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immaturityofthomasastruc · 2 months

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Every Episode of Miraculous Ladybug Season 5 Ranked (Part 2)

Part 1

(This site's stupid 30 images per post forced me to do this, so thanks for nothing, Tumblr)

#14: Transmission

I swear, I'm not doing these on purpose. This is just how I've been ranking the episodes.

Like I said in the last part, this episode just did not need to happen. The first half is cheap melodrama between Marinette and Adrien and the second half is a run of the mill Akuma fight with two different heroes. This is the story that seriously warranted two parts this season?

I just can't stand the fact that Marinette and Adrien gave up their Miraculous so easily here. Maybe if it was Season 2, Season 3 at the latest, I'd buy it, but near the middle of Season 5? They honestly view their love lives as more important than the battle with Monarch. If it was anything else like the stress or physical danger, I'd also be understanding, but Tikki and Plagg decide that Marinette and Adrien are so miserable that they need to be happy by losing their Miraculous without a fight. Remember, this was just two episodes after “Reunion”, which showed Joan of Arc was a Miraculous holder. So fighting in the Hundred Years' War didn't get so much as an ounce of concern from Tikki, but teenage angst is too much for her little heart to bear?

Maybe it's the benefit of knowing this won't be permanent, but the issue I have is how much the show draws this out for so long, as if the audience is supposed to buy it. “It's really happening, guys! Ladybug and Cat Noir won't be the stars anymore, we swear!” This kind of plot can work under the right circumstances. All you needed to do is at the very least, make it something they choose to do instead of their Kwamis taking their Miraculous away so we can see them weigh the benefits of giving up life as a superhero in ways that aren't exclusively about their love lives. I'd even buy it if it's something Ladybug and Cat Noir actually agreed on before quitting.

While I can sort of get Alya becoming Scarabella due to her experience with the Ladybug (even if she chose to give up using any Miraculous at the end of Season 4), Zoe getting the Cat just feels like the writers put a bunch of names in a hat and picked hers. The two just don't have as compelling a dynamic as Ladybug and Cat Noir do, because they don't get a lot of time to know each other. Alya and Zoe have almost never interact with each other, so the masks don't really shake up their relationship, because there's no relationship to speak of.

Also, the Akuma here was really forced. We know nothing about this new character while the show acts like we're supposed to know who he is based on some minor hints with Nora calling earlier. While I will give the show credit for arguably giving us the most powerful Akuma of all time due to being both a man and a bear, he's as forgettable as a villain as Kitty Noire is as a hero.

Just about nobody here comes out smelling like roses in this episode. The Kwamis are morons for caring about one ship becoming canon, Marinette and Adrien are selfish cowards for giving up their Miraculous with little hesitation, their friends are ignorant buffoons for thinking some random attempt to get Marinette and Adrien to talk will somehow seal the deal, and Alya and Zoe are idiots for not thinking that they should take off the shiny ring that tracks their every movement. It's a terrible episode, and the only reason why “Deflagration” is ranked higher is because it didn't irritate me as much as this one did.

#15: Determination

And now we're onto the really bad episodes this season.

This episode is pretty much what you've come to expect by Season 5. People keep forcing Marinette into situations she's clearly uncomfortable, and we're supposed to just laugh at her anxiety, because we still have eight episodes to go before the show decides to take her mental health seriously.

What makes this episode really sting for me is that it's Luka and Kagami that are forcing Marinette into these unfunny antics this time. For the most part, they never really stooped to this level and didn't try to force anything with their respective love interests until they had trouble in their relationships that required them to communicate. But now, even though one knows Marinette and Adrien are superheroes while the other is usually very blunt with her feelings (at least, before she became this season's next victim), they're going to try forcing Marinette and Adrien to spend time together even they both know they have feelings for each other and MY GOD, THIS IS SO STUPID! It's just a cheap excuse for more pointless shenanigans that stopped being funny years ago.

Yet somehow, that's not the worst of the Love Square drama this episode. It's here where we learn that Adrien fell in love with Marinette over a season ago, during a scene where she violated his personal space. In addition, Adrien somehow showed no signs of attraction to Marinette until the plot demanded it, and came right after another episode showing him falling for her. Why not make it the fake confession Marinette practiced with Cat Noir in “Glaciator 2”? The kiss Marinette gave Adrien at the end of “Heroes' Day”? I'd even take another umbrella scene callback like in “Mr. Pigeon 72”. But no, it's the statue scene that the writers decided on. It's like they noticed all the criticism Marinette got in that episode and were like “Joke's on you! Adrien actually liked being lusted over like an object!”.

And then the masks come on and make things even more convoluted. Adrien at least got to reflect on the events of a previous episode to explain his new feelings for Marinette, but what caused Ladybug to suddenly fall for Cat Noir after four seasons?

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The writers don't even bother with an explanation for this. Ladybug spontaneously becomes attracted to Cat Noir with absolutely no foreshadowing, buildup, or even callbacks to earlier episodes. The writers either wanted to complicate things one last time before Adrienette became canon, they wanted to bury the Ladynoir conflict arc from last season in the sand, or the most likely option, a combination of both.

The idea of the public turning on Ladybug was an interesting one to take, seeing how she's been universally beloved for the past four seasons. But despite hinting at it in “Multiplication”, this is the farthest is goes, and even then, guess who's behind it? You can't keep raising points against the main characters if it's only Chloe who does it. It doesn't open debate on the story and essentially tells the audience that they're wrong to agree with her, no matter what kind of point she makes.

As dumb as the way it happened was, Ladybug still screwed up and endangered the city by losing the other Miraculous, but we can't actually challenge children by acknowledging that the hero actually did something wrong and needs to grow as a person. We need to use a recurring character as a strawman to tell the audience that only bad people think this way! Way to remove any interesting internal conflict, writers.

The Akuma was pretty weak, just being an older Puppeteer, down to using wax statues like what happened in “Puppeteer 2”. The army of wax heroes could have been interesting, but there wasn't enough time to do much with the idea. The one thing I liked was how the Ox Miraculous' Resistance was used. It felt like an upgrade instead of a core power Manipula got.

This episode pretty much set the stage for a new level of frustrating Love Square drama this season, and it was one of the season's first outright awful episodes.

#16: Conformation

The only reason this episode isn't at the bottom is because the rest of the ones on this list are far worse by comparison. Make of that what you will.

Like most season finales, this one continues the tradition of being better at buildup than actual execution. Gabriel's plan is pretty decent, even if it's just Heroes Day on a global scale. He utilizes his public influence and business skills to plan out a plan to get almost all of humanity working for him. While I don't like the Miraculized, I still think Gabriel being on top works here, especially since he's not going out into the field like the last three finales.

But other than an okay evil plan, this episode is still pretty bad. Marinette being infected with nightmare dust only happens to get her to the Agreste manor because the writers forgot that Marinette learned Gabriel was Monarch last episode. It could have been a decent way to up the stakes by showing Ladybug not being at 100%, but like everyone else, she just fights off the nightmare dust and doesn't have a single problem during her fight with Monarch. In general, the nightmare dust isn't really utilized well, only being an excuse to bring out the Miraculized. It doesn't impact everyone fighting off the Miraculized, and there's no lesson or theme about fear that's conveyed here.

Speaking of nightmare dust, I'm pretty sure the only reason why it was introduced in the first place was to bench Adrien, which is still easily one of the dumbest decisions the show has ever made. While everyone else had no problem resisting the nightmare dust, Adrien is just physically incapable of doing so because of some half-assed character arc the show pretended happened. So either Adrien got a more potent dosage of the nightmare dust, or Adrien's just too weak to actually overcome his fears. “Sandboy”? Never heard of it! The fact that the writers also tried to claim they were being subversive with fairy tale tropes and cliches didn't help, since it devalues Adrien as a character even further. He's not a superhero and Ladybug's closest ally. He's just some damsel in distress who needs to be saved. Let me just remind you, if the genders were reversed, this would not be seen as some bold move, but the same overused cliche trying to be something new.

I already talked about my problems with Nathalie in “Passion”, and the stuff she does here isn't really different. Despite enabling Gabriel for five seasons, the episode has the balls to act like Nathalie always had morals and is appalled by Gabriel planning to sacrifice someone to save his wife. Just remember, “Passion” established that Nathalie had a history as a treasure hunter, so this is like Indiana Jones not knowing what the Holy Grail does. Nathalie only got dumber than in “Passion” because she somehow thought she could take on a supervillain with nothing but a crossbow and a body that already has one foot in the grave. And just like Felix, Nathalie can't even apologize to Ladybug for the aiding and abetting a terrorist thing. Between Nathalie, Felix, and Gabriel, does using the Peacock Miraculous just make you an idiot?

While the buildup is decent, it's just not enough to really get audiences excited for the second part.

#17: Representation

This episode is yet another example of the show's double standards.

Without going into detail too much, this episode came right after “Revolution”, the one that essentially portrayed Audrey taking control of Chloe's life as a karmic punishment. What happens in this episode? We learn Felix's father literally took control of his life and it's portrayed as wrong as child abuse should be. That's why this episode is still better than “Revolution”. It at the very least understands how serious child abuse is, and tries to tell Felix's story with as much dignity as two teenagers in white onesies can have.

With that being said, there's a reason why this episode is as low as it is. The Sentimonster play used to tell Marinette about Felix is just so stupid. The sets and costumes look ridiculous, it's hard to take the story seriously with Felix and Kagami doing all the voices, and most of it is unnecessary since the whole point is to tell Marinette that Gabriel is Monarch... something that the writers decided she needed to find out on her own in the next episode. It comes across less like Felix trying to alert Ladybug to who Monarch really is and more like he's just trying to justify his own actions. Hell, the actual reason he decided to tell Marinette about Gabriel was because he and Kagami were worried about their own relationship being ruined by him. And yet somehow, Ladybug lets him on the team at the end of the season.

The stuff with Adrien was also pretty dumb. It's cheap fanservice that reminds the audience of Cat Blanc when none of the characters should know who Cat Blanc is. You can call him Anticat all you want, but everyone can see that he's just Cat Blanc with blue hair. It's bad enough that this was what all the times Cat Noir almost Cataclysming people this season was meant to lead up to, but this is pretty much the reason why Adrien is benched during the finale.

This episode really shows how desperate the writers are to make people take this show seriously by showing serious topics like genocide and child abuse, as if the show didn't already ignore the horrible implications previous episodes (like the very last one before this) raised and will continue to raise during the season finale. So much of the episode is just dark for the sake of being dark. It's nothing too horrifying for children, of course, but the issue is how obvious it is that the writers are trying to raise the stakes right before the season finale and show how mature the show's writing is. For lack of a better term, it's this show's equivalent to “Ow The Edge”.

#18: Revelation

Get ready for the episode where the writers abandon all attempts to be subtle and create an episode specifically to attack people who think Chloe isn't the most evil character on the show. Because how dare they be optimistic and try to see the good in people! What do they think this is, a kids' show?

While a big problem with the Lila episodes was how stupid the class is, this episode made it so Marinette got to join in on losing brain cells too. Despite outright admitting to neglecting her duties as class representative (as absurd as it is to be in charge of notifying teachers about student progress they should be aware of), we're supposed to agree with her for not telling her teacher about Chloe cheating. Not only does this make no sense since you'd think Marinette would want to see Chloe get punished, but her claiming that all Chloe does is abuse her privileges loses any point to it because Marinette admitted to not doing her job as class representative, making her just as lazy as Chloe and unintentionally helping her through not telling the teachers. And that's not even getting into how many times Marinette has broken the secret identity rule despite also being the one to enforce it the most as the Guardian.

If the episode at least admitted to Marinette having personal issues that prevented her from displaying any form of professionalism towards Chloe (especially since this episode takes place after “Derision”), that'd be fine. Sometimes, people just can't let bygones be bygones and let their emotions dictate how they handle things. If she willingly resigned from her position by admitting she was just as at fault for Chloe getting as far as she did with her cheating, that would have worked. Instead, the episode does the same things it did with Adrien for the last few seasons: Go out of its way to vindicate Marinette's complaining and never even consider the idea of her being wrong in the slightest.

It's also hilarious to see Ms. Bustier act like an actual teacher for once and plan to work with Chloe to help make up her missed work, but portray it as a bad thing because in Marinette's eyes, that's not a punishment. Since the school year is almost over, Chloe will have to attend summer school at best and be held back or even expelled at worst. How the hell does that not count as a punishment, Marinette?

And don't forget how she gets not one, but two separate scenes insulting people for being idealistic and not wanting to write off people as beyond saving, the second one being copied from Astruc's Twittter.

And remember, this was right before a string of episodes where characters were able to change their ways, including Sabrina (Chloe's accomplice), Andre (Chloe's enabler), and Gabriel (Chloe's supervillain contact). How the hell is Chloe the only one being written off as irredeemable when she didn't pull off any of her evil plans without help? You can still punish Chloe. All I want is for the other characters to be punished as well.

But let's talk about the main event for this episode: Lila. In one of the most confusing “twists” in the show's history, she's now an identity thief who lives with three different mothers. Why? Because the writers have no idea how to hype people up for her being the main villain for Season 6, so they think just making her mysterious for the sake of making her mysterious is enough to build her up as a villain. It's like the writers realized Lila had absolutely zero resources of her own, so they felt like they needed to establish her as an evil genius to compensate. “Who cares if there's no logical explanation for how she's gotten as far as she has despite constantly boasting about her celebrity connections in public? We have to make her vague and mysterious, damn it! It worked for Judas Traveller and Kaine, didn't it?”

This episode takes multiple shots at fans and tries to make Lila seem more compelling than she actually is. It feels more like damage control than an actual plot-relevant episode.

#19: Illusion

Want to see the main characters acting like idiots for almost a half-hour? No? Too bad!

So much of this episode's conflict, the characters trying to investigate a possible lead related to Monarch, comes from everyone making stupid decisions. Nino tries to get one of the most influencial men in Paris akumatized, talks about it in public, falls for his trick, and lets him into his secret alliance. This season really cemented his role as the Zapp Brannigan of Miraculous Ladybug with how incompetent he is. If you really want to start portraying Nino as a tactical genius, maybe you should actually show him doing something smart instead of getting outsmarted by obvious tricks.

Of course, the other characters aren't immune to Nino's stupidity either. Marinette, Adrien, and Alya just go along with his asinine plan to get Gabriel akumatized, never question his logic, and ultimately still go along with the Resistance despite how obnoxious their leader is. The worst part is Ladybug not recognizing her own partner being stung by Venom... when they're fighting someone with access to over a dozen Miraculous. I know Cat Noir was born with glass bones and paper skin, but I don't think he literally freezes in terror when he's scared. And of course, Ladybug never questions the tiny invisible men who stunned Cat Noir after this scene.

The cafeteria scene is something that should really be cited as an example of how terrible this show is with acknowledging continuity. You thought there would be some compelling drama discussing the secret identity rule and all the double standards it has? NOPE! It's a funny joke about how confusing the identity stuff is at this point. The fact that Nino somehow doesn't understand the concept of secret identities in this scene is yet another reason as to why he isn't even qualified to lead an anime club, much less a resistance against Monarch.

The idea of Monarch using an illusion to fight Ladybug and Cat Noir was an interesting one, but it still had some holes. For one thing, what if the two heroes can't dodge one of the illusion Collector's attacks? What if they're fast enough to try tying him up, only to dispel the illusion? The entire plan pretty much relies on the fact that Ladybug and Cat Noir are too slow to catch the Collector.

But one scene that has only become more questionable after the finale is Ladybug trying to reach through to the illusion Collector. Like several episodes this season, it comes across like the show is spitting on idealism and wanting to solve problems peacefully because Monarch tricked Ladybug into believing he willingly rejected an Akuma. Remember kids, if someone says they want to change, it's really a trick as part of an evil supervillain's plan to maintain his secret identity.

This episode is like a microcosm of everything wrong with Season 5. Poor morals, characters acting like idiots, shooting down any potential for plot development, and being told characters are right when their actions say otherwise.

#20: Confrontation

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the episode where the writers just gave up.

There is just so much that happens in this episode that the writers cram in. There's Marinette's “final” confrontation with Lila, the battle with Reflekta, Sabrina's redemption, Juleka's character development, Ms. Bustier's character development, Mr. Damocles' character development, and the reveal of Lila's true nature. I don't think I need to tell you that the writers struggle to make all of these plot threads work in less than a half-hour.

First off, Marinette and Lila. The previous episode implied that Marinette let Lila have this short-term victory because she had her own plan to expose her. This episode puts that plan into action. See, she has the genius idea of going along with submitting school application forms to Lila and Chloe with no actual countermeasure in place, waiting for Sabrina to have a sudden change of heart so they can work together to expose Lila and Chloe through a bathroom peephole. This is the kind of tactical intelligence that will be studied in the history books, let me tell you. There's just no weight to Marinette and Lila's final battle of wits because there isn't any. There's no series of gambits or scenarios that actually pit their minds against each other, so you don't get a lot of satisfaction from Marinette's triumph over Lila. It doesn't help that there's more focus on Sabrina than on Marinette, but I'll get to that later. Even the actual payoff is anti-climactic. Most of the class' apology to Marinette was deleted because Mr. Damocles using a Magical Charm shield was just too important to leave on the cutting room floor according to the writers.

This episode really shows just how Marinette's classmates are like NPCs in the Lila-centric stories. They don't second guess Lila's accusations due to their past experiences with Marinette, and as soon as Marinette's name is cleared, they instantly apologize to her and don't even think about how easily they were fooled by Lila and Chloe. The worst example is Alya, Marinette's confidant and someone who was trusted to temporarily use the Ladybug Miraculous last episode, falling for this and not trusting Marinette. My sister in Christ, your friend goes out and saves lives on a weekly basis at least. How can you fall for Lila's story? This is why I think the Lila episodes should have all been set pre-Season 4, so Alya falling for Lila's lies is a little more believable since she isn't already in on Marinette's biggest secret.

I also have to roll my eyes at how melodramatic the talk about everyone's “futures” is. Yes, I don't know a lot about the French education system (If there's anything I'm getting wrong here, don't hesitate to let me know), but I don't get why they're treating their high school choices like such a big deal. Maybe if it was college, I'd get it, but high school? Why can't you just transfer if it doesn't work out? But then again, this is the same show created by a man who thinks school uniforms are a sign of fascism.

THIS IS WHAT THOMAS ASTRUC ACTUALLY BELIEVES.

Speaking of futures, this episode also showed just how little the writers cared about Adrien at this point, with how a supposedly heartwaming moment is him having no plan in life other than Marinette. I know this might seem weird given my problem with him last season was his refusal to think about anyone but himself, but there's a difference between wanting someone to follow orders without complaining and giving them absolutely no motivation outside of their significant other. And once again, if you swap the genders, this becomes sexist as hell.

But the big problem comes in the form of how the side characters are utilized. I don't know why the writers decided to focus on developing characters like Sabrina, Juleka, Ms. Bustier, and Mr. Damocles with five episodes left in the season. This should have been done in earlier episodes, not in the middle of a major story arc. I'm just left not caring about the development because it takes away from the conflict between Marinette and Lila, to say nothing about how little Adrien and Alya contribute to the story.

To me, this episode feels like the writers had no idea how to make Marinette outsmarting Lila into an episode, so they crammed in all these half-assed character arcs to pad out the runtime. While “Revelation” personally upset me more, I personally think this is the worse episode of the two from a writing standpoint.

#21: Revolution

Given how often I've criticized the way Chloe has been handled over the years, I bet you're surprised that this one isn't at the bottom of the list. You'll be even more surprised to learn that I think Chloe is one of this episode's saving graces.

This episode (along with “Derision”) provide an example of the Chloe we should have gotten ever since Season 3 ended: A villain who's allowed to be a threat while still being funny. So much of the past two seasons have done nothing but portray Chloe as nothing but an incompetent joke, but here, near the end of the season, she's in a position of power and is taken seriously. The episode does a good job showing how tyrannical Chloe's rule as Mayor is while still making it funny and in-character for her. She uses her power on frivolous things because she's a teenage girl who doesn't understand the complicated issues that come with politics. It's also why her idea of punishment involves detention, because it's something she's more familiar with as someone in middle school. Of course, even the episode all about Chloe ruling Paris with an iron fist isn't stupid enough to actually let Chloe be a compelling antagonist. No, we need to constantly remind the audience that Chloe is being played, as if we're supposed to see her as nothing more than a pawn even though the show still wants us to see her as an irredeemable monster.

Putting aside that one speck of something interesting, this episode is still incredibly bad. So much of the story is dependent not on how smart the villains' plan is, but rather, how lazy the heroes are. Not only is there not a single moment where Ladybug and Cat Noir acknowledge that the whole reason why Chloe was able to take over as Mayor was their fault, they act as if Chloe abusing her power to make everyone's life a living hell isn't enough of a reason to stop her. What kind of Prime Directive bullshit is this? YOU JUST HELPED SOMEONE LEAD AN INSURRECTION AGAINST A POWERLESS CIVILIAN! HOW IS THIS ANY DIFFERENT?! If there was at least something involving Ladybug and Cat Noir taking responsibility for what happened or at least showing that they played a part in this (especially since they “grow up” in this episode), I'd get it. Instead, because this is Season 5, our heroes are perfection incarnate, and can't ever be wrong. Even when they finally decide to get off their asses and stop Chloe, they didn't know she was akumatized, and nobody seemed to care before Chloe blurted it out, so Ladybug and Cat Noir have no excuses for slacking off.

The final battle is just a joke. Not only is it another excuse to force the Resistance into the plot, it shows Ladybug and Cat Noir unlocking the full power of their Miraculous in the most anti-climactic way possible. Even though they spent most of the episode caring more about their personal lives than actually stopping the obvious threat, somehow, this means they “grew up”. There's no buildup, no explanation, and no catharsis gained from this achievement. All of a sudden, Ladybug and Cat Noir are adults now. There's one decent scene with Adrien, but that's far from an actual explanation. What, did you actually expect an explanation for something this huge? Too bad! We need to have Marinette tell Chloe she's not afraid of her anymore even though she was never afraid of her prior to this season. Of all the things that happened this season, this is the one that makes it clear that Season 5 was supposed to be the end. There is no way Season 6 can happen unless the writers come up with some crap that undoes this, because Ladybug and Cat Noir have essentially unlocked god mode.

But I saved the worst for last, and you all know what it is: Chloe's punishment. I still can't get over the fact that there's actually a scene heavily implying we're supposed to be happy Chloe is going to live with her emotionally abusive mother in the same season that's trying to tell a serious story about child abuse. There's already been so much said about all the horrible things this implies, so I'm going to try and bring up something else. Specifically, how everyone is just okay with this. I can buy Ladybug given all the things Chloe has done to her, but it's pretty odd that Cat Noir, Andre, and Zoe all decide to wash their hands of their association with Chloe as if they never knew her. They don't even feel bad that it had to come to this, and feel absolutely no sympathy for her. Remember in episodes like “Malediktator” and “Queen Banana” that showed Adrien and Zoe still cared for Chloe despite all the terrible things she's done, teaching kids a lesson about trying to show compassion to your enemies? The writers sure didn't, because Adrien and Zoe don't get to say a thing about Chloe after she's defeated. Way to establish connections between characters and do nothing with them, writers!

This episode had so many things wrong with it, and it only got worse the longer it went on, to the point where the ending is essentially condoning child abuse. It's disgusting, but at the very least, it means we're not going to have to deal with Chloe in Season 6.

.....

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#22: Adoration

This is one of those episodes I honestly didn't think would hate as much as I did.

I think of all the episodes this season, this is the one that shows how frustratingly inconsistent the characterization is. Characters will either announce how much someone has changed or will take a complete 180 while the show makes it clear this is how things have always been. Not only does the show say Zoe has somehow changed and suddenly developed feelings for Marinette, but Chloe's view of Sabrina has gotten even lower, to the point where she calls her an underling to her face. Because actually showing character development and changing interpersonal relationships is too hard for these writers. It's like that rule everyone knows: Tell, don't show. That's how it goes, right?

Before anyone gets on my case about this, I'm not trying to say that Zoe having a crush on Marinette was a bad idea. The issue is more how it comes across like the show is trying to earn brownie points with LGBT+ audiences with the reveal. The issue is that this major revelation isn't about Zoe, but rather, Marinette. It's from a Marinette-focused episode all about her heterosexual feelings for Adrien while Zoe's coming out story is nothing more than a cautionary tale to get Marinette to finally try kissing Adrien. I'm not saying Marinette should have dumped Adrien to be with Zoe. The point I'm trying to make is if you want to show something as huge as a character coming out as sapphic, maybe put more focus on that character's struggles than the struggles the straight main character goes through. Maybe instead of being an afterthought in the story, make the episode about Marinette helping Zoe confess her feelings to a girl she likes.

This was also the episode that laid the groundwork for Andre and Sabrina's “redemption arcs”. Normally, I wouldn't mind something like them changing, but it's less to show a character becoming a better person and more to vilify a different character. Andre went from a corrupt politician who abuses his power to please his daughter to an honest politician who is forced to abuse his power to please his daughter. Sabrina went from Chloe's loyal friend who chooses to help her make people miserable to Chloe's underling who is being forced to help make people miserable. Both of them were perfectly willing to go along with Chloe's acts in the past, and as we saw in “Revolution”, being a pawn didn't excuse her from being punished, so by that logic, they shouldn't get a free pass either. It's also strange how this wasn't the episode where Andre and Sabrina officially cut ties with Chloe, considering they already had issues with them. There wasn't really a reason to wait if they already made their issues clear, especially Sabrina. Somehow framing Marinette here is okay but doing it a few episodes later is too much for her?

Also, Lila served no purpose in the episode. Just like in “Collusion” and “Revolution”, all she does is tell Chloe to do things she was perfectly capable of doing in earlier episodes. We're supposed to see her as a mastermind, but I don't get why she has to hold Chloe's hand here. Why can't Lila come up with her own plan or manipulate different people from behind the scenes? It only further highlights the double standards because while Sabrina being a lackey to Chloe earns her sympathy, Chloe being a lackey to Lila doesn't for some reason.

I am getting really tired of the whole “Nobody believes Marinette” formula that every Lila episode relies on (Chameleon, Ladybug, Risk, Revelation, Confrontation). It's the exact same story. Everyone who has known Marinette for the past four seasons suddenly loses all trust in her, only instead of instantly believing Lila, it's Chloe. CHLOE. This is worse than Lila, because she's at least in good graces with other people, but this is the same season that solidified the idea of nobody liking her at all. They seriously take her words at face value over Marinette, someone whose friends know has tormented her for a year at least (Derision)? Put aside how I feel about Chloe, this is a story that depends on trusting someone nobody has any reason to trust, and it makes no sense.

There are just so many minor issues in this episode that pile up enough to really piss me off. It's like a death by a thousand cuts.

#23: Collusion

I normally don't try to get political on this blog unless I absolutely have to, and talking about this episode is one of those occasions.

If you've been around since the early days of this blog, you'll remember that Astruc once compared Chloe to Donald Trump, and not too long after the January 6th attack on the Capitol Building at that.

Even before that thread, Astruc made a joke comparing Trump to Chloe less than a week after the attack.

Whether you agree with Astruc's views on Trump or not, the point is that he kept up with American politics and strongly opposes him. So anyway, let's get to the episode where the heroes let someone lead a small army to storm the mayor's office and force him to resign, which is totally different from what Trump did.

I cannot get over just how confusing this episode is. For a show created by someone who usually keeps up with American politics, this is such a tone-deaf episode. I get that the story is trying to lean into French history, and I'm not sure how far into production the crew was when the attack on the Capitol happened, but given how Astruc was aware of the drama, he and his team should have at least considered the implications this episode could raise. The problem with the discussion around January 6th is that the supporters see it in as righteous a light as Miss Sans-Culotte is. As far as they know, what happened wasn't a violent invasion of government property, but a peaceful demonstration. Sure, none of the talking balloons said “Hang Andre Bourgeois!”, but it still brings similar imagery to mind.

Something that also harms the French Revolution narrative is the fact that all of Miss Sans-Culotte's supporters are helping her against her will. Much like countless Akumas throughout the show's history (Darkblade, Kung Food, The Puppeteer, Princess Fragrance, Despair Bear, Befana, Zombizou, Malediktator, Gamer 2.0, Mr. Pigeon 72, Hack-San, Revelation, Confrontation), Miss Sans-Culotte brainwashes innocent civilians so they can help her cause. This goes against the idea that she's speaking for the people, because her victims don't have a say in this. She's not reenacting the French Revolution, she's reenacting Order 66!

Also, this is something I've neglected to discuss. Why make Miss Bustier pregnant at all, much less akumatize her while pregnant? Outside of her students telling Chloe not to make a scene because the stress caused from dealing that is bad for the baby, Ms. Bustier's pregnancy adds nothing to the story. Seriously, the story thinks Chloe annoying the class is more dangerous for Ms. Bustier's baby than Ms. Bustier herself running around and getting into fights with her baby inside. It could have made for some interesting drama where Ladybug and Cat Noir are hesitant to hurt a pregnant woman, even if she's been akumatized. While the writers do try to work around it by giving her minions to do the fighting (as much as it mucks up the themes of this episode), it still doesn't explain why she needed to be pregnant during this episode in the first place.

Putting aside how unlikable Miss Sans-Culotte is in this episode, you can't even enjoy seeing Andre getting kicked out of office because this is the same episode where the writers really want us to feel bad for him. Look at how sad the rich white politician is. Let's ignore the fact that he's a big part of the reason why Chloe is as bad as she is, has abused his power multiple times, and is all around the cause of his own problems. But even though this is a show that tries to take an anti-capitalist stance (which I'll get to more in “Emotion”), we're supposed to side with one of the biggest symbols of everything wrong with capitalism and political corruption. Even then, Andre is framed for corruption instead of the several instances he actually abused his power, as if they're trying to say he was never a corrupt man. He just loves his daughter. Is that too much to ask for? His daughter herself? Eh, who cares? You really need to support the rich white man. Are we sure this show was created by a liberal?

But the biggest issue is the moral. It's impossible to frame Miss Sans-Culotte storming the mayor's office as a peaceful protest because she's clearly inspired by one of the bloodiest and most violent revolutions in history. If she was supposed to be a violent warrior who needed to learn there was a better way, that would work, but instead, the show downplays how dangerous she is... when she has a guillotine blade for a weapon. You can't claim Miss Sans-Culotte is non-violently protesting Andre's administration when she brainwashes innocent civilians, storms into the building, and demands he resign without any question. Even taking all that into consideration, the moral ends up backfiring because forcing Andre out of office caused an even bigger problem with Chloe taking over, and the very next episode threw the non-violence message out the window.

Whether or not you want to consider the political implications here, this is still a terrible episode with a terrible moral.

#24: Pretension

I've always had issues with Felix, and after the trainwreck that was “Emotion”, let's just say this didn't exactly do anything to raise my opinion of him. Just like his other appearances for the last few seasons, he did absolutely nothing to help Ladybug, focused on only doing things that benefited him, and making everyone's lives worse due to his incompetence. And somehow, this idiot is the one who moves the plot along the most.

The entire conflict happened because Felix kidnapped Kagami without even coming up with a plan. Even when he believes that Kagami is a Sentimonster (I apologize for saying that word Felix hates, but once again, the show provides no alternative to it), he doesn't think of Tomoe being able to track her or command her to leave even at a far distance. He doesn't even try to explain himself to Ladybug and Cat Noir and spends more time running away from everyone who wants to kick his ass. But by the show's logic, he just needs friends, even though his entire deal is that he works alone to get what he wants.

It's bad enough that Felix has to screw up everything he touches, but now he's dragging Kagami to his level. Kagami has cemented her role as Felix's lackey/girlfriend and nothing more. People give Marinette crap for the way the behaves around Adrien in and out of universe, but Kagami knows nothing about Felix, yet a single conversation about his past is enough for her to fall head over heels in love with him. She went from someone not willing to take any bullcrap from Marinette and Adrien to believing Felix's story in a fraction of a heartbeat. This season really likes ruining the few likable characters the show has left.

I also have to roll my eyes at the conversation Marinette and Gabriel have about fashion. For one thing, it's one of the few times the entire season remembers that Marinette wants to be a fashion designer and doesn't really factor into her rivalry with Gabriel. This season made their conflict revolve around how to treat Adrien, not their views on fashion. It feels like they only brought it up to remind viewers that Marinette is still into fashion. Well, that, and also to take a stance on artistic integrity... supposedly.

And on that note, it's amazing how the writers display little to no self-awareness during this scene. The show that embraces sticking to the status quo and rejecting almost any attempt at keeping consistent continuity is now trying to teach children about the importance of being willing to take risks when creating something. This is like Hannibal Lecter trying to promote veganism. I get the message, but the messenger's history is keeping me from buying it. It doesn't help that for a scene trying to point out how outdated certain views are, the show ultimately chooses to take the side of the man with the “wrong” mindset by the end of the season.

The pancake metaphor really confuses me too. It's meant to be a running gag that the only thing Gabriel knows how to cook is pancakes, but A) Nothing is really indicated to show how terrible they are as a metaphor for how bad his outdated views are other than Marinette's verbal assessment of them, and B) We later learn Gabriel used to be poor, so either he never knew how to cook prior to earning his fortune or being rich somehow made him forget basic living skills. I'm just saying, when an episode of Sid the Science Kid manages to better convey someone doing a terrible job making pancakes, you might need to put in a little more effort to show how bad Gabriel's pancakes supposedly are.

Finally, Tomoe. This episode didn't really do much to show her as a compelling threat, given all she did was nag Gabriel and try to shoot her daughter when she didn't even try commanding her to fight back when she was kidnapped. She's nothing more than a female Gabriel and is another example of how overstuffed this show's cast is,

This episode is awful, plain and simple. It took aspects from previous episodes that were already questionable, and doubled down on them while acting like there weren't any problems at all.

#25: Derision

And now we're onto the really, REALLY bad episodes this season. One of the reasons why this post took so long to make was that I wasn't sure how to rank these last three episodes. Thankfully, I managed to find a way to rank them based on the morals are executed. With that being said, let's start scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Ah, “Derision”. You're the only episode that makes the backlash caused by “Chameleon” seem like a pleasant breeze. It's incredible to see just how much negative a reputation this episode has in the fandom. Virtually nobody likes it because it manages to upset everyone with its poor characterization. I'm talking Marinette fans, Adrien fans, Chloe fans, Kim fans, and pretty much every other character's fans. I've only seen a few die hard fans defend this episode, and they're the people on Tumblr who defend pretty much everything done this season.

I have just one question to ask about this episode: Why did it need to happen? We didn't learn anything new that we didn't know already. We know Chloe is mean, and we know Marinette used to be more timid and had no friends. We didn't even need that much of an explanation for why Marinette acts the way she does around Adrien, seeing how it was usually played for laughs

Speaking of which, let's talk about the fact that the episode tries to shame the audience for laughing at the jokes about Marinette's reactions to Adrien. You know, something that was the show's primary running gag ever since Season 1? A running gag the writers ran into the ground by the end of Season 3 but still chose to go with it? Now we're not supposed to have laughed at it, assuming we laughed at it all. Way to insult even the small portion of viewers who didn't get on your case about this, writers.

I only have about two positive things to say about this episode. For one thing, Chloe actually served as a pretty decent antagonist in the flashbacks. Much like in “Revolution”, when the writers actually let her be a villain on her own without being made a pawn, she can be somewhat entertaining. If this was the Chloe we got after Season 3, I don't I would have been as upset at the direction Astruc's team took with the character.

In addition, the thing that saves this episode from being at the bottom is that unlike the next two, it actually understands that what the antagonist did was wrong. They don't make up excuses for what Chloe did and she actually gets called out as a result. It doesn't lead to anything major, but it's something.

Like with “Queen Banana”, there's not much else I can say that hasn't already been said. There's plenty of retcons, the characterization for everyone is off, it attacks the audience, and the message about trauma got fumbled by the show's usual double standards. It's been said over and over again, and it's become a symbol of how much the show's quality has degraded.

#26: Emotion

I think if you've kept up with my reviews of this season, you should know by now that I don't exactly like Felix, and most of the problems I have with him can be attributed to this episode. In fact, for a while, this was going to be my choice for the bottom slot.

It's clear that the writers want to make Felix this wild card who's only in it for himself, but like most of the show's antagonists, they want to show Felix as this devious mastermind... but he's also not really evil, and you should feel bad for him. For most of the episode, Felix does nothing but make everyone's lives worse during his first outing as Argos. He smears his cousin's reputation yet again, tricks his girlfriend into dancing with him, condemns some rich kids for the crime of being rich when he's just as rich, and eventually wipes out all life on the face of the earth. But he's just doing it for his cousin, we swear!

While Felix has understandable motivations for what he does, wanting to free Adrien and Kagami, the way he tries to achieve his goal makes it hard to sympathize with him. If the whole point was that what he did was wrong and that he needs to find a different way, that could work. Instead, we're supposed to see him as this tragic figure who was forced to do terrible things when the episode shows him happily singing while causing chaos. It's the same problem with Gabriel, wanting a sympathetic character to do unapologetically evil things. The fact that he has to be told that genocide is bad doesn't make us want to sympathize with him when he breaks down crying. It paints a picture that he's crazy but the show wants to act like he isn't.

Even putting all the crap with Felix aside, the episode is still unbearable. The stuff with Marinette was poorly executed and was just done to get her involved in the plot, and later become the first one to excuse Felix for betraying her. Other than the dance scene, you could easily just have Marinette swing in as Ladybug when Argos starts his rampage and nothing would really change. The episode tries to make jokes about how unnecessary this is, but as usual, its attempts to be self-aware come across like its saying “What we're doing it wrong, we know it's wrong, but we're gonna do it anyway!”

Speaking of the dance scene, I can't stop rolling my eyes whenever Felix tries to be all “We live in a society” to Marinette. Forget the corrupt politicians, corporate moguls, human traffickers, and despotic rulers of foreign nations. The absolute worst section of humanity is composed of the teenage children of the 1%. Sure, you'd have to break my legs before I'd agree to supervise them at this party, but I don't get why these are the people we're supposed to see as irredeemable monsters. Do the writers think because these kids associate themselves with Chloe, we'll automatically hate them? Newsflash, but if I had to choose between hanging out with some annoying kids and a mass murderer, I'd stick with the annoying kids.

Rewatching this episode was what helped me finally realize just what my problem with the show's anti-capitalist message is. How the hell am I supposed to hate the villains on this show for being rich when several characters are rich or at the very least, are successful thanks to their connections to the rich? Think about it for a second. Putting aside Adrien and Kagami, you have Marinette, the daughter of two of the most popular bakers in Paris and earned the respect of multiple celebrities, Alya, the daughter of a chef who works at a five-star hotel, Nino, someone who got to DJ at a major fashion show, Rose, who is friends with a literal prince, Luka and Juleka, the children of a popular rock star, and Max, the son of an astronaut with access to cutting-edge technology. Somehow, these people are supposed to be poor? They make Monica from Friends look like Oscar the Grouch. It's why I can't take the message seriously. You can't write a story about a class struggle when both classes are shown to be pretty well-off.

The only thing that saves this episode from being at the bottom of the list is the fact that despite committing genocide while singing, Felix at least gets what he did was wrong and makes up for it. It doesn't fix everything else he did in this episode, but that's better than nothing. As for the villain featured in the episode that's at the bottom of this list? If you've been keeping track, I think you know who I mean.

#27: Re-Creation

I'll admit, I'm sort of cheating here. I'm judging this episode more as a finale than an individual episode, but I'm making an exception because the plot is tied to wrapping up all the loose ends this season.

I'm mentioning this because for a season finale, the stakes just feel so low. The fight between Bug Noire and Monarch doesn't have any weight to it because they've barely interacted at all for the last five seasons. These are supposed to be two mortal enemies, but you can't really buy the enmity between them. It ultimately cheapens the moment of Bug Noire triumphing over Monarch in the end... before Monarch triumphs over her not long afterwards, but we'll get to that.

The stuff with the Miraculized doesn't help either. We already know that the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous are in the Agreste manor, so the Miraculized's goal is impossible to achieve. It's never even explained why the Miraculized don't go back to the manor to help Monarch beat Bug Noire, since they should still be able to track the Miraculous. All of the fights with them just come across like filler, and there's no real sense of danger or hopelessness to be found. Whether the Miraculized win or lose is irrelevant. Nothing will happen either way because the important stuff is happening in the Agreste manor.

This extends to the part where all the heroes appear to help. It doesn't come across as an Avengers-esque moment for the climax, because it doesn't change anything. The episode never explains what any of these characters were doing prior to the events of this episode and why only now they're helping out. The United Heroes are the most egregious example because unlike Fei or Su-Han, they're a major organization whose members include the president, and they didn't do a damn thing when Monarch stole all of the other Miraculous. Speaking of, there is no way in hell that Su-Han taught Mirakung-Fu to three random people over Ladybug and Cat Noir, much less that those three people are actual masters after about two months at best. Maybe they got to train in Bunnix's Burrow? After all, she's not doing anything else to stop the end of the world other than sending four people over to Paris. This whole sequence really highlights how bland the other heroes of this universe are. If they're not slacking off when they're needed, they're criminally underdeveloped because there's a slim chance they'll get spin-offs to flesh them out.

But I think the biggest issue me and other people have with this finale is the resolution. In what is easily one of the most baffling decisions the show has made, Bug Noire doesn't defeat Monarch, and Monarch gets to make his wish. I don't care how many times the writers technically say she won because she beat him in a fight. Gabriel backstabbed her at the last minute and got her Miraculous to make his wish. Yeah, he died, but he succeed in achieving his goal, never faced any real consequences, didn't get any closure with his son (much less apologize for abusing him), told Marinette to lie about the monster he was to him, and was turned into a martyr with a statue made of the same things he used to control the world.

This ending infuriates me because it not only makes Marinette out to be a terrible hero for failing to do the one thing she was chosen to do (get the Butterfly Miraculous back), but it also ultimately makes Gabriel out to be a decent person even though he destroyed and recreated the world. All Marinette did was take credit for saving the world, and even then, Gabriel got more celebration in the end. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen! She got outsmarted by an abusive parent and didn't even get a new statue in her honor!

But the most damning thing of all this is the fact that this finale retroactively makes everything that's happened over the last five seasons completely pointless. If Gabriel making a wish wasn't as bad as it was supposed to be, why didn't Ladybug and Cat Noir let him borrow their Miraculous? Why make the stakes this high if you're going to downplay the impact of a madman recreating the world in his own image? Follow-up question: why make the stakes this high if the wish being made is ultimately shown to have huge benefits for society? In an attempt to wrap things up with a happy ending, the writers accidentally made the conflict completely meaningless.

That's why this resolution is the ultimate example of the writers refusing to allow any major changes to happen. If they're willing to treat the end of the universe as less important than Ms. Bustier becoming mayor, why should we assume they'll ever take their story seriously? For God's sake, every character you know and love is essentially dead, and we're supposed to act like that isn't a big deal? That's how you wanted to end the show originally? Then again, at least they tried to resolve something, unlike the Love Square. We still haven't gotten a reveal, and I don't think we ever will at this point. These writers will drag out the story until the show stops becoming profitable, which won't be for a long time.

And with that, I am officially done with Season 5. Honestly, after having to rewatch this season again, I'm not sure if it's even worth giving Season 6 a shot. There's nothing to look forward to, and Lila becoming the main villain isn't really appealing to me. At the very least, I have the movie review to look forward to, meaning I can watch something good for a change.

#immaturity of thomas astruc #iota #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug salt

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mc-lukanette · 10 months

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Luka stirred at a clattering sound, groaning as he slowly opened his eyes. It was still dark outside, but he could make out the open door leading to the balcony. The warm yet empty spot next to him told the rest of the story, a frown overtaking his face at the familiar song he'd heard far too many times.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes as best as he could, he forced himself out of bed and headed towards the open doors. The balcony itself was vacant save for the two chairs there, so he stood on one of them and knowingly looked up towards the roof of the house.

Sure enough, Marinette was sitting there, staring out at the city with a far-off look on her face. Her lips were parted and her eyes were half-lidded, the expression he tended to catch her with when she was lost in her own mind.

Hefting himself up onto the rooftop, he went over to sit next to her. His leg brushed against hers in the process, earning her attention as her head swiveled to face him.

She wasn't surprised to see him, but frowned guiltily and insisted, "You can go to bed. I'm sorry for waking you up again."

He shook his head, raising his arms out in a silent offer. "The bed's not as inviting without you."

Her lips turned to a pout, but he could tell by the blush that she was still touched by the comment. She touched his thigh, hesitating, then slowly shifted to slide closer and let herself up onto his lap. He hummed, pleased, then wrapped his arms around her and let his chin rest on her shoulder.

She placed her hands against his arms, leaning back against his chest as she sighed. Staring up at the sky, she expressed, "I feel like I should be doing something."

"Like what?" he prompted, despite knowing the answer.

"Patrolling, stopping some late night crime..." She shrugged. "Something like that."

"That's not your responsibility," he muttered, squeezing her tighter. "It never should've been."

"I wish it was that easy." She turned her head, nuzzling him in an effort to soothe herself. "Chat probably doesn't do this."

"Chat never took it the way you did. That's not your fault." He nuzzled her back and breathed up, taking in her scent that had long since mixed with his ever since they began living together. "You don't owe Paris your life."

He knew well enough that it wasn't as easy as saying so, and the constant visits she made to the rooftops told him as much. Even though she'd stopped being Ladybug back in her teens, the scars from those times remained.

The scars of being responsible for all of Paris's safety, for having to juggle her civilian life with her hero one, and knowing that failure was not an option without tearing her life apart. She was lucky to come out unscathed beyond the psychological damage, though he was hard-pressed to call it "luck."

"What if I hadn't given up the earrings?" Marinette wondered aloud. "Maybe I really was the best ladybug, or there was something I could've stopped if I had them."

"Or maybe not," Luka argued casually, "and then you'd be coming up here even more often, being even more miserable."

"It's not... miserable..."

He gave her a flat look. She turned her head away, but he could imagine the expression of being called out for the obvious.

"Still," she retorted, even if it wasn't a proper argument, "I was picked out for the job by the guardian, then I let him down by giving up."

A bit of bitterness seeping into his voice, he countered, "Maybe he should've picked someone who could enjoy it, like Chat did." Letting go of her waist, he took hold of both of her hands and caressed the back of them with his thumbs. "You shouldn't have to put off what you want for everyone else."

"I know." More frustrated, she clutched his hands tightly and repeated, "I know. I hate that I can't stop thinking about it. I was just a teenager. I was supposed to think about school, fashion, romance!"

He nodded, letting her vent without interruption this time.

"But then...." She groaned, slumping against him. "Then Ladybug happened, and everything went wrong. I hate liars, but I had to keep secrets from everyone. I had a schedule to write everything down on, but I couldn't keep it or remember anything because akuma could happen at any time. Everyone thought I was flaky or didn't care and I couldn't do anything about it!"

He moved his head, placing a comforting kiss at the crook of her neck. She stiffened momentarily, then exhaled and released the tension he'd been feeling in her body.

"...Sorry," she said.

"Don't be." He brought one of her hands close enough to his mouth, giving one more kiss to each digit. "You know I don't mind being out here with you. I love listening to you, even if you think it should be a hassle."

She whined, shifting against him. "Stop making it hard to stay in my own head."

He chuckled, dropping her hands so he could hug her again. "I can't. I loved you back then and I love you now. I won't let you forget it."

She twisted, Luka releasing her just enough so she could turn around and straddle him. Holding his face in her hands, she kissed him once, twice, and then a third time, each with increasing length than the last.

He cherished all of them equally, sighing blissfully at her touch. Despite how long they'd been together, he'd never lost the emotional high he got from it.

"Let's go back to bed," Marinette whispered, the tiredness coming back to her voice. "I think I'm okay now."

"Are you sure?" As much as he wanted her to rest, he didn't want her to force it. "We don't have to."

She nodded. "I got out what I wanted to, and it's cold tonight." Hugging him, she buried her face into his shoulder and murmured, "My only responsibility right now is keeping you warm."

He had no objections to that.

They separated, only long enough for them to get down from the rooftops and get back into the bedroom. Luka closed the balcony doors behind him and went to join Marinette back under the covers, arms wrapping back around her as she snuggled close to him.

While her trips to the rooftop had started ever since she'd given up the earrings, they'd grown more infrequent as time went on, as well as taking less time. He looked forward to the day when she'd stop going altogether, forgetting about Paris entirely to focus on what really mattered: herself, and everything that made her happy.

The fact that one of those things happened to be him was just a bonus.

#queuekanette #lukaneventte: No Context November #Flower Arrangement Shipping #Pro LukaMari #Lukanette

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shuobox · 11 months

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Heyyyyy *twirls my hair as i make your happy canon life doomed by my narrative *

God. Rewrite aiden in my au. Where do i start w him

In my little rewrite version, he's like. His entire life is doomed from the start. Grew up with a neglectful and pushy family where he felt constantly scared and weak in, making him seek control in other parts of his life (why he's so aggressive and rude, later becoming outright violent)

During sky city, it's Lukas who's fighting against him on the bridge, and after a struggle and Aiden's whole shpeel about Lukas abandoning them (aiden, maya, gill) like nothing for the new order of the stone

Anyway . Copper golems (that belong to the founder) appear and latch onto the guy's legs, and yk the storm during that bridge scene? Yeah. The dude gets struck by lightning with the force of five dying neuron stars and then just... wobbles back and forth.... before the copper golems let go, and he falls off the side into the water

While the blazerods are stuck in Sky City as it is being rebuilt on the ground they find an opportunity to break out and they book it to the portal, get lost for a little bit in the Atlas (remade portal hallway. Imagine those images of like, illusion staircases where gravity is weird. And theres stairs and halls full of portals wherever you look. Like that.) And they pass into like the worst possible place ever that is just CRAWLING with illagers

They get trapped, thrown in jail, tortured a wee bit before maya and gill are taken dor experimentation and Aiden was supposed to be the next (his arms were already cut off, and he saw what became of maya and gill after they got experimented on) but two new arrivals were found so they decided to stop temporarily

I AM NNNOT going to continue the story from there . Because it includes another character and an oc i want to like. Build up towards

In any case, skipping ahead like a few pages when aiden manages to get out and is now travelling with 2 people (one of which is more than happy to use him as bait or a human shield), guy really just wants his arms back and feels stupid and scared without. Arms. Hes losing hope UNTIL they get to a certain dimension with a city full of these advanced redstone-loving folk

In aiden's endless luck they get into the equivalent of the black market and they find people willing to give aiden new limbs for free IF he agrees to the terms and conditions

... the terms and conditions were "we can freely experiment on ur ass for as long as we want :3" and thats. Yeah thats what the tinkerers did. They were super proud of themselves and even slapped on their logo on him

Aiden is completely useless at walking and using his mech spider legs for a long while till he eventually manages to grasp it enough to keep going. Hallelujah !! He eventually gets time to process everything that happens to him lol (he feels miserable for a while)

Other hcs down here vv

- enjoy embroidery. He's kind of shabby at it, but it takes his mind off of things. He also writes small anthology stories in a wee stolen journal he makes up when his mind drifts

- The jacket he's wearing is stolen, lmao

- when his jaw was ripped out and replaced, so was his teeth; they make a loud clank noise if he snaps his teeth. Like a beartrap!! Also a strong bite strength

- i like to think he made a small makeshift funeral for maya and gill despite having nothing of them. It helped him cope a lil

- is surprisingly kinder to kids who aren't like, loud, or overly annoying.

- misses having hands sometimes (misses being able to hold pencils normally, or feeling the fur of animals, or warmth and cold, or holding things, etc etc...)

- Loves fighting without a weapon in stupid amounts. He'll scrap w a skeleton for fun, and it's even easier with his edward scissorhands ass implants. The reason his jacket has that fire charge burn is because he got distracted with "playing" w a ghast

- in a similar fashion, likes play-fighting (i say play-fighting, but i mean like, full-on blood and bruises but without ill intent when i say fighting)

His fav mobs are creepers. Has attempted to get close to one before. In addition, really likes the nether as well.

- Given he can't yell as much anymore (though he will still be the loudest man on earth if something scares him) (think incyn from neocranium streams), he's overly condescening and sarcastic instead.

- His right pupil is all janked up because his face got slashed; the reason why was because he was trying to fight off the illagers that were taking Maya + Gill. Still believes he could've tried harder.

- occasionally loses sleep either because of adrenaline, stress, nightmares, or just because of his already abysmal sleep schedule.

^ not a morning person.

- is, in fact, still super competitive and will brag about any victory ever. Still learning not be a sore loser (its a work in progress, but its there)

- has dark humour in the sense he'll try and joke about things in the worst moments, also a bit grim or rude in the same way. He'll laugh about stupid shit in general, though.

^ when he laughs loud enough and for too long, steam will also come out his jaw vents/mouth (not to the same amount if he was to scream and overload his throat implant, its lighter and not as obtrusive)

- has a really good knack for stealing things and negotiating with traders. He likes doing it, too. He feels awfully proud of himself when he manages to pull it off.

- His little antenna thing at the side of his head emotes (whirrs up and down or twists slightly from side to side. Think warrior cat fanart or something.)

- can come off as rude (and he is, dont get me wrong), but sometimes it is just genuinely being blunt or like, brutally honest with his thoughts. He doesn't even do it intentionally, it just becomes a reflex lmfao

- Will ramble on about the history and art and process regarding architecture if he can. He'll get embarrassed about going off on a tangent for so long and will shut up but like a couple months later he will absolutely start up again

- likes using his mech spider legs to skewer zombies. Morbid stress relief, but it's still mildly satisfying to him.

- has a really bad fear of storms after the whole sky city thing; it makes him have what is essentially flashbacks to everything to the bridge fight and after it (aka, deaths of his previously closest friends). Feels similarly to copper golems and will like, discreetly knock them over or push them away using his mech-spider legs

- wont admit it for the life of him but actually really enjoys feeding birds. Wont say it because he feels like thats something people over the age of 60 do when they're having a late-life crisis.

- easy to annoy thanks to his temper

(Next design will be of a certain .,.. pumpkin-related lady ....)

#mcsm #minecraft #minecraft: story mode #mc:sm #MC:SM #MCSM #mcsm aiden #aiden mcsm #MCSM Aiden #Aiden MCSM #mcsm aiden redesign #mcsm redesign #MCSM redesign

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fragileizywriting · 2 years

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I posted 2,008 times in 2022

That's 1,269 more posts than 2021!

1,634 posts created (81%)

374 posts reblogged (19%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@fragileizy

@fragileizywriting

I tagged 1,812 of my posts in 2022

Only 10% of my posts had no tags

#speakizys - 1,645 posts

#demon lovin - 779 posts

#fire lily petals - 510 posts

#sharks and sugar - 319 posts

#locker talk - 139 posts

#izycrossover - 105 posts

#the ot3 server is bullying me - 25 posts

#talking about [redacted] - 15 posts

#izydraws - 14 posts

#anyway - 9 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#‘i don’t even know your name. i don’t even know when your birthday is. i don’t know how your eyes light up when someone you love calls you’

My Top Posts in 2022:

“Why did you give me this, Adrien?” she asks, rather small.

“Oh. Oh, uhm. Do you not like it?” He turns to her, finally looking away from the tank, his gaze meeting hers. His eyes look almost brown, so dark, yet so readable. She can’t even look away. “I thought you’d like this. I thought, you know, since you always talk about how much you want to see sharks all the time, I thought maybe we could—”

“You’re right, I do—”

“—see the sharks together?—”

“Correct. Adrien, this is— holy hell. This is perfect—” she bites her lip so that a cry can’t get out, pinching her eyes tight. Her eyelids squeeze, strong enough for color to blur and blend into nothing but white, tears streaking down her hexleather and touching her bare skin. She hiccups when there’s a thumb on her jaw, warm, wiping right where the seam of the hexleather meets skin.

“It doesn’t feel like it’s all that perfect when you’re crying,” he murmurs.

He has no idea. He has no idea that she’s paralyzed. In fear, in desperation, wanting to tell him every single little thing and knowing not to— she’ll ruin everything— she’ll ruin their entire friendship— if she tells him that she loves him so much that it hurts to breathe.

She loves him so much that it hurts to breathe.

Oh, oh, and the thought of that admission is what gets her to sob, watching his outline haze into nothing but yellows and dark greens as she gasps out, something sharp and something desperate, clinging to breath on its edges with nothing but serrated claws.

“It is perfect,” she sobs. “This is the greatest thing anyone’s ever given me.”

“Then what’s wrong, Kitty?” he asks her as she leans into his hand, cupping him by the wrist. Wishing so hard to be able to feel his hand without the hexleather in the way. “Why are you crying?”

“B-because I—” she shudders again. No. Don’t. Don’t ruin it. Don’t ruin the only thing left in life that makes sense. That makes everything worthwhile. “Because y-you make me so happy, Sunshine. I can’t believe you got us to have the aquarium all to ourselves tonight— I can’t believe you did this for me. I can’t believe that you’d do this for me.”

“Of course I would.” He gives her a little smile. Just brief. Just enough for her to see it through her swimming vision. “You’re my best friend, and I love you.”

21 notes - Posted May 8, 2022

ALL OF THAT WRITING FOR FLP AND STILL ONLY 233 PAGES? JESUS >:(

23 notes - Posted December 7, 2022

blanche is my sweet little darling and i love her. she's allowed to maim as a treat and deserves kisses from one (1) adrien (and maybe one (1) luka if she's vulnerable enough)

30 notes - Posted November 13, 2022

"who, him? no, my familiar is harmless!"

(he is very much not harmless!)

Want to know more of this AU? Click Here

someone in the ot3 server asked what chat looked like and i don't have any art because drawing men makes me miserable (more than drawing in general, honestly, because of my problems with holding pencils). HOWEVER.

i had art from 2018/19 from when this au was first conceptualized, but it was only a shitty png version of it as the psd file had gotten corrupted... i redrew parts of this to fit the au as it is now. it's not perfect, and i wanted to change some more things, but my hand... ough. i cannot draw more. my hand is on fire... but i wanted to show you what i have at the moment before i forget.

i wish i could change marinette's hair to black in this, but since chat is already void, it would just look messy. i'm sure if i were more talented i'd figure something out, but for now, let's just all pretend that her hair is black in this. not as dark as The Void that is Chat. also, i don't think anyone noticed this in the original story, but marinette's eye color is never talked about. i wanted to give her blue eyes only when she's using magic, because it would make her look cooler, but i got lazy super quickly when drawing this. i guess that's fine. i had a lot of people question why i changed a marinette's eye color the last time i tried it, so...

anyway, i need to take a nap ToT

40 notes - Posted April 25, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

she just slathers herself in it, up until it starts to hurt, hissing to herself as she uses her knuckles to roll tightened flesh. maybe 'slather' is too harsh of a word, but butters herself is definitely applicable-- gah! no! no thinking about butter! no food, not yet, not until she's taken care of herself the way she needs to.

shower? done.

wash hair? done.

exfoliate? done.

deodorant? done.

pajamas? done.

she still has a skin-care routine to go through, all six steps to make sure she's hydrated but not enough to where she's breaking out into hives and reddened skin. it's a delicate balance, one that she's spent so long trying to fix, and if this ruins her night she's about to crash and burn and start kicking and screaming into her pillow.

dinner be damned.

breathe. breathe. it's okay. things are fine. just a long day, that's all, there's no need for the knots to form in her shoulders. she's tired, she's hungry, she's aching for luka's attention, and she wants to smooth out the knots in her thighs before he's back upstairs.

"do you want some help, mousey?"

she blinks tears out of her eyes. "no, no-- i-- i can do this, it's fine, everything's... fine."

breathe. breathe. things are fine. everything is fine. her parents are thankful that she helped out in the bakery today, her grades in school are fine, her boyfriend isn't upset with her, all the kwamis are full and mullo is flying around with a basket of blueberries right behind her, gorging out on a meal before her parents go watch a movie together...

why is she so stressed out?

"i know you can," luka approaches cautiously. she looks up at him with a huff, eyes tired, pouting before she can even stop herself. he sits in front of her, right at the foot of her bed on the cat-shaped floor cushion. "but that doesn't look comfortable. you're hurting yourself like that."

"luka..."

"breathe." she inhales on command, exhaling to the side so she doesn't accidentally move his bangs with her breath. "again."

she does.

"good?"

"good."

"lightheaded?"

"no."

"feeling weird?"

"i don't think so. aside from... i don't know. this." she points to everything about her.

"tell me what's wrong, beautiful."

"i'm tired," marinette sighs out, like it's a justification for the way she's been treating herself. her hands are ringing from how much friction she's used against it, even with all the lotion, she's completely and totally overstimulated. "everything is so much right now."

"i know."

"a long shift on my poor feet--"

he lifts her leg up to place in his lap. "yeah."

"and, and-- and school."

"mmm."

See the full post

47 notes - Posted January 25, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #does this count as a speakizys. since it's written in 1st person #??????#speakizys

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moth--knight · 1 year

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💫what is your favorite kind of comment/feedback? // 💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting? // 🤍what's one fic of yours you think people didn't "get"? // 🕯️how do you think engaging with each other through tumblr, twitter, comments, kudos, creates healthy fandom experiences? How do you deal with that if you're not a social person/experience social anxiety?

omg......hiiiiiii :3

answers below the cut because I never shut up also thank you for asking!!! WAH

💫what is your favorite kind of comment/feedback?

I love love love when people tell me what lines/sections of my fics hit the hardest for them!! specificity in comments is always nice :)

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

oh man, Desert Hearts for sure. I did not expect SO many people to get invested in it - it was actually kind of stressful toward the end cause I didn't wanna disappoint! but I am very grateful for everyone who has read it and commented and such. AUGH.

also my barlissa fics??? I wrote two on a whim in like a single week and people have been SO kind. I am a bit blown away. working on a third rn hehe :3 here are the links one // two

oh my god also leather and lace. the girlies really liked that smut xaskldfhsakj I wrote it as a gift for a friend but it is nice to see that leather butches are beloved by many <3 <3

essentially, a decent amount of my fics get more positive attention that I would assume. it is nice!!!! but also.....I do not understand. haha.

I am also kind of obsessed with how often people lovingly threaten me online over what I write, both fluff and angst. are you flirting with me? are you actually gonna beat my ass given the chance? are you just dramatic? who knows. I love it tho.

🤍what's one fic of yours you think people didn't "get"?

this is me being controversial but I don't think people "got" I'll see you back home or hyperosmia. like, people LIKED those fics a lot, but projected a lot of their own feelings onto them I felt. both of them were written on a whim and both of them are not my favorites. lmao. I understand WHY people were upset, over both luka as a character and the ending of bayo 3 as a whole (I too was/am upset, which is why I wrote the damn fics sajkfhwdkj) but idk. out of all my work they are they fics I think people engaged the least with despite leaving a lot of comments/kudos. most of the feedback I got was people ranting about their own opinions and like. NOTHING about the fics themselves. alas.

🕯️how do you think engaging with each other through tumblr, twitter, comments, kudos, creates healthy fandom experiences? How do you deal with that if you're not a social person/experience social anxiety?

this is such an interesting question, so forgive me cause I am gonna ramble a bit. i'll answer the first part first. ha.

fandom is this nebulous thing imo, and so interaction within fandom is a double edged sword. for as many lovely people are you will find, there are ten more who fucking suck asdjhskj. the best way I have found to navigate fandom is to find people making the things you like, support their work, and if opportunities to get closer arise, feel free to take them.....but also feel free to end them. I have blocked many accounts over just the past year just because I realized they were making my personal fandom experience stressful - nothing personal usually, but I use fandom for fun, so I don't wanna engage with people who are making me miserable lmao. block and curate, prune your fandom garden, and you can have an overall good experience I think. interaction is the lifeblood of fandom! I think comments, kudos, tagging people in things, talking in the tags of posts, etc etc make it so fun and worthwhile. like personally, I do write for my own enjoyment, but it wouldn't be half as interesting without readers/commenters/mutuals/oomfies/friends. I have become friends with some of the most genuine people in my life through fandom, and even got to meet some IRL (and abby if you see this I WILL be visiting your ass our next trip will NOT be cancelled xsakjdghsaj). sorry I am rambling is it almost 1am here in NY but like. fandom is about participation I would argue. but it is good to be careful. be respectful. be patient. don't hesitate to step back or mute or block if you need to. engaging with each other is SO awesome but you aren't going to vibe with everyone and that is ok!!!!!!

oh man. I perhaps am not the best person to answer this, because online I am pretty socially outgoing? I rarely reach out first but if people wanna talk or whatever I am usually very down. I love people. love chatting. teehee. but I think that "fandom engagement" can take a lot of different forms. even if you don't feel comfortable talking to people directly, you can always still like/reblog/retweet their work! you can leave notes in the tags! you can leave anon comments! I think sometimes fandom creates this pressure to engage and create, but some of my favorite people in fandom are the ones who just reliably read and like my fics and if I am lucky they will leave a comment that is just some emojis (I have a regular commenter like this. I would kill for them. I know NOTHING about them. but everytime they comment a purple heart on my fic? whew. amazing.) essentially, do what feels comfortable for you and know that even if you aren't engaging directly in the same way, it is still SO lovely to have people engaging at all. fandom should be fun and not stressful imo. if you are having fun that is what counts. we are all playing in a big sandbox together. if you wanna chill by the edge and watch or play with your own tools that is totally fine. just nice to have you there. :)

ANYWAY. hope this was interesting for anyone who reads this behemoth of an ask. dklasfdhdj.

#asks #anon I could kiss you on the mouth for asking multiple of these #THANK YOU SINCERELY #they were fun ones too hehehe #ask game #moth writes

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brooklynislandgirl · 3 years

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Moodboard quoth and luka

Friday night's your poem Saturday, your wet dream Sunday wakes you up slowly To a face that you don't wanna see I turned you on, but I left you hungry And your heart didn't matter 'til the weekend is gone Baby, sure you're getting some Really didn't matter if I can't, whoa So if the love that you're chasing after Is in the heart to be found in the out of reach Well, if you break it all down Take a good look around, you'd see That it's closer than you might believe

#Mahalo!Crow <333 #so miserable without you its like having you here|luka #the dream of a thousand years|cathal and quothe #Tra La La La La Verse

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quothesquills · 4 years

Text

She is not his pet. She is free to come and go as she pleases. And perhaps sometimes he wonders why she comes back at all. But for the times she does? Perhaps an old man feels bad for her having no proper place to nest.

So he has had something made for her. Something special, and something unique. And no he does not care that the raven doesn’t really need it, nor really need the raven sized pool installed behind it.

He thought she should have it therefore she did. And never mind the purposefully shiny silver bow and carefully woven miniature wreath hung over the door. She can do with them as she pleases.

If any of the animal crackers like herself celebrated holidays, then those would be obscure, regional, and related to their totems and auspices and tribes, or closer to what their human kin {sometimes charges, sometimes victims} reveled in. Same with the Dream Kin, the Caern Raiders, even the spooks. She’s heard tell leeches do it to, but of all the things Quothe has mixed with, she only ever had befriended one fangy-fangy-bitey-bitey. And it had been so long ago the details are a little fuzzy beyond the reminiscence of fraying, mouldering black robes and a Romanian accent.

Luka had always been different though, hadn’t he?

And so when the winter solstice rolls around and after they’ve ~the Corax as a species~ have celebrated the rebirth of Helios, she finds the air cold and small, hollow bones desirous of warmth and light. She’s been too far gone from her seemingly eternal Siberian nights, and the frigid, lethal temperatures that clung to it.

She bypasses doors and windows and the moral fortitude to knock first and be invited in by slipping through a thinning of the Veil, leaving the spirit realm of the umbra for the more hospitable comfort of his apartment. Not that she particularly likes this one, it always seems to carry a little of the blood and dirt and foreignness of that caern raider he so loves to have torture him, which would make her nose wrinkle if beaks were capable of such things. He’s not here. She can feel that. And if experience is any teacher, she has time to change out of her feathers and into something a little more suitably kinky with which to run a hot bath for his aching bones, full of alchemical balms to soothe tired muscle.

Looking from the outside, some people would call her a devilish thorn in his side for all that she jabs and pokes at his sorest places, but that’s only to remind him of his strength. Truth is, she knows his weaknesses and rather than exploiting them, she tries to soothe them in whatever ways she can within the structure of the rules, even if that means sharing him with whatever two-legs catches his fancy out of loneliness.

But even Quothe can admit to being taken aback when he surprises her. The Birdhouse is really quite spectacular, as it is massive and she wonders where he’s been building it, and how long it’s taken. Curiosity drives her and she hops from chair to shelf to perch, examining it while her head tilts this way and that. The minaret isn’t exactly that, and it looks nothing like the homes from her youth but then again, most people didn’t exactly have more than some twigs and dirt when they were young. Eventually, the thing is approached. A series of little jumps closer and closer to the doorway.

Then she disappears inside and is once again delighted. There’s a mess of twigs, old bits of tee-shirts that still smell like him, soft and cotton. So she sets about a little house keeping. Maneuvers every last speck of material, regardless of origin, into a new nest. One big enough to settle herself in whole and happy. She steals the ribbon from the outside and uses that as the final touch before she settles into the safety and comfort of it, nuzzling those bits that are most a part of him. She knows the new birdbath is there too, but it can wait. For now she will close her eyes. Because the best part of the solstice gift…is being able to dream about what might have been.

#whosxafraid #So Miserable Without You It's like having you here|Luka #The Dream of A Thousand Years|Cathal and Quothe #Tra La La La La verse #submission

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miraculouscontent · 2 years

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I've been thinking about the peeps who wants to make an adri*nette spin on your Dread String of Fate au and... Adrien had shown time and time again that he doesn't act for other people's sake as long as it's not affecting him (effing high road my foot) or he benefits from it ("peace" in the class despite it not being fair to Marinette). To do an adri*nette spin to your au is to make him give up the cat miraculous as it is tangled with his ring finger and the ring. Which I can't imagine him doing considering his coddled actions. But a fanfic writer can make it believable, I think, if they would develop his character first, or make him a better version of himself in the get-go. But the thing is, Luka is already at the advantage of giving Marinette a chance to change her fate as he isn't too in deep in the thorns of the problem and has canonically shown more altruism for her. Feather stans can do what they wanna do. But I'm gonna say it: you've already done it better.

Thanks!

Adrien taking off the cat would only be the starting process. Honestly, whether or not he’s “concerned” about the whole red string, any strategy he’d employ would probably be more akin to the ‘Glaciator 2″ method (i.e: try to cater to Ladybug without actually addressing the issue at hand), so he’d be more likely to just see if the string can be moved rather than the bond outright being broken.

To make a version of my AU that’s love square (which is already scummy but I’ve explained that before; I just think it’s bordering on pathetic that the stans are so desperate/uncreative for a ship rife with content that they need to steal from other ships) would be defeating the point of the AU in the first place. The point is that even the foundation of the ship is flawed and Marinette has virtually no choice in any of it. They’d basically have to tear the entire love square down and then rebuild it from the ground up, and by then it’s either a different ship or not worth it.

And it’s not as though I think that the idea of breaking a soulmate bond just to fall in love “for real” afterwards is bad, but it doesn’t work with how the love square is set up, you feel me? Like--the ship would have to be set up for that sort of plot in advance and even then I think it’s a little cheap, like a, “hey, you know that thing that made the FL miserable? well, we fixed the agency issue but she’s still here, hopefully you’re just willing to move past all those bad memories.” I also feel like it’s a little ehhhhh psychologically because I wouldn’t be sure if Marinette would be there because she wanted to or because of the lingering feelings/memories of what the string forced upon her.

The other thing is that Luka is already a character who wants to go at Marinette’s pace and wants her to make her own choices. To make the AU Adrienette would basically be to turn Adrien into Luka which--congratulations, what a complete waste of time.

The character being attached to the other side of the string knowing is also another point against it because the idea is for someone from the outside to see it and get to learn about/react to it as if they were someone watching the show, and Luka having a dog in the race plays into things as well.

#category: salt #salt: fandom #other: ask and answer #((To make an Adrienette version of the Dread String of Fate is to disrespect what the AU points out.))#((I'd like to say ''that's why I don't do Lukanette love squares and do love infinities instead'' but let's face it--))#((we all know I don't avoid love squares out of ''respect'' for the love square's concept lol.))

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vannahfanfics · 2 years

Text

A Storybook Romance

Word Count: 5800

Drama, Romance, Hurt and Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending

Summary: Lucy and Gray take a mission to resolve a curse on a storybook, a copy of The Little Mermaid. However, they are sucked into the book! To escape, Gray and Lucy must progress the story. But the story is changing, and it is looking more and more like Lucy is going to have to suffer the mermaid's fate... but Gray won't let that happen.

Vannah’s Vibes: “The Little Mermaid” by Megurine Luka

Lucy blew air through her lips in irritation, making them flap loudly. She was draped over one of the guild tables, bored and miserable. It seemed she’d been left behind after an influx of missions. Natsu and Happy had teamed up with Lisanna and Elfman to hunt a strange beast that had been stalking the woods outside a small village a few miles north. Erza had taken a job at a cake shop and had dragged Wendy and Carla with her, determined to obtain some succulent strawberry shortcake. Thus, Lucy’s normal team had been flung to the winds, leaving her to mope around the guildhall and try to find a job that she could wrestle on her own. Of course, she’d grown powerful in her time at the guild, but it still was difficult—and significantly less fun—taking on a job by herself.

She rolled her head over the wood table, staring across the guildhall at the bulletin board containing all the available missions. As she debated dragging herself to her feet to trudge over there, the floor creaked beside her and she turned to see Gray standing there.

“Hey, Lucy. Thinking about taking a mission?” he asked. With a small sigh, Lucy pushed herself up, her cheeks puffed out as she pouted.

“Yeah. Everyone up and left me behind! I’ll have to find something easy…”

“Well, why not team up with me?” he suggested. “Juvia went out with Gajeel and Levy, so that leaves just you and me of our regular partners. I’d be willing to tag along. I’m losing my mind just sitting here.” Lucy perked up at his proposition and found herself nodding without thinking about it much. She’d team up with anybody rather than have to complete a mission alone, and besides, Gray was both familiar and capable. She rose from the table and together they walked across the guildhall to inspect the board. They’d only debated a couple of the posted jobs before Mirajane called out to her. They both turned to see her trotting up, waving a piece of paper above her head.

“Hey, Lucy! I have a job I think you might like!” the white-haired woman called. She set the paper down in front of Lucy, who picked it up to inspect it—and she had to admit, it did pique her interest.

“A cursed book, huh?” she hummed thoughtfully. The owner of the famous fairy tale novel The Little Mermaid was petitioning the guild to rid the book of a curse, which had been placed by a disgruntled ex-friend of theirs. Apparently, the owner was planning to give the book to their child for their birthday, but obviously couldn’t with the curse attached; all their efforts to remove the curse had failed, and time was running out, so they’d reached out to professionals. “I like it! Thanks, Mirajane. Wanna go take care of a cursed book, Gray?”

“Sounds better than just sitting around here,” he shrugged, so Lucy took that as a “yes.” With the job description in hand, they headed off to what hopefully was a straightforward job.

They arrived at the book owner’s house and announced themselves, finding a young woman who looked admittedly badgered. Dark rings sagged under her eyes and her brown hair was in a disarrayed bun atop her head; she looked downright miserable as she gazed at the book sitting on the coffee table between them.

“I’ve tried everything,” she lamented. “This is a limited-edition illustrated version of the story, and my daughter wanted it so badly for her birthday… I would hate not being able to give it to her because of that spiteful bitch’s curse!”

“Not to worry, ma’am,” Lucy said with a placating raise of her hands, watching the woman’s mood turn more sour by the minute. “We’re here to help! We’ll take care of the curse, no problem, and make sure your daughter has an excellent birthday.”

At Lucy’s assurances, the woman sagged back into her couch with a deep sigh. Lucy then looked down at the book, which, by all appearances, looked completely ordinary.

I don’t see any runes, she thought as she ran her finger over the glossy hardcover, where a dramatic painted rendition of the mermaid pranced under the waves. Cautiously, she lifted the cover to peer at the blank pages, eyes scanning for any strange markings. Suddenly, with a life of its own, the book sprung open and a strange light began to glow from within the crease. She and Gray could only exclaim in alarm as the light burst forth and enveloped them. Surrounded by whiteness, Lucy instinctively grabbed Gray’s hand and squeezed it tight, and then she had the sensation of falling…

Bubbles exploded in her vision as she opened her eyes. They swirled all around her, threaded in her tresses of golden hair and kissed her face. Beyond the curtain of little clear spheres, an endless expanse of blue stretched all around her; far above her head, beams of light filtered down to cast her in a white glow. She was underwater!

She felt something tug on her hand, and she turned to realize that she was still clutching Gray’s. He writhed in the water, clutching at his throat as he struggled to breathe. Oh, no, he’s drowning! She realized, but as she swam toward him, she had the oddest sensation in her legs. She looked back to see that she didn’t have legs; where they should have been, there was a ginormous golden tail with wispy yellow fins gliding through the water.

She exclaimed in shock, but rather than choking on the water, her voice actually carried through the liquid. She was a mermaid!

Gray released a stream of bubbles from his mouth with a muffled scream. She didn’t have time to worry about her strange transformation right now. Grunting, she looped her arms underneath Gray’s armpits, resting his back against her chest so she could swim toward the surface as fast as she could. Her tail churned in the water, propelling her powerfully like a torpedo, so their heads broke the surface in a matter of seconds. Gray coughed and spluttered in between greedily sucking down air, and Lucy pushed his sodden hair from his eyes while she held him.

“Agh… Ack… Ugh… Lucy, where are we?” he managed through hoarse coughs. She looked around to see a writhing sea, with thunderclouds just dissipating several miles away. She was a mermaid, and they were stranded in the middle of a sea that had just witnessed a storm…

“I think we’re in the storybook!” she realized, and Gray looked at her in shock. She used her buoyant body to support him as she thought out their situation. “The curse must have drawn us into the book and changed us into the main characters— so if I’m the mermaid, you must be the prince, Gray.”

“Ya don’t say?” he said, looking down to discover that his outfit had changed. He was now wearing a sailor’s uniform, snug-fitting. The white fabric was soaked, revealing the planes of his muscles. It would be sexy, if Lucy hadn’t seen him bare-chested more times than she could count. “All right, then, how do we get out of this?”

“Well, I’m familiar with these types of curses,” she said. “We have to complete the story in order to break the curse. The woman who cast it really was a bitch!” she huffed as an afterthought, and Gray laughed. Still, there was nothing for it— this was their mission, and somehow or another, they had to complete it. Given that it was their only option as well as the method of advancing the story, Lucy paddled Gray to shore.

Still coughing a little, Gray crawled out of the surf and immediately rolled over to collapse on his back. Lucy rested on some rocks in the shallows, flicking her tail as she watched him just lay there, breathing in and out as he recovered. While they waited for the next part of the story to happen, Gray turned his head to squint at her.

“Hey, Lucy… In the original story… Doesn’t the mermaid, you know…” He swallowed thickly, and then added in a whisper, “die?”

Before she could answer, shouts rose up on the beach. They both looked to see royal attendants hurrying over the sand shouting, “The Prince! There’s the Prince!” Not wishing to be seen, Lucy dove down into the waves, but once she was safe in the murk of the ocean, she poked her head above the water with sad eyes. While his attendants fluttered around him like mother hens, Gray was desperately searching the horizon for her, concern etched into his face. With a small, mournful croon, Lucy sank back below the waves.

Yes, the mermaid did die in the original story. So, what was going to happen to Lucy if they played out this storyline? Lucy was beginning to wonder if there was more to this cursed book than a spiteful friend, but unable to do anything about it, she just followed her internal compass into the sea.

Down, down, down into the depths she swam until she arrived at a magnificent palace constructed of coral and rock. Lucy breathed in awe as she swam through coral-encrusted arches and seagrass gardens, over steps hewn from stone adorned with shells, and through a grand throne room where luminescent jellyfish clustered at the ceiling, bathing the room in light. She allowed the story’s guiding force to lead her down into a room, where an elderly mermaid sat sewing an ornate belt from pearls and kelp.

“What bothers you so, my dear?” the old mermaid said when Lucy swam in, her white hair drifting around her face in the water currents. “You have such a sad expression.”

It took Lucy a second to recall the conversation at this point in the story, but when she did, she drifted over to lay her head on the older woman’s lap, looking forlorn.

“Grandmother, do humans live forever?”

“Yes and no,” she replied, smiling while she continued to work on the belt. “Mermaids live for three hundred years, but humans have a lifespan of less than a third of that. However, unlike mermaids, who when they die turn into seafoam and cease to exist, humans possess an eternal soul that passes into Heaven when they perish. Why do you ask, my child?”

“I was just curious,” she responded, rolling over to nonchalantly stretch her arms above her head, but truthfully, the information perturbed her. It would be problematic if Lucy died in the story regardless, but if she did as a mermaid, would she turn into seafoam and cease to exist? It was a scary thought, and it made her heart thump in her chest.

I have to get to Gray as soon as possible, she thought, bidding the grandmother character farewell and swimming on, heading to find the fabled sea witch. This story was rapidly turning scary, and she didn’t want to face it without him.

As if mirroring her internal turmoil, the sea grew darker and darker around her. With no light from the surface able to pierce this deep, the only luminescence was provided by the strange creatures drifting through the gloomy trench and the glowing coral-like structures clustering the walls. As Lucy approached them, she could sense they were imbued with some sort of magic— was this the sea witch’s doing? She looked down into the deep, and was barely able to discern an opening in the sheer rock face before her.

Squid flitted away from her as she swam slowly into the cave. Shuddering from the cold, she ran her hands up and down her arms, feeling the goosebumps rise while she drifted into the gloom. After what seemed like forever in the gloomy tunnel, she came to a large, spherical room shining with the glowing coral, and someone hovering over a bubbling cauldron while singing a tune in a language she couldn’t understand.

“The daughter of the sea king?” the sea witch asked, turning a pair of bright purple eyes upon her. Her tail was not a tail at all, but rather the twelve tentacles of a lavender squid. She swam around the edge of the cauldron, two of her sucker-lined tentacles sliding over its rim to flick a few bubbles back into the pot. “What an honorable guess. Why have you come, my child?”

In every rendition of the story, the sea witch was cunning and sly, always wishing to manipulate every situation for her own gain. Lucy knew this, but unfortunately, she had to commit to the curse to advance the story and reunite with Gray.

“I wish to become human,” she answered, swimming slowly up to the witch. The sea witch purred, eyes narrowing into pleased slits before she began swimming around the room to grab various ingredients.

“Human? I have such a spell, but be warned—magic has a price,” she said, swimming over to a large piece of rock fashioned into a makeshift table. With her back to Lucy, she began preparing the various ingredients into a potion. “I can give you legs, but you must give me something in return—something you value immensely,” she said, looking over her shoulder with glinting eyes. “I hear you are the most beautiful singer of all the Sea King’s daughters…”

Sensing what she was leading into as well as recalling the story, Lucy replied, “Then you may take my voice.”

“What hope do you have to woo a human man with no voice?” she laughed, and Lucy gasped. “That’s right, girl,” she purred as she swam back to her holding a glass of bubbling blue liquid. “Do you think I don’t know? I see much more than you know.” She waved the glass in front of Lucy’s face, watching with amusement as she swallowed thickly in apprehension. “Do not think you’re the first to desire what a human has—a soul.” She said with eyes that glittered with cold amusement. “You have until the dawn of the third day. If you fail to make the human man yours...”

“I understand,” Lucy nodded solemnly before she could finish and then took the glass. She peered at the strange bubbling liquid, then gulped nervously. I have to do this to find Gray… I'm sure that between us we can figure out a way to break this curse and go home! With that in mind, she closed her eyes and drank the potion before she could change her mind.

It didn’t taste terrible like she expected; it went down her throat easy, reminding her of crisp, clean freshwater. However, as soon as it met her stomach, her entire body pulsed. She dropped the glass with a gasp, hands flying to her chest. Her heart pounded against her ribcage as the strange magic coursed through her veins and arteries down into her very cells. As she went to scream, no sound came out—instead, a strange golden orb floated up out of her throat, which the sea witch captured within a clamshell.

“Take her to the surface,” she ordered, and two sharks swam up from the deep. As Lucy writhed, light swirling around her golden tail, the two large fish abutted her so she could grab onto their triangular-shaped fins. They spirited her out of the cave, swimming swiftly for the surface as Lucy thrashed between them. It was painful, the feeling of the scales breaking off her tail as it split in two, and she threw her head back with a howl. Water flooded into her mouth, but with no gills to expel it, she could only choke and gag on the salty liquid.

The sharks broke the surface with her, and she hacked and coughed up the seawater she’d nearly swallowed. She leaned heavily on their sandpapery bodies while they swam as close to shore as they could without beaching themselves, leaving her to half-swim, half-crawl her way to the shadows. She collapsed as soon as her hands met the sand, half-in and half-out of the water. The naked skin of her legs burned with the new sensations, the water crashing over her legs and the sand squishing under her thighs.

“Lucy!”

She could see through the foamy water swirling in front of her nose that Gray was bounding down the beach. She reached out for him, but with no strength left, her hand only flopped uselessly into the sand. He picked it up when he fell to his knees beside her, then ripped off his white cape to bundle her naked body into it. When he brushed his hand over her leg, she let out a silent scream, and he hurriedly retracted.

“Lucy,” he sighed softly as she settled into his arms, head flopping back and chest heaving. He brushed her hair away from her face while she looked at him with tired eyes. “I’ve been looking for you every day…” he murmured, casting his gaze down her entire form. “I was hoping you wouldn’t commit to the curse…” As he looked back up at her, her consciousness was fading. She could hear voices in the background, but Gray ignored them, leaning down to press his forehead to hers.

“I won’t let you die. Not in this story or any other,” he whispered as everything faded into darkness.

The first thing Lucy became aware of was the ocean. The gentle ebb and flow of the waves rang in her ears like the sweet morning bells, rhythmic crashing in the near distance that filled Lucy with a sense of ease. She gradually realized that she was dressed in a silk nightgown and laying beneath soft cotton sheets, and when she opened her eyes, she was greeted with the bright light of the sun. She slowly sat up and drew in a breath, immediately wincing with the way her throat stung from the salt that had scratched it the previous day. She ran her hand over the front of her neck, feeling the muscles contract when she tried to speak, but no sound came out. All of this is really happening, she realized with a sigh. I’m trapped in a storybook…

“Lucy!”

Gray burst into the room with a cry of her name, followed by an unamused royal attendant. Gray immediately sat down on the bed beside her, cradling her face in his hands and pushing her sleep-tousled hair out of her face. “Are you all right?”

Lucy gave him a smile and a nod, but his mouth turned down into a frown. His hand dropped to where hers still laid against the front of her throat.

“Prince, I understand that you are grateful for this young woman for rescuing you from the storm, but I do not believe your wife-to-be would appreciate you being late for breakfast in favor of consorting with another woman,” the attendant droned, glaring at Gray from the doorway. Gray whipped around with a glare and clenched teeth.

“I already told you, I ain’t marryin’ that snake!” Gray snapped before looking back to Lucy, whose eyes were knitted in concern.

“Something’s wrong… The witch is here,” he whispered. Lucy’s eyebrows shot up to her forehead. That shouldn’t be possible! In the original version of the story, the prince was engaged to a princess of another kingdom already and would not fall in love with the mermaid. The sea witch shouldn’t play any further role than she already had! “She’s got a necklace with your voice, and she used it to bewitch the king to agree to marry us! I’m not sure what’s happening, but the story is changing.”

Lucy thought back to her interaction with the sea witch. In the original story, the only thing that would happen to the mermaid if she failed was that she would return to being a mermaid. Could her fate in this story be different?

“I confronted the witch, and she said that if the curse isn’t broken, you’ll die and turn to seafoam, Lucy!”

Though she couldn’t gasp, Lucy’s mouth still fell open in shock. What were they going to do? In the original story, the mermaid had to get the human man to fall in love with her so she could obtain a soul. But this was Gray! And if the curse was different now, what were the qualifications for breaking it?

The attendant marched up to Gray to grab him by the arm and pull him off the bed.

“My prince, we have many preparations to make for your wedding tomorrow morning. Come now, the young mistress will be taken care of and will see you this afternoon for lunch.”

Despite Gray’s very vehement protests, he was dragged away. Lucy just sat in the bed amongst the fluffy pillows and fine silks, completely at a loss with what to do. Overwhelmed by apprehension and fear, she buried her face in her hands, letting a few tears slip out of her eyes. What were they going to do? Was Lucy doomed to die in this storybook? Was Gray going to be trapped within it forever?

No, Lucy refused, steeling her nerves and wiping her tears away with the heels of her palms. I can’t give up! No matter what, we have to break this curse and escape the book!

However, this was easier said than done. With so many uncertainties, Lucy’s mind could only spin uselessly around in circles. The day came and went, leaving Lucy still ruminating on their predicament. She sat on the little bench in front of the large, arch-shaped window in her room, looking at the moon and stars gleaming beyond the panes of glass. Her hand rose to the column of her throat; it didn’t feel any different, but when she opened her mouth, she could produce no sound. It was a strange and scary feeling.

Still… Even being trapped in this askew story with not even a voice, Lucy still found herself calming as she gazed at the stars. They had always reminded her of her celestial spirits and the bond she shared with them. She could not call out to them trapped within this storybook, but she knew that they were with her nonetheless, and if push came to shove, they would find their way to her. She could never be truly alone.

Lucy nearly jumped out her skin when her bedroom door slammed open. She whirled around to see Gray running across the room. He snatched her by the wrist and all but yanked her off the small seat, making her stumble forth. Though she was voiceless, she still had air in her lungs to gasp.

“Lucy! Come with me!” he said breathlessly. His face shone pink in the low light, like he’d run all the way across the castle. When she looked at him in perplexion, he just insisted, “There’s no time to explain. Just come with me!”

She really didn’t have much choice, as he just dragged her out of the room. She stumbled clumsily after him, barefoot and in her nightgown; Gray was still in his trousers and balloony white shirt from earlier in the day. They looked like two young lovers fleeing in the night. The thought made her heart leap up into her throat and pound, pound, pound against her useless voicebox.

In a flurry, he spirited her out of the castle and into the spacious gardens spanning the front of the castle grounds. The emerald leaves of the neatly-trimmed hedges glowed with a silver sheen in the moonlight; the stone pathway seemed to soak up the light, too, to gleam pristine white. It felt like they were running on a path made of the stars themselves as Gray led her through the twisting and turning trails between hedges, trees, and flowerbeds. Finally, they arrived at the west side of the garden which faced the sea; as Lucy pulled her hand away from Gray’s to hold it to her chest while trying to catch her breath, she saw the gilded white arch interwoven with white lilies and green ivy standing against the backdrop of the glittering midnight sea.

The wedding altar, she realized, spinning on her feet. Two rows of white benches sat in the grass on either side of the pathway, the white ribbons affixed to their surfaces swaying in the breeze rolling in from the ocean. She looked at Gray in utter bewilderment, and he stepped up to her to take her hand again.

“Lucy… No matter what, I won’t let the witch get away with this.” He gave her hand a tight squeeze, and when she looked into his eyes, they shone midnight blue like the ocean stretching out on the horizon. “I don’t know why the story is changing… I don’t know what this curse is really all about… But I do know that I can save you. So that’s what I’m going to do.”

He fished something out of his pocket and held it out to her. Lucy sucked in a breath when her eyes fell to the gleaming diamond ring sitting in the middle of his palm. She quickly looked back up to him, her eyes filling with tears on reflex. Gray smiled softly, then used his free hand to gently take her left one.

“Lucy, let’s rewrite this story. If I marry you, then the witch’s plans don’t matter. We’ll let this story be what we make it… Even if we end up trapped here forever.” He slipped the diamond ring onto her left ring finger. It was cold against her skin, but in a refreshing way; heavy, weighted with the sincerity of Gray’s conviction. He stepped closer to her again, now cupping her cheek.

“Lucy Heartfilia… I, Gray Fullbuster, take you to be my wife—” he started in a gentle whisper. One would think that Lucy would be opposed to this, that she would be screaming No, it’s all too fast, but she just… didn’t. Something about this felt so right that she couldn’t find it within herself to be opposed at all, and so she just stared into Gray’s eyes, her tears of joy and amazement glittering on her lashes as they caught the starlight. “—to have and to hold, from this day forward. For better or worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do us part.”

Oh, how she wanted to repeat the vows. And it had nothing to do with escaping this cursed book.

Lucy couldn’t speak the vows like she so desperately wished. Instead, she leaned her face into her touch and gazed at him with dewy eyes. She didn’t need to speak for him to understand her. He smiled warmly, and, without pulling his gaze from hers, gently slipped the gleaming diamond ring onto the ring finger of her left hand.

“You may now kiss the bride.” Gray’s voice was husky with emotion; it sent a shiver running down her spine. Ever since they had fallen into this story, everything had been so confusing. There was just one certainty, surfacing like a rock as the tide rushed away.

Lucy loved Gray. She’s loved him for a long time now, even if she didn’t realize it. And that’s why she was already leaning forward to kiss him even before he spoke. And that’s why, when their lips finally met, it was like she was coming home. Soft as silk against her lips, his mouth melded with hers—like they were two pieces of a puzzle finally snapping into place. It felt so good that she dizzily wondered why they hadn’t been doing this for a while—his lips like honey on her own, his hand moving from her cheek to the back of her head to hold her steady, their chests pushing against one another’s with every breath.

“Lucy…” he breathed when they finally pulled apart. Lucy knew that she couldn’t say his name, but she tried anyway, her mind stilled cottony from the satisfying kiss.

“Gray…”

Their eyes both widened at the same time.

“Lucy—you spoke!” he exclaimed just as she gasped, “I spoke?!”

As she clutched onto him, hands planted on the curves of his biceps, the diamond ring gleamed almost unnaturally in the moonlight. Wait, no—it was glowing! A bright white light began to shimmer in the depths of the gem, growing bigger with each passing millisecond. It blossomed brilliantly, slowly enveloping them in its cool shimmering sheen until it swallowed them whole.

The light faded, and suddenly they were back in the client’s living room. The woman screamed from where she was curled up in a ball on the couch.

“You were—!” she spluttered, pointing at the book. “But you—then you—ohhhhh, dear…” As she groaned, she buried her face into her hands. Lucy didn’t know quite how, but they had apparently broken the curse and were back home. She went to look at Gray with joy, but then realized they were still clutching on to one another, their faces mere centimeters apart.

Lucy jerked away from him and loudly cleared her throat.

“Ah-ahem! It appears that we have solved your problem,” she said to the client, trying not to look as awkward as she felt. She couldn’t think about what just happened right now—even though it was insane. There were more pressing matters to attend to. As the woman slowly uncurled herself, Lucy sat down on the edge of the sofa beside her. “Ma’am, are you sure that this curse was placed by an ex-friend of your daughter’s?”

The woman looked at her owlishly. Her tongue flicked out to wet her lips, and then she nervously stammered, “W-well, I’m not exactly sure. I never actually saw her do anything, and she hasn’t even been around here. But she was the one who told me that the book was cursed. Now that I think of it, though… I was so mad at the time that I didn’t even notice, but she didn’t seem to be gloating about it. In fact, she seemed worried.”

“Has anyone else handled this book that you are aware of?”

“N-No… Although… My ex-husband was here not too long ago. I stepped away for just a moment to collect some of his things that I’d missed, and he was coming out of my bedroom where the book was.” Both she and Lucy came to a startling revelation at the same time. The woman shot up like a rod, her eyes huge, and cried, “ That girl… Her parents are his neighbors! That’s how she was friends with my daughter! You think she actually overheard that he cursed it?!”

“I think he may have,” Lucy nodded. She glanced at Gray, who was just watching the entire exchange with his arms crossed. “It was a very complex curse. In fact, if Gray hadn’t been transported into the book with me, I very well would have died.”

The woman buried her face into her hands with a mournful sob.

“I should have known… Our divorce was very messy… I got custody of our daughter, but he is so resentful for that. I want to have a good relationship for our daughter’s sake, but he… he…” she trailed off as she began to weep.

“Don’t worry, ma’am,” Gray said, stepping forward. “We will report this to the proper authorities, and until the matter is resolved, we will make sure a Fairy Tail member is stationed here to ensure you and your daughter’s safety.”

They stayed with the woman for a while until the local authorities had arrived. Lucy made sure to check and re-check the book to ensure that it was curse-free and no harm could come to the little girl. After she was satisfied, she and Gray set out back for Fairy Tail.

It wasn’t until she was halfway there that she realized the diamond ring was still on her finger.

“What the—?” she cried, stopping in the middle of walking. Gray turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow, which traveled further up his forehead when she showed him the ring.

“Well, whadaya know.” The smirk dancing over his lips was downright devilish. Heat rushed to Lucy’s cheeks, only growing hotter when he stepped close to her. He stared down at the ring, the light refracting off its surface dancing in his deep blue eyes. “Looks like I’ve got myself a little wife.”

“Wh-what?!” she sputtered. “Gray, come on—that was just pretend!”

“Was it?” His eyes shot up to meet hers, and it was like an electric current zapped out of them, making her entire body go rigid. “Come on, Lucy, you aren’t stupid. You know how that curse got broken.” He stepped closer again, close enough for his breath to ghost over her lips as he brought his close. “True love’s kiss, right?”

A hard lump formed in Lucy’s throat, and though she tried to swallow it, she couldn’t; it just bobbed in her throat, thick and suffocating. Gray continued to smirk, flashing his teeth in the moonlight, as he traced the tip of his finger over her jawline. “I meant those vows, Lucy. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you sooner…” His gaze dropped down to his feet, guilt darkening his eyes. “I… I find it so easy to love you, but so hard to love myself. I wanted to wait until I felt worthy of you… but I… I also felt like that was unattainable. But when I was faced with the prospect of you dying, I… I just…”

“Oh, Gray…” Lucy whispered as he trailed off. She gently put her finger under his chin, lifting his face to look at her once more. Her heart broke at the sorrow in his eyes. She moved her hand over his cheek, feeling the slight stubble that had grown during their time in the book. “It’s okay. I know now… and that’s all that matters.”

“You mean…?” It was almost childlike, the way his expression flooded with hope. It made Lucy giggle.

“Yes, Gray. I love you too.”

Gray smiled at that. He tilted his head to the side, taking a moment to just admire her. It was a little embarrassing, just standing there while his gaze slowly roved over her face—like he was trying to commit everything to memory. And as soon as he had, he closed the distance between them to claim her lips once more.

And once more, they kissed passionately under the moonlight. There were still an infinite number of things Lucy didn’t know and probably never would know. But she knew one thing, and that was that she loved Gray.

That was enough.

#graylu #gray x lucy #lucy x gray #lucy heartfilia #gray fullbuster #fairy tail

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embracedthevoid · 3 years

Note

hey here’s another missing moment if no one has asked this yet!

how exactly did wilhelm get into a club fight in the first place? we all know that he’s not usually aggressive (even when he’s high and drunk off his ass) so what pissed him off so much??

(i always headcanon it being some brand of homophobia but interested to see what u think!!)

Hello friend! I'm finally getting around to posting this, so yay! Personally, I don't think it was about anything homophobic, so I went a different route. Also, after discussing it with a few people, I don't think Wilhelm was intentionally aggressive, because you're right, it is pretty OOC for him. To me, I think the whole fight was just an unfortunate mixture of pushing and shoving and loudness that everything just became an anxiety-inducing mess for Wilhelm, so he was working on instinct rather than reason. With that said, I would also love to see your take on this scene... so if you decided to fill in the blanks with your own version thennn....👀

Not so lucky

Word Count: 736 Rated: Teen and up Link to ao3

Normally, Wilhelm can manage his way out of a situation like this, and by manage, he means he slips away before it escalates. This time, however, Wilhelm isn't so lucky.

"Hey," Wilhelm hears a voice boom from behind him, "my girlfriend was talking to you!" The guy sounds pissed, which is fair. Wilhelm did just ignore them both, barely glancing in their direction.

There's a hand tugging at Wilhelm's jacket, yanking him back. Wilhelm's chest tightens between panic and irritation as he shakes his arm free, twisting it out of the stranger's grip and making it down the last few steps.

"Can I take a picture, please?" The girl says, her voice shrill enough to cut through the booming music.

Wilhelm ignores her again, hoping and praying that they'll take the hint. Wishing that for once in his life, he could just enjoy a party without getting singled out and made into a photo op.

"Hey! What the fuck?" The same guy angrily shouts, and Wilhelm tries not to look back, gathering with his friends on the lower level. "I'm talking to you," The voice threatens again, so Wilhelm finally turns around and–

Well, this can't be good.

One of Wilhelm's friends (Lukas) tries to step forward, telling the guy to back off, but it does nothing to tame the tense air growing around them. The guy's girlfriend follows behind nervously, trying to pull him back but failing miserably. "Take a picture with my fucking girlfriend." He threatens, "What? Do you think you're better than us? That she's not worth it? Fuck that!" The guy spits.

Wilhelm doesn't have a chance to defend his actions because chaos builds around him in seconds, and suddenly he's being pulled in every direction. Someone is gripping the front of his shirt as he's being rattled around like a doll. He feels someone trip behind him and pushes Wilhelm forward. As he stumbles to catch himself, his forehead connects square with the guy who had been yelling down his neck earlier, and it fucking hurts.

A flash of black radiates from the font of Wilhelm's skull, vibrating through to his spine. He can feel it in his jaw, behind his eyes, under his skin. The blow is disorienting. Wilhelm tries to straighten himself, unsure of his surroundings, still being shoved left and right. Someone is pushing close in front of him, and Wilhelm tries to step back to shove them off and find his balance again, but before he can, there's a hard blow just under his eye.

If he thought the headbutt was painful, this is excruciating.

Wilhelm nearly hits the floor from the force, but he manages to only tumble into the legs of a group of people behind him. He catches his hand on the sticky floor and startles when a hand grips his shoulder. He's about to spin back and wind his fist (not that he actually knows how to throw a punch or would even follow through with it), but he thankfully stops himself when he realizes it's Lukas who's hulling him up and dragging him to the top of the stairs and out of the club.

Wilhelm's stomach sinks with disappointment when they stumble through the doors and into the damp outside air. He didn't even make it five minutes without his position ruining the evening. Not only have things gone horrible for Wilhelm, but also for Lukas, the one friend kind enough to drag his idiotic ass out of there, and plop him on the curb.

"I'm sorry," Wilhelm croaks, feeling something thick and heavy on his cheek. He reaches to touch it, and something warm coats his fingers. Blood.

"Don't be sorry. That guy was a jerk." His friend says with a mild shrug, and types something into his phone, then wraps his hand under Wilhelm's elbow to help him back to his feet.

"Where are we going?" Wilhelm asks with a panicked edge. He only barely managed to sneak here, claiming he was staying the night at Josh's house, the only friend Wilhelm's mother approves of, and Josh is, of course, not here.

"I called my dads. They said you can stay the night at mine." Lukas explains, sighing as he glances down at his phone, shivering as it begins to rain.

"Thank you," Wilhelm mumbles, hating everything about his life. "I appreciate it."

His mom is going to kill him.

#young royals #yr fanfiction #wilhelm yr #young royals fanfic #young royals fanfiction #yr missing moments #yr #Wilhelm #prince wilhelm

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caramel-p · 3 years

Text

怪人 - Kaijin/Phantom - Miku Symphony

Translated English lyrics (roughly done, there are parts that may have mistakes/parts that I couldn't make sense of)

Legend: K - Kaito, M - Meiko, and the CVs have their name listed

I personally feel like some line distribution didn't match? like when Meiko sings "I was living in greed because I was loathed and hated", I feel like it should've been Kaito's line, but I guess it's Meiko's to balance out the distribution.

Anyways! here <3 my Japanese skills aren't really like, anything, so there may be inaccuracies

(VERSE 1)

K: How does it feel when I come so often?

M: Unpleasant monsters

K: A forever-beautiful appearance

M: Where am I? Who are you?

(PRECHORUS 1)

K: A constant place of cheers; Emotional waves (???)

Miku: To save the princess trapped in the depths of a desolate waterway

K: The impatient singing voice you hear is me

M: I kept singing with the shaky voice of a person who wanted to return home

K: The opening staccato bursts

(CHORUS 1)

The time I spent with you who happily smiled behind the mask

A joker waves his hand, with tears and frowns

M: I have a home to return to

K: I won’t let you go

M: I’ll keep the vow I made

K: Do you promise?

(VERSE 2)

K: Alone, in this place hidden from the sun

M: With facial features that were deformed

K: I grew up without knowing love

M: The end of sadness (????)

(PRECHORUS 2)

K: Lost in loneliness all these years

M: I was living with greed because I was loathed and hated

K: Destiny is cruelly carved

Luka: Underground waterways were built for people like you who aren’t needed

K: You can’t see what’s true from a foggy perspective

(CHORUS 2)

The long-awaited time with you, smiling behind the mask

A joker who sheds his tears and clasps his forehead in his hands

M: Don’t drown in sadness

K: I don’t understand

M: To the poor you,

K: I promise to meet

(BRIDGE)

K: I love you; your voice and hair and eyes

K: Embrace it all. This is your destiny

(LAST CHORUSES)

K: A tyrant who dances miserably in prison, hoping for the worst

K: What is the true happiness that I kept away without realising it?

The skin is decaying and the eyes are concaved

As the tears fall down, a Joker reaches out for pity

Rin: No one can measure the depths of the mask

Len: After the curtain falls, nobody knows

#kaito #meiko #miku symphony #kaijin #phantom #i hope the people on the kaimei tumblr see this because i really wanna geek out about kaijin to someone #Spotify

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mc-lukanette · 3 years

Note

Now that Wishmaker is out, how would you rewrite that chaos? The Lukanette need is strong.

"Did anyone else see me?" Marinette asked, her hands shaking as she put on the mask she'd made with her newly-given knitting powers. They were sitting down in a shadowed alley, free from anyone's curious eyes.

"No," Viperion replied, his voice breathless from the revelations he was having rather than the fly to their hiding spot. "Just...just me." He glanced down at his wrist, noting the unticked snake bangle. "...I'm sorry."

"Huh?" Marinette's gaze darted over to him, then to his miraculous. A flicker of understanding passed over her expression as she whispered a small, "Oh."

Guilt tore up his stomach, even knowing deep down that it wasn't his fault - the akuma had surprised them, giving no time for him to use his power - but he'd been brought in to use Second Chance in the first place, and yet...

Marinette's hand fell upon his wrist, making him look up. She smiled at him, her eyes reassuring.

"It's okay," she said, though her voice wavered. "It was only you who saw my face, and even if you'd used Second Chance, you'd still know anyway."

He could tell that she was still processing, but let the subject go for now and smiled back. There were more important matters to attend to.

They must've been on the same wavelength too, as Marinette pulled away and sighed, thinking aloud, "I have to figure a way to be Ladybug again. The akuma could just be destroyed, but I need Miraculous Ladybug to turn everyone back to normal."

Viperion nodded, briefly giving her a once-over. Her power and wings were useful, but unfortunately didn't help them with the current situation.

It was also distractingly cute, and he couldn't fight that way.

"Wishmaker said that he wanted people to live out their childhood dream," he murmured in thought.

Marinette brought a hand to her face, pinching her cheek in contemplation. "Maybe...maybe if I live it out then, I'll change back?" She considered it a moment longer, then groaned and stood up, starting to pace around the small area they were in. "But we don't have that kind of time! Yeah, my earrings aren't here so Shadow Moth can't make a wish, and I could definitely make enough of a living with my new knitting powers, but that would take years, and—"

Suddenly, she stopped and looked over at him, catching Viperion briefly off-guard since he hadn't said anything. Her eyes scanned him up and down, mental gears turning in her head even if he couldn't tell what she was thinking.

"...That's it!" she gasped, hurrying over to him. She knelt down, clasping his hand in both of hers as she rambled, "Maybe I just need to live out my dream to the fullest!"

He blinked in confusion, unsure of where she was going with this.

"Part of my dream was to eventually make a wedding dress and tuxedo for me and my future husband!" she exclaimed. "If I do that, I might turn back into Ladybug!"

"Ah—" He shut his mouth before anything else could come out. He couldn't deny that it was a solid plan, but he wanted to tread carefully given his feelings, not wanting to make her feel awkward. "That's a great idea." He tried to grin reassuringly, though it came off a little crooked. "Should I go find Adrien?"

"What?" She shook her head. "No, it has to be you!"

He gaped, his heart doing confused flips in his chest. "Why?"

"The guy I always dreamed of marrying when I was little," she began, eyes practically sparkling, "he was exactly like you!"

— — — — —

Marinette hadn't exactly caught onto what she'd said until it already left her mouth, but the way Viperion's face turned red had definitely given it away. Things had gone quiet after the fact, with him sitting a couple meters away while she knitted away at the tuxedo; the tuxedo for him.

She found herself blushing faintly at the thought and immediately forced it down, reminding herself that she didn't love Luka, but Adrien. They were made for each other, like everyone said, and she—

She closed her eyes and took in a steady breath, knowing that she was getting off track. Things were complicated enough with all her thoughts and fears about the future, especially now that Viperion knew her identity.

Though, strangely enough, she didn't feel as nervous about it as she thought she would've.

Her gaze darted over to Viperion, who was keeping lookout and patiently waiting for her to finish with her knitting. He thankfully didn't seem closed off from her at all, and it just served as a reminder as to how mature he was.

Without thinking, she found herself speaking up. "M...my parents..."

He looked over at her, his senses still apparently tuned for her despite his keeping watch. She averted her gaze to the knitting needles working their literal magic into the tuxedo.

"We saw a lot of movies where the girl gets the prince in the end, so they made sure to teach me that love wasn't about money or power or fame or anything like that." She bit her bottom lip, Adrien briefly flashing to mind. "So, I imagined me as the knitting fairy, and I'd make clothes for the whole world until I found him." She peeked up at him. "Someone who wouldn't laugh when I fell on my face. Someone who'd be there for me and think of me first. Someone who wouldn't scold me for everything I did or make me feel bad for it. Someone who'd see more than just clumsy, nervous Marinette."

As much as it hurt to admit, the description didn't fit Adrien. Unless they found each other by coincidence - something that actually happened today, oddly enough - he didn't go out of his way to spend time with her; it was her putting in the effort.

"And..." She trailed off momentarily, lost in her thoughts. "after we fell in love, I'd give up my powers and live happily ever after with him, because we didn't need powers to be happy and it wasn't my powers he fell in love with in the first place."

She'd finished the tuxedo at that point, courtesy of her knitting powers, but her hands dropped to her lap afterward, not making any further movements as her thoughts took over.

Out of the corner of her vision, she saw Viperion take a quick look outside the alley, then get up to move over to her. He sat next to her, picking up one of her hands and letting it rest in his palm.

"I think your dream is really beautiful," he told her gently.

She scoffed, blushing in embarrassment at what must've been fake praise. "Chat made fun of me wanting to be the knitting fairy."

"He was wrong," he retorted immediately. "Your dream might not be realistic, but that doesn't make it any less nice, and there's nothing wrong with dreaming of the perfect guy."

She met his gaze, the softness in them having not lessened even since their break-up, and found the strength to start working on the dress. Being with Luka - dating or otherwise - had always been so easy, excluding all the factors outside of just them being them. She could vaguely imagine her younger self clinging to Luka, claiming him as hers and insisting that he marry her when they grew up.

But things weren't that easy. Nothing was. Marinette had spent her whole life fighting for what she wanted, needing to prove herself to people in order to be accepted.

Fighting for years to smile against Chloe's bullying, because no one would do anything about it. Fighting to be acknowledged by her parents as someone who could do things and didn't need their protection. Fighting against herself to be the one who didn't make all the mistakes or have to be the one to apologize in the end.

After becoming Ladybug, her future became even cloudier and the fighting continued. Waking up in the morning was even harder thanks to late-night patrols, getting through tests seemed impossible due to having less time for studying, and even maintaining a romantic relationship carried the struggle of not being able to tell them her identity.

Marinette stared at the shimmering pink and white fabric beneath her fingertips, it shaping and forming to her will. The occasional sparkle or flash from a beam of sunlight that happened to shine through reminded her of the day at the TV station, where Luka had confessed and she could see only him for just a moment.

"I'm sorry."

Viperion hummed in confusion, raising a brow at her.

"I made everything complicated for you—us," she explained. "All the time, ever since we met. I even got you akumatized, twice."

"Twi—" He blinked rapidly, then leaned closer. His hand came in contact with her cheek as he directed her gaze back to him. "You mean Silencer? How was that your fault?"

"I challenged Bob Roth, and when he grabbed me, you got upset. It pushed you over to the edge."

"You were defending me and my music," he argued, a sternness in his tone that wasn't there before as he put his hand to his chest, "and my emotions are my own. I'm the one who gave into Hawk Moth, not you."

"But..." She sighed, conflicted. "Even later, I kept my identity from you when we were dating. I made us both miserable because of it. I was so upset that I ended up yelling at my friends and they all got akumatized, and then I went and gave my identity to Alya anyway."

His eyes widened for a fraction of a second, though he quickly schooled his expression for reasons she didn't know. His gaze strayed momentarily before he looked back at her, asking, "Would you be upset at me for feeling happy for a moment, knowing that you were just as miserable as I was?"

"W-what?" She shook her head; if anything, knowing that he'd also been miserable made her happy as well, probably in the same way as it was for him. It meant that they both cared about it. "No! Not at all!"

"Then I don't blame you for your emotions either."

She pouted at him, but he merely smiled in response. She knew this wasn't a matter he was going to budge on, but it was difficult for her to understand when she was so commonly blamed for things. That was Luka though, she supposed, always forgiving and able to see through her faults.

She remembered her dream husband again and tried to act like her full focus was on the dress so as to not give her thoughts away. She'd only drawn the unnamed man once or twice, and it was just occurring to her that he had black hair and blue eyes as well. Having not understood the concept of kids looking like their parents in their own way at the time, the child version of her had thought it'd be "fair," because then their children would look like both of them no matter what. It was strange, just how much the "simple" version of her love ideals lined up with the boy sitting in front of her now, even with his temporarily green eyes.

Friendship had become something very precious to her ever since the day she'd gotten her miraculous, maybe even more than love itself. Despite the complications and their brief time dating, she was friends with Luka above all else. No matter what happened in regards to the romantic aspects of their relationship, their friendship remained unchanged, like they really would be friends even if they had the worst break-up in the history of Paris. It was comfortable, to the point where she felt embarrassed for ever avoiding him in the first place.

She was reminded yet again of another stark contrast with Adrien. She hadn't been scared of starting anything with Luka, yet Adrien was a constant cloud of dread above her head, the fear of being rejected or being made fun of holding her back from doing what she wanted.

If her child self could see her now, she'd be confused. Marinette could hear her now, asking why her love - or at least, what she believed to be love - caused her so much stress. That was never what she'd wanted; in fact, it had been the exact opposite. Crushing on Adrien had done nothing but humiliate her, the little girl inside her covering her eyes from the sight. Her time with Luka, on the other hand...

"It looks beautiful."

Marinette jerked her head up to see Viperion's approving gaze, then looked down to the wedding dress in her lap. It was finished, pink with flashes of white and blacks; exactly the kind of dress she would've wanted when she was younger, though obviously with an older touch.

"Thank you," she hurried to say when she realized that she hadn't responded to him. He chuckled in reply, though it was good-natured.

He reached for the tuxedo she'd set aside, but stopped halfway as if realizing something. He looked to her, then the dress, then back to her, asking carefully, "Do you want me to keep watch while we put these on?"

It took her a moment to realize what he meant; that he - wearing a bodysuit - could easily slip on the clothes over it, but she didn't have that sort of luxury due to her dress. She managed to summon enough of her inner Ladybug to focus on the importance of the task over the potential embarrassment, giving him an appreciative nod.

She trusted him not to look.

As she went to the darkest parts of the alley to change, Viperion heading in the opposite direction, her mind drifted back to the past again. The little journey there, even if it'd been unwilling on her part courtesy of the akuma, had been a nice change from constantly worrying over her future. As important as it was to focus on what she wanted to do and plan accordingly, the past was equally as important. It shaped her into who she was now and offered insight on herself that she couldn't have gotten otherwise.

"...Lu—I mean, Viperion?" she called just as she finished putting on the wedding dress.

"Yeah?"

She turned to face him, then giggled when noticing that he still had his back turned to her. "You can look now."

He hesitated, then slowly shifted to face her. He was mostly dressed, but was in the process of buttoning up the tuxedo, his hands fumbling with one of the buttons as he took her in.

She approached, gently brushing his hands aside as she started taking care of the few remaining buttons. Not wanting to delay talking to him like before, she figured now was the best time as any to say what was on her mind.

"I still don't know what I want for my future. I feel like a lot of doors are opening and closing every day, and whenever I want to try one, there just ends up being more doors, or it's already closed when I get there. There are too many possibilities and I keep being afraid that I'll trip on the one I really want to go to." Her gaze left the button she was holding so she could meet his eyes. "I just know that I really want you to be there for all of it... i-if that's what you want." Wanting to make sure instead of presuming like she tended to do, she asked cautiously, "Do you?"

His face didn't show a visible reaction, but she heard the slight sound of him swallowing, synced up with a single blink. Afterward, he absolutely beamed at her, the smile more blinding than the light being cast against his back.

"I do," he replied,

In time with his words, the final button was slipped into place. Marinette felt a warm sensation run through her body, starting from her feet and then making her shudder as it moved its way up to her head. Her body was turning white, just as before when Wishmaker first shot her, though Viperion's tuxedo had joined as well.

There was a flash between them, and she found herself back as normal, wingless Marinette when it faded.

Viperion, now lacking what she'd made for him, still looked just as happy to see her.

"I-I did it!" she gasped, genuinely surprised that it worked. "We did it!"

She threw her hands up in the air in celebration, but snapped back to reality as she remembered that she still needed to turn back into Ladybug and take care of Wishmaker. She opened her purse, easing as she saw Tikki already munching away on a macaron.

"Marinette?"

She looked back up at Viperion, noticing that he still had something to say. "Yes?"

"I might not be able to make enough sense of your inner music to tell you what you'll want, but I don't think you have anything to worry about. I know that whatever you decide to do is going to be as extraordinary as you are."

She stifled a squeak, blushing at the sudden compliment and thankful that Tikki was still chewing the last bits of the macaron. "A-ah, thank you. You too—with the extraordinary thing, not your inner music, because I can't hear that even though I'm sure it's really amazing!"

Had it been anyone else, she might've prayed for a hole to swallow her, but it was impossible to feel weird when he smiled at her the way he did.

Once Tikki had gotten her fill, Marinette transformed and they began to leave the alley together, though Ladybug stopped partway as she remembered something; something she'd done many times before and felt it time to get back to doing.

Viperion raised a brow at her sudden stopping, then stiffened when she leaned towards him and kissed his cheek. She flashed him a smile, noting silently that she missed these little exchanges between them, then leaped away to head back to where Wishmaker was likely to be. Viperion followed suit, but a split second behind his usual speed.

She was sure he'd be smiling back if she looked, but she didn't have to; they were connected, maybe not by some sort of magic thread or cosmic force, but by them and the relationship she hoped that they would continue to build in the future.

And whenever they got back to the fight, just in time to see Chat Noir allow himself to be hit by Wishmaker's attack, a few more doors would close and her future would start to look a little different than what she'd considered that morning.

Not necessarily in a bad way either.

#type: story #story: oneshot #episode: Wishmaker #Flower Arrangement Shipping #Pro LukaMari #Vipernette #Viperbug #ViperFairy

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mcheang · 4 years

Note

Lila doesn't know that Luka is Juleka's brother so she tries claiming that he is a delinquent and a bad influence on Marinette.

Gossip report

One day when Lila was leaving school, pondering on how to steal Adrien from Kagami, she spotted Marinette talking to a boy with blue hair and a guitar.

He was obviously older and definitely cute.

Nearby two girls were whispering about how lucky Marinette was to have this senior student asking her out.

Well, Lila certainly hates it when the spotlight isn’t on her.

Later that day, while hanging out with the girls (because Marinette was definitely out on a date), Lila tried to be the one to start the gossip chain.

Lila: hey girls, I don’t want to alarm anyone but do you think Marinette will be fine with Adrien off the market?

The girls exchanged shrugs. “She’ll be fine. She’ll move on.”

Lila feigned concern. “That’s what i am worried about. I think Marinette is so heartbroken, she’ll give her heart to anyone who gives her the time of day. I just saw her after school talking to some high school dropout.”

Pause.

Juleka: what did he look like?

Lila: he had blue hair, rode a bike (let them think it’s a motorcycle) and wore grungy clothes. *gasp*

Alix: and what makes you think he’s a bad influence?

Lila saw her pink hair and quickly backtracked on looks. “I could tell by his face. He looks so smug, arrogant and sneaky. The kind of boy you see smoking and dealing with drugs.”

Juleka: I see...

Lila: so you see, we must interfere on Marinette’s behalf, before his claws are in too deep.

Or at least they will because everyone knows Marinette will never listen to Lila.

Juleka was using her phone and at last found an image of Luka, alone at one of his favorite rock concerts. The background was dim and he was making faces for the camera.

Juleka: was this the boy you saw?

Lila: that’s him! What do you girls think? Delinquent or what?

Mylène: i think you should give him a chance. Don’t be deceived by appearances.

Lila: trust me! I’m a good judge of character. This boy is bad news. He’s the type of guy who ends up in jail and drunk.

Rose decided to intervene. “He’s also Juleka’s brother.”

Oh....

Alya: maybe you should check your facts before you go spreading rumors.

Lila’s brain: hypocrite!

Lila: I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend. I just got so worried for Marinette.

Mylene: we understand Lila. But Luka’s a genuinely sweet boy.

Rose: all the girls at his school like him

Alix: he’s a real artist, in a musical way

Alya: he’s a member of Kitty Section and the songwriter of their songs

Juleka: and he’s a great judge of character. If he doesn’t like somebody, we don’t like him. It’s a band thing.

Lila sweatdropped. “Oh. Well I can’t wait to make his acquaintance and get to know him better.” Maybe she could make Marinette look bad to him and he could tell Kitty Section?

Alya: no worries. Luka’s taking Marinette back here for guitar lessons

Lila: great (at this line, even I can’t tell if she is sincere or not)

Luka and Marinette arrived on his bike. His travel worn jacket and ripped jeans hardly a cause for alarm. Beneath his bright blue hair were darker, soulful eyes.

The moment they stepped through the door and saw Lila, Marinette predictably scowled and Luka surprisingly flinched.

Before Lila could start charming him, Juleka beat her to it with a request to help him keep his bicycle. (As if. Their boat was cluttered and he could have dumped his bike anywhere.)

The moment they were alone, sister asked brother. “What was her music?”

Luka winced. “Loud. Very loud. Like fire alarm loud that you can’t hear anything else.”

Juleka: she sounded like a fire alarm?

Luka: no, she sounded like screechy violins. Like a novice attempting to be Mozart on her first try, and in vain.

Juleka nodded, worry wrinkling her brow. “I understand.”

Juleka headed back to the group and clapped her hands. “So sorry everyone. But it’s time for a band meeting. So everyone who isn’t Kitty Section, I’m sorry but you’ll have to leave soon.”

Alix: no worries. I can meet up with Nathaniel at the museum.

Alya: and I have to be at a date with Nino anyway.

Mylène: I’ll go call Ivan over.

Lila frowned, correctly assuming Luka didn’t like her and told Juleka. “Is it because of me? Does Luka doesn’t like me?” Cue crocodile tears.

Juleka quickly reassured her. “No. No. He just isn’t used to Italian music, and he’s been very cautious about creating music since Bob Roth. So only band members are allowed.”

Lila: but why isn’t Marinette leaving with us?

Marinette: i have to see them to perform to think of what costumes i have to design for them.

Lila’s brain: darn, she has a legit excuse.

Lila: please, can’t I stay?

This time it was Rose who spoke. Kindly, but firmly. “Sorry Lila. But this is strictly band business. Besides, aren’t you meeting with the president’s daughter online soon? To discuss charity options?”

Lila hid her rage. “Right. Thanks for reminding me.”

As Lila expected, and to Marinette’s surprise, for the rest of the afternoon, Kitty Section warned the rest of their class not to trust Lila. Alix and Alya were already suspicious about her since she tried to malign Luka, and his reaction just confirmed it.

Alya finally fact checked her work and took down Lila’s interview, apologising for posting false information.

Nino told Adrien, who already knew. Nino warned Adrien to tell the truth next time because tabloid gossip is different from deceiving friends.

The next day at school, Lila didn’t bother to show. When Caline reported she was ill, the class finally told her she was a liar and is probably lying now.

Caline: do you have proof?

Alya: yes! And if she’s been lying about Ali, she’s been skipping school for months.

Caline finally became serious. “Well then I shall have to contact her mother.”

Alya smirked. “As Vice President I already sent her an email (double checking the embassy website) asking for confirmation if her daughter had really been in Achu for months. Because after her lie about being Ladybug’s best friend (I attached the video link) and her claims of being Prince’s Ali’s buddy, I am skeptical of her claim to be in Achu for all that time.”

Caline’s frowned deepened.

But as it turns out, Caline needn’t have called Mrs Rossi because she dragged her daughter to school to see the principal after she opened her company email and saw the video. Her colleagues told her what was up and even how her own daughter had been akumatized more than once.

It’s a shame they didn’t get to see the scolding happen. But Mrs Rossi forced Lila to tell the whole class the truth. As Lila had been missing so many classes, Kim pointed out there was no way she could graduate unless she took summer school and make up classes.

Lila protested she already saw the online video lessons.

But Mrs Rossi corrected that Lila wasn’t just going to graduate, she had been expelled for tampering with official documents.

Lila sulked and accepted her fate.

Mrs Rossi reminded her daughter that it was worse than she thought because no school would accept a pathological liar with a record for truancy except the ones prepared for such misbehaving cases.

Alix snorted. “Karma! She called Luka bad news and now she’s heading for a school for troubled kids.”

Indeed, Lila’s new school life was miserable. She couldn’t skip without someone finding her and dragging her back to a class that would laugh at her and an unsympathetic teacher. And where everyone knew of her condition, nobody believed anything she said. Her mother won’t even believe her when she reports she is being bullied. Not when the teacher didn’t think calling Lila a liar is bullying, especially when she keeps coming into class with fake doctor notes, painted blood, self-inflicted scratches, and loose bandages. Seriously, bullying is seriously monitored. Beyond the name calling, nobody actually harms Lila because she always tries to harm herself anyway.

She is like the class jester, giving them a free show. And the punishments for actual bullying are so severe that nobody dares do it.

#miraculous ladybug fanfic #miraculous ladybug fic #ml fanfic #ml fanfiction #ml fic #miraculous ladybug fanfiction #Lila salt #ml salt fic #Lila karma #lila gets exposed #lila is exposed #post miracle queen

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somanyfuckedupiftruebooks · 2 years

Text

JonMartin Week 2022

Day 2: I’ll Carry You/Chronic Pain

Read it on AO3 here!

(I decided to go with a daemon AU for this prompt lads. Might want to give this story a miss if spiders, particularly touching and holding spiders, is squicky for you.)

The final tape Martin left for him hadn’t even finished playing before Jon was sprinting out of the Archives, Kavi flying as fast as she could to keep up with him. As he ran, he tried not to think about the last desperate dash he had made from his office to Martin’s, when he had asked Martin to leave the Institute with him and Martin had mocked him and refused. The room had felt so cold then.

It was colder now, as Jon flung the door open and stopped in the doorway. Cold and empty, just as Jon had known it would be. All along he had known that this was pointless. Martin had gone with Peter Lukas, leaving nothing behind but that final tape–

No, not just that. Kavi had spotted it before Jon had. She flew straight past him and across to Martin's desk, landing next to the tiny quivering shape there.

Jon's breath caught. Taśma. Martin's daemon, her many legs hunched into a miserable ball.

The sight of her should have filled Jon with hope, but instead all he felt was awful, crawling dread. As the two daemons whispered to each other on the desk, he frantically scanned the small room, trying to convince himself that Taśma's presence meant that Martin must also be here somewhere. Hidden, perhaps, in a fog that Jon's Sight couldn't pierce but still here, still within Jon's reach. He must be, because the alternative was too awful to consider. Because if Taśma was here and Martin wasn't, then that would mean…

'...he left me,' Taśma was saying, her small voice wet with hopeless misery. 'That awful man told him that he had to be alone, so he left me behind.'

Jon slumped against the doorframe. So. There it was. Martin was gone… gone far beyond anything Jon could bring him back from.

He'd been afraid of this ever since the first time he'd seen Peter Lukas in the Institute. Even without the Eye's interference, Jon could see that there was something terribly wrong with the man.

Many people had small, secretive daemons who didn't immediately show themselves. Kavi's favourite resting spot was just below Jon's ear, hidden from sight by the curtain of his hair. Taśma certainly seemed to prefer hiding inside Martin's sleeves or under his collar, at least whenever Jon was around.

But it had been obvious at a glance that Peter Lukas was not one of these people. There was something unsettling about him, as though his very presence in a room was an abomination. The simple, sickening truth of the matter was that Peter Lukas had no daemon, and as Jon crossed Martin's office and sank numbly down into his desk chair, he could see why that was the case.

Taśma was beginning to crumble into dust. Her eight long legs, striped with lurid yellow, were curled so tightly around herself that if she were a normal spider Jon would have assumed she was already dead. Her bright warning stripes were disintegrating into a gentle gold and falling, slowly and terribly, onto the desktop.

Jon had seen daemons die before. The memory of Mike Crew's scarred falcon exploding into a cloud of golden dust was one of a growing number of horrors that Jon would never forget. But it was nothing like this. Even in his most dire worries over Martin, Jon had never imagined that he could do something like this. He had not even known that it was possible to separate from a daemon, and had certainly not imagined that it might be possible for a person to survive their daemon's death, as Peter Lukas obviously once had.

The thought of existing like that was too terrible to bear alone. Jon reached out to Kavi, who was huddled as close to Taśma as she could tolerate, and stroked a gentle finger down her wing. She had once been patterned with subtle brown eyes, but ever since they had awoken from their coma, the eyes on her wings were marked out with a venomous green.

Her wings stirred at Jon's touch, then, to his great surprise, she crawled away from his hand and towards Taśma. His moth daemon's fear of spiders had always been even greater than Jon's own, and even when Jon and Martin had clung tightly to each other through the terror of Jane Prentiss's seige, their two daemons had stayed as far away from each other as they possibly could.

No longer apparently. Kavi hesitated for one final, shuddering second before pressing the length of her abdomen against Taśma's huddled form and spreading her wings out to rest gently on top of the spider. Hidden beneath the soft moth wings covering her like a blanket, Taśma gave a wretched little sob.

'It's not too late,' Kavi said, 'we're going to go after him. We'll find him, and bring you two back together again.'

'I can't,' Taśma said, so softly that even in the otherwise silent room Jon had to lean down to hear her. 'He told me not to follow him.'

'He told us the same thing,' Jon said grimly. 'But we're not going to let that stop us.'

'Come with us,' Kavi urged.

'I can't…' Taśma said hopelessly. 'I can't move…'

Kavi and Jon shared a dark look. That much was obvious. There was only one solution.

This was going to be bad. Jon struggled with touch at the best of times, but to break the Taboo with a spider, of all the possible daemons…

The red door. Opening. And reaching out from inside…

After taking a long, deep breath to steel himself, and a moment to push down the coiling revulsion in his gut at the thought of what he was about to do, Jon slowly and deliberately placed his hand, palm up, next to Taśma.

'It's okay,' Jon said, 'I'll carry you.'

'No!' Taśma cried. 'You can't!'

'I know,' Jon said, trying very hard to keep his voice calm and level. Kavi's wings fluttered anxiously. 'Normally I wouldn't offer without Martin's consent in addition to your own, but given our current circumstances I really think–'

'It's not the Taboo,' Taśma said. 'You hate me, Jon.'

'No I don't!'

The words came from Jon so suddenly and fiercely that he had no time to consider whether they were true or not. But somewhat to his own surprise, he found that they were. There was a time, certainly, when the sight of Taśma crawling across the surface of one of Martin's jumpers had been enough to make Jon recoil in terror and disgust, but that time had passed so long ago that Jon couldn't even say exactly when it had happened.

'Don't lie,' Taśma was saying, her small voice becoming stronger, but sharper with this new source of hurt. 'We listened to the tapes, all of them, after the Unknowing. We heard the things you said about us, Jon. About me. And we heard… we heard your statement…'

Jon screwed his eyes shut. Saw the red door, as clearly as he saw it as a child. Heard the knock. It is polite to knock.

He opened his eyes.

'We're sorry, Taśma,' Kavi was saying, but at a look from Jon she fell silent. Jon curled his fingers to her, and she crawled away from the little spider, settling on Jon's wrist to wait.

'I do not hate you,' he said firmly, forcing conviction into every word. 'Taśma, I… I love Martin. I need him…'

'Go save him then,' Taśma said. 'I bet you'll love him even better without me.'

'No, I won't,' Jon said. 'You're part of him, part of each other, I could never–'

'Of course you could,' Taśma said bitterly. 'I can see it in you, even now. You can barely stand the sight of me.'

Jon shut his eyes again. The red door, swinging open, the huge hairy black leg reaching out. Mr Spider wants more.

No!

Jon forced his eyes open. Forced himself to breathe, to calm the terror spiking through him at the thought of anything even remotely resembling that awful black leg ever touching him. Forced himself to look, really look at Taśma. To See her.

She was small and delicate. She had a round pale grey body with eight long thin legs stripped with what should have been bright yellow but was now crumbling gold. Dimly, Jon realised that he didn't even know what kind of spider she was. Martin has asked about Kavi once, had nodded thoughtfully and smiled at Jon's clipped response that she was a polyphemus moth, but Jon had never bothered to return the gesture. It had never even occurred to him to want to know.

As soon as he had the thought the answer was there, slipping into his mind like a note under a door.

Golden Orb Weaver spiders are named for the distinctive circular, or wheel, pattern to their webs, which can have a golden shimmer when viewed in direct sunlight, the Eye informed him cheerfully. Common prey of the Golden Orb Weaver spider includes insects such as moths–

Jon slammed the door in his mind sharply shut, cutting off the flow of information.

'I admit,' Jon said stiffly, 'that I am not terribly fond of spiders. The legs– they get to me. The way they move–'

The red door. Opening.

Close it.

Taśma was speaking, so softly that once again Jon could barely hear her. It sounded like she was saying 'sorrysorrysorry' over and over in a desperate chant.

Jon spoke loudly, over the top of her. 'But that's not your fault, it's mine. And… with your permission… I want to try and fix it.'

The spider was silent, just shuddering now. Kavi had left his wrist and was fluttering in anxious circles around Jon's head.

'Taśma, please,' Jon said. 'Please let me try.'

He reached out a single finger and, as gently as he could, placed it a hair's breadth from her body. He wanted to close that tiny gap, to break the Taboo quickly while he still had the courage, but it was her choice as much as his and he wouldn't force it on her. And now, as he looked at her beside his hand, he found himself noticing just how small she was. She was nothing like the monster of his childhood. He could easily crush her if he wasn't careful.

Jon focused all his energy on being careful, holding his finger utterly still and waiting for Taśma to make her choice.

With a final shudder, she did. Taśma leaned toward him until her body was pressed against his finger. Jon felt warmth, spreading through his hand from that one fragile point of contact, but also blooming rapidly and wonderfully in his chest. With that warmth came a rush of knowledge that had nothing to do with the Eye and the foul door it had built in his mind. It came directly from Taśma and, through her, Martin. He saw Martin through Taśma's eyes, his childish face lighting up with joy as she took this spider's form for the first time, felt the rightness of it as she climbed nimbly through the moving obstacle course Martin made of his fingers. He saw Martin hang an empty hoop over his bed and wait patiently as Taśma spent hours weaving an elaborate web for herself, reassuring her that it was beautiful when she fussed that the pattern wasn't quite right. He heard Taśma's turn reassuring Martin as he laboured over a poem, his pen scatching its slow way across the paper with Taśma balanced on the end. He felt Martin's intense, burning love for Taśma, his wonder at the small graceful form his daemon had chosen, seemingly so at odds with his own body (which to Martin felt like it got larger and clumsier every year).

And he saw Martin as he was right now, far below the Institute, gasping and stumbling into a tunnel wall as he felt Jon's touch through his connection with his daemon (not broken, not yet, only weakened by distance). He saw Peter Lukas turn and arrange his face into something that mimicked concern as Martin doubled over, clutching at his chest as he felt truly and deeply Warm and Held and Known for the first time in his life.

And then Jon couldn't see anything anymore because his eyes were flooded with tears. He was sobbing, holding Taśma to his chest (still gently, so gently). She had crawled fully onto his hand now, but she was so light that he could only feel her presence on his palm as eight tiny pinpricks of warmth.

'I'm sorry,' Jon sobbed, unable to stop crying long enough to form clear words. 'I'm so sorry. I didn't know.'

Kavi had landed on his hand. She crawled into his palm as well and huddled next to Taśma, murmuring reassurances to them both. Jon cradled his and Martin's daemons against his chest, and promised them that somehow he would fix this and find a way to keep them all safe.

@jonmartinweek

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