relationship with her family was like other than Gabriel and Adrien saying they miss her. Other than the way the narrative says she's important to Gabriel and Adrien, we don't really have a reason to care about her as a character. There have also been some lines that imply she went along with Gabriel's questionable parenting techniques, like how he was apparently only homeschooled as a kid (Origins) and never had a birthday party growing up (The Bubbler), so how do we even know if she's a good person? In fact, why not set up this question as a mystery to make the audience wonder if Gabriel has another reason to bring Emilie back?

It ultimately turns Emilie into a plot device and not a character that Gabriel and Adrien only bring up to make the audience feel bad for them, and meant to justify Gabriel's actions by saying that he's “doing this for his family”.

But hey, if he's doing this all for his family, surely Gabriel's redeeming traits come from his relationship with Adrien, right? Right?

As a Parent, Gabriel is Far From the Best

I've talked about this briefly before, but parenting in Miraculous Ladybug is written in such a black and white way, even by the standards of this show. Parents are portrayed in one of two ways. They're either amazing people who love and support their children unconditionally, or they're awful people who treat their own children like trash. And much like a lot of things in this show, there are times where the latter is treated like the former.

There are so many times where the narrative insists on making you see Gabriel as a troubled, but wellmeaning person who tries his best to be a good parent to Adrien, but it is far from the truth.

I'm not going to beat around the bush. Gabriel is a terrible parent. Like, he is awful at being a parent in so many ways, even before you find out he's Hawkmoth. In his first appearance, “The Bubbler”, he delegates getting Adrien a birthday present to Nathalie, his assistant. He literally can't be bothered to take time out of his schedule to get his own son a present for his birthday. And as the show goes on, he becomes more controlling and forbids Adrien from going out with his friends in other episodes (Captain Hardrock, Silencer). While this could be used to show Gabriel getting worse, it's never acknowledged in-universe, with Adrien continually defending his father essentially keeping him on house arrest.

“But IOTA!” You might say. “Gabriel has made efforts to bond with his son in some episodes.” While that might be true, most of those come right after his Akumas have almost gotten Adrien killed. He only hugged Adrien and made an attempt to learn more about him after Simon Says invaded their home, he only decided to watch that movie Emilie was in with Adrien after Gorizilla nearly dropped him off a building, and he only hugged Adrien again in public after he was turned into a gold statue by Style Queen.

In fact, let's talk about how Gabriel acts in the Queen Bee Trilogy. He actually decides to quit being Hawkmoth, but it's not because he realizes all the damage he's caused. Instead, he gave up because his “magnum opus”, a stronger than usual Akuma that only got the advantage on Ladybug ironically because of dumb luck, failed. Sure, he says he can't keep putting his son in danger, but he rarely ever acknowledges that he does so in the first place. When Riposte wanted to fight Adrien, Hawkmoth did nothing to stop her other than giving her a stern warning earlier on and nothing else. Where was this attitude earlier?

Hell, even then, he immediately goes back to being Hawkmoth as soon as he sees an opportunity, not even a day after his “mAgNuM oPuS” blew up in his face (because I guess Scarletmoth was just Plan B). If he made such a big deal about caring for his son, why didn't he try harder to spend time with him? Has he ever had doubts about what he's doing before? If Chloe didn't show up as Queen Bee, was he going to follow through on his promise and try to be a better father to Adrien instead of trying to get Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous?

And yeah, the whole irony is that Gabriel is doing this for his family when he is unknowingly fighting his own son, which could lead to some interesting drama if done right. The idea of how Gabriel would react to his son being Cat Noir could really lead to some internal struggles for him to go through. But then we got “Cat Blanc”, which shows just how terrible of a character Gabriel is.

In an alternate timeline where he found out his son was Cat Noir, what does Gabriel do? Does he try to steal Adrien's Miraculous while he's sleeping? Does he reconsider his actions or realize he was endangering Adrien's life?

NOPE! He just decides to akumatize him all while emotionally tormenting him, before causing the end of the world.

This is honestly one of the most appalling things I've ever seen in any TV show, because it's basically an abusive father ordering his son to listen to him all while referencing his (kind of) dead mother to back up his point. And rather than use this to show how despicable Gabriel is, the episode decides to blame Marinette for this happening. Yes, according to the show, her present to Adrien caused several events to happen which caused Cat Blanc, but this logic makes no sense. It's like blaming the JFK assassination on the man who sold a gun to Lee Harvey Oswald, instead of, you know, Lee Harvey Oswald.

Not only was this episode yet another excuse to blame Marinette for something that wasn't her fault, it leads into the biggest problem I have with Gabriel as a character.

Sympathize with Gabriel? Surely, You Jest

After everything I've gone over regarding Gabriel as a character, after all the awful things I've talked about, are you really surprised that I don't feel bad for him at all?

Gabriel is just an awful character and a despicable human being, but the show just keeps wanting me to feel bad for him. It's just so hard to when you consider everything he's done has made him anything but sympathetic. I'm just saying, it's kind of hard to feel bad for someone who tries to start World War III with the only justification being “i'M dOiNg It FoR mY fAmIlY”, especially when he treats his family like crap.

The writers go out of their way to show how horrible Gabriel is as Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth, but they think because they throw in a few moments where he looks conflicted, we'll immediately feel bad for him. What makes so many people interested in seeing Chloe become a better person is that they can tell she's the victim of a troubled upbringing, and know that because she's only a teenager, she still has room to grow as a person, represented by having more honest moments of vulnerability. Gabriel is a grown man who once caused the apocalypse because of how terrible of a parent he is, and has even fewer sympathetic moments than Chloe does. Which one of these two is supposedly irredeemable? The answer may surprise you.

But the frustrating thing is that this kind of villain could have worked. Instead of making him this mustache-twirling psychopath, show how much Gabriel regrets what he has to do, but keeps pushing onward despite all the lives he's risking if it means that he can save his wife. Instead of making Gabriel like Lex Luthor, make him like Mr. Freeze, who is basic a better written version of him.

But as it stands, there's a good reason why Gabriel gets little to no respect as a character in the Miraculous Ladybug fandom, as a villain, or as a father.

[imthepunchlord]

Do you have any thoughts on how the guardian role is handled lore wise? Would you change much about being the guardian?

Oh yes I do and there's so much that I would change up.

The more we see of the Guardians, the dumber they are and the more pointless they are. To a point it's a wonder if they were worth the inclusion as they don't amount to much and are just useless. I'm putting this undercut as I just go off.

- Lore wise, they set it up that adults are naturally more powerful, so why did Fu pick two kids to fight his battles for him? Why not adults? Why did he leave them on their own instead of offering them some means to have an edge over HM?

- Of the Ladybug and Cat, we have yet to see anything unique that the Cat brings to these fights that the other 15 miraculi that Fu has with him couldn't do. You need a distraction that's going to mess up the akuma? Monkey and Fox. You need a protector/aggressor? Bee, Turtle, or Dragon. Ladybug is a must as its the only cleanser so far and has ML to boot, but Cat doesn't need to be out there, and as soon as HM had quite publicly stated that he wants LB and Cat, Fu should've reclaimed the Cat immediately to secure its safety and that HM won't get both. Another or two could go out to replace it.

- Why was picking Adrien a good idea? If Fu had just arrived in Paris, ok, but Backwarder reveals he's been living in Paris for a while. And with that, he's seen Adrien's face everywhere.s Adrien is potentially the most well known kid in Pari. Technically, for Fu's want of secrecy, why pick the most iconic face in Paris to get a miraculous? That sets up one of your heroes to always have attention on him. Fu picking Adrien doesn't make any logical sense.

- Why is Fu ok with endangering one kid but not the other? Why does Marinette get a test set up that risks her life and Fu's if it hadn't gone well and Adrien just helps an old man up, a common decency that most would do. It's like two extreme differences that don't work well in comparison as Marinette gets the risky test and Adrien it looks like he got his miraculous on a silver platter as he got the far easier one that takes the least effort to be a decent human being.

- Fu being a terrible mentor and hero picker in general and the whole shebang with Syren. If Adrien is not meeting his standards or if he doesn't trust Adrien at all, why is Adrien being allowed to continue as a hero? Or if he really wants Adrien to stay, why isn't he doing anything about Adrien? Why isn't he telling Plagg to encourage Adrien to step up and get serious? If he can take on the role of being Adrien's Chinese teacher, why not do that to try and guide Adrien to improvement so he can also be trusted with Guardian secrets too and truly help Marinette out. He's got two options when he doesn't trust Adrien or finds that he's meeting his standards: he takes the miraculous back or he addresses this issue himself.

- I also call big BS about him not doing anything at all when he comes upon Adrien detransformed on the roof with Plagg. Cause he's risking himself going out to find Chat Noir only to find him detransformed. That realistically should raise some brows and concern him. Adrien at least should've gotten a lecture or warning.

- Also the reveal that kwamis aren't allowed to know about their own power. that to me is off putting. It really stresses that kwamis are beneath them, these very ancient and powerful beings that have probably seen a lot. And canon validates it by making them children (which to me is the writers being lazy so they don't have to do complex characters).

- The whole thing with Fu's backstory. Dumbest backstory I've ever heard and it just paints Guardians in a really bad light, and by extension, real life monks. Monks didn't go to people's homes to take children. If they did take kids with them, those kids had nowhere else to go and offered them a place to stay until old enough to be on their own. And that test, omg, wtf. Ok, I can get the idea of a test of temptation, but there are other ways to perform it without starving a kid. Especially leaving said kid alone unsupervised with 19 powerful miraculi two of which have wish granting abilities. How would the Guardians even know if Fu used a miraculous as they left him alone with mriaculi. If Fu wanted to, he could've made a wish to never be picked.

- Fu didn't even do shit when he finally had a chance to face off against HM. He just sat in his damb ball and allowed himself to get knocked around. At least try and roll over him! Be a ping-pong ball! DO SOMETHING. Like, why did you even pick Turtle??? Turtle wasn't able to do anything against Butterfly! I thought it could as Fu had been ready to go in Origins, plus the 5 are based off Wu Xing, by set up, Fox and Turtle should have some sort of an edge over the Butterfly. But I guess that means there could be other options aside form LB and we can't have that, Marinette's miraculous needs to be the only thing to take on the Butterfly to really stress on the fact that it comes down to only her.

- The memory wipe thing that's an apparently must when you retire from being the Guardian. Honestly I think that should've been saved as a last resort if you're ever captured and could be forced to leak info, not when you retire. Doing so removes a valid source of advisement that a new Guardian can rely on. History is there to learn from it and this tradition removes a source of history to learn from, either from having guidance or seeing what the old did and how you want to change things. This also makes me concerned as I see Adrien taking advantage of an amnesiac Marinette.

- I went off about the NY Special revealing there's more Orders here.

- And lastly, Su-Han, the other Guardian to see aside from Fu. And with him, it solidifies how stupid they all are. When the Butterfly is being misused in Paris, why is someone aggressive and judgmental coming to Paris? Why is this guy even working with kids when he doesn't like kids? And the reveal that Guardians don't use miraculi at all. That just makes that test all the dumber with testers being unsupervised. And for Guardians not meant to use miraculi, how come Marinette gets a nice perk as LB that she can pull a miraculous out of her yo-yo? They're probably playing that she's "the first" to do so but realistically, I'm pressing x to doubt. In the long history of miraculi and when Guardians were around, you expect me to believe that Guardians never used miraculi themselves? What if there was no one to turn to, do they just the disaster happen? ...Well, based on how terrible canon is setting them up, I wouldn't be surprised.

SO.

There is a lot I would change up about the Guardians and for this, I'll adjust canon.

- Adrien gets the ring another way, maybe a gift from his mom or aunt or grandparents. Realistically, there's no logical reason for Fu to pick Adrien. He just has too much attention on him and Chat being an unexpected miraculous user can make him wary, adding to him only trusting Marinette.

- I'd have Fu be more present in Marinette's life, a customer who comes in a lot. This way he can offer advise when needed but not take away from Tikki. And this has him more closely keeping an eye on things.

- I'd change up Fu's backstory. He got separated from his family in a flood, the previous Turtle saved him, tried to help him find his family and with no luck, took him to the Temple, but only the section where other orphans are where they work to help take care of it, oblivious to the miraculous near them. After a year, Fu is one of the few selected to be entrusted with miraculous knowledge. He's surprised but not all that for it as he'd rather go find his family still. Idk how Temple falls but its not that. That was just dumb and avoidable.

- I wouldn't have Adrien meet Fu at all. In truth, it actually could've been cut out entirely as Adrien meeting Fu didn't amount to anything. He doesn't help with Guardian duties, doesn't help pick heroes, hasn't stepped up at all in his role as a partner. And he's not as torn up about Fu's loss as Marinette is. Adrien meeting Fu was pointless in the grand scheme of things. Nothing was progressed or changed from Adrien meeting Fu.

- I'd have HM ONLY getting an edge on Fu because Mayura was there to help him, catching Fu off guard. I want to see the Turtle truly in action, to see what else it can do cause sitting there to be smacked around was just unimpressive. And if Asstruck even did as much research as he could, he'd know that in Chinese mythology, the Turtle is a boss. It's the keeper of history and symbol of immortality, and it's up there with Tiger as an animal that can go toe to toe with the Dragon. And of the Four Symbols (associated with 4 seasons), the Black Turtle is also known as the Black Warrior. There should've been a lot more to Turtle than just sitting in your shell and allowing yourself to be knocked around.

- Su-Han I'd drastically change up. I'd keep in him being critical and stern, but he approaches things smartly and patiently. Before he dives into aggression and accusations, he wants to know what's going on. Why does this 14 yo have the Miracle Box? How was the Butterfly obtained and misused? And what the hell is going on??? How are these people so small and how did they get into this thin glass box?? Computer? What's a computer??? Essentially, have fun with the fact that Su-Han is essentially a time traveler and one great bonding experience to have with Marinette while also offering some good comedy is him learning about the modern time and her acting as his guide. Su-Han can give her guidance that Fu hadn't been able to give, and Marinette can offer her own in a way that Su-Han will need. Which by extension could remove Marinette having a near mental breaking point and revealing herself to Alya, and could avoid some of that drama of what's coming.

- Speaking of which, Adrien. I'd use Su-Han to finally address the issues with Adrien as a hero and partner. Su-Han prioritized Marinette as she has the Miracle Box, but Adrien is someone he'd take the miraculous away from. Adrien would get a very clear warning and call out for his actions and role.

[mlwritingprompts]

Submitted Prompt by Walks-The-Ages: Absolver (Akumatized Marinette)

And it's not even an Absolution reference. shame on you.

The day has finally arrived; Marinette successfully confesses her feelings to Adrien.

Only... Adrien does not return her feelings, and gently rebuffs her advances, truthfully telling her that he sees her as a friend, and hopes that they can still be friends without this coming between them.

Heartbroken but putting on a brave face so Adrien doesn't feel bad, Marinette flees the school before she can break down in front of Adrien, and is promptly akumatized by Hawkmoth, who seizes on her despair, not only of Adrien not returning her feelings, but more than that, just how much of her time, energy, and life was devoted to pursuing someone who didn't even like her back, purely because she had never plucked up the courage to confess in the beginning, and saved herself the heartbreak.

-

Turned into the Akuma known as Absolver, Marinette's powers allow her to force the people under her control to confess their most pressing feelings they've been holding off on speaking aloud, or refuse to say at all. 

Some people confess their crushes on people, some people confess they want to end their current relationship, some confess they hate their new glasses, some confess they hate their friend's favorite gaudy red boots, some people confess they absolutely hate their job, and a whole slew of other things people want to say but can't or won't for any reason. 

(Marinette still has the earrings on, and Tikki is flying around by herself with no Miraculous; either Gabriel didn't ask Absolver a specific enough question for her to volunteer the information that she's wearing the Ladybug Miraculous right now, or he's his usual incompetent self and is pretty much content for Absolver to endanger his son if it means he can be handed the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous at once, instead of the Akuma making the trip to and from his secret hideout, because he's that lazy and incompetent)

With Ladybug nowhere in sight, Adrien must scramble to hold his own against the newest Akuma, and it's only sheer luck and the skills of Alya and Nino (as civilians!) coming to his aid that he's not taken out in the first five minutes because of his usual careless attitude when it comes to Akuma battles. After all, he has no reason to believe (yet) that Ladybug isn't on her way to save him.

It takes the entire class teaming up to help out Adrien as Chat Noir to even locate Absolver's akumatized object, and it take's the Dupain-Cheng's industrial oven to damage the object enough to break it when Adrien's timer runs out from a mis-placed and ill-timed Cataclysm.

Adrien manages to avoid having his identity being revealed, but is not able to avoid getting hit by Absolver's ability.

He promptly goes into a long, emotional monologue about how his father treats him like he's nothing but a puppet to dress up as free advertising for the brand, how he feels so alone, like he can't even talk about his mother's disappearance because Gabriel is never around to begin with and promptly shuts the conversation down and flees the room when Adrien tries to bring up how rough he's been feeling. How he's had to bottle up his emotions and pretend nothing wrong, pretend it doesn't matter, so much so that all of his friends were shocked to find out his mother only went missing a year ago, instead of when he was a baby, because of how unaffected he seems about her being gone. 

Adrien goes on, and on, and Gabriel is forced to listen to every single word out of his son's mouth, and face the truth of what he's done to his son.

-

How is the battle won? Does Gabriel abandon his reign of terror in favor of actually being a decent parent? (Or at least, does he plan to, before he's arrested for child abuse?) Do Marinette and Adrien become proper friends instead of acquaintances now that her feelings are off her chest and she can move on completely, not forced into an endless loop by the writers to torture her? Does Marinette's acceptance of his feelings and determination to be a good friend make Adrien wake up to how horribly he's been treating his partner? Does he apologize and actually become a good superhero and partner to Marinette that's worthy of that title?

Or does Gabriel double down on his efforts to revive Emilie? Does he pull Adrien into his plans, finally open up completely about what happened to Adrien's mother, and what Gabriel is doing to get her back? Does Adrien side with Hawkmoth, and work as a double agent against Ladybug, sabotaging fights (more than he did before, that is, because we can't pretend like that's not what he's doing) so that Ladybug will have her Miraculous seized by the villain so he can stay in her good graces while he works against her?

Or does Adrien rebel against his father and immediately tell Marinette his identity and that he knows who Hawkmoth is?  

It's up to you, dear reader! Go forth and craft your own vision of this prompt-- it can end any way you want it to! The only stipulation is no one is allowed to blame or demonize Adrien for not liking Marinette back, and no one can blame Marinette for Adrien harassing her this whole time!

[apopcornkernel]

The Language Barrier (Isn’t That High)

@galahadwilder this is all your fault.

i’m studying mandarin so like i HAD to do this. also for the sake of my sanity i wrote “english“ because writing “french” would be confusing af.

Marinette was bad at Mandarin. 

Period.

There was a good reason why she'd needed Adrien's help to even just communicate with her great-uncle. 

I mean, she could speak Chinese, in a sense. She could speak Wenzhounese. A Chinese dialect. It was different, though; very different.

But the divide between the two Chinese dialects wasn't that large—even though the various intonations and pronunciations vastly differed, one thing stayed similar. 

Mandarin, Wenzhounese, Hokkien, and all those other dialects—most of them were all written the same way.

Adrien, naïve as he was, hadn't known this.

Which was why he, in his ignorance, had written a rather revealing note to Marinette in Chinese, thinking his secrets were safe because Marinette couldn't understand Mandarin, right?

(Oh, sunshine child. Poor, dumb, sunshine child.)

The letter itself was simple. Straight to the point.

But its contents… world-shattering. Mind-blowing.

He'd given it to Marinette right before she'd gone home, with a cheeky wink and a smile that promised mischief. She'd taken it with a blush, cheerfully acquiescing to his request to only open it when she got home. Ignoring the sly look in his eyes, because what harm was there in a little note?

She should've known. She should've known it was more than just a “little note.”

Marinette's hands trembled as she reread the blocky Chinese characters for the nth time, struggling to make sense of what has just happened.

我知道你不會說普通話,可是我是黑貓和我愛上了你, it read, Adrien's too-wide pictographs huddling together on the torn half of a notebook page.

Or, in English:

I know you can’t understand Mandarin, but I am Chat Noir and I’m in love with you.

Her eyes frantically scanned the line of text one more time, unwilling to believe what she was reading. 

Adrien was Chat Noir? Adrien was in love with her?

No. No, this couldn't be possible, it couldn't—

But what if it was?

She envisioned his sunny hair, his green eyes. Compared it to Chat's. Imagined mussing his hair up a little, to get that signature shaggy look Chat sported. Mentally drew a mask and a pair of cat ears.

The similarities were startlingly clear.

Well, crap.

Gulping for air, she finally let the note drop to her desk as she cradled her head in her hands.

Adrien was Chat Noir. Chat Noir was Adrien. It was undeniable now.

Tikki drifted towards her, alarmed by her holder's sudden silence. "Marinette? Are you… are you okay?"

"Wait. I need some silence. I just need to digest this, Tikki," she mumbled weakly.

Tikki nodded, then zipped out of the field of her vision.

Her gaze landed on that note again.

我愛上了你。

He said he was in love with her.

Adrien. In love with her.

She hardly dared to believe it. Adrien being Chat Noir was a big enough coincidence, one she felt insanely lucky for. But Adrien falling for her? That required luck of massive proportions. Divine intervention. There was no way he could be both Chat and in love with her. That was too much for even her imagination to fathom.

But the carefully written characters said otherwise.

Marinette bit her lip. That didn’t make it any more believable to her. Besides, she reasoned, he could be playing a prank, like the time he’d pretended to be a statue in the wac museum. She couldn’t help but wince at the recollection of that incident. It had been so embarrassing.

She exhaled. Maybe a second opinion would help. “Tikki?”

Tikki promptly flew in front of her. “Yes?”

“Do you think Adrien would ever play a prank on me?” When the kwami cocked her head in curiosity, as if she knew there was more to it than that, she elaborated, “Like, a prank where he told me he was Chat Noir and that he was in love with me?”

But instead of freaking out like Marinette had thought Tikki would, the kwami grinned. “Finally! I’m so happy for you two!” she chirped, bouncing on the desk with excitement.

Marinette’s mouth fell open. “So… so he really is Chat Noir?” she asked weakly. 

“Yes!” 

“And he’s… in love with me?”

“Apparently so!”

Marinette fell back onto her chair, sinking into the soft cushion. “And… you’re okay with this? That he revealed himself?” she asked timidly, almost afraid to hope.

Tikki did a somersault in happiness. “Of course I am! It’s about time!”

“So… Adrien loves me,” she murmured. “Adrien is Chat. Adrien loves me… he loves me!”

She squealed, hands cupping her cheeks as she finally embraced the revelation. “Oh my gosh, Tikki, how have I been so lucky! Ahhh!”

Tikki giggled. “Well, you are Ladybug, who’s pretty much the embodiment of good luck.”

Marinette laughed. “That’s true.” Suddenly, she sat up straight, hit with an idea. 

“Tikki! I should answer him!” A grin full of mischief slowly spread across her face. “Oh, his expression will be priceless when he realizes I could actually understand what he wrote.”

Tikki’s eyes widened, her normally innocent gaze now sparkling with mischief. “Ooh, why don’t you write something like ‘I’m Ladybug, and I’m in love with you too’?”

Snatching up a pen, she nodded eagerly at her kwami’s suggestion. “Perfect! Now, hold on...”

Slowly, painstakingly, she wrote a reply underneath his message, taking care to make each character as beautiful and graceful as possible. 

Special care was given to the word「愛」。 

Love.

[fanficgirl104]

Writing prompt: "Do you want me to leave? "

~~~~~

Adrien noticed there was something wrong with Marinette. She wasn't as joyfull or bubbly as usual, she looked as thought she was bored.

When he tried talking to her she answered his questions shortly and didn't try to make conversation like she usually does. Also, she didn't even statter once.

At first he thought it had something to do with him, but he noticed that she didn't even talk to Alya. Even Chloe didn't try to make a witty remark on the bags under Marinette's eyes. She had stayed quiet, which is unusual. As though she understood what was going on.

During last period Adrien remembered who Marinette would actually talk to. A certain black cat who liked visiting her from time to time. When school was finally over he looked over to Marinette to see her gathering he things and leaving with her head down.

He grabbed Alya's shoulder before she left. "Hey, do you know what's wrong with Mari? " He asked and Alya frowned "No. She won't tell me. She keeps saying she is fine even though it's obvious that she is not and won't let me help. Sorry Adrien she won't talk to me. I don't know why. She even asked me not to go over to her place." Adrien nodded sadly and let the redhead go.

His bodyguard walked him to the car and he could not stop thinking about Marinette. He has known her for a little more that three years now and even thought he still loves Ladybug very much, he learned to get over her and move on. That was when the sweet girl with the pigtails, a girl he considered one of his best friends, his every-day-ladybug, as he once called her, made her way into his heart.

He was visiting her as chat noir and they would talk and talk for hours. They would look at the sky and the stars. She knew a lot about them, something he recently found out, they would drink hot chocolate and share a blanket when it got cold. She would comfort him and make him feel loved and accepted for exactly who he was. Not the perfect model and shy friend everyone else thinks him to be. But the funny, adventurous, clown he really is. She would even laugh at his silly cat puns sometimes.

He thought back to the first time he realised he was in love with her.

---

It was just a normal day at school for him. No akuma attacks, no sudden explosions or anything of the kind. Just a normal, boring school day when he heard Kim talking to Max.

"Oh please! Ladybug is doing all the work, Chat Noir is just a useless idiot who makes mistakes and hold her back." He said naming Adrien's biggest fear. That he was useless, that Ladybug didn't need him. That he was holding her back. That he was vulnerable.

He looked around to find Marinette looking a second before realising smoke from her ears. Face red, if looks could kill Marinette would have tortured, brutally killed, brought back to life and killed him again. Alya was holding her arm like if she let go Mari would attack Kim like a rabid dog.

"I mean what kind of idiot almost gets his partner killed, and himself?! He is the worst partner anyone could have. He only brings bad luck. She would be better off without him, or she should at least look for a better partner." Kim said chuckling. Adrien wanted to crawl away and cry like a stray baby cat who had been hit by a bus and survived.

He almost missed the blue-black haired girl that was making her way to Kim angrily.

"EXCUSE ME?!?! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?! LADYBUG AND CHAT NOIR ARE EQUALS IF NOT HE IS BETTER!!!! HE MAY HAVE MADE A FEW MISTAKES BUT SHE HAS TOO. HE HAS SAVED HER LIFE MULTIPLE TIMES PUTTING HIS AT RISK WITHOUT HESITATION!!! SHE MAY BE ABLE TO PURIFY THE AKUMAS BUT SHE WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO DEFEAT THE VILLAINS ON HER OWN!!! SHE WOULD BE DEAD THE MOMENT SHE EVEN TRIED TO TAKE THEM DOWN ON HER OWN!!!!! HE IS AN AMAZINGLY KIND PERSON WITH THE BIGGEST HEART, HE IS SINCERE, HE IS GENEROUS, HE IS BRAVE, HE IS THE GREATEST PARTNER SHE COULD HAVE EVER ASKED FOR!!! SHE IS THE ONE THAT DOESN'T DESERVE HIM!!! SHE WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT HIM!!! IT IS SAD HOW EVERYONE IS LOOKING AT HER WHEN HE IS THE ONE GETTING THE HITS AND RISKING HIS LIFE TO SAVE US!! SHE WOULD BE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WITHOUT HIM!!! AND DON'T YOU DARE SAY ANYTHING LIKE THAT ABOUT HIM EVER AGAIN!! YOU DON'T KNOW HIM!!! "

Adrien was sure the whole of Paris had heard her. He could stop smiling and blushing at what she had said. Did she really think that. He was close enough to hear Lila day something like "Of course trash likes trash. The most useless person on the planet would of course like the useless superhero. " He was so close to hissing at her. Like she had insulted something of his. But since when did he consider Marinette his?

He passed by her house that night to find her on her balcony curled up in a blanket holding two cups of hot chocolate. Waiting for him.

"Hello purrr-ncess. How are you in this lovely day? " He asked making an overly dramatic bow. She rolled her eyes at him playfully. "Why it had been great my kind knight. " She slightly bowed her head at him playing along.

He sat beside her, taking a sip, looking at his feet. "So, I was passing by your school.. And I heard an argument you had with K-a guy. I've been meaning to ask. Did you mean all that princess? " He hesitantly asked. Marinette turned around to look at him. She put her chocolate at the small table and cuped his face with both her hands making him look at her. "Of course I did. Every word." He averted his eyes "I didn't think I would actually matter to someone that's all. "

"You matter Kitty. You matter to a lot of people. You matter to me. " She said making him look at her shocked. He noticed how her eyes where a piercing blue in the moonlight, impossible not to notice them sparkling. Her eyes sparkle when she talks about something that she loves. He saw how her hair looked almost midnight blue when light hit them. He saw her smile. A smile that was for him. A smile he said to himself that he wanted to see everyday.

She kissed his cheek and hugged him. He felt his pulse quickening, he felt warm and at peace. Like he wanted to hold her forever. To freeze time. That was when he knew. He knew that girl was a criminal, she had stolen his heart.

---

With Marinette

"I'm tired Tikky. I'm so so tired. I can't do this anymore it's too much!! " Marinette was sobbing on her bed. She was just so sick of everything. Having to deal with school, being ladybug, being a guardian, having to lie to everyone around her. She feels like she lost her entire life. It has been three years! She was 17 going to 18. She feels as though her life ended three and a half years ago. She has lost her sleep.

Tikky was trying to comfort her any way possible but all Marinette wanted was to be left alone. On top of everything she had to deal with moving on from Adrien and her broken heart, her newfound feelings for chat noir, her «break up» with Luka and getting fed up with all the romance crap.

She was still crying softly when she heard someone tapping on her window. "Princess? " She heard Chat's voice. She remembered he promised to come by. After a minute without an answer he knocked again. "Princess?... If you don't answer in the next minute I'm coming in." He said.

Tikky begged Marinette with her eyes. She could almost hear the creature saying 'you need to talk to someone.'

She heard her window open. Apparently it had been a minute and he was worried. He thought something had happened to her. He saw her curled up on her bed her back facing him. "Princess?" He asked.

"Chat don't-dont look at me.. " She already felt insecure and her, well, maybe, crush seeing her a crying mess was not something she liked. "Why princess I bet you look beautiful, like you always do." He complimented. She didn't know that he actually ment it. That he thought she was the most beautiful girl he had ever layed his eyes on. That every time she had her hair down during the nights he visited it took his breath away every time. That he thought she had the most beautiful smile that could light up an entire room. That he thought everything about her was beautiful.

He went closer to her bed while she hesitantly turned. And slightly sat up not looking at him. "Really? " She asked. She felt like such a little girl. Vulnerable. She felt disgusting like she was fishing for compliments. She is ladybug dammit. She doesn't need anyone to tell her she is pretty.

He cuped her face the way she had that night. The night he knew. He looked into her eyes and whispered "beautiful." Her slightly red nose and puffy glossy eyes gave away that she was crying. Yet he thought she looked amazing. He wiped her tears and placed his forehead against hers "what's wrong princess? " She started crying again and hugged him tightly.

"In just so tired chat. It's just too much. The responsibility is too much I can't deal with it. Everything is in the air! Nothing is in order. Nothing has a program. I am 17 and a half Chat! I've been doing this for three and a half years!! I've been lying to everyone for three and a half years. I'm saying I'm fine but I'm not chat. I'm not at all. I just want it all to stop. I just want to be alone.I can't do this chat. I'm not strong enough. "

Chat felt something inside him break. The girl that he thought was one of the strongest people he knew just broke into his chest. He didn't know what she was talking about him but he didn't really care. She would tell him when she was ready. Part of him wanted to comfort her. To keep her in his arms and let her know that it was okay to feel like this. But after the words 'I just want to be alone. ' he could help but think he was included so when she broke the hug he had to ask.

"Do you want me to leave? "

She looked at his through her lashes she didn't speak for a moment and he got nervous. He didn't want to leave her in a state like this. "No. No I don't. Please stay.. " She said. She looked tired. "I am. " He reassured her "when was the last time you slept? " He asked "I actually don't remember. " She answered and automatically yawned.

He layed her down and cuddled her. "Sleep princess. I am here now. " He whispered. She rubbed his chest making him purr. How did she know exactly how to do that? He would not find out. And frankly he didn't care. All he cared about was the sleeping girl in his arms. The girl he once thought as just a very good friend. Now he felt like an idiot. All that mattered was that she was in his arms. He would do anything to help her feel better. He didn't care about the cost.

He only cared that he was asleep with the girl he loved.

If only he knew she felt the exact same way...

[concernedbrownbread]

Come Home With Me

For @adrienaugust Day 3: Umbrella

Summary:

“Adrien,” Plagg said softly, “It’ll rain soon.”

“Let it.”

His voice was vicious. Desperate.

He wanted to go home. But he really, really didn’t want to go back.

The rain started hitting his face harshly, punishment for his indecision. Adrien wanted to curl up in his bed and cry, but he didn’t want to ever see his too-white, too-big room again.

“Adrien?”

His eyes snapped open, focusing past the blur of water to the person who had spoken.

“Marinette?”

Or, Adrien finds himself alone in the rain, trying to find home, and Marinette lends him her umbrella.

Word Count: 1397

Relationship: Adrien & Marinette (Platonic, but can be interpreted differently), Adrien & Plagg

Warnings: Implied/Refrenced Emotional Abuse

Read here or under the cut

---

“You’re gonna catch a cold out here, kit.”

Adrien’s lips pulled into a bittersweet smile, “I think that’s the least of our worries.”

Plagg sighed, hovering just above his shoulder, “At least transform into Chat Noir.”

Adrien shook his head, “You’re tired, and I’m running out of cheese.”

Plagg sighed, and didn’t say, then maybe we should go back.

Adrien’s never going back to that manor. Father could try dragging him kicking and screaming, but he was never going back.

(He had said that before. So many times.)

The wind picked up, the chill of late October stinging against Adrien’s exposed skin. He was underdressed and overwhelmed, with nothing but his school bag and his phone. His calls to Nino and Chloe had both fallen through, the reception bad because of course his luck ran that way. Adrien truly did feel alone.

Alone, but away from that wretched house.

He closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the park bench. At least he was free here.

(A terrible, nagging part of his mind that sounded so much like Father told him, you’ll go back eventually, he’s your dad, you’ll forgive him like you always do .

That part of his mind, cold and quiet, called this little stunt for what it was - a childish tantrum.)

Tears stung at his eyes.

“Adrien,” Plagg said softly, “It’ll rain soon.”

“Let it.”

His voice was vicious. Desperate.

He wanted to go home.

Plagg said nothing, finally realising that Adrien was serious about staying out. He settled onto Adrien’s shoulder, a comforting weight. He didn’t try to talk Adrien out of this stupid bit of rebellion, but he didn’t encourage him either.

Plagg always gave him space to figure things out for himself.

He appreciated that, but after a life of being told what to do, Adrien wasn’t sure how to figure things out.

The first droplets of rain are kind, a gentle warning. Adrien refused to budge. His heart hammered against his ribs, a steady rhythm that only picked up with the downpour.

Go back, Adrien tried to tell himself. Back to the manor, where it was cold but at least not drenched. Back to Father, who would hug him and say never leave me and it would be more suffocating than comforting. Back to his life, as Adrien Agreste, the perfect little model.

But he really, really didn’t want to go back.

The rain started hitting his face harshly, punishment for his indecision. Adrien wanted to curl up in his bed and cry, but he didn’t want to ever see his too-white, too-big room again.

“Adrien?”

His eyes snapped open, focusing past the blur of water to the person who had spoken.

“Marinette?”

She shifted her umbrella awkwardly, “Uh, hi. You’re wet - no, I mean, er - getting wet - “ she trailed off.

Adrien smiled fondly, “Yeah. What are you doing out here?”

“I was running an errand for my parents,” Marinette managed to say, with minimal stammering, “You?”

Her eyes were wide and concerned and warm against the autumn wind.

Though he counted Marinette as a friend, he couldn’t say they were close. He didn’t know how much to tell her, if anything at all. Had he been behind his mask, he wouldn’t have hesitated at all, but he never knew where Adrien stood with her.

Still, Marinette was dear to him, and always had a habit of showing up when he needed her most.

“I’m not sure what I’m doing here,” Adrien admitted quietly, “Or what I’m doing at all,” he scoffed, "Or where to go."

“Come home with me,” Marinette said boldly. Then, "Not - not home WITH me - I meant - come to my house - the bakery that is - at least, it’s out of the rain - and it’s close - "

She trailed off, smiling nervously, angling her umbrella so that it was covering him.

He couldn’t really say no. And the thought of macarons were always enticing.

“Thank you, Marinette,” Adrien said, “I promise to be out of your hair as soon as the rain clears.”

“Don’t be silly, you can stay forever - um, as long as you like, I mean.”

The bakery was much closer than Adrien had thought. Stepping into its warmth, Adrien was hit with the aroma of freshly baked pastries, which made him instantly hungry.

“My parents aren’t in,” Marinette said as she left the umbrella by the door, “Do you want something to eat?”

Everything, “Sure.”

“I’ll get you a towel too.”

Marinette got them so much tooth-rotting sugary goods that Father would flip if he saw them, which only made Adrien devour them with glee. Marinette giggled when Adrien got cream on his nose and tried to lick it off, completely forgetting he didn’t have Chat’s tongue right now.

They sat by the window, the steady pitter-patter soothing the last of Marinette’s nerves - enough for her to crack a pun about pastries, one that Adrien had to use next time around Ladybug. She laughed when he shared the story about the time he and Chloe had eaten enough sweets to make them sick, and he gasped at her story about how her dad invented a new kind of muffin recipe.

By the time they were finishing off the last macaron, Adrien had forgotten all his previous worries.

It all came crashing back however, when Marinette said, “I noticed your dad didn’t sign the form today. For the trip to Nice.”

Adrien flinched, “No, he didn’t.”

“How come?”

She was more curious than judgemental, which was why Adrien felt comfortable enough to confess, “I think he’s punishing me.”

Marinette drew back, “What? Why?”

“I messed up a photoshoot the other day. There was an akuma attack and I had to … go hide - I guess it’s not really an excuse - but - “

Marinette slammed down the glass she’d been drinking from, “That is SO unfair!”

Adrien shrugged, “It’s nothing new. He might just be being protective, I don’t know. Though … I sort of decided to not go back home today, because of it,” he laughed, “Overdramatic, I know.”

“He’s the one being overdramatic!” Marinette frowned, “Does Nino and Chloe know? I’m telling them, we’re kidnapping you. I’ll tell Alya too, she’ll tell the whole class,” she paused at her phone, “Should I tell Kagami and Luka? They’re not even on the trip …”

Adrien felt his insides warm. Hearing their names out loud … he sometimes forgot how many people he had, that cared for him.

Had he really been worrying over where home was, when he had already known?

“Marinette,” he said softly, “It’s okay. Thank you.”

“It’s not okay,” she pouted, but relented by putting her phone down.

“I know he loves me,” Adrien sighed, “I just wish he’d show it more.”

“Oh Adrien,” she reached over, covering his hand with hers, “I’m so sorry you have to go through that.”

“Yeah,” Adrien smiled, “Thank you.”

“You can stay here tonight if you like.”

Outside, the rain had slowed to a drizzle.

“It’s okay,” he said softly, “I think I’m okay now.”

Marinette didn’t seem to be pleased, but she didn’t push it, “At least take the umbrella with you.”

“I couldn’t - "

“It’s yours,” she blushed, “You - uh - gave it to me. First day of school.”

“Oh,” he grinned, “You kept it.”

“I forgot to give it back,” she softened, “Anyway, I think you need it more than me. For the next time it rains.”

Adrien gulped, blinking back the stinging in his eyes. He cleared his throat gently, “Um, before I go. This might sound weird, but do you have any cheese?”

Marinette laughed, “I do, actually! I keep it around for ... stray cats.”

It took Adrien a moment to realise she was talking about Chat Noir.

“You’re an amazing friend, you know that?” Adrien blurted out.

Marinette grinned, “I’ve been told. And you are too, don’t you forget it!”

Outside, holding plenty of cheese and pastries and one well-used umbrella, Plagg peeked out of Adrien’s jacket.

“Feeling better?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

Plagg snorted, “Then let’s go home. Your dad’s worried.”

“I doubt Father even noticed.”

“Other dad.”

Adrien had no idea what Plagg was talking about until he checked his phone, only to be bombarded with seventeen worried messages from the Gorilla.

“I’m in trouble, huh?”

Plagg only laughed.

Adrien grinned back, looking up at the sky. The rain had come to a stop now, leaving the skies grey, but the world clearer.

---

Author's Note: When I tell you this fic refused to cooperate with me, I mean that I had 5 stories in my head and came up with the 6th this morning. At least I had fun writing the rain as a metaphor!

Platonic Adrinette is an under-used gem, they are such a wholesome duo. The ship is fine, but nothing beats friendship <3

Also, on Gabriel - I don't doubt that he cares about Adrien, but sometimes caring isn't enough. In this case, it DEFINITELY isn't enough.

[padmsanakin]

headcanons

Ladybug | Marinette

• can create shields and weapons out of pure energy

•healing powers, heck yeah

•the ability to speed growth of plants

•she has the power of luck on her side, meaning that by wearing the miraculous, she can survive impossible odds. previous ladybug miraculous holders have done feats that no normal person could do and come out without a scratch in situations that could killed a normal person.

•i think marinette’s powers work best when she has a clear mind. her power need quite a lot of focus for it to work properly. if she’s panicked or distressed, her powers won’t work with the exception of luck. this, marinette needs to learn how to regulate and calm herself down and focus on one thing at a time.

•this would be great since she’s usually scatter brained and jumps from one thing to another. this would help her to become for focused and calmer

•marinette has a green thumb, meaning she has a little garden in the balcony. she also has the talent for creating little trinkets and things to decorate her room. giving is her love language

•she is most at peace when she’s baking because it reminds her of her parents

•she absolutely loves classical music.

•as she grows older, she tries to learn a bit about her mother’s culture because she realises it is important to her mother and is a great bonding opportunity

•marinette also learns to go with the flow and think things through.

Chat Noir | Adrien Agreste

• cataclysm relies a lot on emotions. the stronger his emotions, the more powerful he is and more destructive.

•he has subtle powers as in messing up wifi signals on a bad day or causing things to fall off around him. another thing is that if he puts in enough focus, he can actually destroy poisonous gas in the air or poison in the bloodstream.

• he also has the ability to cast a curse to cause an illness that can only be cured by ladybug’s healing powers but the scriptures on how to cast a curse are destroyed by the guardians, scared if it lands in the wrong hands, it would cause total disaster.

•there is also the ability to just make a person disappear or disintegrate with a look although that power is very hard to summon and this is purely speculation on the guardian’s part and the last known use of this was during the age of the pharaoh.

•alternatively, the wielder can also create shields which causes the object to just disintegrate while it just bounces off ladybug’s shield

• wielders of black cat miraculous just have a higher fatality than others.

•most black cat miraculous holders are reckless either because they hounded the glory, thinking that they can never be knocked down until they do or some who just have a low self esteem and think they are expendable.

•adrien is very into anime, video games and books since they have kept him company since he was quite isolated since he was a child.

•adrien actually enjoys piano because it reminds him of his mother and continues to play it to remember his mother and he enjoys fencing because he gets to unleash his inner chat noir out.

• adrien sometimes has bad days where he want to totally just stay in bed and think way too much about his dad’s actions and his mom. sometimes, he hums the lullaby that his mom used to sing to him

•plagg is the only one who could make adrien laugh like emilie agreste did. while plagg may try to seem aloof, adrien knows plagg deeply cares for him.

•adrien’s favorite color is ladybug red.

•adrien is a space nerd

•adrien looks up to majestia

Rena Rouge/Furtive | Alya Cesaire

•she can visualise fanfics with her illusion power.

•her illusion power also allows her to quickly differentiate lies from truth if she has the miraculous at hand

•while she can’t summon shields, weapons out of thin air, she can summon energy which can temporarily blind her opponents or in a less serious effect, cloud their vision which gives her time to escape.

•this power also allows her interfere with the senses of her opponents which can daze or confuse her opponents. in extreme cases, this power can render the opponent immobile with multiple illusions

•akin to sandboy’s power, she can create manifestations of the people worst fears which isn’t actually real.

•diversion and confusion is integral to how her power works.

•she’s hardcore ladynoir shipper

•alya’s favorite food is pizza

•alya loves writing a lot since it’s a thing that connects her with her grandfather who used to be a head of the newspaper.

•alya also sketches and draws in her spare time although she is scared to show it to others in case someone will make fun of her.

•alya likes to host debates and livestreams in her blog.

•if alya is not a reporter, she would want to be a teacher and work with kids because she spends a huge portion of her time babysitting her sisters.