#Jasonette July

[mochegato]

Petty Warfare

Part One of the Pretty Petty Series

“Akuma I have no sense of decorum,” Ladybug grumbled as she surveyed the wreckage before her.  It was all quite impressive considering the akuma had only emerged a few minutes ago and had already wreaked more havoc than the last eight akuma combined, but it was easy to do that with a literal sea of lava appearing and disappearing every few seconds.

It was not the look they needed right before their meeting with the Batman to discuss investigative assistance from the Justice League while still keeping them at a distance and allowing the Miraculous team to stay in control.  It was a well-known fact in the hero community, and the general public really, that Batman and his team had a tendency to think they know better and taking over.

“Absolutely no respect for other people's schedules,” Chat nodded in agreement as he stepped up next to her with a twirl of his staff.

Rena hummed as she whirled her flute and got in line.  “It's one thing that's always bothered me about akuma, how rude they are.”

Carapace stepped beside her.  “Well then, let's teach them some manners.”  He looked down and around, for a brief second there was a glimmer of panic in his eyes, but it almost immediately disappeared in favor of a smirk.  He grabbed his shield from its back holster and spun it on one finger before securing it on his forearm.

Ladybug rolled her eyes and shook her head, much to the amusement of the rest of her team.  It was extremely common for her to do one or the other, but both at the same time?  They rarely got her to do that.  “And let's make it quick,” she advised firmly.  “We have a meeting to get to and I for one do not want to let down Wonder Woman.”  She made eye contact with the rest of her team but then rolled her eyes again at their hopeful expressions and twirled her yoyo.

Chat grinned brilliantly, almost bouncing from foot to foot watching the yoyo, but quickly cleared his throat and shook his body before easing into a model perfect pose.  “Or give Batman the idea that we need him to step in more than we want.”

Carapace sucked in a breath.  “Might want to get on that.”

“Oh my god, that's Red Hood!” Rena shrieked, barely able to keep her voice low enough not to echo across the rooftops.  “I need to get a picture of him in the fight for the paper.”  Her excited grin quickly twisted to a contemplative purse.  “I can’t believe they brought Red Hood near Hawk Moth.  That seems like a poor choice.”

“Red who?” Ladybug asked.

Rena pointed to a figure jumping from roof to roof.  “Red Hood,” she enunciated slowly.  “Affiliated with Batman… kind of… he has a bat on his chest so…”

Ladybug followed to where she was pointing, her face scrunching as she watched him.  “But he doesn't have a hood.”

Carapace shrugged.  “You don't have antenna but your called Ladybug.”

Ladybug scoffed and spluttered.  “No, but I have…” she motioned toward her bodysuit. “I'm not called Ladybug and then running around looking like a fox.”  She gestured harshly toward Rena.  “He should be called Red Mask or something.”  She suddenly narrowed her eyes and shot up straight.  “Is that a gun?” she shrieked, not bothering to keep her voice down.

“That’s kind of his thing,” Rena grimaced.

“Not here it isn’t,” Ladybug snapped.  Her yoyo was sailing toward him before Carapace could warn her that she might not want to start a fight with an ally while they were still fighting an akuma, but by that point, she was already gone and it was probably better for everyone involved if he just didn’t say anything.  Except for Red Hood, but he was a big boy.  He could handle himself… probably.

The yoyo hooked over a beam and wrapped around Red Hood’s wrists in the blink of an eye.  He was yanked forward by his wrists, forcing him to drop both his guns over the side of the building and barely keeping himself from following after, as she jumped off the building and swung toward him, using him as her counterweight.  Thankfully, he was heavy enough he barely moved as she swung.  She landed gracefully and silently, but stalked over to him, stomping the entire way until she was almost chest to chest with him.  “What the hell do you think you are doing?” she demanded.

He yanked his arms back and looked her up and down, the surprised look from seconds before replaced with a mask of indifference, eyes calculating and raised eyebrow unimpressed.  “It's called saving the day sweetheart.  Someone had to do it.”

“Oh shit,” Chat grumbled under his breath.  He searched around for the rest of Red Hood’s team.  Surely one of them could help deescalate the situation.  He could calm Marinette down, but not if Red Hood was actively taunting her.  But when he turned back to intervene, his eyes caught on Red Hood’s hands and he had to fight to stop from chuckling.

He was trying to be discreet.  He was trying to be sneaky.  He thought he could trick them.  He really had no idea who he was dealing with.  He could try as hard as he wanted, as long as he wanted, but he wasn’t going to get out of that line.  He was stuck there for as long as Marinette wanted him there.  Chat would know, from personal experience.  If Red Hood had done any research before coming to their territory, he would have known that.

“It's called inflicting major trauma,” she hissed, “which is a bad thing when dealing with a villain who preys on negative emotions.  I fear that's something most anyone could figure out.”

“Seems like getting attacked by an akuma might do exactly that.  So stopping the akuma would prevent it.  I fear that’s something even someone like you could figure out,” he growled back.

“Someone like me has figured out how to mitigate damage as much as possible from years of experience.  Someone like me has learned unnecessary violence will only make everything worse.”  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to recenter herself, when she reopened her eyes, they retained the same blazing frustration, but her voice was steady and calm, disturbingly so for anyone who knew her.  “You can’t shoot them.  That is not how we deal with akuma.”

“That’s how I deal with bad guys, kid,” he snarled back.  He took a step forward expecting her to step back, but she stood her ground meaning they were now physically touching chests and he had to lean back slightly to look down and meet her gaze.  “This here is the real world and in the real world, you have to get a little dirty,” he lectured, not bothering to keep his condescension from his voice.  “You can’t just sing a little song to make the bad guys turn good.  Maybe that’s why you haven’t been able to defeat your villain.”

“That is literally how we stopped one akuma, you pretentious, cretinous brute.  Violence doesn’t solve everything.”  She leaned forward, filling in the space he had created and poking her finger against his armored chest.  “In fact, responding with violence has made a lot of our situations worse.  And I’ll tell you one more thing someone like me knows, that even if they don’t look like one, it is wholly, unmitigatedly wrong to shoot a kid even if he doesn’t look like one at the moment.”

She walked away a few steps, missing the way his entire body tensed at her words.  When she turned back to him, she had a cocky smirk on her face, arms crossed, and hip cocked.  “We fight smarter, not harder.  I would say you should try it, but smarter doesn’t appear to be your strong suit.”

Red Hood stepped forward but before he could retort, another figure landed just next to him.  “Oh good, you met the local heroes,” Nightwing cheered, his voice clearly artificially bright.

“I really need you guys to stay out of our way,” Ladybug stated, her voice commanding, clearly intended for all of the bats, but her eyes not straying from Red Hood.

“Yep, he met them,” Red Robin grimaced.  He took a breath and turned to Ladybug and the rest of the team with a calm, confident expression.  “We don’t intend to get in your way.  We will assist if you need, but we are here for the meeting.  We can just treat this like research.”

Ladybug forced out a breath then another before turning to Red Robin and Nightwing.  Her demeanor completely changing from confrontational to commanding.  “Look, you guys clearly didn’t bother to do your research before coming, so here’s the crash course…”

“You seem like you’d be familiar with crashing,” Red Hood muttered loudly enough for everyone on the roof to hear.

Red Robin glared at him.  This could be a great collaboration, helping not only the Miraculous team but the Justice League as well.  He needed to make clear they were not supporting Red Hood in this.  “Didn’t you crash into a billboard a few weeks ago?”

“I was thrown into one.  There’s a difference,” Red Hood hissed, stepping up to Red Robin who danced just out of his reach along the edge of the roof.

“Focus, children,” Nightwing thundered.  He waited a few seconds, staring down Red Hood and Red Robin before turning to Ladybug and motioning for her to continue.

Instead, Chat stepped in.  “Okay real quick, Hawk Moth uses magic to take over people and make them do things they would likely never choose to do otherwise.  They are given magic powers and the powers vary by person.  The magic is anchored in an item.  Break that item, free the person.”

“Also important,” Ladybug cut in, “the people corrupted can be anyone.  They can be completely innocent people.  They could be children,” she added pointedly.  “And they remember everything.  They remember what they did and what was done to them.”  She met Red Hood’s eyes fiercely.  “Do not give our children, or any of our citizens, any more trauma than they already have.”

Red Robin waited impatiently, his eyes volleyed back and forth between them a few times before he couldn’t hold himself back any longer.  “Is the object always prominent?”

“No,” Rena answered when Ladybug still hadn’t broken her glare.  Plus, it was Red Robin!  She was getting to talk with Red Robin!  “Sometimes it's hidden.”

He quirked his head and let his gaze move past her toward the akuma that had now come out into the open.  “How do you know what it is.”

Ladybug finally tore her glare from Red Hood to redirect it toward the akuma.  “We figure it out,” she answered, almost absentmindedly, her focus now on the akuma as her eyes darted to every part of it.

“We deduce it based on the cause of the possession and context clues,” Chat added.

Ladybug turned back at the loud scoff clearly coming from Red Hood’s direction.  “For example,” she snapped, stepping up to him again, “in this case we know it started from a game of The Floor is Lava, the handle of the drawer he was holding onto broke, so…”  She paused and whipped around, eyes narrowed at the Akuma in the distance for just a moment before looking around, eyes tracing her yoyo, then the line to Red Hood, to Carapace to just past him to the edge of the building, then to Chat, and back to the akuma.   “Carapace," she stated.  Her words were heavily weighted like it there was an entire conversation in that one word.

And clearly there was, because Carapace instantly stood at attention and followed the path her eyes had followed seconds before, nodding in understanding.  “On it,” he reported as he stepped into position at the edge of the building.

“Rena, a bit of cover, if you will.”  Rena nodded and pulled her flute up to her lips, ready to play when the time was right.  “Get ready Chat.”  Her words carried the same weight, communicating everything with her tone and body language.

Chat followed her gaze and narrowed his eyes at an area of the akuma’s chest that was protruding strangely.  “Always m'lady,” he answered with a determined nod.

Nightwing stepped forward.  “Um, do you want to share for the rest of us?  We speak to each other with our eyes not our tone so we’re a bit lost.”

Ladybug ignored him and stepped up to Red Hood with a broad, artificial smile.  “Just want to say thank you so much for your service,” she purred.

Red Hood bobbed his head back and tried to take a step away, he was familiar with crazy, Harley had trained them all pretty well, and he would prefer to have some kind of point of reference to know if it was the fun crazy or someone’s going to die crazy.  Unfortunately for him, he was already standing on the edge of the roof and had no place to go.  “Wha...”

Before he could finish snapping at her, she kicked him hard in the chest.  He tried to flail his arms, but his wrists were still bound together.  Not only could he not flail, he couldn’t try to scramble at the side of the building to slow his descent.  Nightwing jumped after him, but before he could reach him, a green shield appeared beneath him, not slowing his descent, but clearly there to keep him from hitting the lava.

Red Robin watched them long enough to make sure they would be okay before turning back to watch the Miraculous team just in time to see Ladybug, and therefore Chat, who was riding on her shoulders, get launched by the input force from her yoyo line, like taut line snapping and recoiling when the counterweight disappeared.  Just as they reached the apex, there were a few flute notes played and Chat disappeared, but within seconds, ‘Cataclysm’ echoed over and between the buildings and Ladybug was moving smoothly and quickly over the rooftops toward the akuma.

Her yoyo line retracted with a speed that defied physics and was released again.  He was only able to track it due to the glowing light it emitted before she reeled it back in.  Rena whispered something he couldn’t understand before stepping up next to him with a huge grin and looking over the side.  “It’s over now, you can come back up.”

Carapace patted Red Robin on the shoulder.  “That was fun.  We should do that again.  I enjoyed working with you.”

Red Robin peeked over the side of the building to verify Nightwing was giving Red Hood a ride back up with the grappling hook before returning his attention to Carapace with a smirk.  “I agree.  Best collaboration we’ve had in a while.”

Rena turned her attention to Red Robin with an excited grin.  ‘Hey, so,” she continued speaking uninterrupted even as a swarm of ladybugs flew all around them removing the lava, repairing the buildings, returning Nightwing and Red Hood to the roof, and Red Hood’s guns to his holsters.  She motioned toward Nightwing without breaking eye contact with Red Robin.  “He mentioned you guys communicate through looks.  How do you do that when you all have the film over your eyes?”

“Experience,” a gruff voice answered from behind her.

Rena spun around and let out a squeal as Batman stepped out of the shadows to announce his presence.  “That was so cool!”

“That’s why he does it,” Nightwing joked.

“Who does what?” Chat asked as he landed next to Red Robin just seconds before Ladybug.

“Batman,” she acknowledged instantly, her eyes finding him before she’d landed.  Chat, however, screamed and jumped away in surprise, almost ending up in Red Robin’s arms.  She continued without missing a beat.  “It is nice to…”

Before she could continue, Red Hood barreled over to her, not stopping until he was towering over her, his massive body, seemingly even larger due to his armor, looming over her.  “You could have killed me!” he thundered in a dark, cold voice.

Instead of being intimidated as he was used to, she crossed her arms over her chest with an unimpressed scoff.  “I kicked you in the chest plate.”

“You didn’t know,” he accused.

“I felt it earlier.  I knew you would be fine,” she snarled back but then she straightened up and opened her eyes wide in a perfect imitation of the innocence she usually embodied.  “And you were so concerned with helping save the day I just knew you would want to help.”  She almost kept the façade up except for a slight quirk of her lip when Chat snickered.

"Oh, you're starting a war you aren't prepared for, little girl," he growled.

She raised an eyebrow and leaned back like she was contemplating him.  “I just defeated a lava monster.  I think I’ll be just fine with little old you.  And just because you’re bigger, it doesn’t mean you’re older, tougher, or smarter.  It just means you have more capacity for bullshit.”

“Being smaller doesn’t mean you have less bullshit; it just means it’s more concentrated,” he hissed back.

Ladybug opened her mouth to respond but Chat cut in.  “While I think there’s room for both to be true, this is not what is important right now.”

“Hood, we have more important things to discuss,” Batman barked.  “Ladybug, I believe we had some things to discuss.”

Ladybug turned to Batman with a forced smile.  “Sorry, I was distracted.”

“Don’t worry about it.  He can be very distracting,” Red Robin assured her.

“The incompetent ones usually are,” she snipped back without moving her eyes from Batman.

Red Hood took a menacing step forward, but Nightwing put his arm out in front of his chest and silently pushed him back.  “Let’s go somewhere a bit less exposed,” Batman suggested pointedly.

Ladybug nodded and motioned to a rooftop nearby.  “There’s a bit more room over there and Rena can provide cover and Carapace can provide a sound barrier.”

“Perfect,” Batman nodded and grappled after her.

Nightwing kept his hold on Red Hood until she had already landed on the rooftop, far out of his reach.  “You’re going to have to figure out how to work with her,” he warned Red Hood.  “If she’s as good as I think she is, we’re going to be working with her a lot.”

“She threw me off of a building!” Hood hissed at him.

“No,” Nightwing smirked, “she kicked you off a building.  And who hasn't?”

“Me.  I haven't,” Carapace popped up next to them.  “Can I?”

Hood turned to him slowly, pointedly.  Even through the mask, it was clear he was glaring.  “No.”

Carapace took a step back, hands held up.  “Ooookay,” he shrugged.  “Little disappointed, dude, not going to lie.  You guys good to get over on your own or need help?”

Nightwing covered his mouth with his hand to hide his snicker.  “No, we’re good.  Be right there.”

“Rightio.”  He saluted them and was gone.

“We won’t have to work with her if I take her out,” Hood observed, a bit too darkly to be joking.

“You can't kill her.  Wonder woman loves her.  Thinks of her like a little sister because of the whole her mom was Ladybug thing,” he pointed out with a smirk.  “You’re going to have to work with her.

“But I’m pretty positive she's evil,” he huffed.  He shot out his grappling hook to swing over to the meeting.

“Honestly, kinda surprised that doesn't make you like her more,” Nightwing chuckled.  He suddenly straightened up, face bright with excitement.  “Or!  Focus on taking her out… on a date!”  His laughter returned full force, echoing over the rooftops, at the glare he could feel Jason sending him from under his mask as he swung away.  “This is going to be fun,” he giggled to himself before grappling to join the others.

[marauderundercover]

Jasonette July ch. 1

AO3

Chapter 1: If I hadn't blown the whole thing years ago, I might be here with you

Glancing at the email again, Marinette can’t help but feel sort of bittersweet. She’d used to think that when she finally went to Gotham, that her best friend would be there waiting for her. She’d thought that by the time she finally was able to visit Gotham, that they would have revealed their actual identities. Instead, she was just past the three year mark of losing her best friend. Taking in a deep breath, she pushes her negative feelings aside. She should be excited for her new opportunity. She should- She sighs as her phone starts blaring. Grabbing it, she glances at the caller ID and smiles before answering.

“Hey,” She says, relieved at the chance to get away from her own thoughts.

“Hey, kiddo! How’re you doing? Hear back from any colleges yet?” Dick Grayson asks. The man had found her back when Robin passed away, but he’d found her as Nightwing. Apparently he’d worked with Batman and Robin before, and had helped Batman go through Robin’s comm logs and history to see if there was anything important. He apparently hadn’t been aiming to actually make contact with her in Paris, but she was really glad that he had. He’d saved her. He’d found her at the darkest time of her life, and been there for her like no one else could. He’d also mentored her as a hero, which was amazing since she hadn’t really had any help on that front since Master Fu had given her the role of Guardian.

“As a matter of fact, I just heard back from Gotham U,” She says, having to yank the phone away from her ear as Dick whoops.

“I knew you could do it!” He cheers, and Marinette snorts.

“I didn’t say yes, yet,” She points out.

“But you didn’t say no, right?” Dick asks, and Marinette sighs. He cheers again, and she can’t help but smile a bit. Dick was a great mentor. He cared about her outside of the mask, which is one of the reasons she’d applied for Gotham U despite not being able to go with her best friend anymore. Dick had insisted that Gotham was still a place she’d enjoy. So she was willing to try.

“Course not. Are you sure it’s safe, though? Weren’t you just complaining about that new Crime Lord like, three months ago?” She asks. Sure, she knew that Gotham had an insane amount of villains (or Rogues, as Dick called them), but apparently Red Hood was different from the rest of them.

“I actually don’t think I’ve complained about Hood for like six months,” Dick corrects her. “Besides, he’s…well, he’s not as bad as we’d originally thought.” Marinette chokes on the coffee she had tried to sip, eyebrows raised.

“I’m sorry, Mr. ‘heads in a duffle bag’ isn’t as bad as you originally thought?” She asks. Dick’s silent for a minute.

“Yeah, yeah he’s not as bad as we thought, kid.”

It had been a couple months since Marinette had been accepted into Gotham U, and she was finally moving into an apartment in Gotham. Dick had originally said that he would help her, but something had come up and he’d had to go do Nightwing stuff. Which was fine. She was just in a city she didn’t know in a country she hadn’t grown up in. Everything was fine. Walking out of her building, she starts heading towards the convenience store that she’d seen on her way to her building earlier. She figured she’d go shopping for actual groceries later, and just grab something quick for tonight and tomorrow morning now. Before she can make it to the store, something grabs her wrist and she inhales sharply. She tries to tug back, but whoever had her wrist yanked her into the alleway.

“Just gimme your wallet,” A gruff voice demands. Marinette tries to pull her wrist away, but the man’s grip just tightens.

“Let go,” She says, unable to stop her voice from shaking. She was cursing herself internally for leaving after dark. Robin had told her so many stories of Gotham, so many different ways it wasn’t safe, and yet she hadn’t listened. And now she was being mugged on her first night. Joy. The man tugs her closer, and Marinette feels her heart stop as he looks down at her.

“C’mon, Sugar, just gimme the wallet and then you and I can have a little fun,” He says, and her stomach drops.

“Please, just let go,” She pleads, pulling harder to try and get out of his grip. The man snarls at her, but before he can do anything an unfamiliar voice rings throughout the alley.

“I believe the lady asked you to let go,” The voice calls. Marinette twists as much as she can, eyes widening as Red Hood stalks further into the alley. Almost immediately, the mugger lets go of her and pushes her away from him. She stumbles as he runs, obviously scared of the (former?) crime lord.

“You’re not gonna stick my head in a duffle bag, right?” She asks instantly. Red Hood snorts, shaking his helmet-covered head.

“Uh, no. That’s uh, I’m not-” He stops, letting out a long exhale. “I don’t do that anymore. I was just making sure you were okay.” Marinette nods, giving him a half hearted smile.

“Yeah, I know, sorry. I don’t always have the best filter,” She apologizes, laughing awkwardly.

“Do you need an escort home?” Red Hood asks. Marinette shakes her head.

“No, thanks. I’ve got to stop by the store-”

“Seriously? You were just almost mugged and you’re going to the store?” Red Hood asks incredulously. Marinette raises an eyebrow.

“Well, what am I supposed to do? I just moved in,” She says simply. Red Hood crosses his arms.

“I’ll walk you to the store and then home,” He says. Marinette snorts, but Red Hood doesn’t move.

“Oh, you’re serious?” She asks. He nods. “Mon dieu. Okay, let’s uh, let’s go, I guess.” Gotham was sure to be interesting.

Jason sighs as he drops onto his couch. It’d been a long week. Somehow, Dick had managed to convince him to sign up for classes at Gotham U. He wasn’t exactly sure how it worked, especially given the fact that he’d been dead for the last two years of high school, but it was done. So on top of keeping Crime Alley running smoothly and going on his normal patrols, he’d spent the days this week going through registration and getting his school supplies. Stuff he hadn’t expected to ever really matter for him again. Just as his eyes start to flutter close, his front door is thrown open. He immediately jumps, one hand on his holster.

“Chill out Jay, it’s just me,” Dickhead says, walking in with a bag of takeout. Jason huffs, flopping back down onto the couch.

“Why the hell are you here?” He asks, eyes narrowed. Dick just grins.

“I brought food,” He says. Jason just blinks. “Okay, fine. I just wanted to see how you are. I know this has been a hard week for you.” Jason snorts, shaking his head.

“Definitely not the worst I’ve ever had,” He points out, feeling a little bad when he sees Dick wince. “I’m fine, Dick. The most interesting part of the week was when I helped some French girl who was getting mugged.” Dick’s eyes widen a fraction before he frowns.

“A French girl?” He asks. Jason nods.

“Yeah, said she came for Gotham U. Though why anyone would come to Gotham just for college, I’ll never understand.” Dick laughs nervously, and Jason raises an eyebrow. “Is she some secret girlfriend of yours or something?”

“Of course not,” Dick scowls. Jason just laughs, grabbing the food Dick holds out for him.

“Don’t suppose you’re gonna tell me why you reacted that way?” He asks, and Dick shakes his head.

“It was nothing, Jay. Just…interesting that someone would come here for college is all,” He says. And look, Jason is not stupid. He knows that Dick’s lying, but he also knows that if Dick doesn’t want to tell him, he’s not gonna tell him. They’ll just go in circles all night. And honestly, Jason’s too tired for that. So instead, he’ll just eat the food his brother brought, and try to forget all about the French girl and the fact that she’s obviously connected with his brother somehow.

@maribat-calendar-events

[mae-dwrites]

Events

Featured: Jasonette July • Shutterbug Station • Mayday • Malachite Milestones

Links under the cut <3

Jasonette July 2022 (Ao3)

Aim

Target

Strike

Jasonette July 2024 (Ao3)

Misbehavin’ - D2 - R

Protector - D3 - R

Unsteady - D4 - P

One Thing Right - D10 - P

Home - D21 - R

From The Grave - D28 - P

Shutterbug Station 2024

Bonus Day 1: Meme - Chloé/Jason

Angst Day 1: Meme - Chloé/Jason

Angst Day 3: Meme - Chloé/Jason

Fluff Day 3: Meme - Alley Cat

Final Bonus Day: Fanfiction - Angst - Tim Drake & Zoé Lee

Final Angst Day: Fanfiction - Tim Drake & Zoé Lee

1 of 10 no prompt: Fanfiction - Angst - Zoé Lee/Jon Kent, Chloé Bourgeois, Damian Wayne

Mayday 2024 (Ao3)

Poem 1: Meet an Eclipse

Poem 2: Coffee Haven

Poem 3: More than a bump

Poem 4: Follow, My Life

Poem 5: The Night We Met

Malachite Milestones Event (Mae’s Version) 2024 (Ao3) (Wattpad)

Ring

Scratchy

Could we?

Shutterbug Scoops 2024 | Note: Cross-Submitted with the Malachite Milestones Event | (Ao3) (Wattpad)

Ring

Scratchy

Could we?

Summerween Special 2024 | (Ao3) (Wattpad)

B5 - Chapter 1 of Coffee Stains and Leaky Pens

C2 - Chapter 2 of Coffee Stains and Leaky Pens

Adribat October 2024 | (Ao3) (Wattpad)

Day 5 - Jack O’ Lanterns - fanart

Day 26 - Hot Beverages. - fanart

The Birds & The Bees March 2025 | Week 9th - 15th | Note: Links to be added soon following posting

Sunday, March 9th:

Blood Bee | Chloé Bourgeois / Damian Wayne

Mood Board

Chapter 1 of Words Sweet as Honey, Eyes Sharp as a Blade. | Also for prompt “Sweet as Honey”

Robin

Chapter 1 of Fighting Without Oxygen - A Zoé Lee, Alfred Pennyworth, Tim Drake and Damian Wayne centric fic, following Bruce’s Death.

Monday, March 10th:

Loading...

Tuesday, March 11th:

Hanahaki / Flowers

Mood Board - Zoé Lee / Conner Kent

Raven

Zoé Lee / Rachel “Raven” Roth - One-Shot

One-Shot Loading...

Wednesday, March 12th:

“Beauty is in the Eye of the Beeholder”

Mood Board - Chloé Bourgeois / Jon Kent

Thursday, March 13th:

Wonder Wasp | Zoé Lee / Cassie Sandsmark

Mood Board

Friday, March 14th:

Loading...

Saturday, March 15th:

Loading...

[ali-annals]

Renagerie: Enemies or Lovers?

Pairing: Jasonette

Rating: T

WC: ~1.3k

A/N: Yet another old fic from the Vault I dusted off for an event:D This time it is for Jasonette July 2023, Day 11′s prompt, “Spy”.  Many thanks to my beta, Solar<3  TW: some mention of blood/bleeding

Gotham was a city full of secrets. The elusive Batclan, the hidden nooks and crannies the Rogues moved through to evade notice, the very atmosphere was conducive to secrets: the heavy, low smog concealing illicit deals and unethical action.

Some secrets were less secret than others, such as the supposition that Matches Malone was Batman, or that Red Hood and Menagerie hated each other’s guts. 

They worked seamlessly together when there was no other choice than to go along or risk innocents’ hurt because of their rivalry, but there was no way they liked it.

The comms would be full of their snarky batter as they attempted to one-up each other with their goon count, or race to get the bad guy first, or just pick at each other for the fun of it.

When they crossed on patrols, fur would go up–metaphorically– and the hissing and clawing would begin. If they were patrolling with partners, the poor associate would have to physically restrain one or both from jumping at the other.

When they were in the Batcave together, not working on a case, they either avoided each other or could be found on the mats, sparring no-holds-barred.

No one was quite sure why they were so antagonistic or how it started, but whenever their paths crossed, sparks snapped.

Was it because Hood tackled Menagerie when she was in the line of fire and landed, all 220+ pounds, on her? Was it when Menagerie thoroughly insulted Hood’s suit and fashion sense, then proceeded to design him a functional, more aesthetically pleasing suit in the span of one stakeout, and he immediately ripped it to shreds?

It was a mystery even the Bats couldn’t decipher. Hood never playfully flirted with her like he did the other bat girls, and Menagerie never cracked jokes or played pranks on him as she did with the others. 

~~~~~

One patrol, Nightwing and Red Robin followed Hood home after he’d been shot, just to make sure he was okay. Robin followed “to watch Nightwing’s back”. 

Batgirl and Orphan followed Menagerie’s tracker to drop off a case file she’d requested from Oracle, as it was her night off, so she hadn’t been around tonight to pick it up.

The five vigilantes dropped onto the same small balcony and enacted the Spiderman meme, whispering their reason for showing up to the others.

Five heads stacked like snowmen peered through the gap in the blackout curtains covering the balcony doors, which opened into a warmly lit living room.

Jason walked into the living room, wearing only sweats and dabbing at the blood trickling down his arm. “Pix, could you, uh-”

Marinette looked up from her embroidery and saw his state. With a gasp she wrapped a towel around his arm, staunching the blood flow. “Don’t you dare bleed on this carpet again!”

She put her hand over the towel, applying pressure, and a red glow surrounded her palm and his arm.

She withdrew her hand and unwrapped the towel, inspecting the semi-healed graze. She dabbed the last bits of dried blood away with the towel, then pushed it into Jason’s open hand.

“I wish you’d be more careful,” she smacked his shoulder and he groaned.

“Sorry, Pix. Was too busy pushing Damian outta the way to dodge.”

“Why didn’t you go to Alfred?” She resumed her embroidery.

“You’re closer, quicker, better, and prettier,” he grinned.

”Fair,” Marinette conceded. “I’m almost done with this note, then I’ll be finished. I left the stir-fry in the oven for you.”

Jason disappeared from the Bats’ line of sight, then entered the living room again with a steaming plate of delicious-smelling stir fry. He sat beside Marinette, staying just far enough away she couldn’t easily stab him with her needle. 

“I’m kinda surprised you made any food today; you’re in such a hurry.”

She shrugged, tugging on her thread. “Tikki made me take a break.”

The two talked casually as they ate and sewed. 

Finally, she held the jacket up triumphantly. “Done! I’ll ship it to Jagged tomorrow and it should reach him by his birthday. By the way, one of the Bats should drop by tonight with a file for me, so uh…be on the lookout.”

“‘Kay. Guess I’ll go shower, then. When the annoyance is gone, feel free to join me,” he wiggled his eyebrows and she snorted.

“Don’t use all the hot water waiting for me.”

Her phone dinged and she checked the notification. “Oh, the girls are on their way.” She collected her sewing things, stooped to kiss Jason, and headed out of sight, presumably to return her things to her sewing room.

Jason left a moment later to shower, and Marinette reappeared, heading for the balcony.

She opened the curtain a little wider, stepped out, and gaped at the gaggle of vigilantes in front of her.

“Uh…I thought I was only meeting Orphan and BG; what brings the whole contingency? I see you left the Bucket Head behind,” she scowled, surprising the Bats at her acting.

“He’s in the shower?” squeaked Nightwing, still unable to believe what he’d been spying on.

“Gross, I don’t need to know that!” She turned to Batgirl. “The file?”

Batgirl handed it over and Marinette placed it on the floor just inside the door. “Thanks, BG. Have a good patrol?”

“Yup, it was pretty quiet. Robin almost got shot by a carjacker but Hood shoved him and got shot instead.”

“Oh no! I’m assuming he’s okay since he’s in the shower?”

They all blinked at her. Wow, she’s a good actress.

“We were a little worried ‘cause the graze was close to an artery and he refused treatment --said he’d fix it up himself-- but it looks like he’s okay since you healed him,” volunteered Red Robin.

She frowned, acting dumb.

“We saw you heal him!" Nightwing exclaimed.

“Oh…uh…I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have no idea who you saw with me while you were invading my privacy and breaking laws and being all peeping-tom-y but I have no idea what Hood looks like under that hideous bucket he insists is a hood. The only man I healed was my husband.”

“Who’s the man in your apartment?” Robin butted in incredulously.

“My husband, Jason Todd. You think he’s Red Hood?”

“We know he is, he’s literally our brother! You seriously didn’t know your husband is RED HOOD?”

“Uh, here’s the thing. Neither of us really acknowledges our night jobs or each other’s night jobs. If we don’t discuss it at all, we run way less of a chance of discussing it in public and being overheard. We are simply a normal, boring, civilian couple, Jason and Marinette Todd. We may have some…exciting nights out with friends and family, but that’s all.” A small evil grin slid across her face. “And, we have fun ruining you guys’ bets on when the enemies-to-lovers arc will kick in and you can bring up that stupid ship name when we’ve been married for over a year.”

Batgirl and Nightwing squawked. "Renagerie is a brilliant ship name!"

“Privacy and protection,” nodded Orphan, ignoring the other two's drama, and Marinette smiled at her.

“Exactly. No risk of our secret slipping if we never acknowledge it beyond a Look. No risk of over-invested Bats snooping around Apartment 10B if one of the Bats-adjacent had a close call and wants to be alone. Life is much simpler, and I hope it’ll stay. That. Way.”

They all swallowed at the veiled threat, considered the terrifyingly chaotic yet efficient duo Menagerie and Red Hood made, and headed for the edge of the balcony. “Got it. Have a nice night!”

The Bats grappled away, and Marinette smiled in triumph. She headed inside, locked the door and yanked the curtains fully closed, and headed off to join her husband in the shower.

General Taglist (open): @maribat-calendar-events @jasonette-july-event

Maribat Taglist (open): @questioning-blob-of-fog @jennifer-rose123

[the-coffee-fandom]

A Firework In The Sky (Don’t Worry Love You Are Mine)

For @girl-in-thechair

The bang of fireworks lit the sky for a split second, an explosion of golden sparkles sprinkled the air, decorating the black with shimmer light like stars, but they did not possess the ability to last like they did. It only lasted a moment but the memory lasted longer.

Marinette covered her ears as tears pricked her eyes. She took in ragged breaths, trying to get her heart to beat right. She stumbled away from the windows, tripping over a chair causing it to tip along with her causing quite the ruckus. Rather than getting up though, she curled into herself, eyes squeezed tightly shut as her ragged breathing became the only noise in the room.

"Marinette? That you? You ok?" A male voice called.

Marinette couldn't hear him though over the pounding of her own heart. Another bang rang through the air; the window allowing the light of the firework to shine through for the mere seconds it was alive in the air, but that was enough for Marinette to see it through her eyelids and curl tighter, whimpering.

Jason looked through the doorway at the sound and saw his girlfriend in a fetal position on the floor and immediately ran over, scooping her up against him, worry seeping off him in waves.

"Hey hey Mari?!? What's wrong?!?!?"

Marinette's eyes opened in shock at being picked up. As soon as her bluebells met his chocolate she buried her face into his neck. Right on time as another ball of dynamite blasted in the air to explode. She whimpered again and latched onto Jason tightly. His eyebrows creased together as he looked up at the window where the fireworks for the fourth of July were going on.

"Hey Mari," he gently stroked a hand through her hair as he stood up and began walking out of the kitchen, heading to the sound-proof basement, "It's ok, it's ok. You're not there. It's just fireworks. You're safe. Everyone is. He's gone."

Marinette kept her head buried in his neck. Jason pressed a gentle kiss to her shoulder as he descended the stairs. He got to the bottom and walked over to the lounge area, gently setting her on the couch.

"It's ok doll, it's gone now," he told her softly, still holding her close as he stroked her hair.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled after a long while.

"Hey no apologies."

"But…"

"No, everyone has gone through shit. And with it comes trauma. You can't just flick a magical wand or wish in a well to get rid of it, Pix. You're not the first one to break and you certainly won't be the last. But there's no shame in that. Ok?"

Marinette nodded and leaned up, pressing a sweet kiss to his lips.

"I love you Jay."

He smiled softly looking down at his girlfriend, "Love you too Pixie."

They sat just cuddling up for a while before Jason checked his watch for the time.

"You don't have the fourth of July," It wasn't a question but Marinette shook her head anyhow, "Fireworks. They happen every year."

"They sound like…" she couldn't seem to finish that sentence as her eyes misted over.

"Hey, it's ok. I know. I'm sorry I didn't warn you, I forgot."

"It's not your fault."

Jason remained quiet, not agreeing nor disagreeing.

"Jay…"

"It…"

"Is not," she told him firmly.

Jason sighed and nodded reluctantly as a smirk sneaked onto his face, "Yeah yeah Pixie Pop. So bossy."

She stuck her tongue out at him childishly. He chuckled and captured her lips quickly in a kiss, pulling away with a smug grin and moving so his lips just barely grazed her ear, "Fireworks are over darling. Wanna go back upstairs and bake something?"

He pulled away with a cocky grin. She looked at him with a raised brow and a smirk once she collected herself once again, "Absolutely."

[maribatserver]

Tag Team Tournament 2024

We're back for another year of good old fashioned fandom fun! This year the Tag Team Tournament will take place from Sunday, July 28th - Saturday, August 3rd, so make sure to save the date and get started on your projects early!

We've got some fun things planned this year, but we're also making some changes to how we're running the event this year! For the full rules and guidelines, check out our Event Guide Document, now newly revised for 2024! The short version is that we've changed some of our scoring to remove certain exploitable flaws that were exposed last year, clarified submission guidelines, added new ways to earn bonus points, and changed our team lineup!

Now, last year we had a very popular Shipping Bracket to determine who our eighth team would be, but this year we decided that we wanted out lead up event to better help you all prepare for this year's event. Also, @nottesilhouette asked really, really nicely for last year's runner up ship to get a chance in the Tournament, and how could we tell them no?

This year, our teams are:

Seamless Spin - Cassandra Cain x Marinette Dupain-Cheng

3's Company - Any Poly Ship

Rare Flair - Any Ship Without A Team

Lucky Shot - Roy Harper x Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Spandex Flex - Dick Grayson x Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Art Couple - Damian Wayne x Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Java Junkies - Tim Drake x Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Book Design - Jason Todd x Marinette Dupain-Cheng

We are super excited for this year's Tag Team Tournament, and we hope that you're excited too! To help you get in the creative spirit, and to hopefully inspire you with ideas, @newdog14 assembled playlists for each of our teams, which will be published one by one over the next few months. She got the idea for this after assisting with this year's Jasonette July Calendar Playlist, organized by @mochegato & @izanae, which we also encourage you to participate in.

Oh, and one more thing. We have heard that for some folks, particularly those who are responsible for small humans, the summertime is apparently not filled with an abundance for free time. So we thought we'd go ahead and give you all a little more to go on for your prep work this year, and as such we'll be publishing all of our prompts early this year, so be sure to keep an eye on our blog on Sundays going forward.

Many thanks to @newdog14, @nottesilhouette, and @izanae for their hard work in preparing this event. From brainstorming prompts to designing team logos to coding spreadsheets to tolerating certain people's tyrannical playlist standards, there's a lot of work that goes into an event this big! And thank you to everyone who has participated in this event, and to those who plan to participate this year. We could never pull this off without you!

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Twisting Smiles into Snarls

by Anonymous Marinette Dupain-Cheng isn't a huge fan of Batman and Nightwing. She's even less of a fan of the infamous Red Hood, and that was before he attacked her mentee. Or, “We got married last fall" "Oh, that's great" Words: 7634, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug, Batman - All Media Types, Maribat - Fandom Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: F/M Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Jason Todd, Tim Drake (DCU), Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Jason Todd, Tim Drake (DCU) & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson Additional Tags: MGI Secret Writer 2024, jasonette July, Slight Bruce Wayne Salt, kind of, Slight Dick Grayson Salt, again kind of, Marinette doesn't think they were good mentors, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Tim Drake is Robin, MariBat, Marinette needs an aspirin, Pre-Relationship, ish via https://ift.tt/O3PWFq1

[abyssal-ali]

Hi, my friend is asking why there are so many maribat fics, and especially with DamiMari.

Maybe you know about the history of these crossovers in Batman Fandom?

Hi!

(Fellow Maribat fans, feel free to add your own commentary or correct any of my mistakes.)

So @/ozmav created the Damian x Marinette ship in 2018, I think? It was just a fun little crossover that blew up and became really popular. I was not around either of those fandoms at the time, so I'm not sure about all the details.

Daminette was the first Maribat ship created, so it was around the longest, and thus accumulated the most works.

Eventually, the other Bat Boys got their own ship, and now the Maribat (or now, more technically, DCxMLB) fandom has so many more ships and crossovers -not necessarily between the Bat/MLB main characters.

Some rarepair ships (any DCxMLB ship not between one of the four main Bat Boys and Marinette) include Konette (Conner Kent/Superboy and Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug) and Timdrien (Tim Drake/Red Robin and Adrien Agreste/Chat Noir), to name a couple.

The Maribat fandom also crosses over with multiple fandoms, like DPxDCxMLB or MCUxDCxMLB.

Some pure MLB and DC stans definitely dislike Maribatters, especially during the beginning of the fandom, when the tags for both fandoms were cluttered with DCxMLB content. Now that it's grown so much and has its own tags, I think the hate has calmed down somewhat. (Although, I prefer to keep out of fandom drama, so I may simply have missed the hateful discourse ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.)

Overall, the Maribat fandom has really grown from a crack ship to its own large, well-populated community. There are tags on Ao3 and many discord servers, which runs events such as "Jasonette July" and "Maribat? Get In! [a server] Civil War".

On a personal note:

As to my thoughts on the ships themselves, my favorites are Daminette (Damian Wayne/Robin and Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug) and Jasonette (Jason Todd/Red Hood and Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug). It's always fascinating to rotate a character or ship in your head like a rotisserie chicken, considering their Canon and Fanon traits and then exploring them in whatever medium you choose (my medium of choice is writing fanfiction).

For Daminette, the ship you specifically asked about, I am drawn to it because I find the differences between the couple adorable. I personally have a fondness for the Grumpy x Sunshine trope, a Tsundere male lead, and relationship/character growth. (Of course, sometimes it's nice just to read a cute 500 word drabble with no plot, no specific dynamics, and no development, where the couple is just cute and happy.)

I think that is one of the beauties of Maribat. With so many various ships and characters to choose from, there's something for everyone, and we can all bond over belonging to the same fandom(s). Some of us have joined from the MLB side, some from the DC side, some just got dragged in by a friend and have no knowledge of either fandom, and that's okay! With so much to explore in both fandoms, there is constantly new content* being made with love (and tears. And laughter, both evil and joyful. And hornin-).

I've made some of my best friends through this fandom, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

I hope this helps, and I apologize if my ramblings detracted from my answers!💜

*Yes, I am aware of the popular Tropes such as "Akuma Class Trip to Gotham" and "Long-Lost Wayne".

[the-alice-of-hearts]

Fic Stats Meme

Rules: Give us the links to your fic with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fic with the least words.

Thank you @ladytauria This was a lot of fun to look through and see my things like this!

I did by flat view so this is across all my works.

Most Hits: Protection Detail (14,093) This is a Maribat fic. I wrote it for Jasonette July in 2021. I adore this fic and reread it myself sometimes.

2nd Most Kudos: A date with a Coffee Goddess (843) another Maribat fic. This one is Timari, Fun facts! It took me so long to name this one when it came to that part.

3rd Most Comments: Being the Wayne Omega (85 comment threads) There's a JayTim piece! Fun facts about this series (because this is the sequel) I wrote the first one in this series in two weeks while I was sick at home with covid.

4th Most Bookmarks: Civilian? What civilian? (117 bookmarks total) Another maribat fic and also hey, what the hell do you mean 117 of you bookmarked this crack fic???

5th Most Words: Alice Writes Timari January 2022 (21,156 words) I have a lot of words lol. This one is kinda cheating because it's mostly unconnected one-shots, so the actual 5th one (imo) is: Pick It Up at 17,285 words. This is also my longest one shot lol.

Least Words: At a toal of 83 words we have Don't try to stop me a fie sentence fic from tumblr that I cross posted!

no pressure tag for @boldlyanxious and @drones-art

[mochegato]

Absolutely Smitten

Jason was beginning to regret his decisions.  Not just the ones that led him to his current predicament, but all of them.  Because only a massively dysfunctional historic pattern of decision making could result in this catastrophic situation from which there was no escape, at least not one he had found.  And he had been looking.  Don’t think a quick death hadn’t been considered, preferred even.  But at this point, quick was out of the question.

He dropped his head into his hand as they came to an abrupt stop, wishing the floorboard of the car would disappear and take him with so he wouldn’t have to face any more loathsome glares.  Glares to which there were no barrier because he’d allowed Dick to convince him they should take the convertible.  ‘It’s safer in Metropolis,’ he’d argued.  ‘How often do we get to do this?”  Clearly, too often.

Yet somehow, the glares seemed to have absolutely no effect on anybody else in the car.  And he absolutely refused to threaten to turn the car around again.  Dick was the geezer not him, damn it.  But he was not above begging.  “Will you please shut up for the love of all that is holy.”

“We are on our way to a Jagged Stone concert and you have a problem with his songs?” Dick teased, taking a short break for his own overdramatic interpretation of ‘You Are the Donut of my Life’ on order to torment his brother.

Jason had to lean forward to dodge away from Dick’s hands coming for his face, but he ended up leaning closer to Roy in the passenger seat who took the opportunity to pull him into a side hug, or rather pull him down and mess with his hair.  He shoved him away with a grunt and stepped on the accelerator at the green light.  “Not his songs.  Your caterwauling.  You’re tormenting half of Metropolis.”  He shot a pointed look to Duke in the rearview mirror.  “I expected better of you.”

“Don’t know why,” he snorted just before joining Roy and Dick in belting out the final lyrics.

Jason sighed and stepped on the gas.  The quicker he got to the arena, the quicker he could end this and pretend like he didn’t know them in the mosh pit.  His sigh turned into a groan when he was immediately with another red light.  What was worse was another car had now pulled up to their left, a car with a few guys, girls, and one gorgeous stunner in the passenger seat.

He breathed out a sigh of relief at the silence and shot her a dashing smile, a smile which widened at the blush that dusted her cheeks and the shy smile that graced her lips.  He opened his mouth to say something but before he could get the words out the opening chords of Trocaderock suddenly echoed down the street.  His smile strained as his treacherous passengers started singing again.  Not just singing, full on serenading the car next to them, wild gestures, reaching for them, impassioned inflections, and all.  He watched as the woman’s face morphed from shy to surprise to amusement.

“I’m sorry about them,” he called to her trying to be heard over them.  “I wish I could say sorry, they’re just drunk, but they’re not.  That’s just… them.”

Her smile brightened, the giggle she let out loud enough to be heard over the yowling right up until her friends joined in at which point her giggles turned into full blown laughter, lighting up her entire face as her eyes crinkled at the edges.  She took a moment to settle, but the smile continued to grace her lips.  “Same with mine.  But it makes life more fun,” she shrugged.

“Yeah, fun.  Sure,” he grumbled but eyed the rest of his car dramatically until she laughed again.

“You don’t sing?” she asked innocently.

He grimaced and shook his head.  “Like an angel.  It’s too powerful.  It would blow everyone away.”  He preened at the brilliant smile she responded with.

He kept eye contact as he accelerated slowly, making sure to keep pace with their car, until he had to return his eyes to the road, mostly because she pointed ahead of him and mouthed the word ‘road’ with a bemused smile, a smile, he would like to note, that was still there every single one of the many times he glanced over at her.

“Hey,” Dick called across to them.  “You guys going to the concert?”

“Yeah,” the woman in orange tips and glasses called back.  “You?”

“Us too.  We’re in the pit right in front of the stage.  You?” Roy yelled, not at all subtly looking between Jason and the woman with a sly grin.

“Us too!” a blonde man called back from the driver’s seat, a matching grin on his face as he looked pointedly at the woman.  “Guess we’ll see you there,” he promised before peeling off to the left.

“This concert is about to be a lot more interesting,” Duke smirked.

As promised, when they got through security, got their drinks, and made their way to the pit area, the occupants of the other car were already there, but Jason frowned as he approached them.  Not that they didn’t seem like fine people, but the only person he was really interested in seeing from their car wasn’t there.

He craned his neck to search the area with almost singular purpose, but aware enough to shove Dick away by the head for snickering at him and almost smacked Duke upside the head for nudging him with that smug smirk of his until he saw what Duke was pointing at, the woman trying to push her way through the crowd to get to her friends.  However, she was having a bit of difficulty due to her size.  Instead of the slap he had been anticipating, he patted Duke on the chest and pushed his way over to her.

“Need an assist,” he asked with his most roguish smile.

“Hey, Handsome Stranger” she grinned.  The expression on her face when she saw him, not just relief but excitement, made his chest puff out to accommodate his swelling heart.

“Hey, Pretty Lady” he grinned back.  “Come on, your friends are this way.  I’m Jason by the way.”  He didn’t even have to push through the crowd to get them back, the people parted as soon as they saw him coming.

“Ahh, so I should call you Jason instead of ‘my hero’?”  Her voice was cheeky and cheerful and it somehow made his already wide smile even wider.

He hadn’t smiled this much in years.  He ushered her ahead of him by the small of her back, his fingers tingling from the contact and his brain buzzing from the fact that she was not only letting him, but leaning into it.  “Oh, you can call me anything you want, Pixie Pop, just as long as you call me.”

She squeaked and hid her face in her hand, only removing it to wave to her friends as they approached, but her blush was so prevalent, it ran all the way down to the collar of her shirt.  “There you are, Marinette!” her friend with pink hair cheered.  She looked Jason over, her eyes lingering on the placement of his hand with a knowing smirk.  “And you come bearing gifts.”  She waggled her eyebrows at the two of them, very clearly enjoying embarrassing her friend.

“How did it go?” her blonde friend asked.  “Everything fine?”

“Yep, crisis averted,” she nodded.

“You good?” Jason asked carefully.  His eyes wandered over her thoroughly but efficiently.

“Not my crisis,” she assured him.  “Not a crisis at all, actually, just a drama king.”

“Awww look how smitten he is,” he heard Duke coo somewhere behind them.

Jason nodded to Marinette.  “Good to hear it.  Give me just a sec.”  He reached into his pocket and pulled out the only thing he had in that pocket, a handful of coins, throwing it at Duke without breaking eye contact with her.

Marinette giggled at his move but turned away when the backup band took the stage.  Jason took the opportunity to step up behind her and lean down close enough for her to hear him among the din of the crowd.  “So, you going to sing this time?  You never did say if you like to sing.”

She grinned and leaned a bit closer to him without taking her eyes off the stage.  “I sing all the time... and very off key, but my dancing... that is also bad.  But I have never let that stop me from having fun.”  She finally turned her face to meet him with a teasing smirk over her shoulder.  “What about your dancing?  Do you also dance like an angel?”

He hummed and let his eyes roam her face.  “No, there’s nothing angelic about the way I dance and rarely in public.”

Her blush raged across her face again, but she refused to break eye contact.  “You just going to stand there stoically then?”

“Might be persuaded.”  His voice dipped down, as did his eyes to her lips for just a moment before lifting back up to her eyes.

They kept eye contact until the area around them shook with the reverberations of the guitar flowing through the arena and drew all eyes to the stage, some more slowly than others.

Marinette proved herself to be honest though not terribly coordinated over the next several songs as she sang and danced with her friends along with Jagged Stone, though to be fair, nobody was really dancing so much as jumping around just like her.  She didn’t take a break until he played one of his slower songs.  But no matter how high she lifted herself up onto her tip toes craning her neck to see the stage, she couldn’t make herself tall enough to see over the crowd and after a few moments, she gave up the hope of seeing anything until the song changed and she could start jumping again.

“Need another assist?” Jason whispered into her ear.

She blinked at the words.  It took her brain a few moments to get past the feeling of his chest against her back and his breath on her neck and ear, and process what he had said.  “What?”  She was going to need a few more moments.

She absolutely had not expected Jason to pick her up and set her on his shoulders like lifting a pillow.  “Better, Pixie Pop?” he asked, but the lilt to his voice made it clear he was teasing her.

“Yes,” she acknowledged shyly.  After a moment she cleared her throat and smirked down at him.  “Glad to see you’re living up to the hero moniker.”

He wrapped his hand around her thighs, ostensibly to secure her position, but really more to feel her bare skin under his hands.  He grinned at the yelp she let out and slight jump.  “I just want to make sure you’re enjoying the show.”

“Oh, um, yep, en… enjoying the show.”  It took a few moments before she eased her muscles again and began swaying to the beat of the song.  It didn’t take much longer before Jason followed her lead rocking to the music as well.  “So, you do dance,” she teased.

He immediately stopped and tightened his laxed grip on her thighs.  “I'm not dancing,” he insisted.  “Your dancing is shifting my balance.  Just trying to keep you safe.”

She took a few seconds to respond, during which time, Jason could almost feel the incredulous look he knew she was shooting him.  “Huh, it's a very rhythmic shift.  Almost like it's a pattern of smooth movements.”

“So, you think I'm smooth?” he asked overly sweetly as he adjusted his hands and let his thumbs rub circles on the outside of her thighs.

She shook her head.  “Oh, I know you are,” she whispered breathily.

The music shifted tempo again and Jason carefully lifted her off his shoulders and set her down gently.  She turned and met his eyes as everyone around them started bouncing and singing loudly to the song, all of it melding into the background as their gazes intensified until Marinette suddenly got bumped into Jason.  His arms started to circle around her until her friend with the orange tips almost tackled Marinette from the side.  “It’s Mirockulous!” she yelled and pulled Marinette closer to the stage.

Unfortunately, between her friends pulling her in different directions and Jason trying to figure out if Jagged Stone really was staring at him suspiciously from the stage or if he was making it up in his head, they stayed separated until the end of the concert.  But the moment it ended, he intended to search for her, but as it had turned out, he hadn’t needed to because Marinette almost instantly appeared in front of him having pushed her way through the crowd to get to him.  He grinned brilliantly.  “Hey there, Pretty Lady.  Missed you.”

She took the last few steps to him, stopping just short of touching him.  Her arms twitched, almost like she wanted to reach for him, and he really, really wanted her to, almost to the point of reaching for her himself.  “Hey, Handsome Stranger,” she grinned back.  “The last part wasn’t nearly as fun without you.”

Dick popped up next to Jason, slinging his arm over his shoulder to smile at her and her friends who had wandered over to them.  “We were going to find somewhere to get some grub.  You guys up for it?”

Marinette met Jason’s eyes; her eyebrow raised in question.  “How about a trade?” he offered without breaking eye contact.  “You can give the one making eyes at your friend a ride,” he shoved Duke toward Marinette’s blonde friend, “and we can give Marinette a ride?”  Jason didn’t wait for the others to respond, at Marinette’s nod, he grinned and took her hand leading her out of the venue.  He silently congratulated himself.  Clearly, his decisions lately had been the best decisions of his life.

[marauderundercover]

Refugee (Jasonette July)

There are those who say the world will end with a bang. Something big, perhaps an explosion. Something loud and undeniably bad. Something that happens and you know, right from the second it happens, that it's the end. That there is no coming back from it. Then, there are the others. Those who claim it will end in a whimper. The silent killer. An end that sneaks and creeps by until everyone and everything is gone. Marinette wasn't sure how to categorize the actual end of the world. In fact, it was impossible to know if it was actually the end of the world or just the United States of America since all communication had ceased shortly after the lights went out. It had never been her intention to die so far from everyone she loved. Her trip to Gotham, despite the fact that it was Gotham, was supposed to be relatively easy. Just a short trip to check out the University before going sight seeing in the neighboring cities. She'd gotten as far as the University when the first attack happened. 

---

Adjusting the strap of her bag, Marinette takes a moment to just appreciate the architecture of Gotham University. For a school stuck right in the middle of so much chaos and destruction, it truly was beautiful. She was sure that there was a metaphor or something just sitting there, waiting to be used. Just as she starts to head towards the admissions building, a siren blares throughout the city. Frowning, Marinette starts to pull out her guidebook to try and find the reason for the unfamiliar alarm. Instead of the guidebook, her hand brushes her phone, and she pulls it out instead. 

“Mon dieu.” She mutters under her breath. Every possible alarm on her phone was going off. Every news outlet that she had followed in preparation for her trip, as well as the news outlets back home were sending out breaking news alerts. And not a single one was good. Attacks were happening all over the United States. People that looked- well, dead. According to the reports, there were already several fatalities because of these people. Travel was being restricted, to try and pinpoint a cause. Before she can fall down the rabbit hole scrolling through all of the awful news, her mom’s face pops up on the caller ID. Taking in a calming breath, Marinette answers it. 

“Hey, maman.” She says. 

“Are you okay? Marinette, are you safe? They’re saying all sorts of things on the news-” Her mom rambles, but Marinette cuts her off. 

“I’m fine, I promise. Nothing is even happening in Gotham, I’m sure I’ll be back home soon.” She promises, not knowing that in just two short days, the power would be off. And any way home would be impossible.

---

Pushing her sweaty bangs out of her face, Marinette grimaces. It was hotter than she'd expected, though she supposed she shouldn't be surprised. The city was covered in black asphalt, and with the sun that had plagued the city since the attacks from the undead began, unbearable temperatures were just a given. The smells radiating through the city reminded her that July heat was as unkind to the dead as it was to the living. When things had started to get really bad a few months ago, there was a massive amount of people who fled the city. She wasn’t sure where they went, or where they were trying to go. The city, as dangerous as it could be with the walking dead roaming around, was still your best bet for food and bottled water. Even if it was technically stealing. Marinette had decided very early on that she would take refuge on the rooftops. It was easy to block the access if there was a door that led to her roof, and so far she hadn’t seen any undead with the ability to climb well. Or at all, really. The only thing she really couldn’t escape, not even on the rooftops, were the creeps. She’d already done her fair share of running from people trying to use this situation to abandon all morals. A thud yanks her from her thoughts, and she immediately grabs her metal pipe before whirling around. 

“Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, I’m not a zombie!” The guy says, holding his hands up in surrender. Marinette’s eyes narrow at him. 

“Obviously. But that does not mean that I can trust you.” She retorts. He raises an eyebrow. 

“Are you French?” He asks. 

“Oui.” 

“Why are you-”

“I came for college stuff, and obviously that didn’t work out. Who are you? Why did you come to this roof?” She asks, not loosening her grip on the weapon. He shrugs. 

“I don’t know. Old habits? I just kinda try and check out this area to see if there’s anyone that needs- I grew up here in Crime Alley. It’s always been my home and seeing it like this is just…weird.” He says. Marinette nods, but quirks an eyebrow, hoping he’d get the hint. He grins crookedly. “Right. I’m Jason.” 

“Nice to meet you, Jason. I’m Marinette.” She says simply, giving him a small smile in return. Could it turn out to be a trap? Sure. But she hadn’t had a decent conversation with a person in over a month, and she didn’t get a bad vibe from Jason. In fact, for the first time since this whole mess began, she felt a bit of hope. 

******

Event tag list: @jasonette-july-event @maribat-calendar-events

[ali-annals]

sparks fly (like a fireworks show)

Pairing: Jason Todd x Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Rating: T | Masterlist | Main Masterlist | Ao3 | WC: 1.8k

TW: Mentioned kidnapping, mentioned sacrifice to summon a god.

A/N: This is part of a series called The Eras Tour (Jasonette's Version), a collection of Jasonette-centric fics I wrote for the Maribat discord server Maribat? Get In!'s 2024 Civil War event. Not beta'd.

Summary: Kidnapped to be sacrificed to a weather god, Marinette wishes she'd been a little bit braver in her relationship with her best friend.

July 14–Bastille Day

Paris, Right Bank of Paris

Her wrists were burning, rubbed raw from the rough fibres of the rope tying her to the pillar, but Marinette kept wiggling anyways. What was a rope burn or two compared to almost certain death if she stayed tied to the pillar as a sacrifice to the weather gods?

The rope loosened a bit, bolstering the small flame of hope in her heart. It had flickered more than normal when she woke up from the unplanned nap she’d taken on her way back from the fabric store. She was stripped to her underwear and tied very thoroughly to the cold stone pillar at her back. As Marinette, and near-naked, there was nothing she could do except hope for help.

Help that was unlikely to come. Paris’s heroes had all retired after Hawkmoth’s defeat, burnt out from being forced into heroism as children. She, as Guardian and therefore unable to retire, had up and left, eventually joining Justice League Dark as a reserve magician.

However, even with her League connection, there was only a slim chance one of them would come save her. She was in Paris as a civilian, simply to visit her parents over the holidays, and 

hadn’t taken her League communicator with her, seeing no need for it when she was taking time off from heroing. She supposed it just went to show that you might take the girl out of heroing, but you’ll never take heroing out of the girl. Or however it went. She had better things to do than parsing English idioms, like escaping to save a city.

The rope loosened a teeny bit more. Marinette yanked harder, hearing faint cheers from outside the building she was in as revellers enjoyed their time off. They didn’t know that if she didn’t get loose in time, they were all going to die like her, unwilling victims of the god of thunder.

Of course it was just her luck that she was kidnapped, decided to be a perfect sacrifice to hail Taranis, the god the cult that kidnapped her worshiped. She wiggled her thumb a little more, desperate to free herself and break the summoning circle. 

The cheering outside grew louder as an announcer counted down the minutes until the firework show. It was past sunset. She only had a few more minutes. Marinette redoubled her efforts, straining against the rope with all her weight.

“Marinette!”

“Marinette!”

She looked around at the second call of her name, thinking she had hallucinated the first one. If someone was looking for her…Squashing her instinct to call for help from around her gag, she bit her tongue and pulled her wrist free a little further. 

“Marinette!”

She looked up in defeat, knowing nothing she did would make her dearest friend leave while she was like that. Still, the thought that he could do something, that she was not alone, raised the flame of hope inside her.

He took in the circle of runes, drawn in blood on the marble floor of the bank they were in, glancing between her and the portal. “How much time?”

Her muffled “five minutes” got through to him and he nodded at her, rolling his sleeves up and dropping to his knees. With a muttered spell, he had a small jar of something obviously magical in his hands, which he used to write what Marinette made out to be neutralizing spells around the most potent, dangerous summoning runes. 

The cheering increased, but all Marinette could hear was the rush of blood in her ears and the thump of her heart far too high in her chest to be healthy as she watched him work. 

He jumped up with a satisfied sigh and headed towards her, slicing her free from the ropes with the knife he always kept on him and sweeping her into his arms. He darted out the way he came in, a small side door, heading for a nearby fire escape to rest under and check on her. 

He pulled the gag around her head free, handing her a water bottle to cure her desert-dry mouth. 

She drank most of it in one gulp, then remembered it was better to take smaller sips. 

“Jason, why are you here?” She hadn’t gotten very far running from him before he came after her.

He grinned at her, that dear, cocky-yet-soft smile she’d been sure she’d never see again. “I’m a Bat, Pix, we stalk people. I came to impose on you and eat your parents out of house and home, but when I met your parents, they said you’d been gone for ages. So I came looking, found your trail, and got you. Why were you there?”

“I got knocked out and kidnapped on my way home. Some cult of this god of thunder thought I was a good appetizer sacrifice to summon him. What did you do to that circle, by the way?”

“Neutralizing runes. The bank will survive, you won’t. It was quicker and had a higher chance of success than completely breaking the circle. There should just be a storm in a few seconds.”

Almost as soon as he finished speaking, the noise of a small explosion sounded from inside the building, covered by the cheers and pops of fireworks going off all over the city. 

Jason picked her up in his arms again. “I’ll take you home.”

She settled against his chest, inhaling his comforting smell as they headed towards the bakery.

~~~

The sky had clouded over on the way home, grey clouds punctuated with bright flashes of sheet lightning and colourful constellations of fireworks. A drop of rain hit Marinette’s nose.

Jason set her down outside the bakery door, taking a step back. “I’m glad you’re safe, Marinette.”

She knew he was right, that they weren’t a good idea, but it still hurt for him to set that distance between them. “Thank you for coming after me, Jay.”

“I always will,” he told her. 

She bit her lip, uncaring of the rain now steadily dripping down. She’d survived, the rain was a beautiful gift that showed she was still alive. Slowly, she reached out, smoothing his dark hair back from his forehead so she could look into his burning green eyes. 

“You’re a bad idea, but I can’t remember that right now,” she whispered, drawing closer until the gap was sealed with a kiss. 

July 9–Marinette’s 23rd birthday

Washington, D.C.,Hall of Justice

“Happy birthday!”

Marinette jumped a little, surprised by the several members of JLD and JL lying in wait for her in the Hall of Justice’s kitchen. 

“I didn’t know you remembered when my birthday was! That’s so nice of you, thank you!”

Timothy Hunter pushed someone forward so she could see them. “It’s all thanks to your friend over here, he made us all collaborate on this.”

Jason smiled down at her bashfully, a homemade cake in his hands. “Happy birthday, Pix.”

The group surrounded her, singing the birthday song and setting off colourful sparks to go alongside the fizzing sparklers. She blew out the candles with one blow, laughing happily at her friends’ antics.

It was getting late when Marinette finally had time to be alone with Jason. They ducked into the hallway, leaving the noise and merriment of the kitchen behind for a moment. “This was really thoughtful, Jay. Thank you for organizing this.”

“It was my pleasure…even if some of your teammates aren’t a pleasure to get in touch with.”

Marinette laughed, leaning against the wall to support her upper body. “I’m truly impressed that you managed to corral so many of them into one room and there haven’t been any murders or major mishaps yet.”

“It’s all worth it for you.”

She glanced up into his eyes. When had he gotten so close? He leaned in slowly, his fingers tangling with hers. Her eyes closed–

“Hey, don’t think that you’re getting out of clean-up duty just ‘cause you’re her favourite,” shouted Timothy from the doorway, breaking the moment like a bubble.

They jumped away, hand to themselves and eyes on the wall, floor, lockers…anywhere else but the other. 

“Yeah, yeah, comin’,” he shouted back. “We’ll talk more later, ‘kay?”

“Sure.”

They never talked more later. Marinette saw him run into Batman, exchanging a quick friendly chat as they passed in the hallway. Batman went on his way to his JL meeting, and Jason headed towards their usual rendezvous spot. 

She could see the happiness on his face and the lightness in his posture, and she knew then that it wouldn’t work. So she slipped into the shadows and left before he saw her. 

The next day, she sent in her vacation notice to the JLD and the day after that, flew to Paris.

~~~

July 14th–Bastillle Day

Paris, Tom & Sabine Boulangerie

The kiss was everything she had dreamed, turning her flame of hope into an inferno, combusting and sending out sparks that danced among the raindrops. He finally pulled away, looking thoroughly discombobulated, but kept her close with his hands on her shoulders. 

“Marinette, why? I thought you left because–”

“I left because I saw you talk to Batman and you were so happy, and I’ve seen how happy you get when you’re telling me about your relationship with him and how it’s improving. He’s suspicious and distrustful of magic users and won’t let them in Gotham, and I won’t make you choose between him or me when you’ve finally gotten yourselves semi-functional!”

She felt him soften at her words, a small smile overtaking his features. “Pixie, I don’t care what B thinks about you and me or just you. If something like this, that he can have no valid argument about, drives him away again, then it’s for the best. Please, Pix, will you date me?”

“Yes!” She kissed him again, too happy to put it into words. She could scarcely believe that her ears hadn’t played a trick on her, the tapering-off rain muddling his words and twisting them into a figment of her wildest dreams. 

He picked her up and carried her in, heading up the stairs so they could dry off. 

A colourful burst of sparks appeared on the skyline, reminding Marinette of her birthday party. “Look, Jay. I love the look of the world after a rainstorm. It makes the fireworks so much more vivid; it’s beautiful.”

“If you don’t mind, I’d rather look at you. You’re far more captivating than a firework show.”

She blushed, leaning over to peck his cheek. “You’ve got the girl, you don’t need to be such a flatterer.”

“Nay, I must increase the flattery to make sure she stays.” He put her down, pulling her towel off the rack to absorb the rainwater in her hair. “You should probably shower, and then I’ll take a look at those rope burns you got.”

She saluted with a love-addled grin on her face, skipping into her bathroom. He grinned back at her, looking happier than she’d ever seen him before. The fireworks were ending, only a few going off now, but their story was just beginning…and she bet it’d be plenty sparky. 

[maribatserver]

Tag Team Tournament 2023

Are you ready to tag back into Maribat?

Last Year's Tag Team Tournament remains our most popular event to date, so naturally we decided to bring it back again this summer! If you're new to our corner of the fandom, we invite you to take a look at our previous submissions on our 2022 Live Tracker and check out our 2022 Awards before you tag in to this year's event.

This year, our Tournament will take place from July 30th - Aug 5th, and our rules and procedures remain the same, though you can view them on our Event Guide Document if you'd like a refresher, or if you're tagging into Maribat for the first time. The only big change is going to be to our lineup. Or, rather, it might be.

Last Year's Teams:

Book Design - Jasonette (317 Points) Java Junkies - Timari (317 Points) Lucky Shot - Roynette (196 Points) Art Couple - Damianette (153 Points) Rare Flair - Any Ship Without A Team (99 Points) Spandex Flex - Dickinette (59 Points) Three's Company - Poly Ships (53 Points) Sunshine Children - Marijon (49 Points)

As for this year's teams, well...

Just as last year, we'll have 8 teams for our creators to compete for, however, this year you'll be getting to vote on the 8th team! Since Sunshine Children (aka Marijon) placed last in our 2022 Tournament, they'll be the team on the defensive in our first event: The Shipping Bracket. More on that later.

Who's on the teams? Well, anyone who wants to be! And since this is the Tag Team Tournament, creators can tag in and tag out of teams as they please, creating as much or as little as they’d like to support each ship — multishippers rejoice!

How do you participate? Our full Event Guide Document explains everything you need to know, including the rules, submission guidelines, scoring guidelines, and more! You’ll also find the submission form — only content submitted through this form will be scored for your team, so make sure you read the whole document and fill it out. 

If you're posting on AO3, we have an Event Collection for your fics. If you're posting on Tumblr, make sure to tag your creation with #TTT2023 so we can see it and reblog it here! 

If you’d like to keep an eye on the scores for each team (and maybe tag into a team to help bump them up), our Event Guide Document will include a link to a publicly accessible tracker, complete with live-updating team totals!

The Shipping Bracket will pit 20 different ships (chosen by members of the Maribat Server) in a series of 1v1 matches to determine which ship will get it's own team in our 2023 Tournament. But hey, even if your favorite doesn't win the bracket, you can still write for them by submitting under Rare Flair, and we hope that you will, because there are some really fun dynamics proposed in this bracket!

Voting for the Shipping Bracket will begin on June 4th, and we'll post one set of polls a week until we've found our winner. Now, we know that not everyone who votes on our public tumblr poll is likely to participate in our Tournament (though we hope that you will!), so to ensure that our participants get a real say, if you participated last year we have a special form that lets you vote an extra time (and everyone thank @nottesilhouette for explaining the math behind how we can do that). Our winning team will have their name and logo released on July 23rd, so keep an eye out for them.

We can't wait to start this totally epic event, and to see which team pulls ahead in this year's tournament. Will it end in another tie, or will we finally settle the score between Book Design and Java Junkies? Or maybe this year a new team will take the trophy?

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Paris' Protector

by Nory_Gail Jason was expecting more when Bruce and him went to Paris for a mission! Crepes, kicking butt, no school... but he's gotten none of it so far! At least his classmates are nice, most of them at least.   Jasonette July Day 3: Protector Words: 3279, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Series: Part 45 of Maribat Multitude Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug, Batman - All Media Types Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/M Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Jason Todd, Lila Rossi, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Bruce Wayne, Nathaniel Kurtzberg, Caline Bustier Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Jason Todd Additional Tags: Jason Todd is Robin, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Paris (City), Mentioned Caline Bustier's Class, Post-Episode: s01 Le Dessinateur | The Evillustrator, Jason Todd-centric, Jason Todd is Bad at Feelings, High School, Budding Love, Crushes, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Has a Crush, Unrequited Crush, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Has a Crush, Requited Love, Love Triangles, Prompt Fic, Fluff, Some Plot, Lila Rossi Lies, Evil Lila Rossi via https://ift.tt/NyVDjRh

[abyssal-ali]

List of May-July* WIPs Poll

Which fic should I start writing/transferring from rough paper to laptop?

Masterlist with summaries of the fics here.

*Shortlist of WIPs that I want to have uploaded/begun to work on by July.

[chaosrivalsperfection]

TARGET

Marinette glared at the screen in front of her. Everything about it went against everything she stood for. The collar! The color! The vee! Everything! There was absolutely nothing redeeming about this outfit. Who would dare design such a thing? Her stylus blurred as she tried to fix the atrocity placed before her. The door to her apartment swung wide, admitting a tall, broad shouldered man. "Pix-" a hand slammed against his mouth before he could get any further. "Shh!" A voice hissed at him. "Don't let her know you're here." Jason pushed the hand off his mouth and glared at the blond. "Adrien? What-" "Shh! You're being too loud. She'll hear you." Adrien glanced at the small, muttering blunette before pulling Jason to the kitchen. From here, they could see her and talk without risking anything. "Adrien, what are you doing?" "Someone sent Nette a compilation of bad Bat designs. She's tearing into Nightwing's discowing costume, right now. If you bother her, you'll be her next target......Want to risk it?" Jason stared at Marinette, stylus blurring and dark mutters creeping through the apartment. "She'll emerge around dinner. What do you think, Adrien? Mexican tonight?" "Sounds good to me!"