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#and eventually I made a list of things that adrien is that he got from his dad and things that adrien is that he definitely did NOT
anna-scribbles · 1 year
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emilie agreste and rose quartz.. the same
I THINK ABOUT THIS ALL THE TIME
#the. what's that one post about characters who aren't in the story but are in every part of the story#the way emilie and rose are both so revered in their narratives#and leave such a gaping hole#i find stories about the absence of someone so interesting#ive spent so long trying to decide how i would characterize emilie if I were ever to write her#and eventually I made a list of things that adrien is that he got from his dad and things that adrien is that he definitely did NOT#get from his dad#and then i decided to attribute THOSE things to my perception of emilie#and I love the idea of borrowing from rose quartz's complex of becoming whatever the people around her wanted her to be#so that they all elevated her but had different ideas about who she actually was#& how she was actually so deeply insecure and doubtful about who she really was#that she decided to leave#very emilie to me.#think a lot about how adrien impulsively reflects what people want from him#(he's a mirrorball girl if you get what I mean)#and how he's just so universally adored#how he doesn't have a strong sense of self because he is always performing just as much as he is experiencing.#his expression of self is always at least somewhat impacted by who's around him and what they want or expect from him#and he didn't get that from gabe. gabe doesn't model that at all.#so I think it would be interesting if he got it from emilie#because she WAS universally adored. the same way adrien is.#look at what she did to adrien. to nathalie. to gabe. everyone who knew her loved her so completely#but she's also someone who would leave them all behind#I think that emilie taught adrien the idea of self-sacrifice as an expression of love. I think she taught him how to hate yourself#and be loved by everyone else#I think emilie messed him up too.#anyway YES tumblr user mari-monsta. yes I do think about that#ml#anna rambles#thirteen
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snitchesnsneeds · 3 months
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First Half of Miraculous Season 2 Done. Here's my thoughts:
The Collector: A pretty good start! They made the teens smart while still being dumb teens!
Despair Bear: Chloe needs a therapist, arguably moreso than a redemption arc and especially a downward villainous spiral. Also Dangit Grandpa
Prime Queen: Wow, this was a lot more chill than expected. Even Cat Noir was left aghast at what Nadja was doing, Nadja seemed to be pressuring Ladybug and Cat Noir more for views than anything else, and I'm not entirely sure Akuma personalities can be trusted.
Befana: Fun fact: This was the episode that got me into Miraculous in the first place because of how shocking it was. And then I discovered even more. In hindsight from watching the other episodes, it was relatively darker, but mostly because it's Marinette's friends and family that are getting G-rated killed instead of random civilians like every other episode.
Riposte: Kagami is here! I don't see too much chemistry with her and Adrien yet, but she's cool and I like her and feel like I could be friends in real life. Also this feels like a relatively uncommon trope, but I wish "X is blatantly a woman but no one notices" was spedran through by someone with brains.
Robustus: Pretty good, all things considered. From what I've heard about Miraculous lore, creating sapient or at the very least semi-sapient AI isn't that uncommon for weirdness hotspots, and I'm putting Max in the list of characters I think should have figured out Ladybug and Cat Noir's identity. (There's four now!)
Gigantitan: It turns out my favorite parts of Miraculous are the slice-of-life bits instead of the superhero bits the show is about! We got to see more of Marinette's friends! Alix! Mylene! Julie! The Eeby Deeby herself! Also it was really sweet to see Adrien's bodyguard calm down just by looking at the kid. Adrien's true daddy.
Dark Owl: No wonder these two aren't allowed to know eachothers' identities, considering how much of a loose tongue Marinette has!
Glaciator: Alright, it's finally time to talk about the sins of Marinette and Cat Noir, considering the fan content I osmosed before watching the series was heavy salt stuff, and I wanna see how much it holds up. So far Cat Noir has acted as if he's already dating Ladybug previously, and in this episode he got mad at Ladybug for not showing up at a date when she herself said she might not come due to having other plans. Isn't he supposed to be used to not-showing-up disappointment as Adrien due to his dad? Is it different because he's Cat Noir? Is this a breaking point? No matter, he eventually calms down and is ultimately the less bad member of the relationship. Marinette, meanwhile, doesn't have as many misdemeanors to her name but they're a lot worse. She stole Adrien's phone to get rid of an embarrassing message and got away with it too, what the hell, and also owns the schedule. Although I don't believe she stalked Adrien and made it herself due to how busy she is as both Marinette and Ladybug, that's just weird and wrong. I'm reluctant to call her a stalker, but her actions are still wrong. Ultimately, this relationship is going to need a lot of therapy and counseling to not crash and burn. What were we talking about again? Oh yeah. The ice cream episode. I think the ice cream guy can be wrong and he doesn't understand that.
Sapotis: Silly little fun episode, also it introduces the first new Miraculous holder! I'm honestly fine with it so far if it means more screentime for side characters. I honestly really like seeing Marinette's classmates. They're neat. Also I was this close to putting Alya on the list but she proves time and time again that she doesn't actually know Ladybug's identity.
Gorizilla: In this episode we are introduced to Adrien's deranged parasocial fanbase. I'm starting to understand some of his father's decisions at this point. This is what I was talking about with the schedule, by the way. These obsessive stalker creeps make Marinette look reasonable, and I wouldn't be surprised if the one guy who I'm pretty sure becomes Party Crasher discreetly stalked Adrien to get his schedule. Restraining orders need to be filed.
Captain Hardrock: One of the funniest episodes, up there with Dark Cupid. Also Luka is here! And he already has great chemistry with Marinette! And more Rosie and Julie content even if it's crumbs!
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Sky Full of Stars - Chapter Two.
Ahhh, fuck it. Why not another chapter to get the ball rolling? You guys are so good to me with your lovely comments, so in turn, you get more story!
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Previous chapters - One
Tag list - In the comments
Words - 4,312
Warnings - 18+ content throughout. Minors DNI!
“Hey Jade, I’ll give you some privacy,” Marv, their driver spoke with his usual wide smile upon seeing her climb onto the bus with a guy he recognised but couldn’t immediately place why. “Need to go find me some food anyway.”  
“Alright, Marv. The food truck has just about everything tonight. No more bad burgers!” she chuckled, moving through the narrow gangway. The bus wasn’t what he’d expected it would look like, a small lounge area at the front, two rows of sleeping bunks towards the centre, a tiny kitchen area and even smaller bathroom (complete with an amusing handwritten sign that advised if anyone took a crap, their head got flushed along with it) and finally, another lounge area right at the back.  
The seating section surrounded a small table, the space perhaps the least claustrophobic on the bus. It certainly looked a lot larger on the outside than it did within. How she coped being cooped up in it while travelling, he didn’t know.  
“Do you want a drink? I’ve got wine somewhere, do you like Merlot?” she asked, beginning to root around in the overhead cupboards. “No, it’s in the kitchenette. Hang on.” 
“Yeah, that’d be great, thanks.” Sitting down, he had mere moments to take stock of what an interesting day it had been so far. It had started out not so great, jammed against a barrier with a crush of a permanently apoplectic mosh pit behind him, the early evening bringing with it something much more comfortable and sedate. He was joined again quickly by the woman who only continued to captivate him further with every passing moment, passing him a solo cup half filled with red wine. 
“Sorry for the uncouth receptacle. We don’t keep breakables on the bus beyond coffee mugs, save things getting smashed to hell,” she explained, taking a seat. “So, tell me more about you. You’ve fascinated me so far. I want to know what lurks beneath the extremely attractive exterior.”  
Yes, she certainly was very naturally charming, Adrien feeling his stomach flutter pleasantly. She hadn’t asked him about his acting, or which industry people he knew, what he’d be working on next, oh no. Him. She wanted to know about him. It made for a refreshing change, although eventually she did inquire into his profession, one she was slowly making waves in herself. Lamentably, although she’d been in quite a high number of projects over the past eight years, he hadn’t actually seen her in anything. Or so he thought.  
“I mean, it was only a small, independent movie, but I’m really proud of it, playing an icon like Janis. She was such a huge influence,” she spoke, watching his eyes widen. 
“Shit, I have seen you in something. I saw you in that! Sorry, it’s just, you look very different to how you did playing her, obviously.”  
“What did you think?” she asked, sipping her wine. “No need to flatter me either. Be honest.” 
“Honestly?” He paused a moment, scratching his chin and pulling his cigarettes out, lighting up and knocking the pack across the table to her, Jade sliding the ashtray closer. “I think you did the best with what you had to work with. You played a very convincing Janis Joplin from what I know of her, but the direction of it wasn’t great. They could have done a lot more. From what I remember, you really put your heart into it, green to playing a lead role as you were - and that did show – but your performance what made it.”  
His words surprised her. Not because he hadn’t enjoyed the direction of the biopic, but the fact he’d been completely honest with her. “Thank you. See, so many people have been phony about it, blown smoke right up my ass, but what you said was exactly how I felt. I put my all into it, although I ultimately felt like I was only as good as what I was given. They skipped over so much of her life that would have made it even more interesting, only to go for the sensationalist element. Bloody pissed me right off.” 
He loved the way her speech was a mishmash of Britishisms and Americanisms, a slight New York lilt coming through on every sixth or so word.  
“You’ll learn the further you get into it, be more selective over what you give your time to.” She asked him if he minded giving her a little more advice there, Adrien only happy to, liking very much how completely unpretentious she was.  
In her world, she was a big deal, huge, in fact, but in acting she was still a relatively small fish in an extremely large pond. As for Jade, she considered herself extremely lucky, getting to listen to the wisdom a man who since winning an Oscar seven years before had only gone from strength to strength. 
“I know it comes with the job, speaking to press, but I always feel somewhat antsy about it,” he began a time later, as they spoke of the pitfalls of their respective careers, chewing the corner of his lip. “It isn’t even an editing thing; your words just tend to get filtered through the gaze of so many other people and it ends up as a rendition of you rather than the definitive portrait. And preconceived notions can be tough to shake.”  
Oh, the affinity. His words definitely struck a chord. “This is why I’m very interview shy. I’m too much of a juxtapose, and people don’t know how to take me. Yes, I’m quite quiet and introverted to a degree, but also, when it comes to my work, I don’t take any shit, and I will call people out on it. This leads to me being labelled as difficult, all because I tire of the same bullshit questions that my male counterparts don’t get asked, for example.  
“So, I set certain terms, dictate which are allowed and unallowed questions, and that apparently makes me an obstreperous bitch. Journalists go in there and instead of focusing on what I actually say when they meet me, they’ve already made up their minds. Then the filtering you speak of happens, and it gets even fucking worse.” She paused then, tightening her mouth a little. “Just say if I talk too much. I tend to jabber on when I feel comfortable with somebody.”  
He reached for her, sweeping the apple of her cheek with his thumb. “You’re fine. I like hearing your thoughts.” In turn, she liked sharing them, too. There was something about him she felt inexplicably drawn to, like she could trust him with anything, and not receive a drop of judgement; just a very good ear.  
“So, why Seventh Gate?” he asked a while later, watching as she played with the flame on a candle she’d brought in to illuminate the space the darker it got. She detested false light as much as he did. “Is it from the urban legend?” 
“Yes!” she enthused, utterly delighted at his accuracy. Surprisingly, not many people guessed right away. So the aforementioned legend stated, if anybody passed through all seven specific gates dotted around in a woodland area within Hellam Township in Pennsylvania, they descended directly to hell.  
“A few buddies and I went and did the trail one time, drove down there with the location details of all the gates, but completely chickened out of crossing all of them. It was dumb, because it’s a complete myth, but nope, we were way too pussy to do it,” he laughed, watching as she giggled with mirth. 
“We shot a music video there, got wasted drunk and ended up running through all of them. We did the last one bare assed naked, me with Jen on my back while chugging a bottle of vodka and screaming ‘take me Satan!’ at two in the morning, with the entire production crew crying laughing.” 
“You’re fucking insane,” he laughed, that laughter loudening considerably as he pictured it. 
“Yeah, we’re a little mental when the mood takes us.” 
He could well believe it. “I sense there’s a lot more you could reveal that’d probably make my hair stand on end.” 
Hmmm. To divulge her years as an absolute hellion to the nice guy sitting adjacent to her, or keep quiet? “C’mon, spill.”  
Well, he asked for it.  
“We got arrested for inciting a riot outside Tower Records in downtown Oklahoma, about five years ago. Huge police presence, fans jumping on cars, us thriving in the middle of it with our security team going crazy. It was fun. We got let out shortly after thanks to the negotiation skills of our manager, played the show that night, and then caused about ten grand’s worth of damage at the club the afterparty was held in. 
“Still though, through all of that madness, I think I was just playing a part, getting the hedonism out of the way. I found fame so early, signed at seventeen, an album recorded in the same year and thrown out onto one tour after another for sixteen months without a real break. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I still like to party, but not to those kinds of extremes.”  
“Not so wild any longer, huh?” 
Oh, the grin that spread across her perfect, pillowy pout. It made him twitch quite sharply in a place he wasn’t sure he should quite so soon after meeting her. “Only in two places. On stage and in bed.” 
He arched an eyebrow, eyes sweeping her a few times. “Being a tease again, hmm?”  
“Depends.” The look she fixed him with amped his pulse instantly, Adrien not able to remember the last time he’d had such efficiently potent sexual magic cast upon him. 
“On?” 
Taking a big gulp of her wine, she licked a drop from her lip, staring into the blazing green of his eyes. “Whether if I came over there and straddled your lap, you’d let me kiss you or not.”  
He had to admire her nerve. She had way more game than he did. His eyes fell to his thighs, then back at her with a smirk. “I guess there’s only one way to find out.”  
She moved the three feet separating them slowly, her glide all feline, much more cheetah than tame house cat, her eyes glinting like blue shards through the dim light. Moving carefully astride him, it burned slow like napalm, her hands resting to his chest, stroking down as he clasped her narrow waist, their foreheads touching.  
“Mmm, wow, Mr. B,” she purred, her heart thundering through an inferno within her chest. “Aren’t you absolutely divine close up?” Her lips had caught his before he could even think of replying, their kiss deepening to a slow dance of tongues within a second. It was lazy, yet scorching, their hands roaming one another as the burn gained heat.  
A soft moan echoed her throat, her hands moving to rake her nails down the dark stubbly beard flecking his cheeks and neck, the sound darting right to his cock. His entire being hummed with it, the desire to slowly peel off her clothes, but he wouldn’t be that guy. He never had been, and oh, how his body hated him for it, feeling her pressed right up against him, aching in his gut to take it further.  
“Oh wow,” she murmured, her mouth moving to his neck to lay delicate little kisses, swirls of her tongue tasting his flesh, the salt of sweat mixed with whatever cologne he wore faintly lingering there against his gorgeous skin. “The way you kiss gives me serious cunt flutters.”  
He snorted, laughing softly at her so alluringly delivered crudeness. “Yeah?”  
“Mmhmm.” That little hum preceded her mouth landing upon his again, and god, how she could have ripped all of his clothes off and ridden him to the edges of heaven right there and then, she was so torridly aroused by the man beneath her. She wouldn’t, though. Gone were the days of quick sex with a hot guy simply to sate her desire. With him, she knew she wanted more. “Okay, if I don’t control myself now I never will, but please know you make that very difficult.”  
He shook his head, arms tightening around her. “Sorry. I’m not about to let you go.” More kisses followed, a little calmer, gentler passions exchanged, the contented murmurs he made causing her heart to skip happily. At thirty-one years old, it had been a long, long time since a man had made her feel like she was a young woman in first flushes of becoming utterly besotted with somebody, and even though she was more than used to it, it pained her that she’d have to let him go in a few hours. 
That feeling? It was entirely mutual.  
Eventually, they settled to resting beside one another, two sets of long legs propped up on the table, Jade lying with her head against his chest as they talked, and talked, and talked.  
“So, why’s it complicated?” 
“Well, I suppose it isn’t really, but some would see it that way. We’re just a mixed bunch of nomads,” she began, before launching into the story of how she came to be. “So, my mum is the daughter of Italian immigrants. My grandmother was originally from Staten Island, brought there as a baby in arms after her parents moved from Sicily, but then relocated to the UK when my great-grandfather got work over in London for way more pay. They used their entire savings to take the ship voyage over and lived penniless in the Walthamstow slums until his wages came in. 
“She grew up poor, but eventually prospered, met another son of Italians and married him, had my mum, but their marriage ended when she was eleven, so my grandmother moved her back to Staten Island for a fresh start. She wanted to be with a man who actually had time for her away from his career. My grandfather worked his way up from washing dishes to head chef, eventually restauranteur, and he always put work before his family, so my gran bailed and went back home. 
“Then after four years, very sadly and quickly, she learned she had breast cancer and passed away, so my mum and uncles crossed the ocean again to return to London and live with my grandfather and his new wife. Are you keeping up so far?” 
“I am,” he confirmed, making a side-to-side motion with his hand. “There’s a lot of back and forth between Staten Island and London, but I’m with you. Carry on.” 
“See what I mean, though? Nomads! So then, mum starts dating this guy at eighteen and unexpectedly falls pregnant. She had no idea what to do, of course coming from a very devout Catholic background she felt guilty as hell over the idea of abortion, but knowing she’d only be nineteen when she gave birth was scary, too. To make it scarier, the guy she was with told her he wasn’t ready to become a father and vanished into thin air, leaving my poor mum alone with an impossible decision to make. 
“Well, that was until she met my dad. They fell in love very quickly, and he told her it didn’t matter that she was carrying another man’s baby, he wanted to stand by her and raise me as his own. He always says, “We are not bonded by biology, but god sent you to me as my baby. You are my first born, always.” His name is on my birth certificate, and he adopted me right away. I mean, it’s obvious I’m not his biologically because he’s black, but he’s the only dad I know. You might have seen him earlier, actually. He was the guy who looks a little like Morgan Freeman who was probably looking at me with a mixture of mild despair and a lot of pride. He’s out here for work currently, so swung by to watch us.” 
“Why despair?” he laughed, trying to remember if he’d seen such a man in the chaos of that afternoon. 
“He says I’m entirely too noisy with a microphone in my hand.” 
His mouth twitched into a lopsided grin, kissing the top of her head. “He’s got that right.” 
“How are your eardrums now?” she asked, looking up at him with a grin that had him in soft fits. 
“Better,” he confirmed, tightening his arm around her. “Continue.” 
“Right, so yeah, dad is originally from Harlem, but he got a scholarship place at a university in London based on his academic excellence. And believe me, my dad is so, so smart. He’s a cardiothoracic surgeon. So, years later, after he’d fully qualified as a doctor and done five years of residency, he was offered a job at New York Presbyterian, we moved back to Harlem, lived in an apartment for a while and then they bought a beautiful brownstone that they still live in to this day.” 
“Why did he choose London?” he asked, curious when there were so many amazing colleges in the US. 
“He said he wanted to see a little more of the world before he locked himself into being a surgeon, so applied further afield. When he was still studying, him and my mum used to save all their cash and take little backpacking holidays in Europe when I was a baby. There’s a great picture he keeps in his wallet, holding me at the top of the Eifel Tower when I was one, screaming my lungs out!” 
Something she had made a very good career out of, he thought. “Do they just have you, or have you any siblings?” 
“A brother and a sister four years younger than me, twins, too. Rachel and Marco, named after my maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother. I got named after my mum’s favourite gemstone. She’s really into Oriental artefacts, it’s what she studied at uni around looking after me, Asian art. She works as a curator now at the Guggenheim, specialising in antiquities from Asia.” She then paused, looking up at him sheepishly. “I’m talking too much. Again.” 
“Shut up,” he scolded softly, “I could listen to you tell me about your life for days.” 
That made her smile, always thinking she went on entirely too much when she spoke of her life and loves. “Tell me more about yours. About your parents and siblings,” she requested, idly stroking his abs through the dark fabric of his t shirt. 
“No siblings, mom said I was too much trouble to think about having more,” he joked, smiling at he thought about her. “She’s a painter and photographer, and my dad is a professor, he lectures in social science at NYU. He likes to paint, too, it’s what bonded them. He met her at an art class they were both taking while they were at university, and he said he has never, ever seen paint used in the haphazard way my mother creates her art. That’s what first attracted him to her, seeing this woman with her hair all pinned up with paint brushes, paint smudges all over her face, staring at her canvas with the kind of focus that made her look constipated, apparently. 
“When I was a baby, she used to put my hands and feet in these huge tubs of paint and let me crawl around on giant canvases, and I’d thrive, covering myself in as many colours as I could, rolling around and making a huge mess. My grandmother used to shake her head, baffled at it all, but my mom was just like, “He’s expressing himself, I’m starting him early!” I love to paint for hours, days even when I’m not working. My overall creative drive definitely comes from them. Well, her mostly. The Lois Brody method.”  
Her head shot up, eyes rounding. “Your mum is Lois Brody? Oh my god, she’s a legend! I love her photographs!” she cried, Adrien smiling with pride. 
“Yeah, she’s amazingly talented. Has this way of capturing something completely minute that others wouldn’t notice and making it the focal point of the entire photograph. I don’t know how she does it, but she’s incredible at seeing what others miss,” he revealed, still smiling widely. He was very proud of his mother, and it showed.  
“I had no idea you were her son, but then I don’t know who anybody is. It’s actually embarrassing, how it sails over my head, or how I get people confused. I met Katy Perry and thought she was Zooey Deschanel recently. I told her I recognised her from the TV show Weeds, and she’s just like, ‘eh?’ at me. I’m such a twat,” she confessed, hiding her face behind her hand as he laughed.  
“Don’t feel bad, I’m not clued up on pop culture either,” he reassured her, Jade suddenly snorting. 
“That isn’t even my worst one. Jen and I went on holiday to Nepal a few years back, and I saw a guy dressed in orange riding a bike and thought he was the Dalai Lama! The tour guide was in hysterics.”  
As was Adrien, laughing so hard, he had tears in his eyes. “His holiness on a bicycle. That’s amazing!” 
“He might like to cycle! You don’t know that he doesn’t!” she cried in a cutely comic voice, her laughter escalating as she sat up, the gorgeous man who embraced her unable to stop himself from completely falling apart.  
“Stop it,” he hissed, one arm still around her, the other hugging his stomach, which was starting to hurt. “You’re so damned funny, oh my god.” He composed himself for all of three seconds before falling to pieces again, Jade softly slapping his chest. “I can’t breathe!” 
“It isn’t that funny,” she protested, laughing now purely at him continuing to crack up. 
“Yes, it is!”  
He wouldn't forget that in a hurry, or the night he was sharing with her either, looking at his watch and becoming painfully aware he likely didn’t have long left with her as ten o’clock loomed, asking the question he’d been putting off for the last few hours. “How long do I have you for, then?”  
“Until midnight. Then I turn back into a pumpkin.”  
He raised an eyebrow. “What?” 
“You know, like Cinderella.” 
Oh, god. He couldn’t handle so much laughter. “Cinderella doesn’t turn into a pumpkin, her coach does!” 
Cringing, she hid her face, shaking with laughter. “Oh, yeah that’s right.”  
“You’re incredible,” he laughed, holding her close again. “I don’t know how the hell I’m gonna let you go in two hours, you know. This idea doesn’t sit well.”  
“No,” she sighed wistfully, stroking his chest, placing a kiss against his collar bone. “Not with me either. God knows when I’ll get to see you again, because I really want to. I’m locked into touring until December, though.”  
“Yeah, I have two weeks off as of today and then I’m going to Hawaii to shoot Predators. I’ll be there for a month for all the outdoor filming, then back for a month and a half in LA to finish the rest, then I have three weeks of press stuff booked more or less solidly until mid-December.” 
“Boo hiss,” she pouted, hand moving to stroke his face, hating that it would likely be around three months until she got to spend time with the lovely man whose arms she lay in again. “It’s what we signed up for with our careers, but it doesn’t stop it from being disappointing when things like this happen. When you meet someone you really find a connection to, and then can’t spend any further time with them.” 
He looked sad, kissing her head, the cogs in his brain beginning to turn as he entered a few moments of contemplation. “What if I didn’t have to leave you just yet?” Met by a face of curiosity, he continued. “How do you feel about tour bus stowaways coming along on tour with you for a week, should said prospective stowaway be able to make that happen?” 
Her eyes lit up, pushing herself to sit straighter. “Really? You could do that?”  
“Maybe. Gimme ten minutes to go and check.” Kissing her, he stood up, lighting a cigarette and pulling his phone out, heading back down to the front of the bus to make a phone call, the night air cooler than the heat of the day he’d felt himself baking under. While he made a call to his manager, Jade sat and fiddled with her jewellery, nervously awaiting his return. What if he couldn’t? But, oh. The joy if he could.  
She could scarcely believe it, that the man actually wanted to blow off his commitments in order to spend a week on a bus with her while she and her band travelled around California to continue to west coast dates of their tour. Seven days with him, although of course it wouldn’t be all of the time, having her own interviews to be present for along the way, visits to radio stations as well, a webcast she was also taking part in too around their live performances. Some of the time would be better than nothing at all, though. 
When he walked back in, her heart catapulted into her mouth, his face expressionless before slowly, he began to beam. “Looks like you have me for another week.” 
He was deafened for the second time that day, this time by the pitch of the excited shriek she let out, scrambling from her seat and bouncing up into his arms, raining kisses all over his face as he laughed softly, holding her tight.  
Seven days. Seven days that would change everything for them both.  
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cassarilladraws · 1 year
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Lavender Crowns
Lukadrien Fluffuary (using this prompt list) Day 21: Flower Crowns Prev | Next Read it on Ao3 Words: 1050 Rating: T Tags: Post-Reveal Lukadrien, Married Lukadrien, Vipernoir, Kisses Chat Noir and Viperion sat on their favorite Parisian rooftop. The view wasn’t bad, but there were better rooftops if someone was looking to see the city. This one was their favorite because of the memories they shared over the years. It was half way between the Agreste mansion and The Liberty, the logical meeting point at one time. Not that it mattered now, neither of the men lived in those places anymore. They had a home of their own that they shared.
Still, they found themselves meeting in the familiar spot out of habit. They both were not quite ready to run home just yet.
“Remember our first kiss?” Viperion reminisced.
“Hmmm….I’m not sure. Maybe you should remind me.” Chat Noir narrowed his eyes.
“Well, it was right here on this rooftop.”
“Maybe we should do a reenactment? That might help me remember.” Green eyes glinted mischievously.
Viperion leaned in slowly, acting out the nervousness he had felt that night years ago.
Chat Noir followed his lead and bumped his nose into Viperion’s awkwardly.
“See, you DO remember.” Viperion laughed and tilted his head.
Their lips met gently. Chat Noir started to press in more, but Viperion pulled back.
“Ah. It was such a short, sweet kiss.” He teased, knowing his husband would have liked more than the quick peck.
Chat Noir rolled his eyes. “Yeah…I guess it was.”
He was about to go in for a kiss that demonstrated the years they had to practice with each other, when he saw a box nearby.
“Oh! I got us something!” Chat Noir jumped up and brought the container back over.
“What’s in the box, my muse?”
Instead of answering the blonde opened it. The smell of lavender filled the air.
Viperion looked and saw the purple flowers. “You brought lavender?”
“Yeah! I saw this video where people make flower crowns! I’ve never tried it before and I thought we could try together. But then there was the fire, and saving people, and all of that kind of got me sidetracked on the way home.”
“Imagine that.”
“Anyway, back to the flower crowns.” Chat grabbed one of the flowers and looped the stem around. “So you just loop it like this, and then add another! Eventually it’s a big enough chain to go around your head.”
Clawed hands meticulously looped another flower together.
Viperion grabbed some of the lavender and started a chain of his own. “Like this?”
“Yeah! Just gotta leave enough room for the flower to fit through the loop.”
His husband’s excitement was contagious and Viperion couldn’t help but be amused at the way Chat’s tongue stuck out a bit when he focused on the next loop.
Soon enough they both had completed crowns.
Chat Noir took a little more time to adjust the flowers in a way that satisfied him.
This was the man Luka loved. Adrien wasn’t afraid to be enthusiastic. He loved trying new things. So many people held back so much, but Adrien was a free spirit. One who at one time had been restrained. But he had no reason to hold back now. He lived his life to the fullest. It’s probably why Luka and Adrien understood each other so well. Neither one was afraid of expressing themselves genuinely.
Chat Noir looked up from his flower crown. The soft gaze in his husband’s eyes made him blush despite their years together. He smiled sweetly in return. “What’s that look for?”
“Just you, being you.” Viperion lifted the one he’d been working on and placed it on Chat’s head. He was careful to not get it hung on cat ears. “I love the flower crowns. And I love how excited you get when we try something new. I love that you want to try those things with me.”
“Said like the true king of my heart. A king who needs a crown.” The blonde carefully set the flower crown he’d made on Viperion’s head. “Did you know one of the meanings of lavender is devotion?”
Their eyes met again.
"Is it, now?" Viperion leaned forward.
Chat Noir followed his lead. Until he purposefully and playfully bumped their noses together.
“I think we’ve had enough kissing experience to avoid that.” Viperion said softly.
“Oh, I thought we were reenacting the first kiss again.” Chat’s lips were inches away.
“We already did that. I want to kiss you like we’ve had some practice since then, my muse.” Viperion continued flirtatiously. 
“And here I thought the flower crowns would make you just want sweet, tender kisses.” Chat Noir teased returning the favor from earlier. "Like our first kiss, when we felt that spark. It was magical."
"That spark became a burning flame a long, long time ago. It's still just as magical." Viperion's voice was dripping with adoration. He pulled back a few inches so Chat Noir could see his face. An eyebrow raised under his mask. “You really think I’m opposed to making out with my husband while he’s wearing a flower crown?”
Chat Noir hummed and fluttered his lashes knowingly. “Are you, m’love?”
The blonde laughed as his husband grabbed him by the bell and pulled him close. Lips crashed together passionately. The aroma of lavender surrounded them. It wasn't long before a purr rumbled in the feline hero’s chest. Viperion’s arms wrapped around Chat Noir tightly. His husband loved the contact with their kisses. Chat’s hands became lost in his love’s long blue tresses. Claws carefully scratched at his beloved's favorite spots. They moved in harmony with each other, a well practiced duet that flowed beautifully. The world around them faded away as the fire of their devotion consumed them.
Viperion was right. The spark had grown into a flame. It was just as magical, though the years of practice had certainly paid off.
When their lips finally parted Chat Noir let out a content sigh. His eyes drifted in the direction of the mansion that was once his prison. "I remember when we had to go our separate ways after kissing each other goodnight."
His husband grabbed one of his hands and placed a tender kiss on the back of it. "Let's go home, my muse."
"Together." Chat Noir placed a soft, gentle kiss on Viperion's lips.
"Together." Viperion smiled.
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jennagrinsoverml · 3 years
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do u have any really good fic recs for mlb enemies to lovers
Do I ever! Some of these have already been recced in my AU rec list, but since this isn't part of my "undiscovered gems" series, I'm going to let myself rec all of the popular enemies to lovers fic I've been enjoying too 😊
A Series of Meets: Reach by @damagectrlwrites
Paris is safe, except from the rivalry of its two superhero guardians: Ladybug and Chat Noir.  Since they were teenagers, the two have raced around Paris, trying to out do-good each other.
After Chat Noir saves a bus of people from falling into the Seine before Ladybug can even get there, Adrien is in high spirits.  He helps a young woman reach some chips high on a shelf, kicking off a friendly conversation that ends with a coffee date.
It’s a terrible day for Marinette.  First she had a hectic day at work, then Chat Noir gets all the praise for saving a bus of people, and then she nearly topples over trying to reach some chips.  At the very least, a nice guy helps her and asks her to coffee. Surely, things will get better, right?
Ladynoir Enemies AU. Never met AU. This one is absolutely amazing and hilarious and YOU NEED TO READ IT!! Ladybug and Chat Noir are superhero rivals, always trying to outdo each other, and being annoyed at the other. Marinette and Adrien get a meet-cute and fall in love. The juxtaposition is perfect and ridiculous and THAT IDENTITY REVEAL OMG.
Dearly despised, (I love you) by @snacc-noir
Marinette could go on about why she hated Adrien Agreste—to his pranking tendencies to ineffable attractiveness—ever since he had the audacity that day with the umbrella.
And yet, here she was fake-dating him while in love with a superhero.
Adrienette Enemies AU. Warning: This is a WIP! But it's so much fun. Basically Adrien and Marinette never sorted out the misunderstanding with the gum and instead just dug themselves deeper and deeper in hate with their miscommunications. Meanwhile ladynoir are totally in love with each other. Add in a whole bunch of sexual tension and seeing just where the author teases out these missed chances and it's beautiful.
Curiosity and Satisfaction by @imthepunchlord
When Adrien agreed to this line of work, he thought all his focus would be on the job of catching the elusive Lady Luck. It never crossed his mind that someone else would catch his attention.
Ladynoir Enemies AU. Although this is a ladynoir enemies AU, this dynamic change bleeds into all of the different sides of the love square and it's so different and interesting! I loved how the changes made actually affected other aspects. The story feels very real and believable.
like poles of a magnet by @rosekasa
ladybug spat her blood at chat noir. invincibility was only granted to the ladybug and black cat that worked together. not even the miraculous cure could heal them, otherwise.
(or, five times they didn’t hate each other, and one time it was love).
Ladynoir Enemies AU.  The enemies dynamic here is AMAZING!! Adrien is so in character even when he’s a “bad guy”, and the backstory of how he ended up working with Hawkmoth is perfect. (Also, how is Gabriel even worse??) I love the way the identities are played with, and especially the repercussions of Chat working for Hawkmoth on what Adrien is allowed to do.
Unstuck by @ominousunflower
Chat Noir, notorious supervillain of Paris, experiences a wardrobe malfunction in the best and worst possible place: Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s balcony.
Heart pounding, Chat pins Marinette’s wrists to the balcony. She stares up at him, her blue eyes kaleidoscopic from the lights hanging overhead, her features twisted into a scowl.
“Why are you trying to take my Miraculous?” Chat hisses.
“Because—you—I—” Marinette splutters, her eyes dipping down below Chat’s face. “Why is your suit unzipped?”
“I—well…” Chat sighs. “My zipper got stuck.”
Ladynoir Enemies AU featuring Marichat. I'm an absolute sucker for villain!Chat who just needs someone who's willing to care for and believe in him. And, even as a villain, he's still so recognizably Adrien here. My hearttttt!
out of the woods. by @anxiouscupcake​
“I- I have a… Someone I care about very much,” Adrien admitted. “I’m only doing this because my father gave me no choice.” “Well,” she said, lips pursed. “I don’t have it in me to fight The Gabriel Agreste, right now. My hands are tied too.” “I’m sorry.”
To his credit, he genuinely sounded a little remorseful. She even resented him a little for it, because she had so much more to lose than he did, but he just wanted to stay in Daddy’s good books.
She grimaced. Marriage, for one year, they agreed. And a painful few months of “courtship” to convince the press of the authenticity of their “marriage”.
In eighteen months, her father would be hale and hearty, and she’d divorce Adrien Agreste and be nothing more than his business partner.
(...In which Gabriel is an asshole, Adrien is trying and Marinette's stubborn but gives in eventually.)
This is a 2-part series that isn’t finished and that I desperately hope is continued. It’s not EXACTLY enemies AU per se, but it hits the same sweet spot. Ladynoir are in love, but can’t be together. Adrienette are forced to marry because of circumstances and Marinette resents Adrien for it. It’s got Enemies to Friends to Lovers vibes, even if we haven’t gotten that last part yet, and I love it!
i have found someone (like a nomad finds a home) by @hanaasbananas
After Stoneheart, Gabriel figured out who Chat Noir was, and forced him to work for him, rather than with Ladybug. Years later, Adrien is miserable until one night, he meets Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
Ladynoir Enemies AU featuring Marichat. Sort of a Never Met AU in that Adrien doesn't start attending school until after he's been a villain for some time and after he's gotten to know (and fallen for) Marinette as Chat. I love it when Chat's a villain and his love for Marinette/Ladybug helps him make better choices!
This Red Love by @hanaasbananas
In another world, he loves her. Would lay down his life for her without a second thought. Would be devoted only to her. In another world, they are partners, fighting side by side to keep Paris safe from Hawkmoth. Ladybug and Chat Noir, heroes of Paris. In this world, Ladybug is his enemy; the only thing standing in the way of what he most desires. In this world, he is not a hero.
Or the one where Adrien and Marinette are dating, but Chat Noir works for Hawkmoth. Angst ensues.
Ladynoir Enemies AU featuring Adrienette. This one has so much tension and the identity reveal and the ladynoir conflict really impacts the adrienette relationship and it's fantastic!
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agentofscifi · 3 years
Text
Success is the Best Kind of Revenge Ch. 3
Heels click onto the floor of my office as Chloe pushes open my doors. My hands were currently holding up the train of a dress hung on Juleka. Alix follows after Chloe, tinkering with some kind of camera in her hand. Over the years, as we all graduated from University and done pretty well for ourselves.  
Juleka ended up changing her major in school after three semesters. Instead of going into performing arts for instruments, she went and got a composition degree. Juleka wrote music for a variety of artists and was one of the most sought-after songwriters. When she wasn’t doing all of that, she was modeling for my company. Juleka did a variety of photoshoots for several companies, mine included throughout her University Years. After I opened up my first few stores, we signed a formal contract. She’d been working for me for almost a decade. She split her time between Paris and Nashville in America. 
Alix decides to focus on a degree in art history. She worked at an Auction House company in Paris, moving between the various countries of Europe to authenticate pieces of art and then handle their sales. She was rather successful at her work, earning many bonuses for rather extremely successful sales. Alix’s unique style and comfortable professionalism made her easily approachable to buyings. She was rather blunt, and it did her well in her job. On her off-hours, Alix did some minor modeling and promoting much of my athletic pieces. Alix’s popularity grew as she competed in several X-Games in and after university. She won several titles in skateboarding, BMX freestyling, rollerskating, and snowboarding before retiring after a slip-up when snowboarding. She shattered her kneecap, broke a leg, her collarbone, and dislocated her arm in two places. She still did BMX biking, skateboarding, rollerblading, and snowboarding, just not in a professional capacity. That being said, little kids still asked for her autographs all the time.  
Chloe graduated from the London Business School with Honors and then proceeded to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York to get a Graduate Degree in Global Fashion Management. She modeled some of my designs, worked connections, handled all my brand’s social media accounts, and finalized contracts. Now, she had several people working underneath her, to handle the day-to-day operations. Either way, Chloe handled all of the Brand’s business dealings and flourishes.  
As for me, I attend the London College of Fashion. I got a Bachelor’s Degree in Fashion Design and Development with honors. After those years, I went to Milan to attend Istituto Marangoni International for a Master’s Degree in Luxury Accessories Design & Management. After that, I relocated back to Paris. My first boutique opened up quickly after that along with a small factory with a loan from a bank. I ended up having to open a second factory within three months due to demands. More boutiques opened up worldwide as the Brand became a household name.  
“Hello Chloe, how is everything?”  
“We got invitations to a reunion for Lycée. Alya sent them, as she was the class representative when we all graduated. Personally, I think she wants to get her hands on you or Juleka for an interview. You know her journalism career is in the gutter.”  
Alix snorts. “And who’s fault is that?” 
Chloe rolls her eyes. “Her’s. The idiot ruined her blog when she was a teenager and she never changed. She still does idiotic and frankly dangerous things to get a scoop. Sure, she does some basic research now, but the girl’s been detained several times for endangering people and disrupting the peace. No University would touch her, and no place will hire her.”  
Alix looks up from the camera. “So, you didn’t inform everyone in the fashion journalism world about her history, knowing it would spread to all major news and journalism networks.  
Chloe raises an eyebrow. “Look, this company’s image is important. I was not going to let Miss Blogger ruin it for 15 minutes of fame. She dug her own grave.”  
I sigh. “This is great and all, but are you all going?”  
There’s a snort right behind me. “Not on any of our lives. We will not be sinking that low.”  
“Chloe!” Juleka’s face is red and slightly scandalized.  
“What? Why would we go to this reunion? To see how everyone is doing? It’s rather simple. Alya’s a tabloid writer. Nino is a barely successful DJ who works at a music store to help pay his bills. Max is an IT guy at a company. That fake research paper haunts him to this day. Kim works at a gym. The drugs screwed his athletic chances over and he never planned for anything beyond going to the Olympics. Nathaniel works at an art store and does nighttime classes. He’s unsuccessfully worked with 7 different writers for his comics after leaving Marc.   
Now, Myléne and Ivan are happy, at least. Myléne works as a secretary and Ivan as a grocery store manager. Both are part-time so one of them can stay home with their kids at a time. They have millions of photos of their family on their Instagram accounts. Neither one can do much with charities. The fraud they committed was spread around the charity communities fast.  
Rose, Adrien, and Sabrina are the only ones who did what they wanted to do. Rose had a few years of fame with her music before getting married and settling down as a youth music teacher. Adrien moved to America and works for a University. However, I know for a fact that he will not be returning to Paris for anything less than a funeral or a wedding. As for Sabrina, after some therapy, ended up as a Detective in Marseille.”  
“Didn’t you pay for her therapy?” I tie off my last stitch and let the train fall to the platform.  
Chloe purses her lips. “I owed her that much. I screwed her childhood up, majorly.”  
“Did you stalk everyone to find out all of this?” Alix has a mischievous look.  
Another eye roll from Chloe. “I didn’t need to. In this day and age, all you need to do is type their name into the internet and all of their social media pops up.”  
I hum. “What about Lila?”  
“She’s still in prison. Tried another appeal a little while ago, to no avail. Her long list of offenses and the “assisting a terrorist” change isn’t something any judge would want to touch, even with a 10 ft pole.”  
Juleka simply shrugs. “Back to the point at hand. I’m not going to this reunion. Rose is the only one I wanted to keep in contact with, and she’s not going. It’s her five-year anniversary with her husband. She’s going to Spain that week.”  
Alix shugs. “I’m not going either. Kim has tried to contact me so many times to help him get back into the sports world. I am not giving him another chance. Besides, there’s this huge auction going on in Russia for that week. I am not missing that for a few hours with our childhood classmates.”  
I look at Chloe. She raises a perfect eyebrow. “Not a chance and you are not going either. Heavens forbid Alya posts something on that new blog of hers.”  
I set my needle and thread down on a work table and gesture to Juleka to get changed. “I’m not going if none of you are. Besides, there’s this fashion show in Milan that weekend. It’s for freshly graduated designers to show off their talents to possible employers. I was planning to go to find some who would specialize in Fashion Contour. I’ve been doing quite a bit of work in that field and want to get a fresh pair of eyes that will eventually take over that area of our brand. I was also hoping to look for someone to start a Make-up department. One of your people mentioned the idea at a meeting.”  
Chloe nods and starts to type into her phone. “I’ll tell my assistant to look through the applications we have to see if anyone fulfills the requirements for that job. Just find that new department head.”  
I give Chloe a nod as Juleka hands me the dress from before. A custom-made wedding dress for a woman who happened to be Juleka’s exact size. One of the many I had made of the years since I’d started my fashion business.   
Some part of me wanted to thank Lila. If I was honest with myself, I wouldn’t be where I was if she hadn’t arrived at my class and taken everyone’s loyalty. They weren’t bad people, but thanks to Ms. Bustier, they were a drain on my energy and abilities. Now, however, I was one of the most well-known and successful fashion designers with over two dozen people for me in Design. I could not be happier. 
Ch. 1 ~~~~~ Ch. 2
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ravennm84 · 3 years
Text
Complicity
Hey everyone! Sorry I’ve been missing for a while, but I’ve had a lot going on and lacking inspiration, until the other day! I know that Lila thinks she’s the smartest person in the room and that everyone else it too stupid to figure her out. So, I decided to let her “think” she’s being smart, but gets caught because she did something stupid. Warm-Fuzzies and please enjoy!
Lila was happy. Since she had become a model, she had acquired a small fan base of people that thought she had beauty and talent. Granted, it wasn’t as large as she thought it should be, but she had only done three photo shoots and had been mentioned in one magazine. But this was just the beginning; soon, all of Europe would know her name and reporters would be clamoring after her for pictures. 
But at the same time she was very angry.
This was because Marinette had been mentioned in the same magazine as her. And where Lila got a single photo that showed more of Adrien than it did of her, Maribrat had gotten an entire article and multiple photos about her designs and the collaboration she was doing with Style Queen Audrey Bourgeois since the woman had decided to stay in Paris. She had even looked at the girl’s website and saw that there was an actual wait list to receive one of her original designs.
Enraged that someone she considered to be plain, talentless, and all around lower in status than her, Lila started coming up with plans. She wasn’t about to share her spotlight with anyone, let alone Maribrat.
She was tempted to accuse the bluenette of stealing her designs and ruining her reputation, but since she had been designing for longer than Lila had been in Paris, that had too much of a chance to backfire. She’s thought of sicking one of her classmates/sheep to break into her house and destroy her commission projects, but that also had too much of a chance to backfire since they would likely blab if they were caught.
No, she needed a different type of plan. Something that would be farther removed from herself so nothing would blow back on her, but harsh enough so that even Maribrat wouldn’t connect what happened to her. It took a few weeks and a lot of planning, but she came up with something that would work. It had been the perfect plan, a way to get Marinette out of her life and the spotlight for good. 
All it took was some sweet talking one of her new followers; a large, burly boy named Henry that was a couple years older than her and not very bright. He would have done anything for her… including going after a “stalker” that had threatened to hurt her. She barely even had to suggest anything before the boy assured her that he would protect her at all costs. It even seemed to be working when Maribrat was suspiciously absent from school for a few days after Henry said he would “take care of it”.
It had been the perfect plan...
Until the police showed up. 
She had just gotten home when the police arrived, saying that she was wanted for questioning in an open case. They had already been in contact with her mother and Greta Rossi had promised them their full cooperation. Rather than risk looking guilty, Lila called her mother to make sure they were telling the truth before grudgingly going with them. 
When she got to the police station, she was met by her very confused and furious mother. This wasn’t the first time she had been in trouble with the law. There had been an incident in Rome where she’d been accused of pushing a boy, Simone, down the stairs, and her mother had been forced to pay his medical bills. She had made it very clear that if Lila caused any more problems at school, it would not be pleasant.
So there she was; sitting with her mother and a couple of police detectives that she didn’t recognize, who were giving her condescending looks. “I am Detective Cooper, and this is Detective Raimus. We understand that you have been made aware of your rights, correct?”
“Yes, multiple times. What is this all about? You can’t just bring my daughter in for questioning like she’s some common criminal.” Her mother said as she stared down the two men.
“Mme. Rossi, we need to ask your daughter some questions in connection to an assault that took place against one of her classmates.” Stated Cooper, a detective with a thick mustache.
“Are you or your daughter familiar with a M. Henry Mortaure?”
“I’ve never heard of him,” Lila lied with a shrug.
“Neither have I, who was attacked?” Her mother asked, suddenly worried about what her daughter might have gotten involved in.
“A Mlle. Marinette Dupain-Cheng, are you familiar with the name?” Asked Raimus, who looked a bit older than his partner.
Greta Rossi thought for a second before nodding. “Lila has mentioned her a couple of times, said that she was a bully. What about her?”
“The Dupain-Cheng residence was broken into a few days ago by M. Mortaure. He was armed and confessed to be doing so with the intent of killing Mlle. Dupain-Cheng.” Mme. Rossi gasped in shock while Lila was attempting to hide her smirk with a look of worry. “The Dupain-Chengs were not harmed, although the same cannot be said for M. Mortaure.” Cooper placed some photos in front of them on the table, gaining another gasp from Greta. Three of the man’s limbs were wrapped in heavy gauze, his face was swollen and bruised from a black eye and a seriously broken nose. 
Lila didn’t flinch when she saw the photos, but was now fighting a scowl at the knowledge that Henry had failed her. And since she was here in an interrogation room, it could only mean that the idiot had blabbed. But that didn’t matter, she could just say that he must be a crazy stalker who had somehow found out that Maribrat was bullying her and decided to take things into his own hands. After all, it wasn’t like she had called or messaged him from her personal phone. She had bought a burner phone with cash just for this occasion. 
“Despite being armed with a pistol, he never had a chance to use it,” Raimus stated as pushed one of the photos towards Lila. “He will require reconstructive surgery on his face from being hit multiple times with a rolling pin. His arms were severely burned when he fell into a fryer, it’s likely that he’ll never have full use of them again. Despite the burns, he attempted to go for a kitchen knife after being disarmed. That knife was turned on him and he ended up with a perforated lung.”
Greta looked like she was going to be sick, unable to look away from the pictures in front of her. But she eventually did, casting a harsh stare at her daughter. “Please, tell me you had nothing to do with this.”
Doing her best to fake her shock, she shook her head and pushed away the photos. “I swear, I had nothing to do with this. I don’t even know why he would do this.”
“We were wondering the same thing and discovered that he’s a fan of yours. He has multiple pictures of you, as well as Mlle. Dupain-Cheng. We suspected that he had been stalking you and came to the conclusion that he thought she was bullying you and decided to protect you on his own-”
“Oh no, that has to be it!” She exclaimed, skillfully faking shock. “Marinette followed me out of school last week and threatened me to stay away from my boyfriend. This boy must have seen her and decided to get rid of her.”
“If that’s the case, why are you questioning my daughter?” Greta pressed, not completely believing Lila but seeming to be coming around to her side.
“As I was saying,” stressed Detective Cooper. “We had suspected that M. Mortaure was stalking your daughter, until we got the warrant for his phone. It seems that someone, supposedly Lila, has been corresponding with him for many weeks. She had been flirting with him, sending him photos of herself, and then Marinette. She went on to tell him that Mlle. Dupain-Cheng was a stalker and had threatened her. M. Mortaure seems to have done what he did with the understanding that he was protecting Lila, at Lila’s own behest.”
“I would never do that!” Lila cried before reaching into her purse to pull out her personal mobile and set it on the table in front of them. “Check my phone, I never messaged him.”
“We have already checked your phone records against the one that has been messaging M. Mortaure, and found that the numbers did not match.” Detective Raimus said, and Lila watched her mother visibly slump from relief… but it was short lived. 
“We did, however, track the number to a burner phone that was purchased in cash from a gas station. We thought it was a dead end, but the person who bought the phone made a mistake.” Raimus continued as Detective Cooper pulled out his own mobile and dialed a number. “The person who bought it has kept it on, and it is currently active.”
Seconds after Cooper pressed send, a ringing came from Lila’s purse. Greta Rossi stared at her daughter in shock before yanking the purse out of Lila’s hands and pulling out a second phone from inside. When Cooper cancelled the call, the second phone stopped ringing. 
“What have you done?” She spat at Lila.
Panicking, she shook her head while looking around the room for an exit. “That’s not mine! They must have planted it on me when they brought me here! They’re trying to frame me!”
“DON’T LIE TO ME!” Greta screamed at her daughter, causing Lila to practically fall out of her seat in fear. “You convinced someone to commit MURDER for you! That makes you just as guilty as him!”
“But-but I have diplomatic immunity! I can’t be charged for any of this!”
“Yes, you can,” Greta said, her voice going cold. “I may be a secretary to the Italian Ambassador, which grants me immunity, but that doesn’t extend to you! I told you to behave! I told you to never cause trouble like you did in Roma after what you did to that boy that called you out on your…” Understanding washed over Greta’s features as her expression morphed from anger, to understanding, and then disgust. “That’s it, isn’t it? Marinette never bullied you. She knew about your lies and you set out to hurt her just like before!” 
Standing up quickly, her mother started pacing the room before looking back to the detectives. “I’ll still need to speak with the ambassador, but you can expect our full cooperation in this.”
“Mom, no!”
“What are the charges?” Greta asked, acting as though Lila wasn’t even there. 
“As Lila is a minor, she can be charged with Complicity to Commit Murder, the decision of sentencing is ultimately up to the judge. But seeing as she purposefully bought a burner phone to use and has also lied to the police, I wouldn’t hold much hope.”
~oOo~
The trial took longer than expected. At first, things had been looking up since her followers from class had come to act as character witnesses. All of them saying how wonderful she was, a great friend that did so much for them and everyone she knew,   and that she would never do something so terrible. That Marinette was just jealous of Lila, so it was better to take whatever she said with a grain of salt.
Then, the prosecution started their case. Showing evidence of Lila falsifying records at school, video evidence of her purposefully framing Marinette for assault and theft. As well as the communications between herself and Henry, encouraging him to kill Marinette. 
Her followers had still been a bit sceptical to believe what the prosecutor was saying about her, not wanting to believe that they had supported someone who would try to get another person murdered. But then came her past victims, many of whom her mother had never known about. Simone from Rome, Sara from Florence, Giulia from Venice, Daniel from Viterbo, and Sofia from Palermo. All of them testifying against Lila, many with screenshots of threatening texts from her, photos of ruined property and injuries she had inflicted on them, and all around proof that Lila was the reason behind many hardships that had happened to them. And all because they had figured out that she was a liar and she had done everything in her power to hurt them.
After all that, the judge had not been kind. 
“It is clear, Mlle. Rossi, that you are a very disturbed girl in need of help,” the judge said, not bothering to hide how offput he was by Lila. “I cannot, in good conscious, allow you to roam freely. Having seen that these habits of yours have not only been repeated over and again, but have escalated to attempted murder. I have no choice but to have you returned to Italy where you will be kept in a juvenile detention center until you turn 18, at which point you will be transferred to a mental hospital for treatment for no less than five years. At which point, you will be evaluated to see if you will be able to safely rejoin society.”
Lila was immediately escorted back to Italy in disgrace. Her name slandered across every newspaper and magazine across Europe for what she had done. She was now famous, with most everyone knowing her name and reporters scrambling to take her picture as she did her walk of shame out of the courthouse. She was finally famous, but for all the wrong reasons
In case you are wondering. Henry made the mistake of coming after Marinette when she was with her parents. Tom and Marinette were in the bakery kitchen and Sabine was at the front. Tom saw the gun and hit him in the face with his rolling pin twice. He dropped the gun but was still coming after Marinette, she tripped him and he landed in the frier, which had been turned on to make donuts, and splashed oil all over him. Sabine had rushed back in time to see a bleeding and badly burned Henry grabbing a knife, she did some wicked moves that resulted in Henry stabbing himself. By then, he passed out from the pain and the Dupain-Chengs had called the police. The officers that came were both impressed and terrified by what happened to the boy, but the surveillance footage proved that they were only defending themselves.
TAGLIST:
@2confused-2doanything @7-sage-7 @aadnrsstar @abrx2002 @awkwardromances @bayball @babylovebug18 @botanicalfoxx @caffeinetheory @cheshire5210 @chocolateherringtacofan @city-of-all-tunas @classycollectorreviewworld  @corabeth11 @darkened-flame @delightfulcookiesrecipespizza @fandom-trapped-03 @ghostmaster @iamblinkmarvelarmy @interobanginyourmom @izang @jesussavedevenme @kazedancer @kitten12113 @lady-phoenix-of-tardis @lilypotter2018 @lunataravler @maskedpainter @ miraculouslydumb  @nerd-nowandforever @ola-is-dead @pandacatxd @plushbookworm @plz-excuse-my-inner-ravenclaw @pheonix-biach @raiderofthelostbooks @ramos123 @rowanrouge @rowanyx @ren121 @seesea22 @seraphichana @sashakoi @shypeacekitten @tazer6787 @that-girl-sakea @thecrazyfantrollshasmoved @the-smallest-kittenz @tishwinchesterannabethjackson @t1dwarrior-of-earth @ulmban @with-forward-motion @wonderbat91939 @zoiechance
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capesandshapes · 3 years
Text
All You Had to Do Was Stay (Post Reveal/ Pre Relationship) (1/4)
Thanks to LNC for the title!
Summary:
Three years ago, Marinette revealed her identity to him. Three years ago, he promised to wait in a hotel room for her. Three years ago, she opened the door to find it empty.
Now she's expected to play nice with him, since she's the maid of honor and he's unfortunately the best man. But old habits die hard, and old feelings die harder.
"This is a wedding, not a death march, Marinette."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Things that need to be done before Alya Cesaire could marry Nino Lahiffe:
1. Designs combining both Martinique culture and Réunion style needed to be made for the whole wedding party. Everyone should get to have a say in what they wear.
2. The video of Alya dancing overenthusiastically to the cupid shuffle needed to be removed from Lila Rossi’s Instagram, lest Nino’s nana see and wonder what type of woman he’s marrying.
3. The cake tasting needed to be had. Marinette needed to make sure that her parents didn’t go overboard and keep the couple for the whole night. Even if Alya was practically their daughter. Even if they begged. Even if papa cried.
4. A totally unique and unreplicable combination Bachelor and Bachelorette party needed to be planned.
And, lastly… The most difficult of all:
5. Marinette somehow needed to be able to stand in a room with Nino’s best man, Adrien, and hold a conversation for more than five minutes. Even if, three years ago, he found out her identity, left Paris, and broke her heart.
“Easy,” Marinette groaned, sinking further into her barstool as she closed her notes app, her head touching the counter of the bar. She’d already crossed off the top two of the list items, and yet…
“I’m not asking for a miracle,” Alya began, obviously knowing what she was thinking about. She was the one to ask Marinette out that night, wanting to find out her progress… and also to check in on her wellbeing. It was obvious that she felt bad, she knew how things went between the two and how Marinette originally thought they would go. But she couldn’t just ask Nino not to have Adrien be his best man. “Five minutes, that’s all I’m asking. Just five minutes in a room together. You quickly plan the bachelorette party, since we know that you’re far too organized not to, give him the run down, and then leave. Back to your life, back to doing whatever it is you do now.”
“Sit at home. Alone,” Marinette supplied.
Alya grimaced. “It’s for the best that Luka got married, Marinette. You couldn’t keep playing that game. All that kiss and tell was gonna kill you some day.”
Marinette groaned, somehow sinking further into the wood of the bar. Anymore and she’d become part of the grain.
“Plus, Juleka’s in a better mood with you now,” Alya said, obviously looking at the other young woman as she undoubtedly danced on the floor with Rose. Marinette’s habit of coming back to Paris and making out with her brother had obviously put a strain on their relationship, even if Luka insisted that things weren’t committal and he was totally fine with only seeing her twice a year. “Who knows, maybe Nino will have a handsome cousin and you’ll fall madly in love.”
Marinette raised the side of her head to cast Alya a glare from one eye.
Alya didn’t falter. “So, he’s back. After spending three years in New York, Milan, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. I get it, it’s life changing, it’s world ending, it’s all the things you don’t want and more—especially after how things ended,” Marinette groaned, Alya carried on, “but, you know who else is back? Max, Rose, unfortunately Lila, and Kim. Good old Kim. All your friends, everyone who you’ve known for years, everyone who has missed you as you flitted in and out of Paris! Sure, you found out that Adrien was Chat Noir, went to his hotel room, thought you were finally going to get together, and then opened the door to find it empty—but you know, life happens! And when you least expect it, it keeps going on and on and on and on!”
Marinette turned her face back to the wood.
“I really did try to get Nino to change his mind,” Alya said flatly. “I begged.” Marinette doubted it, but…
“Why couldn’t he just stay in New York?” Marinette mumbled.
“Because Nino is his best friend.”
“Why couldn’t Nino go to New York,” Marinette said, “or Adrien done a zoom call for the wedding.”
Alya snorted. “Okay, that’s it,” she said, grabbing Marinette’s arm. “Adrien’s landing today, nothing’s going to stop it, you just have to clear your head and power on.” She leaned into Marinette’s view as her friend finally turned her head, insistently stating, “you were Ladybug for god’s sake. Even if no one else knows it, you do. I do. You gotta suit up, lovebug, and face the day, lest another evil butterfly come flying by.” Never mind the fact that there hadn’t been an Akuma in years.
Not since Gabriel Agreste was arrested.
Marinette rolled her eyes, finally lifting herself off the bar.
“There’s my girl,” Alya said. “Now, finish your dirty shirley, order another drink, and come do karaoke with me. I’m a hundred percent certain that I saw Say You’ll Be There on the song list, and you know that I’ve been singing Spice Girls since I was in diapers.”
--------------------------
Marinette stumbled into her apartment at one am. Not drunk, she didn’t get drunk, not out in public at bars. In friends’ apartments, maybe. She was still a bit tipsy which was, in its own way, dangerous. But she could fight through it, maybe.
Kicking off her heels, she looked at it, the studio she called home and had once been so proud of a few years back, the same studio she’d lived in ever since she was a fashion design student. The same one in which she’d left Chat knocking on her balcony door when she struggled to stay asleep, and eventually relented to let him in time and time again before he knew who she was.
“Someday, I’m going to move,” she grumbled, beginning to pull the bobby pins from her hair. She wouldn’t, of course, not for a long time. Rent-controlled apartments were rare, and while she pretended that the history that practically stained her hardwood floors was something she would rather forget, she was a nostalgic young woman. She’d be there for at least another five years, or until she was finally well and truly over Chat.
Five years would probably come first.
She passed by the photos washi taped to her walls, the ones where fourteen-year-old kids gave toothy smiles and eighteen-year-old young women gave winks while leaning into blond young men. If she was so concerned about history, she’d have to get rid of those first.
She sighed, finally removing the last bobby pin from her hair and letting it fall down her back, placing the black pin in one of the many bowls around her apartment placed for that very reason. Adrien would be in Paris by then, she was sure. He was probably sound asleep in the Agreste mansion.
“Welcome home, kitty,” she said sarcastically, beginning to climb the steps to her lofted bedroom, a space that was not unlike her childhood room.
This wasn’t how she expected things to be.
Of course, this wasn’t how anyone expected things to be. If you asked anyone, they told you how the story ended. Ladybug and Chat Noir finally got together, they were hiding in Paris somewhere, they were in love. They probably had kids, a dog, a hamster—normal jobs and normal lives. That was what the people of Paris wanted. She thought that that was the ending they would get.
She thought that when she went to the hotel room that night, he would be there. She thought that he was happy to know who she was. She thought that he loved her.
She thought wrong.
Marinette always thought wrong.
She thought she could get over him. She thought making out with Luka was a solution, one that she could keep trying every time she went to Paris. She thought that she would miss Adrien more than Chat, the promise of love more than sitting in her bed and watching subtitled anime while he mouthed the English translations.
By now, she thought she’d be waking up to someone else. That maybe she’d have a steady life, someone to wrap their arms around her in the morning.
Adulthood hits hard.
“Adrien Agreste,” she said, flopping back in her bed and pulling open her phone. She wasn’t above social media stalking.
There he was. Gold hair, tanned skin, too many muscles to know what to do with. Landed in Paris four hours ago, his Instagram posted a picture of him with his arm around Nino. His eyes were still kind, his smile still flawless. Her heart still pounded.
“Jerk,” she muttered, letting her phone fall down beside her. “I didn’t need you anyway,” except for all those times she did. Like when she put the earrings back in the box and said goodbye to one of her closest friends. She could have used him then.
She could have used him a lot of times.
Her eyes stayed glued to the ceiling, her chest rising and falling with every breath. There was no sound, no doting kwami, no laughter from her parents, and no Alya playing with her hair. Just her.
“Now I’m going to see you and fall in love with you all over again,” she said, wishing she could steel herself against the inevitable.
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marauderundercover · 3 years
Text
Taking Chances Ch. 21: Apologies (Father’s Day)
AO3
Prev
Marinette purses her lips as she looks at the neatly wrapped package in her hand. She knew she should still give it to her dad, shouldn’t let her hurt over the Gala stop her from celebrating Father’s Day with him for the first time. She’d already gotten confirmation from her Maman that her present for her Papa had arrived. So that was taken care of. A small part of her, the petty part, wanted to use Kaalki and go back to Paris for Father’s Day. But she also didn’t want to hurt her dad, no matter how much he’d hurt her. She had to be better than that, she is Ladybug after all. Sighing, she drops the present onto her bed. Grabbing the rest of what she needed for a movie night at one of Jason’s safe houses, she rushes out of her room. She knew that her dad’s conversation with Superman in the Batcave wouldn’t last too long, and then he’d be looking for her and Damian to lecture the hell out of them. Unfortunately for him, neither of them planned to be around to listen to it. 
“Got everything Pixie Pop?” Jason asks as she rushes down the last of the steps, barely stopping herself from falling. She quickly balances herself and shoots her brother a small grin. 
“Yup. Let’s go before I can get grounded.” She says, rushing past him and out the door, grinning as she hears his loud cackles behind her. It will get better. She’d talk to her dad eventually, and shove the bad feelings away. But she was going to let herself mope for another day. After all, letting herself feel negative emotions was part of the reason her parents agreed to let her stay in Gotham for the summer. 
---
“What do you mean there’s an entire movie about you and Cat boy?” Jason asks, shoving another cookie in his mouth. Marinette shrugs. 
“I mean we have a movie. It’s not my favorite, it’s kind of ridiculous. None of it is accurate. Except, Adrien did voice Chat Noir for the movie...still not sure why he thought that was a good idea.” She says, thinking back to the original premiere of the movie and all of the drama that came with it. 
“Well shit. He’s not the brightest kid, is he?” Jason asks with a snort. Marinette opens her mouth to argue, then remembers some of Adrien’s….less brilliant moments. Okay, so maybe he’s not perfect.
“Ya know, we were once cast as Ladybug and Chat Noir in a music video.” She says, snorting at the look on Jason’s face. 
“You’ve gotta be kidding. Really? Kid, please tell me you didn’t go through with it.” He says, looking mildly distressed. Marinette just rolls her eyes. 
“No, we didn’t. The concept for the video changed and so no more hero costumes. I was terrified though. Kept losing the mask on purpose ‘cause I was convinced the mask would be what gave it away.” She admits with a small laugh. 
“Ya know, that’s almost as bad as the time that someone at WE thought it’d be a good idea to enter B in a Batman look alike contest. Sent in his photo and everything.” Jason says with a snort. Marinette’s jaw drops.
“Wait, really?” She asks. He nods. 
“Yup. But that’s not the best part.” He says. Her eyebrows furrowed together. What could possibly be better- Oh. No, oh my-
“He lost, didn’t he!” She cheers, laughing at Jason’s huge smile. 
“Of course he did! You didn’t really think Brucie Wayne could ever be THE Batman, did you?” He asks with a smirk. 
“Who entered him?” Marinette asks, kind of assuming that Jason did it with Tim’s computer. 
“No one could ever prove anything, but Lucius Fox couldn’t stop smiling for weeks after it happened.” Jason says. 
“No way, Lucius Fox? Oh my god!” She starts laughing again, the negative feelings from earlier almost completely gone. Disappeared. Times like these, she was beyond relieved that she wasn’t an only child anymore. She doesn’t know how she’d ever function again without her brothers and Cass. 
---
Bruce takes a deep breath before knocking on Marinette’s door. He’d spent some time talking to Clark in an attempt to calm down. He still couldn’t believe his two youngest children had gone to the Watchtower without permission...well, he could believe that Damian went. But not Marinette. And then there was her attitude towards him at the Tower. Her posture was very Damian, but her words and tone were very much Jason. He couldn’t decide if he was glad that they were bonding, or frustrated with the way his sons were corrupting his daughter. Not hearing an answer on the other side of the door, he knocks again. 
“If?” He says. Alfred nods. 
“Marinette, I know you’re angry, but shutting yourself away in your room is not the answer. I’ll give you ten more minutes, but then we need to talk about your behavior today.” He says, nodding to himself. That sounded good. That was right, right?
“I’m certain that wouldn’t work on Miss Marinette even if she was in her room, Master Bruce.” Alfred says, giving him an unimpressed look. Bruce’s eye twitches. 
“Indeed, sir. It seems that Miss Marinette will not be sleeping at the manor tonight.” He says, turning to walk away. 
“And I’m assuming you know where she is?” Bruce says, doubting that Alfred will actually give up her location. He’d definitely been picking the kids’ side the last two weeks or so. It was different, and he wasn’t fond of the change. 
“Of course I do, sir.” Alfred says, raising an eyebrow in a silent challenge. 
“Will you tell me where she is?” He asks, trying hard not to huff when Alfred shakes his head. 
“Of course not, sir.” He says before walking away. Right. So she wasn’t sleeping at the manor, but she was safe. If she wasn’t, Alfred would have told him where she was. He mentally runs through a list of possible places she could be. Dick’s apartment, one of Jason’s safe houses, the Siren’s apartment, Paris- He pales as he realizes that she could definitely be in Paris. Was she really so upset that she would go back to Paris? Would she ever come back if she left? He lets out an uneven breath. He messed up. He messed up and now she was going to go back to Paris and she’d never talk to him again. Unless- maybe she didn’t. Swallowing the guilt that appears at the thought, he pushes her door open. If she had left for Paris, she would’ve taken everything with her. The sight of her clothes and sewing supplies still scattered around the room makes him breathe a sigh of relief. She hadn’t left Not yet. He’s about to walk out when an envelope on her bed catches his eye. Frowning, he walks over and picks it up, ‘Dad’ written on it in neat cursive. Now standing by her bed, he realizes there’s also a neatly wrapped package (Batman wrapping paper) on it. He smiles, then glances back at the envelope. He opens it, smiling at the art on the cardstock. It was clearly Marinette’s art, but he was confused why it was addressed to him. 
‘Dad, I just wanted to let you know that I’m so happy you’re my Dad, and I’m so glad that I got to meet you. Finding out that I was adopted was a little scary, but you’ve made sure I’ve been okay through it all. Happy Father’s Day! Love, Marinette’
Bruce blinks. She was scared. If he had to guess, she was most likely scared that the family wouldn’t accept her. They’d been getting along so well, until the Gala mistake. Until he’d decided for her. Assumed she wouldn’t want to go to the Gala. And now she didn’t even want to stay at the manor tonight, and she was angry enough earlier to throw a chair at him. He pushes a hand through his hair, cursing lowly under his breath. He had to fix this. 
---
A sharp pounding at the door makes Jason leap off the couch. He holds up a finger and gestures for Marinette to hide. No one should be here. No one else knows which of his safe houses he was at today. Grabbing a gun, he walks over, glancing through the peephole. He scoffs. 
“Get the fuck outta here Bruce.” He calls through the door, watching Marinette as she immediately tenses as if she’s gonna run. He shakes his head at her. She didn’t have to run, he sure as hell wouldn’t open the door if she didn’t want him to. 
“Jason, open the door. I need to talk to Marinette.” Bruce calls, Jason snorts. 
“Yeah, not gonna happen B.” He says. 
“I would like to apologize to her.” Bruce says. Jason blinks. That’s new. Did the old man finally figure out that fuck ups warrant apologies? He glances over at Marinette, raising an eyebrow. It was her call. The unsure look on her face almost makes him decide for her. Almost. The kid’d had enough of people deciding shit for her. 
“Let him in.” She says. He opens the door, glaring at the man. 
“Is it okay if he comes in?” She whispers, and Jason nods.
“Up to you kiddo.” He whispers back. She stands taller, pushing her shoulders back before nodding. 
“She’s the one who let you in. Don’t fuck this up.” He warns before stepping aside and letting Bruce walk in.
“Marinette.” He says, nodding at her. Jason groans. Yeah, B was totally gonna fuck this up. 
“Father.” She says, shifting so that her arms are crossed, a neutral expression on her face. God, he really hopes her mimicking Demon Spawn is just a phase. 
“I would like to preface this conversation by letting you know I went into your room.” Bruce says. Marinette just raises an eyebrow. Yeah, Jason wasn’t seeing the connection either. “I apologize for invading your privacy like that, Damian has definitely reminded me several times that your personal rooms are not to be messed with. However, when Alfred let me know you weren’t sleeping at the manor tonight, I was worried that perhaps you had gone back to Paris.” 
“I wouldn’t have gone back without telling you. Well, other than akuma attacks. Do you really think I’d do something like that?” She asks, frowning. 
“I know that I’ve done things I’m not proud of when hurt. Things that I came to regret. And I saw earlier today how hurt you actually are. I didn’t realize-” He pauses. “I also read the card that was on your bed.”
“What! No, that was- that was for Father’s Day.” She says with a sigh. 
“I didn’t open the gift. I originally thought the envelope would have a note from you on where you had gone. Or that you never wanted to see me again. I thought the chances were pretty even.” He says and Jason snorts. 
“Oh, okay. Wait, why would you ever think that? Yes, I was hurt. I still am hurt, if I’m being honest. But I don’t want to cut you out of my life.” She says, shaking her head. 
“Nor do I want you out of ours.” Bruce says. Marinette blinks. “I realize now what it must have looked like, to you. Not informing you about the Gala, taking the rest of the family. It was, admittedly, not my best moment. I made a decision for you when I should’ve asked you what you wanted. You could have even come with us as MDC, but I took that option away from you. I am very sorry, Marinette. I am glad that you’re my daughter, sweetheart.” He says and Jason blinks. Well shit. The old man did have feelings. Too bad no one would ever believe him if he tried to say something about it. He watches as the tension in Marinette’s body drops almost instantly before she runs over and launches herself at Bruce. She wraps her arms around him and Jason can see the way her body shakes. Bruce just stands there, staring down at the top of her head in shock. 
“You wrap your arms around her.” Jason snarks. Bruce blinks before listening, returning Marinette’s hug. Well, they were still dysfunctional as hell, but at least now he’d be able to take Pixie Pop to the manor without feeling like an asshole brother. 
---
Marinette bounces nervously in her seat as she watches her brothers hand her dad presents. She’s shocked when Jason hands over a small gift, knowing that the two’s relationship wasn’t….great. She leans forward in anticipation, watching and waiting to see what he’d picked out. 
“Thank you, Jason. Clark will never let me live this down.” Her dad says, the fondness in his tone not matching the frown on his face. He turns the box around and the room erupts in laughter. Somehow, Jason had found a company that made customizable bobbleheads. The body was probably just a stock body, dressed in civilian clothes with a superman suit peaking through the shirt. And the head, the head was hilarious. It was very obviously crafted to look like their dad, specifically with his ‘Brucie Wayne’ smile. It was awful and amazing at the same time. 
“I think Jaybird wins best gift.” Dick says with a grin. 
“Tt. Unlikely. The new katana that Cass and I gave him is obviously superior.” Damian says, crossing his arms. 
“I don’t know Damian, I still haven’t given him my present.” She points out, grinning at the slight frown on Damian’s face. 
“While I doubt your present could be better than mine, there is no doubt it will be better received than Todd’s.” Damian says. Marinette snorts at the look on Jason’s face. 
“Listen Demon Spawn, there’s this thing called humor. That’s what my gift had. I know you wouldn’t know anything about humor, so let me explain it to you.” He starts, and Marinette jumps in to cut him off before they can start arguing. It was Father’s Day, the least they could do is avoid fighting with each other for a couple more hours. 
“And this one’s from me.” She says, passing him the present wrapped in Batman wrapping paper. She grins as Tim and Dick both laugh, not having seen it before now. 
“I think Mari might win just ‘cause of the paper.” Tim admits, taking a large drink of his iced coffee that Marinette had picked up for him. She’d had to fight an akuma right before they started presents, so she’d stopped and got Tim coffee from the shop that he’d tried when they’d all been in Paris. She watches in anticipation as her dad carefully unwraps the box, opening it and pulling out the black suit jacket. He smiles at her. 
“Did you make this? It’s amazing.” He says, and her brothers nod in agreement (though Damian does so reluctantly). 
“Look at the inside of it.” She says, gesturing for him to unfold it. His eyebrow twitches, but he does as she says. She watches his face for the moment he spots it, and grins when his face drops into a wide smile. On the inside of the left side of the jacket, she’d added a breast pocket. It wasn’t really for anything though. Instead, it was so that she could embroider all of his children’s names in a way so that it would rest above his heart. The jacket also had tiny bat logos embroidered at the cuffs of the jacket. The thread was shiny and very dark so that it would barely show up against the black of the jacket. It had to be lit just right to see it, but as he tilted the jacket again, she knew he saw it. It had taken longer than suit jackets normally do for her, but it was because she knew that it had to be perfect. It was, after all, the first piece of clothing she’d made for her dad. 
“It’s perfect, Marinette.” He says softly, running a hand over the names. She lets out a sigh of relief before smiling at him. Things were still a little rough, but they were so much better than they’d been the night of the Gala. She was glad that she had stayed, that she hadn’t ran like she had so badly wanted to.
Next
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miraculouscontent · 3 years
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Kagami and Marinette deserve so much better.
Anyway, let’s just start literally where this episode starts, because it makes no sense. Remember back in my “Truth” critique where I basically said that the episode seemed like it’d been shoved through multiple drafts and no one checked the final one?
Same applies here.
Like--okay, ”Truth” and “Lies” take place at roughly the same time, which means that the same filler akuma/sentimonsters appear to interrupt Adrimi’s moments just as they did with Lukanette’s, giving its audience a clear timeline of how the episodes line up. The reason this is important is because the writers can’t even keep consistency within singular episodes and then honestly thought that they could do it within two.
“Lies” begins with Marinette talking to Tikki about the grimoire, because apparently she has the non-translated version and there’s a secret to figuring out the code that Tikki believes Marinette will discover eventually.
...Alright, I’m derailing here but I have to add how absolutely stupid Fu was when dealing with translating the grimoire. He was supposed to teach Marinette how to be guardian, yet he didn’t teach her how to read the grimoire (if there’s supposedly a “secret” to it, is he really going to bank on Marinette figuring it out herself eventually instead of just giving it to her and avoid the risk altogether??), kept the translated pages on his tablet without sending them to Marinette as he deciphered them, and took time to write a letter to her in “Miracle Queen” but left no guardian-centric advice for her to work off of, meaning that Tikki had to explain how the Miracle Box worked to Marinette back in “Truth.”
The show goes out of its way constantly to turn everything against Marinette even if it makes all the characters around her look either incompetent or cruel. It’s not that I’m not used to this by now but it’s just infuriating that it keeps trying to raise the stakes and tension when Marinette made such a tiny mistake to cause the issue in the first place, and now we find out that Fu had no back-up plan or strategy, apparently expecting this 14-year-old girl to act perfectly and cover for him.
And of course, instead of leaving the scene off on Marinette being encouraged by Tikki and Marinette showing confidence in herself (i.e: what would’ve been a nice scene), the kwami accidentally fumble with the keyboard in such a way to have Marinette’s computer bring up  a news story about Adrien, which leads to Marinette leaning towards her computer and sighing over Adrien and his “amazing life.”
Can I just point out how annoying it is that all the Adrienette moments so far on Marinette’s end have been forced, not just in general (because we’re used to that), but literally forced by the plot so Marinette would talk about him or other characters would bring Adrien up?
“Truth” had Alya insult Marinette to her face over her Adrien crush because Marinette was freaking over something non-Adrien related that they couldn’t have known about, Luka was sent a no-context picture of Marinette’s Adrien wall which led to him lowkey teasing her about it, and then Truth was forced to listen to Marinette’s friends and Tom babble about Marinette’s supposed crush on Adrien even when Truth points out that it’s not a secret, making the “joke” fall absolutely flat.
And now “Lies” comes along and has the kwami drop things and step on the keyboard in the exact way to pull up Adrien stuff for Marinette to fawn over. It’s at this point I’m realizing that - had the kwami stayed inside the box or just not been around in general - Marinette literally wouldn’t have brought up Adrien at all in either “Truth” or “Lies” and now I’m sad. I really don’t want to have a counter for “episodes where Marinette wouldn’t have so much as breathed Adrien’s name if the kwami/someone else wasn’t there to force it.”
So yeah, the episode had to force Adrienette into its Adrimi episode because the show can’t go five minutes without reminding the audience that Adrien exists even though this episode is primarily from his point of view, made worse by this scene’s lack of ability to exist.
See, from the timeline in “Lies” lining up with “Truth,” there is no possible way for this opening scene with Marinette talking about guardian stuff and then fawning over Adrien to happen. There’s an akuma scene in “Lies” that literally is just copy-pasted from “Truth” (it actually does this again with another scene later but that’s not important right now), so that means anything that takes place before said scene in both “Truth” and “Lies” have to line up.
Except they can’t. The akuma scene in question interrupts Marinette’s movie date with Luka in “Truth,” and before that, she had just opened the Miracle Box, wrangled up the kwami, talked to the girl squad over video call, talked to Luka, and then immediately had to leave. There are no cuts or wiggle room anywhere in there.
Therefore, the scene in “Lies” is impossible. Either the scene is supposed to go elsewhere in the episode (we don’t actually know how many days it takes up so it’s hard to say on that front) which just makes the episode even more convoluted, or this means that one would have to pick between the scene in “Truth” and the scene in “Lies” because they literally cannot co-exist.
“Lies” was supposed to coincide with “Truth” and they messed it up in the first scene of the episode.
Then comes Adrien himself, who really shows the series’ clunkiness in focusing on other characters. It’s not that I’m against the show moving away from Marinette to show other people’s point-of-view (I definitely didn’t complain during the Couffaine sibling scene in “Reflekdoll”), but Adrien cannot carry his own episode.
In Marinette’s opening scene, we immediately got details on the grimoire and lore about how reading it actually worked. I didn’t like it and it wasn’t good, but it was new information.
Adrien, meanwhile, spends a large portion of the episode being sad (a very grand and unique plot, my dudes) and giving us information we already know. “Truth” has to come first because “Lies” is half of a follow-up on it, meaning that the audience is already aware that Ladybug has been forgetful and has had to miss out on patrols. It’s just that now we get to see Chat Noir sulking about it and--okay, I am just going to go off, alright?
Firstly, Chat Noir tells Ladybug later on that he “understands” her guardian duties, but he previously mocked her behind her back by using air quotes when he was talking to her answering machine (since she obviously wouldn’t see that). We saw in “Truth” where he admitted that he doesn’t mind her being guardian “as long as it doesn’t change their relationship,” and that’s on display right here with his comments.
Not only is it extremely disrespectful, but for someone who claims to be so loyal and understanding to Ladybug, he sure doesn’t show it.
Secondly, he leaves her a message about how he’ll take care of patrol, then proceeds to slack off because she’s not there to keep him in check. He sulks around Paris, mumbling about how Ladybug isn’t around and constantly checking his messages to see if she’s replied to him. Chat Noir has shown his “priorities” in terms of heroism before, but patrol isn’t supposed to be about getting time with “““his lady”““ yet that is clearly all he cares about. He even ends the patrol unprompted, either giving up or just generally having not finished, because I don’t believe that the “end” of patrol just happened to be at the place Kagami was.
Patrol is about protecting Paris and scoping things out. Ladybug is trusting him to pick up the slack when she’s not around and he should be picking up slack, yet he has completely failed on that front. This is made worse when considering that the Season 3 finale had Ladybug breaking down to him from guilt and we know that Marinette had a breakdown before that to Luka, yet Chat is doing nothing to lighten Ladybug’s burden, putting up a falsehood on Ladybug’s answering machine to make him look better than he actually is.
Then, thirdly and most importantly/infuriatingly, Chat Noir knows that Ladybug is busy and he knows that she’s taking on a new responsibility, yet he not only jabs at her for “how hurtful it is when she leaves him to patrol alone” (one, cry me a river, and two, I don’t care if it’s a joke, it’s insensitive), but before that scene, he was actively hoping for people to get akumatized so Ladybug would be forced to show up and he could spend time with her. He egged Xavier Ramier on, even asking him if he “missed being Mister Pigeon,” and then looked on with glee as Chloe bullied Sabrina because he thought that an akumatization might happen.
And this is on top of so many other issues with this whole scene. Adrien complains all the time about his schedule and how restrictive his father is, but suddenly - in the episode right after Marinette had to break up with her boyfriend due to her cramped schedule - is lounging around and wasting time. It hurts to see Marinette suffering from all of her responsibilities while Chat’s biggest problem is how little time he gets with Ladybug.
Also, another point on Mister Pigeon is that that’s the akuma that had interrupted Marinette’s movie date and kiss with Luka. I’m not suggesting that Chat egging Xavier on led to him getting akumatized, but I am saying that Chat wanting akuma to happen with no regard for Ladybug’s happiness is yet another point on the list of why I hate the love square. Marinette genuinely forgot about patrol with him - genuinely was forgetting about everything, really - and as a “punishment,” her own partner whined, didn’t patrol properly, and egged on an akumatization that eventually ended up happening which then broke up the little bit of happiness that the universe was allowing her to have.
Oh, and did I mention that he’s also dating Kagami at the time as well because here we freaking go.
Now, I did not get on Marinette’s case for her Adrien wall and stammering because Luka is largely aware of where she stands in the relationship and she only brought Adrien up when someone else did, even when Luka wasn’t around or being mentioned. Adrien, however, I have multiple bones to pick with, starting with how utterly needy he is for Ladybug’s attention.
This guy has tons of friends, all these fans, and could get people to flock to him whether in or out of the mask, but he wants Ladybug, and anyone not Ladybug isn’t good enough. There’s a scene later in the episode where Kagami - his girlfriend, mind you - is pouring her heart out to him, and he gets distracted by Ladybug instead of listening to her. Even when he excuses the distraction, he then gets distracted again even though Ladybug is no longer in the background.
Lying to protect his identity is one thing, but what Adrien does to Kagami goes beyond that. He’s pining after and flirting with another girl and Kagami has no idea. She’s speculated before that Adrien likes Marinette, but she’s mostly left in the dark because Adrien hasn’t told her anything, nor has he confirmed with her whether it’s okay or not for him to flirt with other girls so long as he’s not pursuing them. He could’ve admitted that he was in love with Ladybug but that he wants to try things with Kagami, but he refuses to open up to her or put himself out there.
Except, he technically does, once, when Kagami tells him to pose for her and he strikes his transformation stance, but he caught her completely off-guard and it’s no wonder why she was put off by it or thought it was unnatural. Not only that, but when Kagami tells him that he’s acting like a clown in that scene, we can see by jumping back to “Truth” that Chat Noir fished for Ladybug’s compliments which then led to a line about him talking about how Ladybug enjoyed him acting like a clown; a direct connection.
Kagami didn’t validate him, so he fished for Ladybug to do so because Ladybug was both forced to answer the question and wasn’t able to lie to him. The show has Ladybug state that her most preferred trait of his is his humor but I am certainly not laughing.
Chat Noir even goes further after the fight with Truth (so another copy-pasted scene) by saying that he has the most fun with Ladybug specifically, and this is all while he’s still dating.
Then this guy has the gall to talk during his break-up about how his fun times with Kagami weren’t lies after apologizing to her for his constant lying, as if he’s trying to earn her sympathy when we know that he’s been pining after Ladybug and flirting with her like she were his number one when he already had a girlfriend waiting for him (and who, by the way, had covered for him earlier and was sitting sadly on a staircase outside, feeling abandoned). The episode presents the break-up as if Adrien’s problem was the fact that he had to constantly lie to Kagami due to being busy with hero work (which is already dumb when we also saw him lounging around and complaining about how nothing was happening, meaning he was inadvertently supportive of the idea of having less time with Kagami and more time with Ladybug even if that means Paris is in danger), but the real problem ends up being that Adrien neglected Kagami emotionally and wasn’t able to give her the attention she wanted.
It’s both sad and annoying that Adrien has always sulked about his dad not paying attention to him and then we get Adrien not paying attention to Kagami, looking for Ladybug when Ladybug had already left and Kagami is trying to tell him something very important.
This is what I mean when I say that Adrien can’t carry an episode on his own. He’s incredibly selfish and most of his dialog just involves him complaining about Ladybug or making excuses. Kagami carried the episode more than he did because more details were revealed about her - specifically the fact that she likes drawing - and she’s active in making things happen (being the one to make the excuse to set up their fencing lessons, deciding what they’ll do with their hour of free time, etcetera).
And regardless of what girl he’s interacting with, Adrien can’t respect either of them. I just talked about Kagami and I’ve already talked about how he treats Ladybug when she’s not even around, but now we get to how he treats Ladybug when she is around.
During the climax of the fight with Lies, where Ladybug requires a distraction to safely pull off her lucky charm, Chat Noir decides - without Ladybug’s input - to sacrifice himself yet again.
I have to stress that Ladybug is stressed and Chat has always talked about her plans and listening to her, yet he has a horrible habit of making decisions all on his own and letting Ladybug deal with the fallout. Whenever he has the chance, he’ll throw himself in front of her and take the big hit, presumably with the mindset that Miraculous Ladybug will fix everything so it’s not like it matters.
Ladybug even shouts at him when he hints at what he’s about to do and there was absolutely time for them to talk about it, but Chat Noir just lets himself fall and be bait, even throwing out what is a clear confession (again, while he’s still dating someone else) before he’s knocked unconscious by Lies’ power.
And when Ladybug yells at him for it when everything’s said and done, pounding at his chest and looking absolutely upset over the whole thing? He not only brushes her off, but he boops her nose and talks about how “irresistable” her “angry little pout” is.
He might as well have just said, “you’re cute when you’re angry,” because that’s exactly what he’s implying; that Ladybug’s anger is something “amusing” to him and not something he takes seriously. We’ve already seen it before in “Reflekdoll” and “Oblivio” as well, so this is just a continuation of already-annoying behavior.
Then, instead of Ladybug getting even angrier for it, the episode has her smile at him, which not only isn’t a normal reaction compared to how she’s reacted before, but now gives the impression that she’s being conditioned by the narrative to accept Chat Noir’s behavior in whatever shape or form it takes.
Because think about it: regardless of how upset Ladybug gets over Chat Noir, it never works out for her and she’s forced to either make up with him quickly or just get over it because she can’t be fighting with her partner (meanwhile, like in “Glaciator,” Chat Noir can be as upset as he wants and she’ll apologize first). She presumably would now have the authority to take away his ring by virtue of being guardian, but he’s also been her partner from the beginning and he’s had so much time to get used to the cat. Most likely, she would sooner blame herself for failing to reign him in than blame him for failing as an adequate partner.
There’s nothing she can do. She has to deal with the hand that she’s been dealt and getting angry at him has done nothing; rejecting him has done nothing.
And of course the episode throws everything under the rug in the ending with an insulting LadyNoir scene where Ladybug and Chat Noir talk about the secrets their forced to keep but also how they can trust each other.
Meanwhile, Ladybug has no idea of all the things Chat Noir has done behind her back. She still has no clue about “Copycat,” nor “Syren,” nor any of the stuff he did in this episode that she’ll probably never know about. Factor it in with “Miraculous New York” (whether one considers it canon or not) where she rightfully shouted at him because he betrayed her trust, and here we are one and a half episodes later (since “Truth” and “Lies” take place at similar times) where suddenly they’re all buddy-buddy and Chat Noir doesn’t have to deal with any consequences to his selfishness.
I’m glad that Kagami didn’t forgive Adrien in the end (even if I’m upset that she doesn’t know how bad it really was) because she had every right to walk away and not want to be friends with him. I only wish that Ladybug could do the same thing and never look back, but due to the love square’s status as endgame, we know that can’t happen, and Ladybug will eventually be forced to fall in love with a guy who mocked her responsibilities behind her back, disrespected her authority by opting to tease/flirt with her, continued pursuing her despite her rejections, and hoped for Paris to be in danger just so he could see her.
And... yeah, that hurts. It really does.
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mlwritingprompts · 3 years
Text
Submitting this here instead of at @adriensaltprompts because it's an AU
I had a thought today, and that thought was "one of the ways you can tell this show is written by men is that none of the women in the show pick up on Chat Noir's obvious creepiness".
(I say women because I'm pretty sure none of the men in this show are canonically trans and in my experience, cis men can be staggeringly oblivious about this sort of thing, so I'm not particularly surprised.) 
That got me thinking, though. What about an AU where people do pick up on it? You can't tell me that nobody in the ML world has ever dealt with sexual harassment- hell, you don't even need to have dealt with it personally, anybody with a functional creep radar could piece it together.
It's not exactly massive public backlash, at least at first, but people notice. Even if it takes a while, it happens.
And at some point, Alya, the person with the best platform for this sort of thing, makes a post about it on the Ladyblog.
@Ladyblogger wrote: Hey, I just gotta know if I'm the only one- am I the only one who gets weird vibes from Chat Noir? Like, Ladybug is always saying she's not interested but he keeps at it. I thought it was just like part of their dynamic, sort of a banter thing, but I saw it up close today and Ladybug just looked so... uncomfortable. Am I crazy? Let me know in the comments.
The replies start pouring in faster than she could have ever anticipated. And while some are dismissive, others are very much not.
@Cardinals-Sin commented: ASDFGHJKL I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE
@TheySeeMeRolling commented: No, ur not crazy. Kitty Cat has Big Creep Energy.
@I'veGotNoRoots commented: Duh. Nobody who unironically uses the term "M'lady" in this day and age can be trusted NOT to be a total scumbucket.
@Done_With_Your_Shit commented: I had this one weirdo ex who acted EXACTLY like Chat Noir, except instead of trying to get me to go out with him (we were already going out), he kept badgering me about having s*x with him.
The post ends up gaining a lot of traction and sparking further discussion on other platforms. Essays are written. Memes are made. People share horror stories, listing the things about their abusers that they see in Chat Noir. The debates are vicious and leave few survivors.
However, in Ms. Bustier's class, there isn't much of a debate. General consensus is, Chat Noir is insensitive at best and a predator at worst.
And Marinette, seeing so many people validating the feelings she's been having but couldn't quite put into words this strong, is overwhelmed. She's relieved. And when an interviewer finally brings it up in an interview she does without Chat Noir, she tells the truth.
"Yes, what Chat Noir is doing makes me uncomfortable. I've told him to stop multiple times and he doesn't listen. I don't like it and I wish he'd respect my boundaries, but since we work together so closely I'm not sure what to do about it."
The only question is, how does Adrien deal with this? His classmates have made their opinions abundantly clear, and while there are some people on the internet who insist he's doing nothing wrong, those people know better than to show their faces and support publicly IRL. The people who support Ladybug, however, are very much not afraid to give him some real consequences in whatever way they can.
The next time Adrien, under the mask of Chat Noir, makes a pass at Ladybug (while being rejected even more forcefully than usual), something happens. A bystander, someone Ladybug just saved, steps in.
"Hey, quit it. Can't you take no for an answer?"
And this happens more and more. Eventually, Adrien can't risk harassing Ladybug in front of an audience because at this point people have started objecting as a group. A favored chant of theirs seems to be "no means no". At one point, someone throws something at him. Granted, it was just an empty soda can, but the sentiment was clear.
Back off.
So what's a creep to do?
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liquid-luck-00 · 3 years
Text
WonderBug
Angst Edition
Diana Prince (Wonder Woman) x Marinette Dupain-Cheng (Ladybug)
I am late. SO, so , so late but here it is
1: Soulmates @maribat-angst-fluff-april
My partner is the wonderful @thedragonbug
Ao3
Fuffy Edition
Tumblr media
Soulmates exist, and Marinette hates hers. You see everyone is born with their half or part of a complete soul mark. The other parts would appear when you were closer to your soulmate and be permanent when they were close emotionally. For everyone, the appearance or 'drawing' of the mark was light and warm. But not for her, no her drawing was heavy and hot, like a hot knife digging into her arm.
Her parents knew this, and it was concerning, to know that their child was in pain because of their soulmate. Seeing as the marks were not supposed to be painful. Yet as there was no good reason given by medical and mark professionals, and the fact that her soulmate didn't stay near her for long there was nothing that they could do. They did tell her that few, this phenomenon affects one in a million people and she was just lucky enough to be one of them.
Over the years she grew used to the pain, but every time she did it would come back even stronger than the last. She slowly hated her mark and in turn her soulmate. Marinette would cover her mark, ignore it, even wish it away. All her soulmate did was bring her pain. Sure, it upped her pain tolerance, but it hurt her still.
When she turned fourteen, she became Ladybug. She then recognized that her mark was actually the wire of her yo-yo.
The first time Chat Noir claimed they were soulmates she broke down in tears. luckily for her he told her during patrol and not an attack.
"We aren't soulmates, Chat, and I'm glad we aren't." She nearly whispered.
"Why Bug?"
"Because I hate my soulmate, and I don’t want to ever hate you."
"Why would you hate your soulmate?" He seemed genuinely curious. But no one outside her parents knew, not a single person knew what happens to her.
"Because it hurts when they are close, it hurts so badly. The drawing is painful. I never want to meet the person who keeps hunting me." Tears formed in her eyes and Chat hugged her.
"I'm not your soulmate, then." She shook her head. "Good thing I'm your partner, and Plagg help me I am going to be your best friend. Got that Bugaboo?"
A half-hearted chuckle and a small smile escaped her. "Sounds good Kitty." The first person she has ever told, the person who was convinced that they were soulmates, cares for her, to help alleviate some of her pain.
The two became inseparable after that, to the point that most of Paris believed they were in a relationship.
When Nadia asked them about it during an interview, their reactions were memorable. Both all but gagged, turned to face each other, and then laughed almost falling out of the seats.
"I believe we have missed the joke." Nadia commented, worried, and confused.
"Why would I date my sister?"
"Sister?"
"Ladybug and I consider each other siblings in all but blood."
"Everything between us is simply platonic, not even close to romantic.” Ladybug answered after Chat.
“Then why would the whole of Paris believe you to be soulmates?” She may be good at hiding her pain, but the question must have made her react slightly, or Chat knew how sensitive the topic was to her.
“We aren’t soulmates, not the bonded ones that everyone thinks of.” He began. “We are the holders of the black cat and ladybug respectively because our souls resonate with the miraculous. Sure, they are two parts of a whole, but we are practically twins, two halves of coin. She is the sister I choose, she is my partner, and that is our relationship.”
“He’s completely right, now I think it’s time for us to start our patrol, BugOut!” Her smile now in place and their excuse to leave perfectly timed and respectful they made their exit.
They went on their patrol as normal, except just as they arrived at the Eiffel Tower to end the patrol. She was about to land on the platform when a searing pain flashed and radiating affecting her entire body blinding her momentarily. A single moment caused her to collapse on the tower landing, crumpling on the platform.
“LB!” Her breath came out in short bursts, she was clutching her upper arm eyes squeezed shut. This was the worst it has ever happened before, and she wanted it to end. As soon as the cause of pain came it disappeared. Leaving only the memory and a phantom pain.
"Just give me a minute." She slowly got her breathing under control, starting to get accustomed to the new level of pain.
"You weren't kidding that is the worst I’ve ever seen you hurt."
"Yeah not fun."
---
A month after that her mark burned again. This time during class. The teachers knew she would randomly stop due to pain, but they were told they were random migraines. To the point Mari would hold her head and rub her arm to sooth herself, while playing up a headache. Adrien stayed back after the class let out." You know you don't always need to put on a brave face Bugaboo."
Her attention snapped to him. "Well it's easier than constantly answering questions Kitty." She figured quickly.
Sure, they found out one another's identity, but that worked in their favor. After Tikki got sick, Fu started training Mari, and after a month Marinette was given guardianship. Fu still hasn’t lost his memories because Mari let Wayzz stay with him, for the time being, he eventually returns it to Mari in order to move on with his life, his memories fading gradually.
When Adrien got his hands on the grimoire, he of course showed it to Marinette.
“Kitty I know you don’t want to hear this, but I think your dad might be Hawkmoth.” This seemed to perfect for him to have without him being a villain.
“I know, but…”
“Adrien is there any motive anything that might be what he would wish for?”
“My mom. Dad closed himself off when she disappeared. I bet he would wish for her back.”
“Okay, so I’m going to be blunt okay.” He nodded. “So, if your mom is dead there isn’t anything that can be done without the wish, meaning at least one other person is dying.”
“So…”
“But if she is anything but.” She flipped through the grimoire recalling the studies she’s did with Fu. “There are ways we can find or even heal her.”
“This is all riding on an if.” He looked unsure as if this was too much to accept.
“Do you trust me?”
“If I didn’t, I would have turned tail and run a long time ago.”
“You dork.” She lightly shoved him, but he swayed dramatically.
“You two are close.” The new student in their class came up to them.
“Lila, right?”
“That’s right.” She answered sickly sweet, almost fake. “Are you two soulmates by any chance?”
“No.” Adrien answered. “Why?”
“You’re Adrien Agreste! Why would you be in public school?” She finally seemed to recognize.
“Let’s just say it’s a bit of rebellion.” He chuckled.
“We’re still on for video games, right?” She brought up to end the conversation seeing that Adrien was getting uncomfortable.
“Your winning streak is going down.” He announced.
“You want to join us, Lila?” She offered.
“Why?”
“Because your new and I want to get to know you.” Marinette answered honestly.
“Why?”
“Because we know you lied but still want to know you, the real you.” Adrien added.
“Why?” She asked suspiciously now.
“Question! Is it a felony to kidnap her to play video games, have snacks, get to know her, then let her go?”
“Well the kidnapping part is but if she goes willingly, I call that a hangout session.” Adrien mused.
“True, true.” She hummed. “So, what do you say, because now I am determined to get to know you.”
“Wh…”
“Kidnapping it is.” Adrien decided and grabbed the new girl’s wrist pulling her out of the library. Mari picking up their bags.
Lila herself wasn’t too bad once she started telling the truth, lying is a coping mechanism she created, because she is constantly moving schools, cities, and even countries. She is pretty interesting when she isn’t exaggerating. She was on a Hollywood movie set, but she was there on accident, she was looking for the bathroom in a restaurant and they were filming there that day. She did save a kitten on a tarmac once, but one it wasn’t Jagged Stones, it was a kitten who spooked out of their carrier and rushed down the stairs. Lila dove and caught it before it could leave the passenger unloading area to get the tram to the airport. (Some small airports unload passengers in a certain area of the tarmac and either shuttle them to the building or have a sectioned of walkway that is cleared for passengers, to walk back in only.)
After almost two hours Lila left for home when Adrien’s father called, and he was angry. Together she and Adrien ran back to the Agreste Mansion.
“Adrien!” Gabriel came out disheveled and slightly panicked. “And Miss Dupain-Cheng.” He slightly composed himself.
“Sorry I kept him.” She apologized. “He showed me this really cool book and you know how it is when inspiration hits.”
“Ah yes the inspiring fashion designer friend.” Adrien had walked up and handed his father the grimoire.
“It’s quite an interesting spell book.”
“You can read it?”
“Yes, I can. (Come on out little butterfly.)” Nooroo flew out from his hiding spot. “Hello kwamii of transmission and to you as well Hawkmoth.” She was calm deathly calm.
“How?!” Gabriel growled.
“Calm down. I have a question for you first. You want the jewels used by Ladybug and Chat Noir, why?”
“Would my answer change your plan of action to urn me into authorities and to the heroes?”
“My response may change, but you’ll have to answer to find out.”
“My wife wielder the peacock miraculous, it is broken, and she fell ill, and is in a comatose state.”
“Ah! So here is what is going to happen.” She took the grimoire from Gabriel and flipped over pages. “There is a way to revive her without resorting to using the wish.”
“How do you know this?”
She simply smiled. “You mind gathering these ingredients please Adrien?” She text him a list.
“Sure.”
“How do I know that this isn’t a ruse?”
“One I hate liars, and two because all magic has a cost, and this way is less than if you were to use the wish.”
“What do you mean cost?”
“Just like using your transformation wears on the kwamii, and the power affects your limit. Magic has its cost. The wish because it will always rewrite reality, the price is steep. Bringing back one life means you lose at minimum one other person from your life most likely more.”
“And this?”
“From what I understand. Everyone involved in the spell will have their energies deprecated so they will sleep for a day to a week.”
“Randomly?”
“No, the more people the less each person sleeps.”
“Here they are!” Adrien burst back in the room.
“Do you have the peacock miraculous?” Gabriel nodded. “Okay we’ll need that first, so lead the way to the kitchen.” Both men shuffled confused. “You do know where the kitchen is right?”
“Um well find it eventually.” Adrien chuckled. They were lucky and form it easily and Gabriel left while she and Adrien began to individually brew two separate potions. Adrien the more complex one for his mother’s revival. And she did the simpler one to fix the miraculous. Sue her Adrien is the better one in chemistry, sure he can’t cook to save himself, but he has a gift for chem, and Tikki help her she will teach him to cook. It’s practically edible chemistry, right?!
She took the Brock from Gabriel and fixed it, allowing Duusu out. “Okay so who is going to do this?”
“We will,” Adrien answered for himself and his Father, who nodded.
“Please let be help as well.” Miss Sancoeur offered.
Nooroo, Duusu, Tikki, and Plagg (they came out of hiding now) came to her. “We can help.”
She nodded and saw that Gabriel and Natalie were staring wide eyed between her and Adrien. She thought she heard Natalie say, ‘That explains so much’ but she isn’t sure.
Long story short they were able to wake up Emile, but she took back the peacock and butterfly, leaving Plagg with Adrien. Funnily enough the Agreste’s became a second family to her, once Gabriel finally grasped how to be a father. They told Paris that they had found Hawkmoth, but he would be tried by the order of Miraculous, meaning he would be stripped of the gem and his memories of the miraculous erased. It was a lie but Tikki told her that was what would have happened. There was some outcry, but they explained that they would have no recollection of it, and it wouldn’t make sense to try them.
The next few years of her life were blissfully normal, aside from the fact she had a contract under the Gabriel brand as the designer MDC, who was also endorsed by Style Queen. Chloe isn’t as bad as she puts on when she isn’t masking the hurt of being constantly ignored and bought by her parents.
- - -
It wasn’t until she was twenty-two and accompanying Adrien to a Wayne charity gala, one he didn’t want to go alone and two she was invited anyways, Chloe, Kagami, and Luka were also there on their own merits and invitations so they all stuck relatively together. Since arriving there Marinette was a constant pain, her arm burned and ached, but she forced herself to simply breathe and tried her hardest to push it out of her mind. But her luck wouldn’t hold, three hours into the event she was approached by who she recognized as Bruce Wayne, the host of the gala, and a woman to his left, the pain was almost unbearable the closer the two approached. Her friends noticed, they knew what her pain actually meant, as she opened up to them about it after a while, but she grit her teeth and tried to push through it.
“Mr. Agreste, Miss Bourgeois It is good to see you both again.” Bruce Wayne acknowledged. “It’s nice to meet all of you as well, Bruce Wayne.” He introduced to the rest, shaking hands. “And this is a good friend of mine.”
“Diana Prince.” She also went to shake everyone’s hands and had left Marinette for the last. The moment their hands touched she almost crumpled, she shrunk back and into Adrien and Chloe. “Is she okay?”
“Diana?” Bruce pointed towards her upper arm, the mark most of them overlooked before was now complete and glowing lightly. What Marinette remembered was that there was her yo-yo string and a golden rope that she only saw once before on her own arm. She felt sick, Diana was staring at her now, she recognized that Marinette was her soulmate.
“Melody?” Luka now stepped up.
“I want to leave.” She answered flatly.
“You are…”
She completely turned away, but by now her friends knew what was going on and were glaring at Diana. “I want to leave, now.” She repeated.
“Come on bug, let’s get you away from… this.” He threw a look at Diana, who was looking confused and seemingly alarmed.
The other three were putting as much space as they could between their friend and who is unknowingly causing her pain.
“Please is she alright?” Diana asked stepping forward barely grazing her hand covering her mark. This time it felt as if the skin itself was burning and stung almost like it was being pricked over and over and over again.
“Don’t touch me and stay away from me.” On the outside she looks clam and relaxed, but her voice was soft and raw, her eyes burned in pain. “You and that completed mark can stay far from me.”
“Luka, Kagami mind taking her back to the house?” The two in question led her away and once a safe distance away she broke down in tears, sobbing from the pain she was biting down.
- - -
The two that stayed were simultaneously glaring at her and watching their friends leave the gala.
“Is she alright?” Bruce finally bole the tension.
“As soon as she is far enough away from her.” The girl, Chloe, snapped at her. “Now that we know who is the the person causing her pain, we can keep her from them.” She snapped towards her, but it was a slap to Diana.
“I don’t follow. We are…”
“Soulmates, yeah we figured.” Adrien this time spoke.
“They why would she want to leave, without speaking?”
“One one in a million people are in pain when they are close to their soulmates.” Adrien spoke calmly but stoically. “No one knows why.” He began to fidget with a ring on hi# finger, she couldn’t recall if she saw any jewelry on her soulmate, Marinette, but she has a suspicion. After all she feels similar to her Mother’s aura and presence, that of a Ladybug.
“You are wrong. There is an explanation, but only a few know why that is.” She feels certain that she knows what this is.
“Let me guess you know why.” Chloe remarked, sarcastically and unamused.
“Allow me to explain this another time and place, as this is neither.”
“Fine call this number at noon est tomorrow.” Adrien handed her a phone number and the two turned and left.
“Diana?” Bruce snapped her attention. “What was that about?” He was still calm and collected but she knew he would be the one to ask, figuring out what was the next step, what had the best options of success.
“Magic.”
- - -
The next day she called the number and she was invited to a video call by the recipient. It turned out to be Marinette.
“Hello Diana.” Her voice was not cold but it was emotionless, as if she was forced into this conversation. Granted she did think she would be speaking with Adrien and Chloe.
“I never wanted to harm you, I swear that on the river Styx.” she began but before she could continue Marinette cut in.
“Let’s be clear, I don’t care about your apologies. I just want to know why this is happening and how to either get rid of it or to never have contact with you in any way or proximity.”
“I am apologizing because this is known as the curse of the ladybug and black cat.” She saw the young woman tense at that. “The reason I know of this is from by Mother, Queen Hippolyta Of the Amazon’s.” She allowed that to sink in and the other woman allowed her to drop her defense, nodding to what is said.
“When you say the curse of the ladybug and black cat what do you mean by that?”
“True souls of the miraculous, when in their life they come into contract with their given gems, cause a reaction.” Diana explained. “For the ladybug they receive the pain of their soulmate through their marks. Which is what I assume is going on.”
“Yes you’re right, but this has been going ever since I could remember.”
“Call it what you will fate, destiny, but you were always going to wield the ladybug jewel, that is why the curse manifested itself.”
“What about the black cat?”
“I am unsure, the black cat of my Mother’s time died before meeting their soulmate, but I would assume it would be similar to our situation.”
“Then how do we solve this?”
~~~~~~~~~~
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Jackady: The importance of the father-son hug scene
One of my favorite Adrien-Gabriel moments to this day is still the ending scene of "Jackady" but I have seen more confusion for it than clarity in the Fandom so here is my analysis on it for why I love it so much. Because as the seasons go by this moment sustaines so much more significance that I simply HAVE to talk about it!
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While it isn't the only Adrien-Gabriel scene that does it, I adore this scene because it shows perfectly that in the beginning their little, broken family could have made it out of this tragedy stronger and maybe even better but the reality that Adrien and Gabriel are also Chat Noir and Hawkmoth not only hinders those chances, it actively drives them further apart into destruction
Maybe one day I'll give all my thoughts to the entire scene and just go on a rambling post about it (because I love EVERYTHING about this scene) but for now, let's just focus on the main aspects that really sell it to me.
I give Gabriel alot of shit on my blog for obvious reasons. I refuse to generally give him the same positive and conciderate treatment as Adrien, Marinette and the other kid characters because unlike them HE is an adult, a father and the villain of the show. The adult and villain part I'm not taking too personal because those are "just" the traditional aspects of his character type. But what is incredibly unique about him is the fact that even if he is this evil villain type he still gets to be the realistic type of abusive and (truly) bad father with sympathetic moments like this:
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This moment of shock and fear is not something you would normally see in a family cartoon from an evil parental figure the child longs to bond with without setting the parent up for redemption. But as we now know by s3, Gabriel is only getting increasingly worse and more abusive and Adrien is starting to let go of his father to move on without him and defying his will. It's quite clear now that their future will not be anywhere near good, "Chat Blanc" showed us what's to come.
And this is exactly why I love this scene. Because, yes, this family will go up in flames and never truly reconcile ever again (Gabriel went WAY too far for that in the way he abuses/will abuse Adrien) but the show doesn't shy away from showing us the transitional phase in between which really not alot of media dares to. Normally when they stay enemies or their situation doesn't end in an at least somewhat forgiving way this transition is simply mostly skipped to not having to let the bad parent have realistic and sympathetic moments in their downfall into madness/villainy (especially with their victim).
Miraculous does and it's beautifully tragic because you can just... SEE the situation unfold and understand where the eventual fate of the family comes from.
The pure misunderstanding between these two in this scene, the way they just talk RIGHT PAST each other because the other one can not understand the problem cuz they don't know the secret identity of the other one is... brutal!
This moment here could have worked for them. It could have been a genuine step forward in their relationship and saved their family but it got completely CRUSHED by their secret identities as Chat Noir and Hawkmoth.
Let me show you what I mean:
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THIS is a moment I AM giving Gabriel genuine credit for, because you can turn it any way you want it won't change the fact that, for his situation, THIS was the right question to ask his son. But at the same time it's just such a... horrible thing to say here oh my GOD.
And that's the ugly, UGLY beauty here.
If Gabriel weren't Hawkmoth (if someone else were Hawkmoth so the situation would still have happened) he would not have reacted to the fucking ring. He would have thought nothing of it and had remained focused on Adrien, because that was his original intention (problematically executed but that's beside the point now).
After Gabriel got himself in life threatening danger because he didn't listen to Adriens concerns, he went to him to hug him as apology. THIS is Gabriels way of apologizing and trying to make up for his faults. He's obviously not good at verbalizing his feelings properly and at normal interpersonal dynamics in general. So what he does is trying to make his feelings known in a... "material/physical" way. This does not only show through Gabriel just buying the best things for Adrien without ever being there for him, it also shows in the way he physically interacts with his loved ones when he genuinely wants to show his love. Because for how seriously antisocial and unreachable as he normally is, he also gets... quite touchy.
The shoulder touch thing Adrien does as well to show his affection for someone, him hugging Adrien both times he got a wake up call and literally everything thats happening between him and Natalie at this point lol.
Him hugging Adrien here is just as much of a big deal as Adriens expressions make it seem to be
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But the father-son moment couldn't last because the villain-hero alter egos interfered. Gabriel being Hawkmoth rightfully stopped the moment here, because reacting to even the slightest chance of your own child being the hero you try to destroy is undoubtedly the right way to handle this (even if the way he did it wasn’t ideal, that's not something I would expect from any character in that situation), but nevertheless it still utterly crushed the moment.
Cuz just because it is the right thing for HAWKMOTH to ask his son Adrien who he fears COULD be Chat Noir, doesn't it mean that it is anywhere close to okay for Adrien/Chat Noir to hear this very question in that moment from his father who he thinks as a normal civilian in this.
And Adriens expression once again makes this perfectly clear
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(You know the offense just reached an other dimension when the kid, who is already well aware and used to their fathers emotionally painful ways, makes a face like THAT)
Cause here is the thing. We all know by now that Adrien has some serious self esteem issues and that while he tries to over play it (especially as Chat) he just doesn't hold himself in high regards or even likes himself very much. Hence why he goes all out on the acting as Chat Noir and doesn't defend himself much.
But just because he doesn't like himself that much doesn't it mean he still doesn't want that very validation and appreciation from his father. Just like all of us and everyone on earth, Adrien wants to be loved for himself, even if he doesn't/can't do it himself. Thats normal and is something that can deeply damage you when you don't get it from your own parent/s.
So tell me, do you see why Adrien was so CRUSHED when in probably the first time since his mother's disappearance Gabriel gave him the genuine and all present love he wanted for so long, just for Gabriel to cut their moment short and FOCUSE ON THE RING?
The one thing on Adrien that makes him become "someone else" so he can escape from having to be himself for a bit.
And for Adrien it now seems like that in his own fathers eyes this ONE thing Gabriel shouldn't even know could be anything special about if he weren't Hawkmoth, is the ONLY thing worth noticing about his own son so it catches his eyes.
It tells Adrien right to the face that nothing Adrien was and did to make his father happy up to this point measured up with Gabriels expectations. All of Adriens efforts, his patience and his hopes of earning his fathers love and happiness if he only does well enough, literally in vain. It wasn't enough. It's wasn't enough for Gabriel to notice in comparison to the ring apperently.
From Adriens view you can interpret it two ways:
1. Since earlier Gabriel also took a closer look at Chat Noirs ring Adrien now thinks correctly that his father is seeing his new ring as a sign that he could be Chat Noir. This would mean that in Adriens eyes Gabriel would have cut their moment, an action of validation and love Adrien has longed, worked and patiently waited for so LONG, short and basically forgot all about Adrien himself because there is a SLIGHT possibility that Adriens ring means he COULD be Chat Noir. His own father literally choosing his secret identity over his civilian one as Adrien, the son Gabriel had for 14 years, is beyond crushing. And while it seems strange for Adrien to take offense in this because, well, he IS Chat Noir so what the big deal? The big deal here is, again, that as Chat Adrien is literally trying NOT to be himself. He uses the opportunity of being an anonymous hero to escape from having to be Adrien Agreste in every way he can. Gabriel throwing aside the son who is literally standing in front of him and who did his darn best to be there for him in his own time of grieving his mother to basically only focus on Chat Noir (a person Gabriel in the end of the day shouldn't and doesn't know) possibly being his son, is such a fucked up scenario to throw onto Adriens already low self esteem what the actual fuck.
Or 2. That Adrien simply takes his father choosing to focus on his "simple" new ring out of all things as a clear "I see nothing else worth noticing in you, so to keep this conversation up I have to grasp at straws so I guess I'll be taking about your new ring".
No matter how one chooses to interpret the moment, it's equally as much of a "fuck you" either way. I know Gabriel could have said worse here, but honestly, the list isn't that long.
So when after this Adrien reacts like this:
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It should really not come by any surprise. Although, no, it is kind of surprising. Surprising that Adrien didn't react alot worse than this. What Gabriel just threw at him is like the verbal equivalent of a loved one reaching out for you with a hand so they can caress your cheek but the moment you lean in they follow it up with a punch to the face.
It shows just how well Adrien has his emotions under control and is able to stay level headed under such great offense that THIS is the level of irrationality and anger he expresses after basically being out right disregarded by his own father (which should be of no surprise either, as Chat Noir Adrien has to put up with a whole lot of disrespect as well and there he for literally 95% of the time has to shrug it off as well).
But no matter how bad Gabriels line here was, it has nothing and I mean NOTHING on the awful way Gabriel then decides to react to Adriens appropriate but still very mild response.
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Because THIS is the moment that sets up Gabriels betrayal and downfall as both a person and especially as a father. Up to this point Gabriel was a horrible person as well, no question. The entirety of s1 he already worked as Hawkmoth, manipulating people, putting them in great danger and planning the demise of two teenagers with sadistic glee. But still one has to acknowledge the difference in these two situations.
In one Gabriel is hiding in a secret lair, manipulating people he thinks beneath him to do the dirty work for him and fight two anonymous heros he just wants to get rid of to reach his goal. Gabriel is taking so much pleasure out of terrorizing Paris and it's people because he legitimately doesn't give a single fuck about them or holds any kind of personal connection to them either. He never goes outside and is very antisocial so these people and their city mean nothing to him because they ARE nothing to him. His (self chosen) isolation and lifestyle pretty much disconnected Gabriel from real life and a normal way of expressing and receiving human emotions. So when there are no emotional stakes for him personally, he sees no reason to not satisfy his villainous desires as Hawkmoth.
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So as odd as it may seem to say, him terrorizing Paris prior to this is not the point of crossing the line for his character. For that it's simply to impersonal.
No, the point of crossing the line happens here with Adrien. With Gabriels character things will always come back to Adrien at its core. Adrien (not Emilie, Natalie or anyone else) is the person Gabriel temporarily truly gave up being Hawkmoth for and Adrien is the one person Gabriel has his most human moments with. Not even in his bonding moments with Natalie does he show the same deep and true (misguided) love and affection as he gets to with Adrien in those rare moments (its close no doubt but something about Gabenath is not as deep and true as this father-son pair and I can't imagine it ever will).
This marks the point of no return for Gabriel because it's the first time he chose to deliberately abandon Adrien in the crossfire and decides to be the villain towards him instead of staying there to talk things out with him. It's the first time Adrien truly had Hawkmoth as his father. And Hawkmoth is Chat Noirs ememy so Gabriel fell into that role without Adrien knowing why.
And there is a solid reason for that.
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One of the best things of this show is that no matter how horrible things get between these two, things are always much more complicated than a simple "evil father doesn't love his good son" situation. Gabriel calls Adrien "the image of perfection" in this very episode, that's sure as hell not hate or dislike in any way. That's love, that's adoration. This man ADORES his son. And this is were the deep rooted problem lies.
Gabriel loves and adores his SON. The ideal and perfectly perfect son Adrien could become when Gabriel is done forming him into it by suffocating any "imperfections" with an iron fist. It's just that these "imperfections" are always the characteristics that make Adrien ADRIEN. Gabriel may truly love his son but I'm not even sure if Gabriel even so much as LIKES Adrien himself.
And this is perfectly showcased by Gabriel turning away from Adrien in this very scene here.
Because even though Gabriel literally disrespected, shut down and belittled his son for the entire episode he still came to see and hug his Adrien afterwards because he loves him. But HIS Adrien, the perfectly perfect Adrien Gabriel wants him to be, wasn't the Adrien he met up with in his sons room. Instead he got an Adrien with a ring on his hand that could be Chat Noirs, making him possibly one of the two enemies he's trying to destroy.
Adding salt to the "wound" Adrien even backtalks him in a way that undoubtedly reminded him of Chat as well since Gabriel pointed out Chats temper in this very episode.
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So Gabriel was very directly confronted with the possibility that Adrien could INDEED be Chat Noir and that naturally comes with the implications that Adrien deliberately disobeyed Gabriels orders accepting that ring, sabotaging Gabriel reaching his goal and in general doing everything his father DOESN'T want him to do BY CHOICE.
And here Gabriel made the decision that marks the point of no return, setting up the devastatingly horrible way this man is treating and will treat his son in the future.
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Because this is the moment Gabriel SHOULD have chosen Adrien over his mission. The sheer possibility, no scratch that, even the SLIGHTEST TRACE of a possibility of Adrien being Chat Noir should have immediately made Gabriel take action to save and protect him. Because it's not like Chat hasn't been constantly in dangerous, life threatening or even situations that ended up in DEATH. If Gabriel would truly love ADRIEN his quest would have ended right here, stopping the upcoming horror this family will face before it could have really begun (hence why this was shown to us in an episode of s1, the season where Hawkmoths identity was still unknown. If Gabriel had stopped here not even WE would have known, leaving Gabriels name untainted of Hawkmoths crimes as the Agreste family finally moves on and Hawkmoth dissappeares as suddenly as he appeared.)
because Adrien and his health and life should not be a price Gabriel is willing to risk paying for his goal.
But Gabriel didn't do that.
Because instead of Adrien Gabriel chose the potential perfectly perfect son he wants and turned his back on the one standing right in front of him. Cuz remember what Gabriels goal IS. He wants to change the past, so non of this ever happened in the first place.
Meaning Gabriel turning his back on our present Adrien doesn't mean that Gabriel outright hates Adrien now by the next second cuz he dared to disobey his orders like that. But it means that Gabriel is choosing to separate these two Adriens in his mind, making endangering, hurting and working against THIS Adrien more of a collateral damage than actually hurting his own son. THAT son, the one Gabriel convinces himself he is fighting for, is waiting for him in the past alongside Emilie.
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This separation was probably always there since Gabriel started trying to change the past hence why he justifies Adriens unhappiness and the way he abandones him as necessary sacrifices.
But the real separation started HERE, this marks the first time Gabriel just left Adrien behind in a position of complete and deliberate endangerment, knowing that the possibility of Adrien being Chat is still there but choosing to say: "if he indeed is, then that's an obstacle I will have to overcome."
This separation has been developing slowly but steadily through s2 and 3 right to "Chat Blanc" which tells us the future. Me elaborating on this "separation development" though became longer than I want to put in this post, therefore I will go into more depth about it another time.
So let me continue with this:
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Adrien is like... Genuinely not even angry. More deeply sad.
He was appropriately and truly hurt when Gabriel only started talking about the ring but once Gabriel turns around and walks away? He looks after his father but more in a way as if he is waiting to see if Gabriel would actually take so much offense in him backtalking him to legitimately LEAVE like this. And Gabriel does.
Adriens intentions wasnt to make his father leave, When he talked back at him it was more of a hurt call out for Gabriel to say more, SOMETHING ELSE, but not to LEAVE!
Adrien then does something very common for people in a fight who wait for the leaving person to turn around again but have to realize that they hope in vain and the other person actually is done with this moment.
His face and body relaxes, he turns completely to the door and seems to... take it in.
Especially in the way Adrien does it here its like he is processing and accepting that what he thought of his father was wrong. Adrien thought Gabriel cared enough for him that he would want to stay even if he backtalks him for example. Adrien expected a conversation here but now had to realize that his father isn't gonna put up with him at all or their differences in an upfront way if Adrien isn't "behaving right". Gabriel will just cut the moment short and deflect whatever conversation with him he doesn't like.
All in all what Adrien took away from this moment with his father is even if Gabriel may care for him (enough to come and hug him as an apology) this care and affection is tightly bound to the way Adrien himself then reacts. If he reacts in a way Gabriel doesn't like he will very quickly deem Adrien undeserving of his affection and take it (and his entire presence) away again.
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The way Adrien looks then at his ring also makes me think that he definitely blames himself for how this moment ended. That he "shouldn't have overreacted" and taken such personal offense by his fathers attempt to reconnect with him even if Gabriel hit one hell of a sore point.
This is of course BS. Even if Adrien wasn't Chat Noir the way Gabriel just straight up deflected the conversation to the ring right after the hug, where one normally starts to explain oneself and truly TALK, would have been seriously hurtful even under non-miraculous circumstances.
But it shows how Adrien by instinct immediately starts to invalidate his own feelings to look for the faults in himself. A self-hurtful coping mechanism that unfortunately only gets deepened as the dynamic between these two continues on. 
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And lastly it also marks the first time that the ring is truly associated with something bad. Normally (especially so early in the show) the ring stands in association with Adriens freedom and spending more time with people outside, him getting to let loose a little and how he can spend time with the girl he loves. The ring began to loose these positive associations more and more from s2 onward but the first time was here.
It's the object which ruined the moment that could have ended this tragedy before it truly began in both of their eyes and in the viewers. Sure Gabriel being Hawkmoth is the true cause of it and nothing will ever change that but it's Adriens ring, not Gabriels brooch, that sets their separation further in motion. Further as Gabriel initially intended to.
It's the factor Gabriel overlooks Adrien himself for, which is truly brought home by the end scene of "Gorizilla" which serves as a mirror to this one here.
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Whereas in "Jackady" Gabriel lost sight of the son right in front of him because of the ring and what its implies, in "Gorizilla" Gabriel thinks he finally received the evidence that Adrien isn't his enemy. So for the first time Gabriel completely disregards the ring, Chat Noir out of his mind, sees ADRIEN for himself and genuinely smiles at him. He can and does make a TRUE attempt at reconnecting!
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Which is of course exactly what Adrien wanted for so long, what he hoped Gabriel would do if hes just patient enough with his father. He accepts Gabriels genuine attempt gladly, reassuring his father that he and his efforts are noticed, appreciated and wanted even after everything that happened so they can hopefully go on to a better future.
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This is what would have saved this family back in "Jackady" if only Gabriel had chosen the right priority. But as I said before, this moment here happens in s2 after Gabriel crossed the line in Jackady, so this positiv moment can not save them anymore. Both Gabriel and Adrien are already too far in and influenced by their alter egos and the miraculous. So the brief reconnection couldn't last and everything continues to only further fall apart ever since.
And it all began with this beautiful, heartbreaking and tragic moment in "Jackady" these two will never ever be able to truly come back from again.
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yannowhatigiveup · 3 years
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My One And Only - Chapter 14
Previous | Next | Master List
This chapter is the longest one yet with 3000 words so I hope you enjoy reading. Also thank you so much for all the notes and reblogs! I just realised that I’m not far from 100 followers and can’t thank you all enough!
TW: Injuries at the end
The cat-themed hero sat on the floor, Ladybug sat in front of him and after a big breath, he spoke. "Ladybug, I- I don't think I'm the true holder of the Black Cat miraculous"
————————————————————
Ladybug looked at her partner wide-eyed. "Wh-what?"
Chat Noir sighed. "Plagg told me that true holders gain side effects. He said that you already have yours"
The spotted heroine nodded slowly.
"From what he said, true holders get the side effects around the same time, when they acknowledge each other in a way. Plagg also said that if you weren't a true holder, using the Ladybug miraculous or the Black Cat miraculous would be...dangerous and would do more harm than good to the user" The cat-themed hero scratched the back of his neck nervously, trying to avoid eye contact with his partner.
"Okay...what does the 'more harm than good to the user' part mean?" She asked, her voice faulty in worry for her friend. Then Chat Noir looked at her in the eye, he seemed saddened and disappointed in himself.
"I... I haven't been myself. I've been treating people who are close to me as if they were...objects. Options. As if they weren't their person. And I feel horrible because of it." Ladybug reached her arm out to hold Chat Noir's shoulder, showing that she didn't judge him for it. "Plagg says it's the destruction from the miraculous, it's not natural for me"
"So you came to tell me" she concluded and the blonde hero nodded.
"I don't want my emotions to spiral out of control, I-I don't want to hurt you because of it so..." his voice trailed off. Ladybug tensed to hear what he had to say next. "I came to renounce the Black Cat miraculous"
Her eyes glinted in realisation "Y-you're sure?"
He nodded solemnly. "I don't want to risk hurting you or anyone else"
She sighed while nodding in understanding, she got up and motioned for Chat Noir to do the same.
"Plagg...claws in" Chat Noir mumbled with a heavy heart, it would be the last time he was ever going to say those words. As soon as he did, his transformation dropped gloomily, almost slower than usual. There stood Adrien Agreste, one of her best friends. He looked dejected and worried, looking at Ladybug for her approval. "Hey....bugaboo"
"Wow...you acted much more...freely as Chat, Adrien" The blonde let out a sigh of relief after seeing Ladybug's approving smile before noticing her face turned solemn in understanding once again. "I'm guessing you two want a moment to say goodbye" she glanced at Adrien and the kwami while stepping back to make space for the two.
"I guess this is goodbye, Kid" Plagg floated in front of Adrien's face, looking sadder than the blonde has seen in his entire time being with him. The kwami floated closer to hug Adrien's cheek.
"Thank you Plagg, for being my friend all this time" The blonde choked out.
"No, thank you, kid. You were one of the best Chat Noirs I've ever met" he hovered back in front of Adrien's face. "You're a good kid, Adrien. Don't forget that"
He took a shaky breath. "I won't...goodbye, Plagg"
"Let's get this over with now, or we'll make it rain" the kwami blurted out, but his voice was heavy with sadness. Slowly, Adrien pulled off the ring on his finger, watching as it turned black when Plagg got sucked in. He then handed the ring to the spotted heroine, surprisingly she took it hesitantly. She brought out her yo-yo, opened it and put the ring inside. She then looked back up to Adrien.
"Thank you" her voice was mournful. "For all, you have done as Chat Noir, all of Paris will grieve over your...retirement" She then took a deep breath trying to lighten the mood. "We need to think of a cover story that will be able to convince the Parisians as well as Hawkmoth"
The blonde put a finger on his chin. "Why don't we say that I got injured in the most recent akuma attack?"
The spotted heroine shook her head. "Hawkmoth would know that's a lie" Ladybug hummed while thinking for a valid reason which even Hawkmoth would fall for. 'Dami has good ideas, but he isn't here right now...what would he suggest?' She snapped her fingers. "I think I got it!"
"Well, what is it?"
"Let's say that as the akuma in the most recent attack had used his power to cause a defect with the Cataclysm, it was Sandboy, so that makes sense. The defect caused some damage with the Black Cat miraculous that wasn't fixable with the Miraculous Cure thus causing Chat Noir's miraculous to malfunction. This malfunction caused some physical damage to you and made you no longer compatible to use the miraculous without causing further damage, henceforth refraining you to be Chat Noir any more and forcing you into early retirement" 'If that isn't a good idea then I don't know what is' she took a deep breath. "What do you think?"
Adrien blinked once, twice before answering. "Sounds perfect M'lady". It wasn't said in a flirtatious manner he would normally use. 'No, Chat Noir used it in that way. Adrien doesn't need to any more, well at least not to me any more. Kagami probably'
"Well" Ladybug breathed in. "I'll drop you at your mansion then? I won't let my former partner walk all that way when I can easily help you get there"
Adrien flashed a friendly smile. "Yeah... I'd like that, thank you Ladybug"
~~~
A few swings later, Ladybug and Adrien arrived in front of Agreste Mansion, she settled the boy down gently on the ground.
"This is where we must depart, can't thank you enough for all that you've done. For all that you've done for Paris and for all that you've done to help me" Ladybug pulled the blonde in for a cordial hug before pulling away and looking at him in the eyes. "Just because you can no longer be Chat Noir, doesn't mean that you'll be excused from this battle permanently. If you want to, tell me now"
Adrien didn't hesitate to answer. "No, I joined the fight wanting to unmask Hawkmoth. I won't stop now just because I'm not paired with the right miraculous"
The spotted heroine smiled at the determination in her friend's voice. "Well, you can help behind the scenes. You can help the citizens out of the way of the akuma, that's all I ask of you for now. But that doesn't mean that I won't give you a miraculous if things get too out of hand. Right now it's best to focus on channelling out the destructive magic in you. Take a break from all of this" She used her arms to gesture fighting akumas and Adrien laughed.
"Don't worry I will just-" he paused. "Don't hesitate to find me if you need help, kay?"
Ladybug smiled and nodded while reaching for her yo-yo that was wrapped around her waist. She launched it at a nearby building and rugged on the rope before turning to Adrien and saying "Goodbye, Chaton"
~~~
Alya briskly walked the streets of Paris, her fingers fiddling with her phone as she was itching to talk to Ladybug. During the most recent akuma attack, while hiding from Sandboy, Alya noticed that Chat Noir seemed...unlike himself. He wasn't goofy or flirty and he wasn't cracking any puns like he usually did. The black cat-themed hero seemed worried and on edge, the aspiring reporter desperately wanted to find the spotted heroine to ask about this. As if by luck, Alya noticed a familiar figure swinging from rooftop to rooftop.
"Ladybug!" Alya called out, reaching to press the record button on her phone. "Can I ask you a question for the Ladyblog?"
Ladybug's yo-yo wrapped around a pole near the reporter which helped her gracefully land in front of the girl. "Sure, I've got time"
Alya hit the record button. "Ladybug I couldn't help but notice that Chat Noir wasn't himself during and after the latest akuma attack, is this something to be worried of or am I just overreacting?"
'I knew I had to talk about this eventually, I just didn't expect to talk about this soon. Alya would be able to spread the message clearly though' The spotted heroine took a deep breath. "During the most recent attack, something unforeseen and irreversible happened"
Alya, noticing the extra seriousness in the heroine's voice, straightened and projected the same seriousness in her own eyes.
"When Chat Noir called on his cataclysm, he was hit by one of the akuma's attacks. He and his miraculous were damaged in the process. Though I managed to fix the miraculous, Chat Noir wan't healed, even with my cure. He is currently recovering and he will no longer join me in battle. For how stable he is currently I... cannot say. I hope you understand that Chat Noir did not want to give up fighting Hawkmoth. Please do not be saddened by this as he is still helping me from behind the scenes. I hope this answers your question."
"Yes... it does. Thank you for spending your time with me today. Please send my regards to Chat"
"I will" she smiled solemnly as Alya pressed the stop record button before it morphed into a more cheerful one. "I hope you don't mind if I ever have to call you to help in an akuma attack, with Chat not being able to physically it'll be more... difficult to say the least"
"I'll always be here to help you out Ladybug!" Alya smiled proudly at the trust that Ladybug was showing her, she was one of, if not, the first to join after the original duo.
"Well I'm glad to have you as my personal reporter. Bug out!" The spotted heroine used her yo-yo as a grappling hook, leaving the stunned reporter.
'Oh my god..she called me her personal reporter! Ohmygodohmygodohmygod-'
~~~
Gabriel had a hand on his chin, smiling maliciously as the video ended. Mademoiselle Césaire has been known as Ladybug's go-to reporter, this video just proved it. Though that wasn't what the fashion designer was thinking. 'With Chat Noir out of my way, we can finally begin this experiment' The video had worked too well, Gabriel truly believed it enough to start trying a power up his miraculous had. He managed to translate a page the grimoire, and he was ready to test it out. 'Now would be the best time, Ladybug is at her most vulnerable'.
He saved the project he was working on previously before calling for his assistant. "Nathalie"
"Sir?" She entered the room immediately, expecting something to happen considering she just finished watching Alya's video which was currently the number one video trending in Paris.
"I believe it's time to move onto phase two" he answered with a smirk as he turned towards the painting of his wife.
"I shall make sure Adrien is safe in his room" Nathalie concluded before turning to leave.
Gabriel's hand brushed the portrait, reaching the familiar buttons that would lead him to his lair. 'Today will mark the beginning of your doom, Ladybug'
~~~
Marinette was sitting on the sofa in Jagged's hotel room. She had just been briefly told how Bob Roth was no longer Jagged Stone's manager and how Penny was now assuming the role. He was caught stealing from Kitty Section and was now working with XY, truthfully, Marinette was glad he was gone. Currently, she was discussing titles for all the songs that were in Jagged's up coming album, including the one she would be in.
"Marinette, have you got any ideas for your song yet?" Penny asked while setting down her clipboard. She had actually already had an idea thanks to Damian.
Marinette sang a bit of the song she wrote unknowingly. She asked Damian to skim through the lyrics sometime they went to bed and somehow she was singing the chorus. She only realised what she was doing when she felt arms wrap around her waist from behind and a husky voice whisper in her ear.
"You sing angelically, mon amour" Damian pressed his face in the space of her neck.
"You really think so?" She asked, she wasn't as tired as Damian was at that moment so she made sure to talk in a way that would soothe him to sleep.
He hummed. "I have a suggestion for a title" he murmured into her neck. "Dernière Danse"
Marinette blinked, slightly unfocused considering the fact that she could feel her boyfriend's breath on her neck, she liked the feeling. "Yeah... I like that"
She hummed and turned to face the sheets of lyrics in front of her, all of which still needed names. "Dernière Danse, Damian helped me decide last night"
"That's rock'n'roll Nettie but-" he had a knowing smirk on his face. "Who's Damian?"
'Damn, nothing gets past him' "Is he your boyfriend?" Penny asked, fond of her honorary niece. The two adults looked smugly at each other after being met with silence, practically confirming Penny question. "What's his name?"
"The sooner I find that out the sooner I can threaten that boy with Fang-" A look from Penny shut the rockstar up.
"You're not gonna threaten him anytime soon" the bluenette only continued after hearing a huffed 'fine' from Jagged. "And his name is Damian... Wayne" her voice veered of at the end and she looked to anywhere but the two adults.
"Wait Wayne? As in Brucie's youngest?!" Jagged exclaimed.
"You know his father?" Marinette tilted her head in curiosity, her honorary uncle had never mentioned him before.
"Yeah we were good friends back in the day, been a while since I've seen him actually" he smiled wistfully.
Marinette looked at the time. "Well I better get going. Bye Uncle Jagged! Bye Auntie Penny!" She turned to leave and reached the door but before she turned the handle, she turned to face Jagged and Penny, well, Jagged specifically. "Please don't tell anyone yet, Damian and I only recently got together. And no threatening him"
"I won't tell anyone" he crossed his heart with her fingers but he didn't confirm whether or not he would threaten the boy.
Marinette glared at her honorary uncle until Penny spoke up. "I'll make sure he won't do anything"
The bluenette smiled as she waved goodbye and left the room. She sent a quick text to Damian before she got on the lift and when she did, she pulled the silver ring out of her purse. It laid in the palm of her hand, Marinette glanced at it with a quizzing look on her face.
Tikki then made her presence known. "You have to find someone to use the miraculous soon Marinette" she flew in front of her holders face. "You can go without it for a few battles but then a new user has to be found, you can't fight alone"
She sighed and looked at the kwami. "I know Tikki, I'll ask Plagg if he can sense for any chosen users later"
She soon reached the floor and knocked on her boyfriend's door. He opened up immediately, the bluenette went inside and sat on the sofa. He sat next to her, wrapped his arm around her waist and gave a tender kiss on her temple.
"What happened? With Chat Noir I mean" Tikki then flew out of her owner's purse with the ring in her hands.
"Chat Noir was never destined to use the Black Cat miraculous" Tikki stated matter-of-factly "Luckily he was able to renounce Plagg before the magic corrupted him entirely"
Damian nodded slowly he opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a loud crash in the distance. On instinct, they both rushed to the balcony to see what was going on. Channeling her energy, Marinette recognised the aura of an akuma. She ran back inside and Tikki placed the ring on the coffee table before joining her holder.
"Tikki, Spots On!" The bluenette was then engulfed by a bright light and when it subsided, there stood the spotted heroine. She walked back onto the balcony and before she used her yo-yo, she turned to her lover and spoke in a teasing manner. "Don't lose the ring"
He nodded. "I won't and-" he stared at her in the eyes. "Go show Hawkmoth whose superior"
She smiled and and yo-yo'd away. Damian sighed and went back inside, closing the balcony door behind him. He still hadn't updated the file he was working on, he knew his father and his imbecilic brothers would be on his back so he decided to do just that. He sent a quick text to the group chat he was in to buy him some time. It didn't take long for him to finish and he decided to watch the battle between Ladybug and the Akuma, he had the LadyBlog up on the flatscreen as Alya was streaming the fight. Luckily from a safe distance. Damian didn't doubt Ladybug's ability to fight, in fact, he was impressed. He just wanted to watch his girlfriend take the villain down.
As he turned the television on, he observed as Ladybug and the Akuma, who called itself 'Guerrier', fought. He noticed how incredibly aware the spotted heroine was of her surroundings. She was great at multitasking as well whenever a civilian was in danger. And how she would easily switch from offensive to defensive. It appeared that she had the upper hand. Unfortunately for him though, that would soon change.
~~~
Jason felt very tempted to switch Tim's cup of coffee with the cup of decaf that he had. He was about to do just that when his phone dinged, Tim noticed it too. Huffing at the lost opportunity, he picked his phone up. "It's the demon brat" he scoffed.
"What he say?" Dick asked.
"That there's currently an attack and we can watch it if we wanna, Dickhead" he retorted.
"Tim?" Dick ignored Jason's comment and turned to where Tim was a few seconds ago, though there was only an empty seat.
"Done" Tim's voice came from the living room. 'Where the fuck did he get that energy from-'
The two eldest sons went to the living room and found Tim sitting in front of the television with a live feed from Paris displayed on the screen. There were two figures that stood out. One was in a matte black fencing suit with a long black blade. The other was a red and black spotted heroine which all in the room presumed to be the hero. They watched as the heroine, now identified as 'Ladybug', fought the villain. She was graceful, skilled and tactical. As the battle got slightly closer to the camera, Dick noticed something.
"She looks so young!" He exclaimed. "Like fifteen!"
"She got mad skill for a fifteen year old" Jason commented, slightly unnerved at the realisation of how young she was. After those words were said, the spotted heroine back flipped over the villain to avoid the blade. Ladybug gracefully landed behind him and gave a powerful kick from behind, launching the villain forward and onto the ground. Jason whistled.
The spotted heroine seemed to be in control of the whole situation, it also seemed that way to the men until the villain did something completely unexpected. His body twisted in an inhuman way to get out of Ladybug's grip. Taking advantage of the situation, the villain used his sword to impale the young heroine. The sword went deep into her chest, the handle nearly reached her back. It stabbed through her body with a horrifying and repulsive sound. The three men in the room flinches at the image, they've seen more revolting images than this but this seemed much more different. The sound the blade made, the way the heroine's body was twisted, the fact that she was so young and this was happening and all the screams and shouts in French adding to the atmosphere.They notice her face twist in surprise, pain and pure determination.
The situation in Paris was much, much more serious than they assumed.
———
Taglist: @little-bluestar, @miracleofadisaster, @frieddonutsweets, @jjmjjktth, @genderfluidmoma, @starlit-dreaming, @icerosecrystal, @lolieg, @kashlyn, @mochegato, @eggadoodle, @walkingthroughonautopilot, @toodaloo-kangaroo
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flightfoot · 3 years
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My Top 10 Favorite Miraculous Ladybug Characters
Note: this is FAVORITE, not necessarily the ones I think are best. These are the characters that bring me the most joy, which while it’s often connected to how well-developed they are or how much I enjoy their character types, those aren’t the only factors. 
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1. Adrien Agreste
A sunshine cat boy with a penchant for puns? One who’s under a lot more pressure, who’s had a worse time in his life than anyone knows... even, seemingly, himself? And with a looming identity crisis on top of that, what with trying to figure out who HE is underneath the “model son” act he puts on as Adrien and the “clown” act he puts on as Chat Noir? How could I not put him high up on the list?
With his hidden depths and the hidden tragedy of his terrible family, I really enjoy analyzing Adrien, peeling back his layers to try to figure out what he might be thinking and feeling, where his story is gonna go next. 
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2.  Alya Cesaire
Marinette’s best friend since her arrival at Francois-Dupont, Alya made a splash within the first few minutes of her stay, standing up to Chloe in order to help Marinette, a total stranger, because it was the right thing to do. Her example helped inspire Marinette... along with her recklessness, with the way she biked after Stoneheart. But thanks to Alya’s presence at that first akuma fight, Ladybug and Chat Noir got introduced to the world, and Ladybug found the courage to enter her first fight with a supervillain.
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3. Marinette Dupain-Cheng
The star of the show and one of the best-developed female characters I’ve ever seen, Marinette is truly a sight to behold. She can be clumsy, petty, lose her temper, and get so caught up in a goal that she loses sight of some other important things. But she’s also kind and considerate, giving chances to people she doesn’t like - and has good reason not to like. 
She just FEELS so much like a real person, with all the quirks that come with that. 
Also really appreciate that she’s allowed to have a diverse range of interests, from fashion design to video games. She can have an intense crush, but while that heavily affects her (as is common at that age), she has plenty of interests and activities outside of it as well.
In short, Marinette is a “strong character who is female” rather than a “strong female character”. Or, maybe instead of “strong”, I should say “multifaceted with great depth”, as that captures it better.
Marinette’s place on my favorites list shuffles around quite a bit. If I was solely ranking this on strength of character, I’d probably put her at the top - while Adrien also has some good depths, he doesn’t get as much focus as Marinette does, plus it’s not as novel to see a guy allowed to have that kind of depth.
But this list is about personal enjoyment more than anything, which means that it’s affected by outside factors, and well... Saltinette is a thing. And it can be hard for me to fully enjoy Marinette when Saltinette’s lurking in the back of my mind, even though Saltinette has very little in common with Marinette.
Incidentally, that’s also part of why Alya’s so high on the list - I enjoyed her to begin with, but seeing how badly she was treated in saltfics, so constantly, eventually moved her up my favorites list partly out of spite.
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4. Plagg
The cheese-loving gremlin may not be the most responsible kwami around, but he’s one of the funniest, and he cares about Adrien a lot - which is good, considering how small his support network is, and how easily most of it can be cut off. Whether it’s telling a joke or playing the piano, Plagg’s always there to cheer Adrien up when he really needs it. He sometimes pushes Adrien to do things he probably shouldn’t, like not telling Ladybug he was going to New York, but ultimately it’s because he wants Adrien to be happy, screw the rules.
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5. Nino Lahiffe
Steadfastly loyal, Nino’s the best sort of friend you could have - at least, Adrien seems to think so! He’s an awesome boyfriend as well, unwilling to abandon Alya, even when the situation seems hopeless, whether it involves zombies or a spider sister.
Plus he managed to secretly throw Adrien a raging party in order to make up for Adrien never getting a proper birthday party before (Bubbler didn’t exactly work out), how cool is that?!
I just wish we saw more of him outside of supporting others. It’s an important role, but it IS his main one. We have at least seen him being a movie director, djing, just working on his other interests, which is cool.
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6. Kagami Tsurugi
She’s badass, fierce, and knows what she wants. But that’s not all she is. She lives under a stifling mother, one who she has to work around, evade, and lie to on a regular basis in order to get a chance to connect with others - if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have been able to spend nearly as much time with Adrien as she did, and she wouldn’t have befriended Marinette at all.
Not that she’s experienced in making friends - she really wants to, but doesn’t really know how, having to rely on online guides to get an idea of how to make small talk and connect. 
Judging by her mannerisms, such as her flat affect and major trouble with social interactions, I’m also guessing she’s autistic, which is pretty cool.
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7. Alix Kubdel
Bunnix is badass, and you can see that in her younger counterpart. I love just how DONE she is with some of the girl squad’s shenanigans, she’s more of a fan of cutting the gordian knot than executing convoluted plans.
Also her friendship with Nathaniel is adorable, I love them teasing each other.
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8. Marc Anciel
He’s cute, shy, creative, and I loved Reverser and binged a lot of Marcnath fics.
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9. Nathaniel Kurtzberg
Reverser and Evillustrator were both awesome episodes, and again, binged a lot of Marcnath fics so... yeah.
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10. Sabine Cheng
I love how caring she is towards Marinette, and her just generally being pretty sensible - but also getting very excited about stuff she cares about, like hers and Tom’s giddy joy at getting to test out Max’s video game, and how thrilled she and Tom were about Marinette wanting to visit Shanghai. Also go to learn a little more about her roots in Shanghai, which was cool.
----
Note: While the top 5 are likely to remain in the top 5, a lot of the bottom 5 might go on and off the list. I also ended up leaving out specials-only characters, though I have enjoyed a lot of the new heroes they introduced.
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melloian · 3 years
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My wild au idea...
so i got a new art program. so i imagine this fake au idea.. so imma share it lmao. remember this is an imagination (and am still working on reboot au) and not some au or something. Alright let’s just get this cringe over went Remember this guy?
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remember this kid?
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now imagine them as an main character...yup..
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Alright time to explain ig The boy and sandboy fused in body because of hawkmoth's glitch. The boy first witnessed this when he got scared of something else. He slowly turned blue. He screamed and cried loud because of course he didn't know what was happening, eventually turning into sandboy and terrorizing the city again. He then realizes everytime he gets scared he turns into sandboy. He proceeds to think the movie gave him strange powers (and not hawkmoth..well not in this fake au of course). Since he knows sandboy is evil, he came up idea to trick sandboy into doing something good. His plan was to put himself in danger on purpose (by an villain) in order to make sandboy think the villain is trying to attack him. The boy is only doing this in order for sandboy to no longer attack paris. Now to explain hawkmoth's situation, hawkmoth accidentally cracked the miraculous when he fall down (in a high tower awhile fighting the other day). He didn't know he did until he saw nooroo acting strange. But he didn't care so he proceeds to do it which led to the glitch. It affected his heart causing to become weak. However he doesn't care, he says himself that he would continue to use the butterfly miraculous, even if it costs his life at the end (he really just want his wife back so bad smh.) Gabriel gets the same symptoms as his wife which worries adrien.
Back to the boi himself.
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in this imagination/fake au He just a friendly, energetic kid who like to play. He pretty much known as well-behaved kid. He sometimes curious about things.
He likes making new friends.
However he can get scared easily leading him to get nightmares. (he also easily cry too.)
He doesn't like mean people. (in this "fake" au, his age is 6) Sandboy himself
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Sandboy here acts completely different here.. i mean he stills says "tHe SaNdBoY jUsT cHECkEd In. NoW nIghTmArEs CaN bEgIn" but only when using his powers. but he still different Sandboy is much more rude and more of an brat but still confident. He makes fun of people especially the villains he targets (he makes them furious on purpose). He's not scared of nothing, even if he saw lovecraftian horror or something, he wouldn't flinch. If he doesn't get his way, he will attempt fake cry so the person can feel sorry for him. (if that doesn't work he just will instantly use his power) Even though he rude and a brat, he can sometimes be helpful and nice. (he still acts like a child too.) Abilities: It would be epically lame if sandboy still have the same 1 power (rip chat noir). (and fook the sandman myth) He gains more abilities as time goes on and more fighting he does. Default power (just for reminder): He able to zap people and make their nightmares reality Gained powers list (in order): He will later be able to put people to sleep which would gave them nightmares Similar power to wishmaker expect its not childhood dreams. It just wishes in general, he able to grant them but he can either twist it for evil or grant the wish properly. He able to imprison people inside their own dream. he can now summon things out of his own dream or make it reality (can be past or present). he can bring people fears to life too (is not the same as nightmares just for clarification) Telekinesis He can go to sleep and can enter astral form. He can enter people's dream and warps it if he wants too or just watch. (he also have oneiricpotence awhile in dream) He can create an alternative dream universe and teleport people in it (he have oneiricpotence here too).
stronk kid Weakness: i made this so i wouldn't make him an absolute god machine All his powers works best at night. If use it in day, it would fail or it would work but it will go absolutely wrong. The only powers that don't suffer this is telekinesis and wish power. (sleeping power would work in afternoon and night) He can't keep using dream warper, alt dream, or dream imprisonment or else he becomes sick. (and when he's sick, his powers don't work properly{ he also gets dizzy})
He can't be astral for a long time, he will eventually snap back to his body. he still as fragile as an child.
Notes: He summons his pillow instead of being with him already.
Never of them wanted to be heroes in the first place.
Sandboy's hair only glows when its dark. Sandboy would change back to boy when all negative feelings are gone. For Nathalie in this au aswell, she pretty much don't want hawkmoth keep using his miraculous before he ends up in a coma. Eventually, Gabriel gets too sick and Nathalie takes his place. Nathalie attempts to fix both peacock and butterfly miraculous to continue his goal. She becomes Penumbra.
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However, before she became penumbra, she was also effected with the glitch from Gabriel causing her to have catalyst stay in her aswell. Unlike the boy, she still have her own personality as catalyst and can use her power without transforming. idk why but its probably to make her dangerous. But Gabriel finally knew how the kid could transform to sandboy (he was wondering how he was transforming to his akumanzation form he given him) before he passed out (after he was defeated as scarlet moth.) So when gabriel got too sick, her goal was to find out more about that boy. Recurring characters
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Even though chat noir and ladybug is still in the story, but they wouldn't have much focus.
Unlike in the original, ladybug or chat noir doesn't know sandboy's true identity but still thinks he a running akumanzation. however they don't attack him because he helping with the other villains. They confused if he an enemy or ally tho {why not both}. (they do thank him for defeating certain villains) They still have same personality and attitude. Other shit ig: This fake au takes place in season 2. The ep sandboy is no longer near heroes day ep, it would just be swapped with collector. Sandboy becomes less rude and bratty later on. Most fights would take place at night Sandboy had to learn hand to hand combat to be useful without using his night powers. There is no romance involved what so ever. Even though Nathalie fixes the butterfly miraculous, it wouldn't fix the glitch that happens to both her and the boy. She have to find something else in order to do that. Season 4 is were Gabriel's sickness gets worse and Nathalie takes his place. The boy would have 2 friends with him but its not manon or chris. The boy would be given a name. The boy would later find out how to change to sandboy without having to make himself scared. Remember this an fake au and this all came from my imagination/head. It just an idea. anyways see ya imma continue my own au now.
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