#even went to pride with max and chloe

[patchodraws]

kate marsh is max’s maid of honour and steph gingrich is chloe’s best (wo)man

[chloe-caulfield94]

Thoughts on Grahamfield?

Thank you for an interesting question. I'm going to split my answer into two parts - first my thoughts on Warren himself and then my thoughts on shipping him with Max.

I like Warren, if only for the fact that on two separate occasions he helped Max when she was in a tough spot.

The confrontation between Max and Nathan at the parking lot in Episode 1 could've easily turned out to be deadly. Most likely, Nathan was still armed. We know he didn't throw his gun away after running from the bathroom, because he had the exact same pistol on him in Episode 4. Which also goes to show he would go around campus armed.

So if Warren hadn't tackled Nathan to the ground, allowing Max to hop into Chloe's truck, it's very likely Nathan would've pulled his gun out to threaten Max with and then shot her, just like he had shot Chloe. Only this time there would be no one to rewind the murder.

The confrontation in Episode 4, in the boys' dorms, was even more likely to have a fatal result. We know for a fact that Nathan was armed. This time it was Chloe acting as a distraction, pushing Nathan away long enough for the cavalry, in the form of Warren, to come to the rescue. Had it not been for them, Max would've likely been murdered by Nathan.

I think it's interesting that on both of those occasions Warren acted in tandem with Chloe. I don't think that takes away from Warren's or Chloe's efforts. Helping others is not a zero-sum game, where only one person can get the credit. And I think it's only fitting that a kind person like Max, who cares about others, has other people coming to her aid when she in turn needs it.

I will always appreciate Warren for giving Nathan a well-deserved beating. Remember, the confrontation in the dorms takes place mere minutes after Max finds in Nathan's drawer the horrifying picture of unconscious Chloe, which Nathan kept as a revolting souvenir. At that point, neither Max nor the player (if you play for the first time) knows why Nathan went around drugging and kidnapping girls. So the implications of the picture were obvious and horrifying. When you heard Chloe and Kate tell about their encounters with Nathan for the first time, wasn't your takeaway that he attempted to date rape Chloe and date raped Kate? What other explanation there could be for a boy drugging girls unconscious and bringing them to a secluded location? And the revelation that Nathan "only" wanted to take pictures doesn't make his attempted kidnapping of Chloe any less fucked up. At that point he had already killed Rachel by overdosing her. So despite the crocodile tears he recorded in Max's voice mail, he didn't mind the possibility of overdosing yet another girl for the purposes of his "art". Why would he mind it? This time it wouldn't be his friend, just some "whore".

So I will always think kindly of Warren, if only for the fact that he gave Nathan a little bit of his own medicine. That the made Nathan feel just as powerless as Nathan did to his victims.

I guess you could say that Warren's fights with Nathan were motivated by his desire to impress Max (in the parking lot) and to avenge his wounded male pride (in the dorms). But I think it would be an extremely uncharitable interpretation. Even if the abovementioned emotions factored into his actions, that doesn't change the fact he did help Max on those occasions.

I always find it funny that the dynamic between Max, Warren and Brooke is a representation of the "high school boy is trying to win over the affection of a beautiful girl but is completely oblivious that a cute nerdy girl in glasses is totally into him". I love the fact that in this context it makes Max into the "popular girl". Honestly, the best case scenario would be Warren finally seeing the writing on the wall and realizing how lucky he is to have someone as cool as Brooke crushing on him. And for some reason he really has trouble realizing that. Even in the alternate timeline he's dating Stella. I ship Warren with Brooke, mainly for her sake. That girl is a go-getter. She set her mind on something and is reaching for it. That always warrants my respect.

A thing I like about Warren is that he can be a gracious loser and that's an increasingly rare talent. After Chloe texted him about Max kissing her, he texted Max saying: "Your friend Chloe txtd me that I'm out of the loop now. She sounds hot so I get why. Now I get why you didn't want to 'Go Ape' with me. You should go with Chloe". Seriously, he took that like a champ, on the chin.

Some fans consider Warren to be “creepy” or even “stalkerish”. The most convincing piece of evidence supporting this accusation is him waiting outside Max’s dorm at the beginning of Episode 2. If Max walks over to the window quickly enough, she can see Warren peeking from behind corner, looking at the dorm door, almost certainly in anticipation of Max walking out, to chat her up.

Honestly, I don’t think this is such a damning piece of evidence. Yeah, he wanted to invite her to the movies. Would it be any different if he sought her out during the day, at school? I also don't find his behaviour around Max in general to be inappropriate or creepy. Awkward, perhaps. We need to keep in mind that it's not like at that point he had been hounding Max for months, refusing to take no for an answer. At the beginning of Season 1, they had known each other for no longer than a month (Max had just moved back into town at the start of the school year and it was only October). Their interactions so far involved him borrowing Max his movie stash and them exchanging some text messages (well, at one point it devolved into him sending text messages and Max not responding). I really don't think that at that point him trying to ask her out is somehow inappropriate or pushing.

There's also the shrine in Warren's locker Max can find in her nightmare. In my mind the nightmare represents a twisted version of reality, shaped solely by Max's fears and doubts. The opposite of how Max truly feels and thinks. Just like we shouldn't believe the lies told about Chloe by "Other Max", I don't think that we should treat the shrine in Warren's locker as some revelation.

I think it needs to be said - an unrequited crush doesn't make you a creep. It seems that Warren has a genuine crush on Max (I hesitate to call it love, because in Season 1 they had known each other for a month and they hadn't even been on a single date yet). But even if you see Max didn't return his feelings (I sure see it that way, based on the totality of interactions between them), that doesn't make him a stalker or a creep. If you disregard BtS (where Rachel was equally as interested in pursuing Chloe romantically, if not more, as Chloe was interested in her) and only take into account Season 1, then it is clear that while Chloe was deeply in love with Rachel, Rachel only saw her as a friend. But it would be wrong and unfair to say that Chloe was a creep for being head over heels in love with her friend who didn't love her back. It would be wrong and unfair to say that Chloe's monthslong search for Rachel wasn't a proof of her genuine friendship, loyalty and commitment to Rachel, because she had unrequited love for her, which somehow tainted her motives. I think the same reasoning should apply to Warren.

Now let's move on to the ship itself. Having said all that, that I like Warren, that I don't think he's a creep and that I think his crush on Max was genuine, I see no way for Grahamfield to work, if we're sticking to the events of the game.

In the Bae ending, even if the love between Max and Chloe remained purely platonic (the last diary entry before the final choice is always, regardless of player choices, Max saying that Chloe is like family to her and that she's about to find out if what's between them is love or friendship - so let's consider a timeline where Max decides Chloe is like a sister, not like a girlfriend to her), then the Grahamfield ship still would have zero chances of ever floating, for the simple reason that one half of it is dead.

And in the Bay ending, I can't imagine Max ever ending up with Warren. Bay Max has just killed her best friend by pushing her back in front of a barrel of a gun. The friend whose last words were always that she loved Max ("I love you, Max. See you around" if you overdose her in Episode 4, "I'll always love you" if you sacrifice her in Episode 5, she always says that regardless of player choices). Max immediately seeking solace in the arms of a boy she barely knows, that she hasn't even been on a single date with, would be extremely out of character for her. And I don't think she would be interested in pursuing Warren at a later date. She would always have at the back of her mind that he's among the people she killed Chloe for. I think that would poison any chance at a relationship.

A few months ago I exchanged comments with another LiS player regarding the ending. They told me that they sacrificed Chloe, because they preferred Max to end up with Warren. Granted, they were more of a casual player - they admitted to not reading Max's diary, not even a little bit. But even if you disregard the diary and even if you interpret the relationship between Max and Chloe as purely platonic, at least from Max's side, I can't imagine Max ever thinking like that. Wouldn't that be a totally unhinged way of thinking? Sacrificing a life long best friend for a boy that you've met a month ago, that you haven't even been on a single date with? Who is basically a stranger that you know very little about?

In a timeline with no Storm or in which Warren survives the Storm, I can easily see him and Max becoming friends, if only for their shared taste in movies.

In a timeline with no Storm AND in which Max's feelings for Chloe are different from the ones she expresses in game (in her dialogues, internal monologues and diary entries) I can imagine Max and Warren going on dates. Whether that would result in a relationship or not is impossible to say, because we have never even seen them on a single date. Maybe they would immediately hit it off. Or maybe after fifteen minutes they would both be tired of each other. Who knows?

So back to the question of how I feel about Grahamfield - even though I don't ship that particular ship, it doesn't offend my sensibilities. The only ships that offend my sensibilities are those which pair up abusers with their victims, which is clearly not the case here. But I just don't see that ship happening if we stick by canon events. If we imagine some sort of alternate universe, divergent from canon in the ways I described above, then I guess that could work.

[redhairedwolfwitch]

It Was You All Along - Chloe Price x Fem!Reader - Life is Strange

Request: can you write a Fem!Reader LIS one shot where chloe had lead reader on about her romantic feelings but reader had moved in next door before max came back and chloe realized she actually likes reader and not max?

A/n: In this, there's several branching and parallel timelines created from Max's powers and Max hops from timeline to timeline, but those timelines still exist, with or without Max being in them after creation.

Chloe had been reluctant when her mother mentioned that someone was finally moving into the house next door. Reluctant because it wasn't Max. She'd checked, you see. She got her hopes up, thinking the Caulfield family had moved back.

Instead, she spotted you helping take some boxes inside.

Joyce had tried to encourage her daughter to take over some sort of welcoming treat to the neighbours, but instead, Chloe was nowhere to be found.

Little did Joyce know, Chloe had snuck out to the Firewalk concert at the Old Mill.

///

It wasn't until Rachel and her were transforming her room that Rachel discovered her window that was about to be covered in an upside down US flag was opposite your window.

Your window with a pride flag covering it.

"Wow..." Rachel remarked, leaving Chloe to raise an eyebrow as she got up to see what Rachel was looking at.

"Huh... never noticed that before." Chloe admitted, frowning at the smirk on Rachel's face.

"Well come on, I want to go meet your neighbours!"

Chloe let out a groan as Joyce asked where they were going, leaving Rachel to explain about the next door neighbours.

"How about you two take over some of these cookies? Since Chloe refused to even welcome them to the neighbourhood when the S/n's first moved in." Joyce suggested, gesturing to the tupperware box of cookies on the counter.

"That's a great idea, Joyce." Rachel smiled, picking up the box as Chloe grumbled under her breath.

///

Neither of the girls were sure who to expect when Rachel pressed the doorbell.

It was only after Rachel explained why they'd come over that they heard footsteps on the stairs.

"Y/n!"

The footsteps paused for a moment before you walked into the kitchen.

"Uh, hello." You awkwardly waved, acknowledging the strangers in your house as you spotted the cookies.

"Y/n, this is Rachel and Joyce's daughter from next door, Chloe. Chloe, Rachel, my daughter, Y/n."

Folding your arms to your chest, your eyes flickered between the grumpy partially blue-haired girl and her friend who gave you a smile as you caught her gaze.

"They noticed the pride flag in your window... you're lucky it was Chloe's window that faces it." You grimaced at the warning glare you received, watching as your family member went out into the garden to mow the lawn.

"Sorry that was so awkward." You chuckled, your hand running up and down the back of your neck as you avoided their eyes.

"So... can we see the room that the pride flag hides from view?" Rachel enquired, leaving you to take a step forwards.

"Sure..."

///

Rachel had been missing since the 22nd of April.

Chloe had enlisted you in helping to find her, she had you running around all over town putting up missing posters and looking in all the places you thought she could have been.

You thought when you first met Chloe and Rachel, that they were dating.

Turns out it was a bit more complicated.

Chloe liked Rachel but Rachel liked to keep her options open. This meant that whenever Rachel was busy, Chloe would turn to you.

She knew you had a crush on her. It was adorable how you'd get flustered and avoid her gaze when she flirted with you. You were wrapped around her finger.

Little did she realise, she was wrapped around yours as well.

///

Chloe thought you were only vaguely aware of who Max was. But you knew more than what she thought, she talked to you when she was drunk or high. Rachel talked to you as well, but you didn't know what was going on with her or who she was seeing when she disappeared.

Because Chloe only thought you vaguely knew of Max, she didn't think you'd react if she decided to ghost you in favour of her childhood friend, or bring Max over to your house.

Oh you reacted, just internally.

The only external display of your emotion that showed was when Chloe decided to tease Max about kissing her. You'd clenched your jaw so roughly that your jawline became more prominent.

You hadn't noticed Max snapping a photo of you in thought until you heard the click of the polaroid camera you recognised from Chloe's room.

"So, what are you two up to? Investigating how Rachel's disappearance is leading to the apocalypse?" You joked, your face falling as you saw the sad look on Chloe's face and the panicked one on Max's.

"Wow. I hit the nail in the head... I thought I just read too much." You replied, trying to brush off reality as Chloe sat up, staring at you.

"Can... can I help?"

Max raised an eyebrow as Chloe stoically nodded, shuffling over so you could sit on the chair with her whilst Max sat on the floor in front of the two of you.

///

Chloe had known since Max kissed her that she wished it was someone else that kissed her instead.

She wished it was you.

So, as she sat on the couch in your room, debating her internal struggles of Max, Rachel and you, you caught her eye.

Or, your jawline did.

She only blinked when Max snapped a photo of you staring into space, leaning against the walls next to your pride flag.

Max said something about the sunlight making the pride flag reflect its colours on your face but Chloe wasn't paying attention to that.

Instead, she watched you figure everything out from a few sentences and facial expressions.

"Can... can I help?"

Chloe was barely able to school her features as she nodded to you, scooting over so you could sit next to her whilst Max sat in front of you both, ready to listen.

///

Never in your wildest dreams did you think an E6 tornado would crash into the little town your family moved to that couple of years ago.

Your family had already decided to head to Seattle for the weekend on Thursday. Knowing that they would be safe, you'd snuck a bag of the family treasures, like photo albums into a bag that you'd given them.

But now, Arcadia Bay looked tiny as you, Chloe and Max stood watching the tornado steamroll it.

"Max... it's time... it's okay, I'm not alone, I have Y/n with me." Chloe whispered, holding Max by the forearms in comfort as the three of you were drenched from the rain.

"Chloe... I'm so, so sorry... I don't want to do this." Max cried, hugging Chloe.

"I know, Max, but we have to, we have to save everyone, that it the alternative timeline you should be in, just like Y/n, said, there's a timeline where Arcadia Bay lives... and you'll make those fuckers pay for what they did to Rachel!" Chloe exclaimed, leaving you to nod.

"Max... if you need me in that other dimension, you'll find me, mention the pride flag in my window... that's all you'll need." You explained, leaving Max to nod as you gave her a sad smile.

"Being together this week. It was the best farewell gift I could have ever hoped for. You're my hero, Max." Chloe replied, glancing at you as you hugged Max first.

"Y/n... Chloe, I'm gonna miss you so much!" Max whimpered into Chloe's shoulder.

"I'll always love you... now get out of here, please! Do it before I freak. And Max Caulfield, don't you forget about me..." Chloe replied, stepping back until she was standing by your side.

"Never." Max affirmed, exchanging looks with you before you felt Chloe wrap her arms around you.

You quickly embraced Chloe, looking up to only see Max was gone.

"Y/n... I... I'm sorry I strung you along for so long... Rachel, she was my angel, but then... then Max came back but all along, all I ever wanted was you, it was you all long, Y/n S/n. I love you." Chloe whimpered, her eyes widening as you raised your hand to brush away the tears that were running down her face with your thumb.

"And... I love you, Chloe Price." You replied, not moving away as Chloe kissed you.

The kiss was salty from your combined tears from watching the town the two of you had lived in be destroyed.

///

"So, first stop, Seattle?" Chloe murmured, catching your eye as you sat in the passenger seat of her truck.

"Yeah... my family left to go up there on Thursday... I snuck some photo albums and mementos into a bag they've got with them. Plus, there's someone we know at university in Seattle." You explained, leaving Chloe to pause, kissing your cheek to erase your smirk.

"Hey, eyes on the road! Anyway, Steph's going to want to see us, especially after... yeah..." You replied, leaving Chloe to nod sadly, eyes flicking to the rear-view mirror, where you'd left Arcadia Bay.

The two of you sat in comfortable silence as Chloe drove towards Seattle, Washington.

Arcadia Bay and Max Caulfield were gone.

[mintaka14]

This is a bit of something that got in my way while I was working on the ML ballet AU. Turns out I still have a grain or two of Lila salt in me. Quickspinner’s Out of Your League (from the All That Remains collection) needs the credit for a bit of backstory that I had in mind here. And yes, this is Lukanette. Always.

Lila wasn’t above using her mother’s sense of guilt to her own advantage. She also had no problem with feeding that guilt. A few sighs and teary comments when her mother (yet again) had to cancel on Lila to deal with something at the embassy, or a subtle reminder about all the times Lila had been left on her own in their apartment was all grist to the mill, and Lila had to admit that it had paid off in a big way this time.

Her mother had pulled every string and favour at her disposal for Lila’s birthday party, and Jagged Stone himself was going to be putting in an appearance. Lila was jubilant.

She watched the ballroom at the embassy – how her mother had managed that one Lila didn’t know, and honestly didn’t care – filling up with her classmates and everyone she’d ever met, and she allowed herself a satisfied smile.

Of course, Marinette wasn’t there. Lila had had an enjoyable month of it, tormenting the goody-two-shoes over it, and the beautiful part was that no one had even caught a hint of what she was really doing. She hadn’t been so crass as to leave Marinette out of the party invitations, oh no! She had handed the girl a gilt-edged invite with her most charming, and insincere, smile as she made a point of telling Marinette how much she hoped that Marinette would be there. Their classmates had eaten it up with a spoon, falling all over Lila to tell her how generous and forgiving she was, given the way Marinette had been so hostile to her, and all the while Lila had smiled sweetly and watched Marinette twist in the trap.

If Marinette begged off the party, she was the bad guy for refusing Lila’s olive branch. If Marinette came, then Lila won, and she would get to watch Marinette swallow her pride and suffer all night, or crack and create drama. Either way, it was all good, and Lila had had fun making little digs and comments about the party in front of Marinette for the weeks leading up to it.

As Lila accepted everyone’s tributes and praise, greeting each new arrival with becoming diffidence and subtly trying to gauge the worth of each gift that they piled on the table at the entrance, she came to the conclusion that Marinette had decided not to put in an appearance. Her smile grew wider.

“Lila!” Alya had arrived, and swept her into a hug, surveying the ballroom, and the tables of food, with an impressed eye. Behind her, Nino grinned and bobbed his head in greeting. “Amazing party, girl. And I can’t believe you got Jagged Stone to come!”

Lila gave her a modest smile. “It’s all about who you know, and Jagged was more than happy to come when he heard it was for my birthday.” She looked around as if searching for something, and made her eyes wide and hopeful. “Did… did Marinette come with you?”

Alya shifted uncomfortably. “Er… Marinette couldn’t make it. But she asked me to wish you a happy birthday.”

Oh, no, she didn’t, Lila thought, suppressing the smirk that pulled at the corners of her mouth. Alya, you liar.

She forced her face into a sorrowful pout with just the right touch of hurt. “It’s okay. It would have been nice if we could put aside whatever this grudge is that Marinette has against me just for once, but I guess not…”

Alya and Nino smiled awkwardly. And then her mother touched her arm, a harried expression on her face as she drew Lila away out of earshot for a moment.

“Lila, sweetheart, there’s some bad news,” her mother said anxiously, and Lila felt her smile slip a little. “We’ve just had word that Jagged Stone had to cancel at the last minute.”

“What do you mean, Jagged Stone cancelled?” Lila almost shrieked. A few heads turned towards them, and Lila brought herself back under control before they could overhear. “Mama, you need to fix this. Get him back!”

“Sweetheart, I can’t. His agent said it was unavoidable, and they’re paying the late cancellation fine in the contract. At this late notice I can’t get anyone else to come instead.”

Lila let her eyes fill with tears – she’d practised tearing up in front of her mirror, but in this case the tears were very real.

“Mama,” she insisted, and the harried lines on her mother’s face deepened.

“You’ll still have a lovely party,” her mother said weakly. “The food is wonderful, and you still have the DJ for entertainment.”

“But I told everyone that Jagged Stone was coming!”

“I’m so sorry, darling.” Her head turned towards the doorway, where an aide was waving a phone at her. “I have to go take this call.”

The moment that her mother had turned away, Lila’s mouth pinched with anger and frustration, and she barely stopped herself from stamping her foot.

“Hey girl, is everything okay?”

She heard Alya’s voice call out to her, and she smoothed out her face, spinning around with artificial enthusiasm. Several of their classmates were clustered behind Alya, and she turned a smile on them as well.

“So,” Alya continued, “we’re all really excited! When’s Jagged getting here?”

Lila gave a moue of only slightly exaggerated disappointment.

“Can you believe it?” she sighed, one hand fluttering up to her chest. “Jagged had to cancel. It was last minute, and I’m so worried it’s because that awful throat condition of his has flared up again.” Her hand went to her mouth. “Oh no! You can’t tell anyone about it, no one is supposed to know, but that was why he couldn’t do the zoom call with the class last month like he’d promised.”

There was a ripple of sympathy and concern through her classmates, but then Alix made a sceptical noise at the back of the group.

“Throat condition? But you said it was sunspot interference with the internet connection.”

“No, I was trying to keep his throat problems secret-“

“It was Clara Nightingale you said had a serious throat condition, and that was why she had to cancel helping out with the charity auction like she’d told you,” Alix interrupted.

“No, that was Jagged-“

“If recall accurately,” Max spoke up, “and I do, Clara Nightingale had the throat condition. I could have Markov replay the conversation,” he added helpfully, and Lila spun around in dismay.

“No, that’s not-“

“There have been a lot of cancellations,” Alix said in growing suspicion. Lila could see the faces around her registering confusion, and there was a growing murmur as her classmates tallied things up. She had to stop this before they came to the realisation that…

“What about that interview you promised me with Ladybug?” Alya was asking her, her voice sharp. “The one that got cancelled because of an akuma, except I could never find anything about that akuma, and you never rescheduled. And that meeting that Nino was supposed to have with that director?”

Nino wasn’t saying anything, his face hidden by his cap as he stared at the floor. The muttering was growing louder now as more people were working things out and the number of promises mounted up.

“Oh my god,” Juleka mumbled behind the fall of her streaked black and purple hair. “He was right.”

“Who?” Rose asked, but Alix was talking again before Juleka could answer.

“You didn’t need to fib about Jagged Stone being here to get us to come to your party, Lila,” Alix said as the expressions turned to disgust and disbelief.

“But I didn’t!” Lila protested, and for once she had been telling the truth. “I swear, Jagged really was coming. You have to believe me!”

“I said it was a bit hinky that Jagged Stone would have agreed to play a teenage party like this,” Alix told the group around her.

“I’m not lying!” Lila insisted, her voice growing shrill as the expressions turned to disgust and disbelief. “He did a signing for Chloe.”

“Yeah, well, that’s Chloe, and the mayor himself roped him into that.”

“But my mother works for the embassy! And I saved his kitten!”

Again, Alix snorted, and Alya had her arms folded now, frowning.

“You know, I couldn’t find anything about that online, or about Jagged even having a kitten. The more I think about it, the more I wonder why I believed that in the first place.”

“You believed Marinette,” she couldn’t help the slight snarl at that name, “when she said she designed stuff for Jagged and he came to her house.”

“But she didn’t say that,” Nino pointed out. “We saw all of that for ourselves. But now I think about it, I haven’t seen anything that proves you’ve even met him.”

“But I have! He really was coming, and he was going to sing Happy Birthday to me! He just had to cancel.”

“Sure, Lila.”

After all the stories Lila had spun, and the lies and embellishments, how could it be the truth that they refused to believe? The group drifted away from her while Lila stared after them in open-mouthed shock. She was left in a spreading circle of isolation at her own party.

The only person who acknowledged her existence was the tall boy with the blue hair over near the buffet table. Lila frowned, trying to work out where she knew him from. He was older than her class, and the ripped jeans and scruffy hoodie were out of place among the smartly dressed guests, but he looked familiar, and what was he doing at her party anyway? He raised the vol au vent in his hand in an unsmiling salute.

Lila made her way over to him.

“Now, where do I know you from?” she asked with an attempt at coyness, in spite of the fury still seething through her at her classmates’ revolt. His expression didn’t change.

“We’ve met before. I’m Juleka’s brother, Luka.”

Juleka’s brother. Marinette. She had a sudden memory of the steps outside the school and an older boy with blue hair and a guitar slung over his back, coolly warning her about what would happen if she messed with Marinette or his sister. Her eyes narrowed.

He said, “I just wanted to say Happy Birthday, and I’m sorry to hear that Jagged fell through on you.”

“Jagged?” Lila sucked in a breath at that. “What do you know about Jagged Stone?”

“You underestimated Marinette,” the blue-haired boy said calmly. “It’s all about who you know, isn’t that what you said, Lila? It’s all about connections. Except Marinette’s are real.”

She let out a smothered shriek.

“Marinette did this! How could she-“

Luka was shaking his head. “Marinette didn’t do a thing. She’s been trying so hard to take the high road, and she’s not vindictive. I did warn you, though, what would happen if you threatened someone I care about again – just because I don’t want to play your kind of games doesn’t mean I can’t or won’t.”

“Then you turned them all against me! You-“

“I didn't even need to do that,” Luka said, and gave her an infuriatingly composed smile. ��In the end, all I really needed to do was tell my dear old dad how you treated his favourite designer. I didn’t even have to bend the truth to do it, and the music just played from there.”

Lila’s mouth fell open. “Jagged Stone… is your father?!”

“Surprised the hell out of me, too,” Luka muttered, and finished the pastry he was holding. He dusted the crumbs off his hands.

“Connections,” Luka said, and shoved himself away from the table. “I have them too, and I’m more than willing to use them for Marinette’s sake. Thank you for the lovely party.”

He gave her a little wave and walked away, leaving her standing there in the ruins of her reputation.

[iloveitwhen]

What Team? (pt. 2)

(yes, everytime i see “what team?” i think “wildcats!” and i just couldn’t help myself with the title heehee)

I hope this meets all of your expectations! if not then sorry i guess lmao. if there are mistakes or inconsistencies let me know(:

So I got a little carried away and this is much MUCH longer than the first part so... sorry? you’re welcome? idk but turns out the story has not progressed but it basically has so let’s say it did. I also got a little carried away with Alix meeting the waynes... (Also I should add I don't know squat about roller blading)

Part 1

Based on this post by @unmaskedagain

--------

Alix wasn’t stupid, granted her best friend was Kim and together they were pretty stupid, but Alix was not inherently stupid, Kim just lowered her IQ by a significant amount just by being around him, ok? Not her fault. But anyways, point being, Alix was not stupid, she could see the way Lila's face morphed to disgust when she looked at Marinette and thought no one was watching, or when she sneered at the backs of all of her classmates when they turned around, so of course she knew why Lila really tried to force "Lukanette" down everyone's throats, she wanted to be on top. Alix aslo prided herself in not having problems such as crushes, why bother yourself when clearly people are not… hot, attractive, sexy, ect. Alix didn’t understand how or why people so desperately wanted to kiss each other but not having that urge really brought light to her class’ situation. She had learned from the way Kim used to look at Chloe and the way Max looked at Kim and the way Marinette looked at Adrien, there were plenty more examples, like Mylene and Ivan, anyways, they all had the same look even if they were trying to hide it. Lila looked at Marinette with that same look but hidden under disgust, but then again she also looked at Adrien that way too, without disgust and hate though. But she also hated Marinette, plain and simple. Wait, definitely not simple. As for why she hated Marinette, Alix just hadn't gotten that far yet, but she was sure it had something to do with Adrien. And being a closeted gay. 

As for everyone else it was no secret that Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Lila Rossi did NOT like each other but lucky, or unlucky depending on how you look at it, the class simply ignored the both of them when they tried talking about the other. 

Marinette, picking up on the fact that she won that battle, stopped trying to tell everyone about Lila’s obvious lies. She knew the girl still had it out for her but she was completely powerless when it came to taking Marinette’s friends away. It was quite exhausting listening to Lila and not being able to say anything that would disprove her lies because no matter how sound her proof was her classmates wouldn’t listen. And Marinette honestly just wanted to sleep.

Lately she didn’t know what was going on, all week people kept whispering and would change the conversation when she arrived. She thought they were talking behind her back but they never gave her dirty looks, in fact they were even more friendly and she got a large increase of “morning Marinette!” and “How are you doing?” which was only slightly confusing. At least they were finally being as friendly and considerate towards her as she was towards them. 

“Hey Marinette?” Marinette looked up from her sketchbook as her thoughts scattered to see Juleka nervously tapping on her desk with her nails while Rose stood behind her girlfriend with a look that could only be described as sparkly. Marinette raised an eyebrow but smiled kindly at them. 

“Yes?” 

“So, umm,” she cleared her throat nervously, “can you help me and Rose make shirts that say “Team Luka” on them?” 

“Team lu- uhmm sure?” 

Juleka gave her a rare smile and a soft “thanks” before returning to her seat with Rosa who squeaked “you're the best Marinette!” Marinette gave the girl a weak smile and a small nod of appreciation and just stared in confusion at the spot where the two girls stood previously. 

What?

The heck?

“What was that all about?” Alya voiced Marinette’s thoughts and slid into her seat, poking Marinette’s arm to break the black haired girl out of her stupor. 

“I'm... not sure....” She furrowed her brows in confusion. Who was Luka going against that required Juleka’s support? She hadn't heard of XY making headlines lately and Luka wasn't either, well she wasn’t really online either anyways. “They asked me to help them make Team Luka shirts.” She looked over to her friend and was brought to even more confusion. Alya looked… offended? But she quickly wiped the look off her face and pursed her lips together before turning to face the front saying, 

“Interesting....”

After school Marinette, with Juleka and Rose, went to buy supplies before heading to the ship to meet with Luka. Together they made ten teal tie dyed shirts which they had printed “TEAM LUKA” on the center of it. Marinette tried asking what it was for but all three just redirected her so she eventually just dropped it. 

As she was leaving Luka stopped her. “Thank you, Marinette,” he said softly, “you really are a wonderful girl, you deserve the world.” Of course that made Marinette blush, what was up with this guy and his cute, mushy words? 

“Thanks, Luka. An- and don’t worry about it! Anything for you,” she trailed off for a moment before rushing to add, “and your family of course. Obviously.” She chuckled nervously while Luka just gave her an amused smile. 

“I’ll keep that in mind. Have a wonderful evening, Marinette.” He turned and walked back onto the ship, leaving Marinette weak in the knees. She quickly steeled her nerves then chastised herself while walking away. Stop feeling for multiple boys. Stop feeling for multiple boys. Stop feeling….

---

Alya was not happy to find Juleka and Rose wearing teal tie dyed shirts saying “TEAM LUKA” printed on them. So they want to play THAT game. Ok. She can deal with that. In her desire to plan she missed Marinette’s rambles throughout class and the bell that signaling the start of lunch. 

“ALYA!” she snapped her head to the source of the sound to find the one and only Chloe Bourgeois with a hand on her hip and pursed lips. She looked around the room to find it completely empty except for the two of them. 

“Chloe!” she scooched over the bench and hopped up, accidentally almost bumping noses with the blonde girl from being too close but Chloe just gave a disgusted face and quickly took a step back. “Just the person I needed! Did you SEE those shirts?” Chloe huffed and rolled her eyes. 

“Of course I did, Césaire. That is the only reason you will be spending more time than I am comfortable with in my presence. Come on.” She turned her heel and strutted out of the classroom while Alya scrambled to grab all of her belongings. 

---

Not long at all after Marinette saw Juleka and Rose (Ivan quickly following suit) wearing the Team Luka shirts, Alya and Chloe, a pairing Marinette NEVER saw coming, walked in with matching shirts, orange for Alya and yellow for Chloe, with a fancy, clean font spelling out “Team Adrien” on the front and a bold “SUCK IT” on the back. Marinette watched Alya approach her seat with her jaw hanging loose. 

WHAT WAS GOING ON???

“What is- you know what? Nevermind. I don’t want to know.” Alya smirked and slid into her seat. “You purposefully came last didn’t you?” 

“Yep!” Alya replied happily while pulling her phone out and started typing furiously. 

“Babe, where’s my shirt?” Nino had turned around and gave his girlfriend puppy eyes. 

“Oh, here you go,” she pulled a green shirt out of her bag and tossed it to him while Adrien watched with interest. A sound of excitement escaped Nino when he caught the shirt and he opened it up to see the front which revealed the back of the shirt to Marinette. She felt the blood drain from her face and she lifted her hand to cover her mouth in horror. The back had a perfect snapshot of Adrien’s side profile from his ad for cologne when he was gliding through the air. Marinette glanced at Adrien and saw that his jaw had dropped and his face started to burn a deep red. Marinette just wanted to cry. Nino flipped it over and Marinette saw “Team Adrien” in the same font of Chloe and Alya’s shirts while Nino let out an unearthly squeal. 

“It’s PERFECT! Adrien! Look!” he flipped the shirt over to show Adrien but the blonde boy had already curled in on himself and hid his face in his arms. 

“Whyyyyy, Alyaaaaa.” Alya smirked and looked up from her phone. 

“Don’t worry Adrien, we’re rooting for you.” 

Marinette cried (internally) that night as she prayed to every Kwami she knew to save her soul. 

---

Adrien didn’t know what was going on, at first when he saw Luka’s shirts he really wanted one too to show his support of his acquaintance. Adrien didn’t know the boy that well but he was very kind and any team that Luka was on Adrien wanted to be on too heehee. After his friends started wearing Team Adrien shirts he felt… conflicted. And slightly uncomfortable. He was happy his friends were supporting him but it just felt wrong to root for himself. So to counteract this he approached Juleka when the school ended and got his own shirt. The next day he changed into it after getting dropped off at school, obviously because his Father would make him burn the shirt if he ever saw Adrien wearing it, and when he came out of the restroom he found Lila climbing the stairs in her own Team Luka shirt. Her eyes shot up in surprise at the sight of him before a strained smile etched onto her lips. 

“Lila! It’s great to see we’re on the same team.” He smiled kindly at her and gave a silent prayer to Plagg that she didn’t think he was flirting with her as she always seemed to assume. 

“Indeed, Adrien.” 

Everyday for the next week more and more people wore their own team shirts until the class was split in half, save for Nathanial, Marinette, and Alix. Adrien continuously tried to find out what the teams were for but someone always assured him that it was nothing to worry about. 

It wasn’t until he saw Chloe’s retweet of Alix’s tweet that he realized that his class was warring over who was the better match, him or Luka, for one of Alix’s friends that apparently the entire class knew besides Nathanial and Marinette as they never picked a side. He wondered if he knew the person that the class was talking about and decided to logout of twitter before anything got out of hand as it usually did whenever Chloe was on twitter. 

---

“We have a problem.” Dick stated to his two brothers and adoptive father. 

“Ok, what’s new?” Jason asked lazily, polishing his gun. 

“Marinette is trending on twitter.”

“What?” Tim pulled his phone out and started going through the app as Dick continued.

“Team Luka, Team Adrien, Lukanette, and Adrinette are trending on twitter. Take a wild guess what that could mean.” Bruce rolled his eyes and started to say, 

“Dick we don’t have time for this,” but Dick cut him off mid sentence and spoke over him. 

“These boys are getting fought over who would be a better fit for Marinette. OUR Marinette. As in Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” Jason stopped polishing his gun and actually looked at Dick while Tim gagged. 

“What?” all three voices before him spoke up in unison. Dick was surprised that Bruce spoke up with a little more exasperation. 

“No!” Bruce dropped his face into his hands and groaned. He was certainly taking this far worse than Dick thought he would. The older man raised his head and gave Dick a look he usually gave him when he was trusting him with an important mission, “take care of this, make sure none of those boys steal Marinette away from Damian.” Dick nodded his head once. 

“Yes, sir.”

---

Marinette and the Waynes go way back, so far back that when Bruce let it slip that he and Alfred used to have a neighbor at a lake house who would repeatedly visit whenever Alfred was there the batboys KNEW they had to find the one and only Gina and meet her ENTIRE family. Marinette was ten at the time and was immediately enraptured by Damian’s “old man” personality and forced him to have fun like a child during his short stay. The Batboys, as much as they were scared of Damian and what he might do, immediately shipped them together, Jason (being the fanfiction writer/reader which he never admitted to anyone) deemed the ship “Daminette” which the others agreed to fervently. But now, five years later and three very determined Daminette shippers later, Damian and his brothers were on a plan to France to meet with Marinette. 

“Momma Cheng! Papa Dupain!” Dick swung the bakery door open and sauntered in while the others trailed behind him rolling their eyes, except for Tim, Tim was excited for good coffee. 

“Oh Richard!” Sabine walked around the counter and gave all the boys a quick hug and handed them off to her husband who cracked their backs with his monstrous hugs. Sabine reached Damian and pulled him into a hug before he could protest then held him at arm's length. “Oh my have you grown! Tom,” she turned her head to her husband while still holding onto Damian. 

Tom set down Tim who stumbled and was caught by Dick before hitting the ground. “Yes, dear?” 

“Hasn’t he grown so much? Such a handsome young man,” she let go and pinched his cheek which he pulled away from when suddenly he was lifted into a smoldering hug and felt the cr-rick cra-ack! of his spine. He wiggled in the grip finding he couldn’t get out but when he was placed back down he felt a little lightheaded and refused to stumble like an embarrassment Tim was. 

“You fellas can grab some treats, Marinette won’t be home until pretty late but you boys are welcome to stay until she arrives” The boys all nodded in response and said their chorus of thank you’s and went to grab some pastries before heading to the inside of their home. 

Jason quickly got restless and Dick followed him to babysit keep an eye on him while Tim pulled out his computer and started typing away. Damian got bored and decided to explore. He knew it was probably inappropriate but he politely asked Sabine if he could go up to Marinette’s balcony knowing she probably kept her garden growing up there when she started it out of spite of him after he insulted her capabilities to take care of another thing, much less herself. He was pleased, and slightly annoyed, to find a beautiful garden with an array of flowers, herbal plants and even a beautiful small tree. 

After a while being by himself a ragged looking cat sauntered over to the balcony and Damian quickly made friends with the animal and deemed it sweet and good and no harm would ever come to such an animal under his watch. He decided she was worthy to carry the name Enibas and smiled as she curled up on his chest while they both drifted off to sleep on the deck chair. 

---

Alix re-strapped her skates and got back up, ignoring the pain in her badly scraped hip and rolled out her shoulder while skating back uphill to the beginning of her obstacle course. She spun around and narrowed her eyes at the several cones placed strategically in front of her. She had set up her area by the Eiffel Tower and the locals already knew to steer clear as she had been doing this regularly for the past seven years ever since she got her first pair of skates. She blocked everything and anything out of her mind and focused on her breathing and steadied her body, with one more huff of breath she shot out towards the cones. 

First: three cones placed closely together in a line and a fourth further behind, she spun in circles and lifted her heel of her right foot and toes of her and glided through the three cones quickly, she then jumped in the air and spun in a circle in midair over the fourth cone in a slight pirouette position before landed on her left foot with her arms out, bent over slightly, and her right leg sticking out behind her. 

Second: she was still gliding very fast and twisting her extended leg gave her the momentum to face behind her, there were no cones but she knew what to do. She bent the leg supporting her and cut to the right and expertly landed on her padded hand and using the walled walkway beside her she pushed her left leg out to skate alongside and up the wall. Placing her other hand on the ground she pushed her body up high, higher than anybody should be able to do but given the fact she discovered Fluff gave her a bit of an advantage, she twirled and twisted to land on both feet. Once again Alix was facing downhill and even though she lost a lot of speed with the last move she was gaining again. 

Third: there was a little makeshift ramp, Alix huffed again and pushed herself downhill. She would make it this time. Going as fast as she thought was safe, she skated on top of the ramp and keeping her legs straight she let it lift her, Alix let herself fly for a bit letting her legs carry up as her upper body fell before tucking her legs in to quicken the flip. However, instead of flipping too fast like last time, slipping, and slamming onto her shoulder, she went higher than she anticipated and shot her legs out to reach the ground quicker and ungracefully swung her arms about to prevent her from falling backwards again. She thumped onto the ground but before she could celebrate her success of landing on two feet she tripped from the unbalance and yelled “FU**!” before smashing into the ground. 

Alix groaned from the pain and thanked the Kwami’s she always wore her helmet, if not she was sure she'd have much more than just a scratched chin. 

“Are you okay?” a panicked man’s voice entered her ears and without moving to see who it was she gave a thumbs up. 

“Holy sh** that was AWESOME!” another man’s voice invaded her ears again. Great. American tourists. 

Alix pushed herself up to see who it was speaking to find, what most would call, a handsome gentleman with black hair and clear blue eyes filled with worry. She looked over at the other man who looked pretty much the same except with a weird strip of white hair and was typing furiously on his phone. 

“Oi!” she pointed at the white striped hair dude, “di**head, did you take a video? Where are you sending it?” 

“Jason!” the first with the blue eyes looked back at his… partner? “Don’t send that to anyone, alright?” The guy looked between the man in front of Alix then to her before shrugging.

“I wasn’t going to.” Alix still stared at him while he went back to his phone but walked up to the two on the ground. 

“Are you sure you're ok, miss?” the man in front of her asked. She looked back at him and raised an eyebrow. 

“I've been doing this since I was eight. I’ve had worse.” the guy nodded then smiled brightly. 

“That was very impressive though.” He stood up and offered his hand which she took and stood up with him. “Do you mind if I join you? I would love it if I could. I’ve never actually done flips and stuff with skates but I think I can handle it. So can I?” His smile was so big and innocent that Alix laughed at him. 

“I’m sorry but this isn’t exactly something you can just pick up and be good at, I’ve fallen enough times I won’t break a bone and while he,” Alix pointed at the other guy, “might be able to take a few crashes you don’t look like you’ve ever been in a serious harm. Like ever. No offence or anything I just don’t want some broken bones blamed on me.” She replied as nicely as she could but the man just started laughing. 

“How about I show you what I can do on skates first and if you deem me unworthy I’ll take my leave.” Alix narrowed her eyes at him then gave him a slow nod. “Great!” he whipped out his phone and started texting someone while Alix just turned around and headed for her water bottle. These guys were weird. 

Ten minutes later another guy showed up, Tim, as Alix was informed earlier, also had black hair and blue eyes except he seemed younger and was skinnier than the other two, and was carrying three pairs of new skates. Alix gawked at him, those were some of the nicest, most expensive pairs of skates in Paris and he had three. Yup. These were some rich fools. 

Dick, as he introduced himself as (Alix laughed at him for such an unfortunate name), squealed and rushed to put on a pair of skates and wheeled around doing impressive jumps and moves that he really had no right doing while Jason yelled “I told you not to get me a pair!” the new boy shrugged and put his own on. Alix sighed and shook her head, accepting that these particular rich fools would be quite stubborn. 

“Ok. I’m ready.” Alix turned towards Dick who looked at her expectantly. 

“Ok. What are you waiting for, am I supposed to help you with something or…?” 

“Oh! Uh… can I do the course? He pointed downhill at her makeshift course and she nodded. 

“Sure. Don’t blame me when you crack your head open, you should really get a helmet by the way.” 

“Oh don’t worry,” he waved her off and smiled like he wasn’t in actual danger, “I do stuff like this all the time.” He readied himself and went through her course, not as dramatic as she had done but toned down motions and movements and when he got to the ramp he jumped as far up as he could but didn’t flip. He skated back up and went through again adding a little more complicated movements through it. Alix watched with interest as Tim skated up to her side and stuck a hand out. 

“Hello, I’m Tim.” 

“I know.” Alix accepted his hand shake, “I’m Alix,” she replied before returning to watching Dick go through the course. 

“I hope we’re not bothering you too much. I saw the video and I really wanted to meet you and I knew Dick here would love to do some stunts of his own. Did he already tell you what you did wrong with that flip that made you lose your balance?” 

“Huh? He’s good but I don’t think he’ll be flipping on skates anytime soon.” 

“Oh, actually we all kind of do crazy stunts like this on a daily basis and he specializes in acrobats so I just figured he told you already.” 

“Ok! I think I’m ready!” Dick called out after his fourth round skating up the hill. 

“No,” Alix breathed out. “He’s not gonna do the backflip is he?”

“Yup,” Tim lightly chuckled. “Sorry we’re all a little crazy.” 

“This is for you, Alix.” 

“Wait, no-” but Dick ignored her and started through the course again. He skated skillfully around the cones and did a perfect pirouette over the fourth cone as if he’d been doing it for years and did his own little crazy stint with a backflip then raced towards the ramp and with straight legs he let his legs fly up and his head drop much longer than she was comfortable with, then tucked his legs in but not as much as she did and landed perfectly and glided down the hill with his arms raised up like a gymnast. 

“What!?” Alix yelled. She was highly peeved. She’s been trying this for the past week and he tries and lands on the first try!? Unfair. So unfair. 

“Can I try?” Tim asked. Alix whipped her head to him and scoffed.

“Not you too? You're going to just flip like it's nothing too? No. No no no. Dick!” she yelled out unintentionally calling him the American curse word in the process to the man who turned around and started towards them. 

“Yeah?” Alix waited until he stopped in front of her. 

“How did you do that?”

“I just waited a bit longer before tucking my knees in. I noticed that you tucked too early and brought your knees too close to your chest which made you over flip. And by waiting a little longer you would have dropped a little further so you wouldn’t have struggled with being too high.” Alix huffed in annoyance. 

“Ok… ok…. My turn, I’m going to get it this time.” 

Alix went to the beginning of the course and took a deep breath, blocking everything out and shot out. She did her tricks and jumps and when she got to the ramp she felt a rush of adrenaline from the slight fear. She went up as high as she could and her legs went up and her upper body dropped. She waited past her comfort zone and looked down to the approaching ground. Then everything clicked. She tucked her legs in, following Dick’s words, and straightened them out again until they were slightly bent and landed. She whooped and pumped her fists in the air. She’d finally done it! She turned back around to find Jason on the side with his camera out and cheering her on while Tim and Dick did the same but without their phones. She laughed and skated back up the hill. 

“I finally got it!” 

“Yes!” Tim held out a hand and she high-fived it. “That was awesome! You are amazing!” Alix grinned widely at the praise. 

“Thanks! I just have to land at least ten more times in a row,” she said as she readied herself to go again. 

“Wait, I can’t go yet?”

“My course, my rules.” Tim smiled and nodded his head. 

“Good point.” 

For the next two hours Alix skated with the two boys and conversed with Jason when she was taking a break. That’s how she found out they were in Paris because of Marinette and refused to have two boys fighting over Marinette when she was already taken, well not yet but they were determined to get their brother Damian and Marinette together. She then decided she liked Jason, despite him taking unwanted videos though they turned out to be fun to watch (she cringed when she saw herself faceplant in the first video). It was nice to see people like the three of them looking out for Marinette, heaven knows she doesn’t have a guardian angel because she gets into way too much trouble without even trying, though the three of them were also troublemakers and chaos was basically Alix’s occupation. It was 19 hours (7:00) when they had to go but Alix was very excited when they invited her over with them to meet Marinette who they hadn’t seen in several years. 

---

Marinette sighed from exhaustion as she pushed the front door of her parent’s bakery open. She had been working nonstop with Jagged Stone on his new stage outfits, she loved the guy but he was a handful sometimes. 

“Marinette!” She looked up and gave her mother a tired smile while the woman handed a pastry to a customer. “Have a wonderful day,” she told the customer before walking around the counter as the man left and hugged her daughter. “We have some guests who came to visit you.” Mrs. Cheng smiled brightly at Marinette who scrunched her brows together in confusion. 

“Who?” Her mother shook her head and pushed her towards the entrance to their home. 

“You’ll see.” 

Marinette walked through the door to find Alix wrestling Jason Todd to the ground while the man was pushing her face away with a pillow and Tim Drake watching, but not really watching, as he sipped on something she assumed was coffee, and Dick Grayson who was ignoring them all, laying on the couch watching spongebob in french. She cleared her throat to get their attention but nothing happened. 

“Excuse me.” she called out but again, nothing. 

“ExCUSE me.” Nothing besides Alix’s ‘hmph’ as Jason flipped her over and stood up, lightly smacking her with the pillow while yelling. “Taste defeat!”

“HEY!” Marinette finally yelled out. All four heads snapped to her and everything was silent for a moment before chaos erupted and all the three boys started shouting and squealing (Dick) and clamoring for hugs. 

“Mari!”

“Nettie!”

“MY FAVORITE SISTER!”

Marinette made a strangled noise as they all squeezed the life out of her. Marinette was smiling and laughing with them but was very glad when she was finally back on her own feet. 

“What are you guys doing here?” 

“What, we can’t visit our little sister?” Jason asked innocently and Marinette crossed her arms and looked at him with disbelief etched in every part of her. 

“Ok so we heard about your situation in your class and-”

“Hey!” Alix suddenly cut in and stuttered when all eyes were on her. “I mean, hey, so I was just hanging out with these guys all day and they’re all hungry, let’s fix them something to eat?” She looked at Marinette in question then clapped her hands together and nodded once to confirm it with herself. “Yes.” 

Marinette looked at her suspiciously then at her pseudo brothers who suddenly started nodding in confirmation. 

“Yes, food.”

“Yup.”

“Hunger is a thing I have.” Jason’s stomach grumbled as if on cue which broke Marinette’s suspicion and she giggled at him. 

“Ok, spaghetti it is. Blue Bird, you're on cutting duty, Tim-Tam, you get the ingredients, Jay-Jay…. Alix, keep Jason busy.” 

After a few minutes bustling around the kitchen Marinette suddenly remembered something and she turned to Dick, “Where’s the old man?” 

After dinner was made Dick bounded into her room claiming Damian was napping on her balcony which Marinette smiled to in triumph but when Damian came downstairs her triumph washed away along with her soul. 

Marinette was doing fine all day. She was completely rational and fine. She was fine. Currently she is NOT fine. She is NOT ok. And as for Damian? He was fine alright. Oh boy was he fine. As soon as he walked down from her trapdoor her jaw dropped to the floor. 

---

Alix shook her head, she was having quite the time watching Marinette’s reaction to her childhood friend but felt a rush of relief that she didn’t have Marinette Problems.

“Seriously, Marinette? Close your mouth.” The girl snapped her mouth shut and tore her eyes away from Damian to land on the skater. 

“Alix,” she hissed, “why is he so damn hot?” Alix smirked at her friend’s rare use of a curse word and watched as Marinette’s face started to pinken and she ducked behind the kitchen counter. Alix leaned over the counter and saw the tip of her friend’s head. 

“Relax,” she tried to be reassuring but couldn’t stop grinning. She heard footsteps get closer and whispered, “he’s coming,” before plopping back onto her seat. 

Damian walked into Marinette’s view and stopped to look at her on the floor with a scowl that Alix was sure was not helping Marinette’s situation. 

“What are you doing on the floor, Dupain-Cheng?” Alix snickered while Marinette shot up on her feet. 

“He’s a male Chloe Bourgeois!” she said mostly to herself. 

“None of your business. I see you haven’t changed a bit, Old Man.” Damian scoffed. 

“Neither have you, it seems, Sunshine Face.” Wow. Bad nickname. 

“Oh,” Marinette placed her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the side, “so you still admit my face is pretty?” Oooo, where did Marinette get her game?

“What? No. More like I can’t look at it for too long because-” 

Marinette began waving her hands back and forth to get him to stop, “ok ok ok,” where was she getting this confidence? She was literally hiding from him five seconds ago. “When you explain it, it loses the humor, did you learn nothing all those years ago?” Marinette shakes her head and Alix silently agrees, “pity. Anyways, my cooking has improved, as well as everything about me, I have clearly surpassed you, and here is some spaghetti we made while you were napping.” She grabbed a plate and waved her hand towards the food still on the stove while handing it to him, “help yourself.” She walked by him and headed to the couch where Jason and Dick had settled and plopped between them while they played video games. Alix nodded in approval as she watched Marinette walk away. When she turned back she found Damian watching her as well with cheeks slightly tinted pink. Wow. Does every boy she talks to fall for her? Even Kagami, poor soul, had fallen for Marinette as quickly as she could say “Begone, Adrien.”

This is going to be a fun week. 

---

Marinette groaned in despair. Nino walked in with a blue shirt with a white outline of Adrien’s face like he was some kind of pop star and a red hat that of course said “Team Adrien”  

“What's next,” Marinette mumbled to herself while leaning back and crossing her arms, “Team Damian?” Marinette heard a gasp and turned to see Alix staring at her like she had the greatest idea ever. 

Very suddenly things clicked for Marinette. Her classmates were picking sides of who she should date. Adrien or Luka. It was literally the only connection she could find between the two boys, they only had about one or two conversations together in their entire lives and Marinette was definitely terrible at keeping her crushes secret so there was no way that at least Kitty Section would know about it. And thinking about Kitty Section they were the ones who started it. Oh no. Marinette made those shirts. Does Luka know? Probably. Adrien definitely doesn’t. Wwwooowww. Some friends she has. 

And now Alix. 

That BRAT! She was typing something on her phone… oh no. 

“Alix,” Marinette said slowly as if approaching a rabid dog while unraveling her arms from her body. “Alix, no!” She jumped from her seat and lunged for the skater over Mylene who merely leaned back in her seat as if she’d been through this a million times. Alix jumped back while continuing to type then very clearly pressing send. “Noooooo…” Marinette slumped onto Mylene’s lap who patted the top of her head in pity. 

She laid there for a moment taking in Mylene’s silent comfort before slowly standing up and ignoring everyone’s stares. She straightened her clothes saying a polite, “thank you, Mylene,” and a nod at her before focusing her gaze on Alix. “You’re dead, Kubdel,” she said then turning around and sitting straight backed on her seat trying desperately to ignore another snapshot of Adrien in a Gabriel line of workout clothes showing off his muscles on the back of Nino’s new shirt. 

Marinette was slowly losing her mind. 

---

The next day Alix walked in with a black shirt with green bold font saying “TEAM DAMIAN” on the front and she could feel Marinette staring daggers at her. She purposefully exposed her back to the class so they could see the “FIND YOUR OWN GIRL” printed on the back. 

Alix ignored the stares while pulling out her school things until she heard Lila’s sickening sweet voice call out to, “who’s Damian?” Alix waited for a beat to make sure everyone was listening before smiling smugly, she couldn’t help it, and shrugging. 

“Damian Wayne, obviously.” 

---

Marinette would deny it but she felt a sick sort of satisfaction when Lila’s face paled. 

BONUS:

“Plagg!” Adrien sounded exasperated and the little god chuckled evilly. It was such fun to tease his holder. The boy hadn’t caught on that his infatuation with Ladybug was just that: infatuation. He couldn’t see that he merely admired the girl, his father saw to it that Adrien was so sheltered that he couldn’t separate his feelings of the different types of love. 

“Just saying, I know what you're doing there, “chaton”,” plagg mimicked Luka’s voice perfectly on the last word which instantly made Adrien become very red in the face, “you and I know what team you play for.” He threw the boy a wink and cackled before leaving him to ponder his words as he searched for more Camembert. 

---

Felix rolled his eyes at his phone and quickly pressed the unfollow button on his cousin. What an embarrassment. He had absolutely no clue what he was throwing away because of his naïvety. 

---

“I can feel your rage from here, Kagami.” 

“Sorry, mother.” Kagami’s mother nodded her head as an acceptance of her apology. 

“I’ve heard about that pesky little feud Gabriel’s child is in.” She stayed quiet for a moment but Kagami didn’t break the silence. “You are a Tsurugi, Kagami. No hesitation.” Kagami couldn’t stop the little smile that slid onto her face. 

“Yes, mother,” she said quietly. 

-------

Team Luka: 

Lila, Juleka, Rose, Ivan, Sabrina, Adrien

Team Adrien: 

Alya, Chloe, Nino, Kim, Max, Mylene

Team Damian: 

Alix, Dick, Tim, Jason, Bruce

some long ass notes: 

I didn’t add kagami and felix into the mix because it would really complicate things but for clarification in my mind Marinette and everyone is between 14-16 and Marinette doesn’t know it but she does have feelings for kagami but she's focused on the other two boys, she knows she likes boys and doesn't want to think about girls since it would complicate her situation and open a door to many more problems with her poor little teen heart. Kagami knows she likes Marinette though, she took one look at marinette and said “nope. Bye Adrien.”

SO i think it be pretty cool if whoever wants to can reply with their own versions of whatever ships they want and the characters interactions with them. I won’t be actually putting any characters together as to leave the imagination up to the reader but if you want you can go ahead and add yourselves to whatever team you want (: 

Part 1

@miracleofadisaster @consumeconstantly @mermaidreject @alenee13 @how-to-fuction-properly @dreamykitty25 @certifiedbidisaster @kris-pines04 @ira-sairain @crystalangelluna @i-wanna-be-a-ninja @our-preciousss @iamabrownfox @susiej1118 @thenillabean @tired-butterfly @fantasyislive @prudencerika @thequeenofpotatoeunicornss @clumsy-owl-4178 @notmycupoftea26 @iamablinkmarvelarmy

[jasmine-the-fox]

I did the work... You guys were lazy

For this salt fic, I want you all to see what happens to the class for believing Lila and her lies and leaving behind Marinette... Also Damienette ship!!

For years Marinette didn’t think about her old class... Caline Bustier’s class was gone like the wind to her when she left Paris to go to Gotham for college, there were times when Alya and some of them will text her old number about demands of baked goods, dresses or new date Adrien plans... She would ignore them and at one point got rid of her phone as she was done with them, the only people she spoke to was Chloe who never believed Lila and even worked hard to be forgiven by Mari, Sabrina did so much research on Lila with Max that they too were forgiven with time, then was Alix who was visited by a furious Bunnix who showed Alix her future if she follows Lila.

Nathaniel was also someone who believe Mari, from the start he thought Lila was strange and one day with Marc spoke to Mari and has been loyal to her... Lastly was Kitty section, Luka was furious with them for listening to Lila about music and warned them about him quitting if they keep this up, after a while they heard Mari crying to Luka about what Lila did to her and they ended up leaving Lila, outside the class was of course Luka and Marc, Kagami, Aurore, Mireille, Ondine and Felix who is Adrien’s cousin, he was furious when Chloe told him about Adrien’s take the higher road line he told Mari.

Each of her friends did sadly go to different places and she only had Chloe with her in Gotham but that was fine with her, she still texted and did video calls with them so that was fine to her... And then she met Damian Wayne, the boy was cold and rarely spoke to anyone unless for a project he had to do in a team, slowly she began talking to him outside of class and that made him at some point want to speak with her about anything at all that wasn’t even related to school, with time Chloe helped her with there friends to change Marinette’s style, she went from pigtails to her hair down or in a braid, from white pink and gray to black and other kinds of colors.

She also began to wear make-up and she opened up a website for her designs, a blog so people can see tips and tricks on how to do things with clothes or how to fix something, she also took down all her previous accounts she had with the class following her and opened new accounts for her real friends to be seen with her, Damian would glare when his brother’s would talk about a new post on her social media or on her blog while his father often commissions her for clothes, this caused for her to become famous in Gotham and Clark interview her... Making her also famous in Metropolis.

And while she was becoming famous while still in school... Her class was losing there dreams, Alya was the first one to go through this, Nadja Chamack got to interview Lois Lane who ripped into the Ladyblog by pointing out posts she made that were lies and the consequences that would have happened if certain people saw them... Leading to her blog being taken down, she with Lila got sued and Lila was exposed as the liar she was including the bonus of Lila being deported back to Italy to live with her grand-parents who were sending her to a private school.

Slowly everyone including Adrien were targeted, Adrien being found out as Lila revealed that he and Marinette were the only ones who knew she was lying from the start... He was homeschooled once again but was able to go to college, he picked one his friends were going to with the grades they had but they all glared at him... But none of them thought to apologize to Mari for bullying her and claiming her to be a liar... Not until there bank accounts were frozen because there parents received from Tom and Sabine bills for each of there kids for baked goods, clothes, babysitting that Alya and Nino put on her at the last minute for a date and anything else that they never paid back.

That’s when they remembered Marinette, they all began trying to call and text her... But her number wasn’t available anymore as it wasn’t use so they couldn’t talk to her, Alya thought she was being petty while Adrien thought Mari was being selfish, with time they got back to work on what they wanted... And then they saw Mari on the news in Metropolis as an up coming designer, Gabriel Agreste saw a solution to the problem Lila brought to his work and told Adrien to try and talk to her and see if she would date him... Except Adrien didn’t have her current number.

It took some time but Gabriel ended up being invited to a Wayne Gala, he took his son and instructed him to try and get Marinette’s new number to try and then date her, Adrien was certain it would all go well and he would get her new number... Then everyone will be able to contact her and things will go back to normal for them, when they got there, Adrien began looking for Mari but saw Chloe with Damian Wayne and some girl with short hair, he decided to ignore them for now and focus on searching for Mari but couldn’t find her at all.

“Adrien? I’m surprised that your here since your father always comes alone” he turned to find Chloe and the girl from earlier, Damian wasn’t with them now and was instead talking to some guests “Hey there Chlo, my dad heard about Mari on the news and wanted to meet her and so I was just trying to find her for him” he explained as the girl looked annoyed at him while Chloe looked disappointed “Mari has been next to me from the start... You should have come over the moment you got here” she said as Adrien looked shocked at Marinette, her hair was now chin length, her dress was a beautiful red dress with a beautiful dragon design.

Chloe had to then walk away to speak with a guest, leaving the two alone, Adrien began trying to start a conversation but Mari simply went with short and simple answers... No going into detail of things, this was not the Marinette Dupain-Cheng he knew so he had to do something, he then began asking her if she could show him around Gotham while he was here, if she would like to have lunch with him at some point and even if she would like to dance with him... She said straight up no and didn’t give him a reason as to why, still wanting her number to begin contacting her, he decided to wait until she was drinking wine before snatching her phone from her purse and adding her number to his phone and sending it to the class before putting it back into her purse.

He just had to tell her she gave it to him while she was a little drunk, it would be just fine in the end and nothing would go wrong... He was wrong, the next day, police came to arrest him for stealing her phone and sending her number to others who contacted her the whole night... He tried to defend himself but security camera’s caught him stealing her phone and slipping it back, he was being sued and a restraining order was on him to stay away from her while she once again changed her number and ended up telling her clients about it... Gabriel was disappointed in his son for he had to go meet with her to try and fix everything... While trying to get her to agree to going on a date with his son.

She was already dating Damian though.

He found out when he saw them together, Damian had called her Angel and they kissed before he left, she refused to go on a date with his son or to remove the restraining order on his son... But Gabriel won’t give up “Make one of them hate the other, anything will do but make one of them dump the other!” he ordered his son who nodded to the demand, since Adrien couldn’t get close to Mari... He had to aim for Damian, he decided to us a few pictures he took of her in the past to make Damian think she has been dragging around a bunch of guys and girls, he didn’t care that Nino and Kim knew from childhood, he also didn’t care that Chloe and Kagami were in a relationship with one another, he didn’t care about Luka and Felix’ pride.

He was going to win this no matter what... He will make his father proud of him.

He was sent back to Paris to be put in jail there three days later, he really didn’t know what went wrong, all he did was show Damian the pictures and told him a few lies about her... And next thing he knew police was at his hotel room door and took him away to get to the airport to get to Paris, what he didn’t know was that Damian had seen those very pictures on Mari’s old friends and current friends social medias, so he knew he was lying from the start and called the police about it, Gabriel tried to stop them but he too was sent back to Paris for Nathalie had given the police a recording of Gabriel telling Adrien to try and get Mari’s number and have her date him.

Because of this both of there miraculous were taken, since Ladybug was now part of Batman’s team and had warned the police about the Agreste father and son having one each, Nathalie of course gave up her’s with the info and then returned early to Paris to take care of things there... And get Lila into even more trouble as she did work with Hawkmoth all this time, even so it wasn’t over, after a while in prison Adrien was released but not his father, after that Adrien saw his friends and fixed everything with them since he did get Mari’s number for them... If only for a while, so they forgave him, Adrien ended up getting the whole Agreste fortune and he then sold the mansion and the fashion company to live in an apartment.

His friends all worked hard to save up money to have a class reunion, with time everything was planned out and they got the whole class notified about it so they know when it happens and where to go at what time, they were so happy to have it happen as they couldn’t wait to see everyone, when the day came they were shocked at the friends they thought were evil...

Max and Sabrina ended up getting married, it was big and hard to get into a news reporter was able to find out from Sabrina that her dress was made by Marinette herself, Kitty section ended up breaking up, Juleka was now a model for Mari while Rose became a writer, Mylène was now a famous actress and happily married to Ivan who was now a famous song writer, Chloe and Kagami also got married, Chloe was Marinette’s assistant while Kagami opened up a Tsurugi fencing school in Gotham, Luka was now following Jagged Stone and becoming a famous singer and guitar player, Nathaniel become her website artist, helping her redesign her site page depending on new themes and seasons while Felix was Marinette’s image manager.

They were all there, even Lila... But Marinette was nowhere in sight, they all tried getting answers but the gang had ignored them, Aurore, Ondine, Mireille and Marc found it funny that they would try to get answers on Mari after all this time they had bullied her, Marinette then walked in arm in arm with Damian Wayne, they looked amazing in there outfits, just like all of her friends as they too were wearing her designs, the two walked around to greet her friends and see how they were doing since the last time they had spoken together, Alya and the gang tried to talk to her but all she did was ignore them... Lila on the other hand glared at Mari.

Everything Marinette was doing and getting... Should have been her, Lila should have been the one to meet Damian Wayne, she should be the one dating him, SHE should be the one becoming famous! But no! She was found out as being dangerous, working with a villain like Hawkmoth destroyed everything she could hope for... Now she worked part-time at some little restaurant in Italy being barely paid much with the hopes of meeting some rich guy to sweep her off her feet, she looked at times towards Adrien, he may no longer be a model for his father’s designs but he was now modeling for an agency who knew of what he liked, disliked and wanted to work in.

Even so she was disappointed when she saw how Adrien was focused on Mari, he still wanted to be with her,  he began walking towards “Agreste! You know that the restraining order is still on you! Take one more step towards Mari and I will call the cops!” Chloe shouted making the other’s of the class look at her in shock, Restraining order? On Adrien? To not get close of sweet innocent Marinette? Chloe must be lying, so of course Alya snapped back with Nino on her side on how Adrien has a right to greet Mari, they claim he’s allowed to go see her and insist he does, Kim pushes him forward towards Mari while Sabrina calls her dad to inform him about Adrien breaking the restraining order.

He got there in just a few minutes...

“Mister Agreste due to the fact that you broke the restraining order miss Marinette Dupain-Cheng placed on you after you stole her phone during a Wayne gala and then sent her number to an unknown number of people you will be coming with me to the station” Roger said as he cuffed Adrien and forced him to follow to his police car, Alya, Nino, Kim and Lila were in a massive shock at this... So Chloe was right, Marinette did put a restraining order on Adrien... Because they wanted her number to talk to her again since she changed it after all this time, and now here she was, changed and not allowing them to talk to her and to apologize for what they did.

The whole event ended and by morning everyone was on a plane to get back to where they live or are to be staying for work, about a week later Alya found out in the paper that Marinette was going to become a Wayne soon, she so badly wanted to report about in order to help her make it big so she with Nino got to the airport and paid for plane tickets to Gotham to speak with her, they found where she worked and begged to see her “Alya? Nino? Can I ask why your here in Gotham?” they turned to find Mari with Damian, they were just about to leave for lunch when she saw them “Mari! Gurl you NEED to let me report about your wedding! This could give me a huge break and get to become a reporter again!” Alya claimed as Mari glared at her.

“What do you mean by again? Alya all this time, you were not a reporter... You were the owner of a tabloid that posted every single lie Lila spoke to you, and as for this big break of yours it was destroyed the second Lois spoke about the Ladyblog, try anywhere and they will reject you because Lois is the one who reveals who is a good reporter... And those who are like you... Trash under our feet” Mari hissed and began walking with her fiancé too the door until she turned to the front desk “Alissa, please get these two on the blacklist and kick them out, I don’t want to see this trash by the street when I get back” she said and walked out like this wasn’t anything new for her to say.

Marinette worked hard to get to where she was... With the help of her friends and Damian... But her three remaining classmates all believed that Lila would help them skip up to the lifestyle she has now... But everyone knows you need to put the effort into things to get there.

[cornholio4]

Badmouthing Temporary Heroes

Alya Cesaire had been excited over getting interviews with Lila Rossi over her various celebrity friends, charity work and of course being the close best friend of Ladybug herself! Of course there was her own best friend Marinette Dupain-Cheng who was making a big deal out of nothing, refusing to want to do anything with Lila involved or entertain the very idea that Lila was honest at all about her stories.

Really if Marinette wanted her to take her claims seriously then she should give any sorts of evidence that Lila may not be honest...

Right now Lila was telling her that she knew about the true identities of the temporary Miraculous heroes that she was aware of even if she was not allowed to share them. Alya grinned as she knew that Lila was trying hard not to wink at her, obviously she knew that Lila was Rena Rouge.

It seemed a little weird that Ladybug shared the identities to Lila but she reasoned that that Ladybug and Lila must have picked them out together, Ladybug obviously trusted her a whole lot. It made her feel a bit guilty that she didn't defy Ladybug by letting Marinette know that she was Rena Rouge.

Lila admitted that she began suggesting that her friends could be trusted with a Miraculous instead, including Marinette and Alya was glad that Lila didn't take it too personally about how stubborn and idiotic that Marinette was behaving. Honestly she was probably just jealous about how close Lila was to Adrien. She was sure that they would patch things up sooner or later like Marinette had done with Kagami.

"Honestly, I think our friends and you would make great heroes as to tell you the truth... I don't think the temporary Heroes that we have now are up to snuff..." Lila had told her and Alya was open mouthed at what was sure to be juicy gossip.

Lila first told her that Queen Bee was one of the first Heroes that had to go, no arguments there. Honestly Chloe showed everyday that she wasn't cut out to be a Hero at all and it was fluke that she got a Miraculous in the first place. That party they gave her after she helped take down her akumatized father (which she bet was Chloe's fault in the first place) was Adrien's idea and seeing how she basically went back to normal, she wished that they didn't bother.

She went on to say that in their civilian identities Pegasus and Monkey King were just idiots who were only chosen in a small time crunch. A bit mean but Lila has to know what she was talking about.

Then she told her that Carapace was a goofball who didn't take things seriously, Alya stopped in her tracks as this was too far. Nino was her boyfriend and did Lila and Ladybug really think of him like that.

And then...

"And Rena Rouge? An arrogant show off who only really cares about the spotlight." Lila told her and Alya was open mouthed stunned, was this how Ladybug and Lila thought of her? She took Lila by surprise by saying that she wants to go home and think things over.

How could Lila talk about her like that, was she subtlety trying to call her out on her behaviour? Sure she loved being a Hero but she took it seriously, she didn't act like an arrogant show off? Did she? She wasn't Chloe after all...

She called Nino by phone and told her about everything that Lila had told her and he was stunned as well, she was asking how could she say all that about them but then Nino's suggestion took her off guard:

"Maybe she didn't know that she was saying that about us..."

What, of course she knew that Alya was Rena Rouge and that Nino was carapace, because she would have to since she said that she knew who all the Heroes were. but that would mean...

Lila lied to her face...

They had to look over what was said by Lila and really looked into the stories Lila told and the evidence or rather lack thereof off her stories, with nothing to verify anything but Alya's Ladyblog...

Alya had to swallow her pride and admit the truth...

Marinette was right...

She went and deleted all interviews and videos with Lila along with giving an update on the blog that she removed information with a source that she now can state is unreliable.

Later the next day she and Nino were at the park where the classmates came to her asking about what she said on the Ladyblog and she just stated that she now sees that Lila was a liar. They then began hounding her asking why she thought that when she went and told her about what Lila had said about the Heroes. Even providing the recording of Lila's statements so that she could type them up on her blog.

Kim and Max were stunned when they heard about what Lila had said about Pegasus and Monkey Kim and were immediately on their side, they then helped convince the others who were off guard about hearing Lila talk like that about the other heroes.

Off course Alya was suspicious about why Kim and Max immediately went on their side after hearing about the particular Heroes and was able to easily think of the reason why.

However Rose surprised them by asking how exactly did Lila's statements about the Heroes convince them, like if they knew who they really were.

This freaked Nino and Alya out who quietly admitted who they were in a panic leaving them stunned.

The next day at class, Lila was giving a dramatic tone asking Alya why she took her down her interviews only to get a cold reception from the class with her crocodile tears doing nothing. Marinette was surprised to get apologies for not believing her from the class with Alya deciding that she figured out the perfect way to make up to her for not taking her warnings seriously without trying to look for evidence herself:

When the next time comes when Ladybug calls for her to be Rena Rouge, she would make a strong case to Ladybug that Marinette be given a Miraculous! It will be perfect!

Author’s Note: It has been pointed out to me on a review that the sporty may have been Marinette’s idea and if that’s the case since I haven’t seen the episode in a long while, then sorry for the wrong detail.

[unmaskedagain]

Archenemies to Superfriends

Do you know how hard it is to make Lila likeable? Do you know the struggle I went through to write this fic? I know I said I wanted a challenge, something unique. BUT WHAT THE HELL! This took me longer than my last two fics combined. Class salt but make Lila the good guy? Like seriously, do you hate me? I hope the Anon requester likes this. 

"I regret that we meet in this way. You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend." — Romulan Commander, Star Trek: The Original Series, "Balance of Terror"

It turned out there was a line Lila Rossi wouldn’t even cross. Sure, she wasn’t the nicest person in the world. Far from it. She was a liar, a thief, a cheater, a bully at times, a social climber.

But she wasn’t a monster.

           As she looked the sketchbook in Alya’s hand, and the vindictive look on her face; Lila realized what was about to take place would push her over the line into monster status.

           The school day had just ended. Most students had already left. Lila had been about to leave when Alya stopped her.

“How? How did you get it?” Lila asked. Surely Marinette wasn’t foolish enough to leave it around.

           It was Alix who preened, “I snuck it out of her bag.”

“She’s been so mean to you, girl,” Alya said. “Marinette needs to learn a lesson.”

           No, Marinette hadn’t been mean to her. Lila never even implied the bluenette had been mean to her. Lila spun her stories to the class, and whenever Marinette called her out for lying (which she was), the class would gang up on the Bluenette and accuse her of being jealous, of bullying poor Lila.

           It was actually rather startling how fast the so call best friends had turned on the girl. Lila didn’t even have to push or instigate it like she usually did. No, a few promises of meeting famous celebrities, and they all rushed to do it on their own.

           Rose’s sleepover. Rose didn’t invite Marinette at the other girls’ insistence so Lila wouldn’t feel unease.

           Nino’s party. No one mentioned it Marinette. She had been acting crazily lately.

           Trip to the movie. Marinette would just ruin it for everybody.

           And so on and so forth. Until the class was going out of their way to avoid the bluenette. Some even went as far as verbally bashing the other girl and ending their friendships. It got to the point where no one, not even Adrien, would speak to Marinette; and ostracized her to the back of the class. Only Chloe defended the girl and sought out her friendship. To which Alya snorted, “Of course. Bullies belong with bullies.”

           Now the class had moved on to destroying private property. Great.

           Lila sighed. How was she going to get herself out of this one?

Lila prided herself on still being able to look at herself in the mirror at the end of the day. Despite all she had done and would be willing to do; Lila was firm on what she wouldn’t do.

           Destroying someone’s life work; something they had spent months and months on, something that had nothing to do with Lila, was going too far.

           Lila needed to move quickly. She eyed the sketchbook. It was a standard black sketchbook, nothing special. She owned a similar one herself that she used for quick doodles and to write down ideas.

           That was when Lila got an idea. She quickly put her school books on the desk and beamed at her moronic classmates. Then all it took were quick sad eyes, and a can I hold it first, please. For Alya to hand it over. Then Lila accidentally spilled all off her books on the ground, and when everyone rushed to help her. Lila switched the two sketchbooks.

           Then it took her classmates, not friends (never friends); Alya, Max Alix, Kim, Nino, Mylene, Ivan, all of ten seconds to destroy the book into as little pieces as they could. Never even bothering to look to see if it was actually Marinette’s work.

           They left the pieces scattered on Marinette’s desk.

           Just as they finished said girl rushed back into class, a frantic searching look on her face. It took her five seconds to notice the torn sketchbook on her desk. Pure devastation overtook her face, tears filled her blue eyes.

           Alya snipped a mean retort about Karma and left the class with the other students following behind her. Not realizing Lila wasn’t among them. Not caring that she had just hurt the girl she had sworn was her bestie not too long ago.

           Marinette stared quietly at the mess, not letting the tears fall. “Why?” She whispered.

“I didn’t have anything to do with this,” Lila told her. “You don’ have to believe me. But I swear I didn’t. This isn’t my m.o.”

           Marinette wanted to lash out at the other girl; scream about it being her fault, and her being a liar. But she couldn’t even find words to speak.

“Here,” Lila said as she handed over the sketchbook. “I switched it with mine before they could… you know.”

           Marinette blinked once, then twice, before she slowly reached for the book; hope filling her. And sure enough. Relief rushed through her. She thanked all the kwami. “Why?” She asked Lila. “You hate me.” That had been the basis for their relationship for months.

           Lila snorted, “I don’t hate you. I don’t hate anyone,” She shrugged. “Hate clouds judgment. You’re just my competition. No one likes their rival team.”

           Marinette stared at the Italian girl. Rival team? Competition? What? “We’re not even competing for anything! If it's about Adrien. He’s yours. I don’t want him.” It turned out, the blond was too cowardly for her taste. Not enough backbone.

“Of course we’re competing!” Lila snapped. “Since I got to this school.”

“Over what?”

           It was Lila’s turn to stare. Didn’t the other girl know? Hadn’t they been fighting for the top spot?

“Being the most popular girl in school.”

           Marinette just looked confused. “But I’m not popular. Especially not now.”

“Not popular?” Lila could’ve cursed. “Not popular! On my first day, I didn’t go more than a foot before someone mentioned the wonderful Marinette. She’s so smart. She’s so sweet. She’s so EVERYTHING. I knew from day one we were archenemies. You knew it too. Why else would you try to call me out so much!”

“…I just don’t like liars.”

           That time Lila did scream.

           Because it wasn’t possible. There was no way Marinette Dupain-Cheng hadn’t even realized they had been competing. This wasn’t just some delusional one-side battle on Lila’s side. No way.

“Why me?” Marinette asked, with a tilted head, reminded Lila of a puppy. “There are tons of more popular girls. Aurore; she’s the most beautiful girl in school. Ondine, she’s the best athlete. Ruby in drama was literally voted the most popular kid in school last year.”

“That’s different,” Lila waved it off. “Those girls are popular for one specific thing. Even Ruby was only voted because she throws the best parties. And even then, most only like them for that thing. Everyone likes you.” Or at least all but one class now.

           A class that had proven to be worthless. Lila was starting to realize that she had been playing against her most noteworthy opponent, who apparently never realized they were competing, in a less than worthwhile game to be the most popular girl in class to get the approval of the students. Students who, again, weren’t worth it.

“You’re the only one worth a damn in this school,” Lila admitted as she sat down at her desk. “That’s why you. You’re the best. I want to beat the best.”

She never attacked the weak. She attacked the strong. She went after the strongest of the strong. Lila thrived off competition. She just didn’t want to win. She wanted to be The Winner. Lila wanted the number one spot engraved with her name. To do that she had to beat the best.

Her motto: A hero is only as good as his villain. The reverse is also true.

Lila knew since was a little girl that she would never make it the big leagues if she only fought small fries. So in every school, in every class; Lila found what was most important to her fellow students and went after it. Some school was easy. A few classes valued music; Lila started a band, with her as the lead singer, and knocked out her competition. Sports freaks; Lila always had a knack for futbol. Everyone in class fought to have the best grades (It only happened once) but Lila said bring it on.

Even she had to cheat, sabotage, lie, or whatever else to get to the top she’d do it. And she did. And she was always won.

She was the most popular kid in school within the month. Always.

As for her competition. Some fell easily; too easily for her taste. Some took months to fall. One guy took an entire year. His name had been Felix, and he been Lila’s favorite nemesis. He had fought with everything he had; pushed Lila far beyond her limits and made her think outside the box every time they went head to head.

He had been the joker to her Batman. (Afterall, every villain is a hero in their own mind)

But eventually, even Felix fell.

It had been glorious. A high that Lila road all the way to her new school in France.

Looking back, Lila should’ve known better. She should’ve known that Felix had been preparing her for her greatest battle yet. The fight of her lifetime. Against the greatest opponent, she would ever know.

Marinette.

The Superman to her Batman. All good things good and pure Versus the big bad of the night.

           It had been a fight Lila had been waiting for her life. And yet it turned out, Marinette never even really noticed.

           And to think, Lila had thought she had been winning. The class turned again Marinette. Everyone loved Lila. Except none of it seemed to bother the other girl. In fact, she seemed to get stronger.

           For every friend Marinette lost, she found another; a better one. Aurore, Claude, Ondine, Marc, Luka, Bridgette; the list went on and on.

           Alya voted to have Marinette removed as class president. Marinette gets on the student council. The class loses its most organized student. Lila declines the role of feigning that she was too busy. To make it worse all the well-planned birthday parties, school trips, free costume designer, and the random sweet day where baked goods were brought to class on particularly stressful school days, (all of which Lila had enjoyed).

           Adrien no longer speaking to her. (Honestly, Lila never saw what anyone saw in the blond model besides the potential connection he offered. He was naive and a far too idealistic for her taste). Marinette gets twelve different boys, and three girls, asking her to the sweethearts dance.

           Without the class clinging to her and demanding her time, Marinette seemed to thrive. No longer stressed; rarely ever late. Lila, on the other hand, found her days busier and busier as her classmates tried to lean on her more.

           No matter the bad thing that happened, Marinette just stronger. And she never lost her positive attitude.

           Marinette shook her head. This one turning out to be one strange day. “If you want the class, you can them. They’re my friends anymore.” She glanced at the pieces of the sketchbook on her desk. “I don’t know who they are in anymore.”

“Fame seekers,” Lila answered. “More concerned with what someone can do for than actual friendships. You get used to them.” She paused. “I don’t want them either. They’re…”

“Taxing,” Marinette offered as she sat down next to Lila. “Emotionally draining. Opinionated. Users.”

“Bad friends.”

“That too.”

           It went quiet. Neither girl knowing what to say. Lila didn’t know what to do now that all competition was all but officially declared over. Marinette realized that her ex-friends' actions couldn’t be blamed on Lila. Everything they did was on their own. Forgiveness wasn’t going to happen. So what are they fighting for? What could they fight for?

“Truce?” Marinette offered. “I let the morons believe whatever you want. And you just leave me out of it.”

           Lila nodded, “You go your way. I go mine.”

           This was worse than Superman V Batman movie ending as far as Lila was concerned. At least no one died.

           That was it. They left school that day feeling a little shook. Each girl agreed to move on and avoid each other.

           Except that wasn’t what happened.

           Somehow, slowly, Lila and Marinette became friends.

           It started off small. Lila had needed a break from her groupies and hid in the art room. Marinette had been working in there.

“They too much again?” Marinette asked.

           Lila winced but nodded.

“I used to hide in the back of the library,” Marinette offered. “On the roof.  Any random classroom I could find. Sometimes, I even just left for my parents.”

“Seriously?” Lila asked. “They’ve always been like this.”

           Marinette snorted. “Worse. Wait until they start asking you for favors. Which will turn into demands.”

“…They are just the worst.”

           Then both girls laughed.

           After that whenever Lila needed a break, she sought out the presence of the other girl. Sometimes they hung out in the library, on the roof, wherever. It was nice.

           It wasn’t until Lila showed up in Marinette’s room, bitching about her mom canceling their plans together again. Marinette just listens to Lila’s sorrows and offered ice cream. They spent the entire night just bitching and watching reruns of Doctor Who. (It turned out Lila was a bit of nerd.) Lila slept over and slept easily for the first time in months.

That was when the two realized they were friends.

Marinette, Lila’s once declared greatest enemy, became her first real friend.

After that everything just fell together. Lila started showing up at Marinette’s and more.

Eventually, Lila being invited to Marinette’s girls’ night and being introduced to a new friend to Chloe, Kagami, Aurore, and Ondine.

Upon seeing her, Chloe snorted, “She got you too, huh. It’s the eyes. Don’t look her in the eyes.”

“Yes,” Kagami agreed. “I, too, had declared Marinette my rival. Now I wear bunny pajamas and adorn avocado oatmeal face masks.”

Well shit, Lila thought as she eyed Marinette’s former rivals, did I ever stand a chance?

           The answer was no.

           But Lila didn’t mind.

           After that Chloe found herself having more actually friends than ever before. In Chloe, she found a second-best friend. Someone she could always bitch with, and not just to. The blond had the presence Lila had always strived for. Chloe stalked through the hall like a model on the runway. People jumped out of her way. She was a phenomenal force to be reckoned, likened to Wonder Woman.

           Marinette and Lila were two peas in a pod. They both strived to the best, thrived under pressure, and loved fashion. But while Lila wanted to model and be in front of the camera, Marinette wanted to design.

           Lila loved Marinette’s clothes and decided the girl need a bit of a push. So she reached out to Chloe, and together they teamed up to convince Marinette to start her own website. It took a bit of work but MDC designs were officially online. All designs, of course, were modeled by Lila, Chloe, and Marinette’s other girlfriends. Lila had never felt so glamorous. Marinette never looked so happy.

           Lila started being the one Marinette went to whenever she needed someone to cover for babysitting. Or had to have a random excuse as to why she wasn’t present. And Lila did both jobs remarkably well.

           Still, despite their friendship, Lila was a bit surprised to get Marinette’s birthday invitation. Marinette made her promise not to tell anyone. Even more so, when Marinette took her and Chloe, Kagami, Luka, Claude, Marc, Aurore, and Ondine to Clara Nightingale concert. They had backstage passed and Lila nearly died when Clara rushed over to hug Marinette after a song. Lila took a lot of pictures, even one of her and the superstar together, but didn’t post them.

           Which left Marinette happily surprised. Apart, though small, still expected Lila to boast in class about the additional celebrity she knew. But that never happened. Marinette felt relief and a bit guilty, she supposed some part of her was testing the other girl to see if she could trust her; and was happy to find out Lila had passed.

           Despite their Lila and Marinette’s friendship things at school didn’t change. The other students in class still froze Marinette out. Lila, though, did her best to keep them from doing anything mean to the bluenette. Though this only happened when the other students needed something Marinette used to do for them; like free babysitting, custom-designed dresses, stage design, and interview with Ladybug, it wasn’t going to happen. Or when the class trips were lackluster at best.

           Lila hadn’t realized just how much she and Marinette had grown to like and trust each other until Ladybug showed up in her room. She was prepared to send a barging remark to the hero who had nearly sabotaged her attempts to win over Adrien, thus the rest of the class, when Ladybug spoke.

“Marinette sent me,” The red hero said. “She said I could trust you; that you’d make a good hero.” And then Ladybug showed her the fox miraculous, a replica of the one Lila used to wear.

           Lila’s mouth dropped opened.

“As soon as the fight’s done, you’ll need to return it to me,” Ladybug stated firmly. “Do you understand.”

           And just like that Volpina was reborn. Her costume was darker than before, her tail a bit longer and curved. Her mask black.

           Ladybug and Volpina fought side by side against a Clown Akuma that turn people into balloon animals. During the fight, Volpina learned that Chat Noir had, once again, abandoned Ladybug after the hero turned down his affections. Lila never felt so much disgust. What kind of hero was that?

           After the fight, Volpina and Ladybug met back up in Lila’s room and Lila immediately handed over the miraculous.

“Thanks for the help,” Ladybug smiled as he pocked the necklace.

           Lila nodded, “Chat Noir was wrong. What he’s doing is sexual harassment. Like seriously, look it up. No means no. You shouldn’t have to take that.”

“He’s my partner.”

“He’s not acting like it.”

           The words seemed to affect Ladybug who visibly wilted.  She didn’t say another word as she left.

           However, not long after Lila found herself being called forth to fight as Volpina more and more. Chat Noir never showing up once.

           When both heroines were confronted by a furious Alya, live streaming, Lila learned something.

“What happened to Rena Rouge?” Alya demanded, hurt and anger in her eyes. “Why replace her with this faux-hero? And what about the rest of the new team Miraculous;  Viperion, BrightRoar, and Ryuko. What about the old team?”

           Faux-hero? Ladybug had to physically stop Volpina from ripping into the reporter.

“Rena Rouge has been retired,” Ladybug glared. “She proved herself to be untrustworthy. In fact, all former heroes such as Caraprace and Chat Noir have been retired. They have been replaced by permanent heroes like Volpina, here, Queen Bee, Viperion, BrightRoar, and Ryuko. They have proven themselves to loyal and capable heroes.”

           No one knew who was more stunned Lila or Alya. She was a permanent hero? Chat Noir had been replaced? What?

“What?” Alya asked. “Rena was amazing. A much better hero than some people,” She gave a dirty look to Volpina. “And You and Chat Noir belonged together. Everyone says so!”

“Rena was a good hero,” Ladybug said. “But outside the mask, she proved herself unworthy. As for me and Chat Noir. I’ve said countless times, I felt nothing but friendship for him. It was Chat Noir and tabloid sites like the Ladyblog that hyped up that nonsense.”

“Tabloid?” Alya shrieked.

“Yes, tabloid.” Ladybug hissed. “Why do think I stopped working with you?”

           In retrospect, Lila should’ve realized sooner the fallout that would happen not long after. Alya wasn’t the type of person to own up to her own mistakes. However, Lila had been so busy cheering at being a new permanent hero that she got a little distracted.

           After Ladybug called her out, Alya spent all every ounce energy to find out how she went from Ladybug’s goto to Ladybug’s no go. And then answer was in the comments to her videos of Lila. All calling out the Italian to be a liar.

           By Monday, everyone in the class knew. As soon as Lila walked into class, Alya tore into accused her of lying and ruining her blog.

           TO which Lila gave big crocodile tear-filled eyes, “I just wanted to make friends.” She tried to gain sympathy. It didn’t work.

           Soon all the class was screaming at her.

           It stopped when Bustier and Marinette walked into class.

           Bustier looked like a deer caught in the headlines, unsure of what to do.

           Marinette had looked directly at Lila, “You can sit in back with me and Chloe.”

“Girl’s, she a liar,” Alya hissed. “You were right.”

           Marinette scoffed, “And yet she’s a better friend than you ever were.” She looked at Lila again, ignoring the protests from her classmates around her. “Come on.

           Lila smiled as the two girls made their way to the back of the classroom to join Chloe in the back.

           Lila, Marinette, and Chloe sent matching Ice Queen looks to the rest of the students in class; daring them to say something, to approach.

           And just like the heroes: Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, Lila likened them to be; no one would even consider it.

           It wasn’t like anyone else in the class was worth a damn anyway.

[justanotherpersonsuniverse]

..been rewatching anime and.. uh.. MIRACUCLASS ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM AU BECAUSE FUCK YOUR SOUL

Idk who Koro Sensei would because even though I love Ms Bustier, no one can replace Koro Sensei. Well. Maybe Plagg. But probably not. Where Ms Bustier is in this entire au? No idea. Either dead, or in Hawaii enjoying a nice drink in the warm relaxing sun.

Also this is E class, they’re all here for a reason.

ANYWAYS ONTO THE KIDS HAHAHAHAAH

Adrien’s in the role of our baby boy Nagisa(this isn’t a drag and drop character au, but Adrien’s in the position as main man if you get what I mean). Mari is still the class rep/monitor/officer and prominent role though. Emilie is dead of natural causes and Gabriel is still an abusive ass. Not as bad as Nagisa’s mom, but still, we hate him. Anyways though, Adrien’s got that lovely blood lust but is still a precious boy. Why he’s here? I don’t know.  Maybe Gabriel is connected to the assignment and wanted his son in on the action for whatever reason.

Marinette’s got the Nagisa planning down and is surprisingly rlly flexible and swift, despite her random feats of impossible clumsiness. (Fits herself in small spaces to try and get the jump on Koro, also she can climb shit like you wouldn’t believe. Jumps down to scare people. It’s funny) Actually becomes a bit of a rival to Adrien as they both are very good at similar things, but also oppose each other. Doesn’t have a crush on him, but slowly develops one over time. Reason why she’s here? Stress caused her grades to fall, and the teachers were not kind or nurturing in the way she needed, and caused that stress to pile more on her, resulting her to fail more in a horrifying spiral that landed her a spot here. 

Alya is Marinette’s best friend, but also the karma to her nagisa, and teases her about her growing crush on adrien as much as he does in the show. She’s highly intelligent and it’s one the best aspects of herself. However her prideful and stubborn side is what has stopped her a lot. She stands for what she believes in, so it’s hard for her to let go of things she wants to have a grip on. Which is what she eventually has to learn. This pride got her sent to e class because she lashed out at others for hurting people, and those abusers turned it on her. She and Marinette are a force of nature together. 

Nino and Kim are childhood best friends to Marinette and, to save the earth, are probably one of the more enthusiastic about this. Brute strength and there for support. They aren’t ones to do their own plans, instead, they’re more part of plans. Kim’s got a very stressful and pressuring home that demands him to be successful, strong, manly, and the pride of their family. But he just.. wasn’t. And he suffered for that. Meanwhile, Nino’s parents are divorced and he and to focus on taking care of Chris, meaning his grades fell.

Ivan is the master of brute strength as well. I like to imagine he’s a big brother and protector of his family, so he really just wants to keep them safe. However, he feels as if he isn’t smart, and has one of the lower grades in the class.

Juleka and Sabrina are the literal masters of stealth, even casually. They will disappear and reappear as they please, spooking people when they don’t see them. However it does spark some insecurities to them. People forget Juleka’s existence, and people don’t see Sabrina as anything but a shadow. Juleka specializes in sniper abilities and Sabrina knife combat.

Roger put pressure on Sabrina being Chloe’s servant so he could be on Mayor Bourgeois’s good side, so her grades fell. Meanwhile Juleka had moments where she went violent, she was a misfit in general, was seen as a delinquent, and was framed for a lot of things. Whether the faculty knew she was innocent doesn’t matter, they were excited to throw her in E class. Juleka however, grows from her tricks of invisibility, and learns the art of infiltration as well, being able to master the art of disguise. Like Reflekta but reverse. Because she’s not just as blank slate for people to deface.

Why Chloe is here? She’s close to the principal for blackmail purposes and power, so she got the dig on Koro Sensei’s arrival and she wanted in on the action. Because.. if she saved the world.. that’d mean she was exceptional right? And maybe.. Audrey would acknowledge her again. She’s a mirror of Marinette except in exchange for flexibility, she has better aim.

At some point, she becomes desperate, as her father both urges her to continue and eventually, after some type of humiliation, she tries to pull a Karma cliff move. This of course, does not work.

Rose is the class chemist, makes bombs, poisons, and numerous other goodies. Not that her parents notice of course. She takes care of herself, cooking, cleaning, taking care of the bills while her parents work. And if they aren’t working. They still aren’t home.

Nathaniel is another sniper here, parents also have high expectations for him but sense he just doesn’t cut it, they push him harder into the ground. Because he was a pushover, people took advantage of him and forced him to do petty theft, earning him a shamed spot in e class. Good news though, he’s a master at traps and He’s working on a comic about the class.

Alix became friends with him when they joined together, she got stuck in the class for delinquent behavior. Simple as that. She’s just vibing while her friends have depression, rip. She’s smart, clever, laid back, and not afraid to take actions and dares into her own hands.  Max sees the world in calculations, numbers, and zeros. So despite being a genius in so much, everything just.. lacks. He kept hitting walls and he got stuck there, lagging behind. Like Alya, his pride and ego got to him, and he couldn’t get it in the perspective he was always in, ones and zeros, and so, the teachers threw him away in E Class. He specializes in plans, strategies, machinery, and well, hacking.

Finally: Lila is a mixture of Karma and Bitch Sensei. The manipulative and cruel side being part of Karma, and her technique a good mirror of Bitch Sensei. She’s a transfer student, who comes into class with an innocent personality. But in reality, she was a hired assassin. She shows her true colors when the class seems unhelpful to her and cuts to the chase. She’s here to kill Koro and leave with the money, and they should stay out of her way unless they want their fingers ripped off. She’s put in her place soon after by Koro and reluctantly becomes part of the class. She was trained from birth to be an assassin, so with the class, She gains a childhood! Hurray! Redemption!

[tangent101]

Corruption at Blackwell Academy

Nothing does better to help point out the corruption at the root of Arcadia Bay than their pride and joy, Blackwell Academy. This private high school has, according to Max, one of the best art programs in the country and in many ways works more like a private college than a high school (including having dorms). But there is a dark heart beating in Blackwell, and that is the Prescott family. This heart has tainted the academy and the surrounding community.

When Max ventures forth into Arcadia Bay itself, she mentions that a lot of businesses have shut down. It used to have a thriving fishing industry but that has collapsed, while businesses supporting fishing have also dried up until there’s only a few areas which still bring in business - and these businesses naturally have Sean Prescott’s strings attached to them, such as the gated community he’s trying to have built. 

Further, it seems the Prescott Manor is located at the heart of Arcadia Bay, even as Blackwell is at the “head” (the high point) of the community. While I’m a bit surprised it’s not oceanfront property, thematically it makes sense for Prescott Manor to be where it is - a hidden property we never see, but which ultimately touches everything around it. 

Seeing that Blackwell itself plays a prominent role for the game (with over half of the game set at the school), it makes sense that we’d see the worse of Arcadia Bay’s corruption (and the Prescott influence over it) at the school, and we easily do so with Principal Raymond Wells himself. 

On the surface, Wells seems to be a typical administrator. He’s one of the few black characters in the game, and the only one in a position of authority. But with Max’s first encounter with him, we get our first taste of how far Prescott corruption has taken hold with Wells accusing Max of “having something to hide” off of the most flimsy of reasons... and while on the surface he takes her claims of Nathan having a gun seriously, he never bothers to send his head of security to search Nathan’s room. 

Seriously. If David Madsen had searched Nathan’s room, he’d have found information on Nathan’s gun (if not the gun itself), the photograph of Chloe in a compromised position, and more. The game would have gone far far differently in that case. And it would have been a reasonable precaution. If Max was lying or mistaken about the gun? Then Wells would have been in a position to force Max to formally apologize to Nathan for her words! Meanwhile he’d have looked effective at his job! Instead he pulls Nathan in for a quick verbal warning and that leads Nathan to assaulting Max in the parking lot.

We also learn from Chloe that Wells is a drunk. Now Chloe isn’t exactly the best person to talk to about these things. She refers to the school as Blackhell and got expelled, so she may be prejudiced about this. But we actually get to see Wells drinking whiskey at the end of Chapter 1. Further, in Chapter 3 when Max and Chloe search his office, you find he has several bottles of liquor hidden away. And trust me, if you tried drinking on the job or even just at the job after you were out for the night, and weren’t working at a bar... then you’re going to get written up at the very least. 

Drugs and alcohol are quite evident in Blackwell, both among the administration and the student body. We can find a known drug dealer’s RV parked in the Blackwell Academy parking lot at one point. We learn that Rachel Amber (beloved icon and the lost Lenore of Life is Strange) was a drug mule for said drug dealer. We learn that Nathan Prescott also deals and distributes drugs at Blackwell (and Chloe accuses him of that when we first encounter Chloe and Nathan in the Blackwell bathroom). 

Several students end up drugged by date rape drugs that were acquired from Frank Bowers (who never thought to consider their possible use for sexual assault apparently). One student admits to getting high before class, and at the End of the World event, the Vortex Club is full of students drinking alcohol and getting high off of various drugs (many of which Nathan provided). In fact it seems clear that Nathan’s popularity among the jocks is due to his being the middleman between Frank and their own drug habits.

David Madsen is another sign of the corruption at Blackwell. He is not a wise choice to have as chief of security for a school of rich teenagers. When we first meet him, he yells at Max for not leaving the school promptly when she leaves the bathroom. Excuse me? What is it women do in bathrooms? If you were in the middle of something when a fire alarm went off, would you just pull up your underwear, fix your clothes, and leave? No. You’d clean up first. And that takes a minute or two. If David were given any actual training, he’d have just treated her decently and told her to evacuate with the rest of the students and faculty.

(That’s another thing. There is a set procedure in place for fire alarms. Students and faculty are to line up outside so that the fire department knows everyone is safe and no one is trapped in the building. This was not done. Sure, part of this is to get the game moving rather than show boring realistic details and it could be claimed it happened “after hours” but you still should have seen the remaining students lining up with teachers. The laxity of Blackwell (suggesting that the fire alarms are misused frequently) is just another sign that Blackwell is corrupt and Wells an inept administrator.) 

We see additional evidence that David is one of the worse choices for head of security at Blackwell at his accosting Kate Marsh and accusing her of being involved in something (later on we learn he’s blaming her for drugs at Blackwell showing once more he is a tool and an utter idiot). The girl is hysterical, there is a write-up in her file from the nurse that David should have known about, and he confronts her and baselessly accuses her of something. There is a legitimate reason why Max can accuse David of being responsible for Kate being on the rooftop of the dorms at the end of Chapter 2. He helped drive her there.

On a related note, additional corruption in Arcadia Bay can be found in its police force. At one point in Chapter 3, Max can talk to a police officer at Two Whales Diner, Anderson Berry. Berry admits outright to being on the take. More specifically, Sean Prescott did Berry’s family a favor and that he can’t get out of it. Nathan goes on further to state his father owns the police... and seeing that in LiS2 with the Sacrifice Chloe end that David is worried about Nathan getting out of jail three years after killing Chloe... he’s probably right. (Minimum sentence for involuntary manslaughter is 10 years, no parole. Boy’s getting out on appeal. Fortunately, Save Chloe is a valid option and has Jefferson locked away.)

No discussion about the corruption of Blackwell Academy would be complete without talking about Mark Jefferson. This predator has a couple dozen folders filled with photos of women in compromising positions, having most likely been drugged and then photographed while semi-conscious. While the fine folk at Dontnod have stated that Jefferson did not touch his victims sexually... it is clear that this was a metaphor for rape. You have a date rape drug used on two girls (Kate and Chloe). Both girls are messed up as a result of the drugging and subsequent encounters. Kate is suicidal and being blamed by society for what happened to her. Chloe is adversarial and confrontational and even states she would happily see Arcadia Bay turned to glass (one thing that some victims of sexual assault say sometimes is that they hate the world.) You even have the Dark Room and its vinyl-lined extra-large sofa. Yes, that is not at all suspicious.

Mark Jefferson is a popular and attractive white male teacher in a position of authority over students. He has taken one student (Nathan) under his wing and is coaching him in his ways (do note that Chloe is assaulted by Nathan using the same tools Jefferson uses on his own victims). There are rumors going around the school that a missing student, Rachel Prescott, was sleeping with Jefferson and this is not considered a bad thing. There’s no investigation of these rumors (half a year after Rachel disappeared). There’s no official denial of those rumors or any word at all. If a teacher in any decent school had that sort of accusation against them, I don’t care how popular the teacher was, there’d be an official investigation and the rumor mill would mention that. 

It’s clear that Jefferson has done this to several students at the very least. If we assume that Jefferson was teaching at Blackwell for the past three years then he’s been preying on teenage girls for that entire time. The write-up for Jefferson shows that in the late 2000s he taught in several schools before settling down in his hometown of Arcadia Bay. (It’s odd how many characters in LiS were born in Arcadia Bay. The only two students whose records we have who were not were (amusingly enough) Nathan and Victoria. Go figure.) So it’s possible Jefferson was preying on students for four or five years, and may even have been at Blackwell Academy when Max’s family had to leave.

Getting back to Nathan, there are multiple examples of the corruption of Blackwell in regards to Nathan. We already know of how he’s dealing drugs at the school, providing various drugs for the jocks, alcohol for the Vortex Club, and the like. His school file shows he’s assaulted students and teachers, and it is strongly implied that Max’s English teacher is out because of Nathan. (Oh, hey, more corruption! Most schools require students to be in class even when the teacher is out sick and provide substitute teachers. When there is no substitute available, the principal or vice principal will fill in as the substitute teacher.) Nathan’s files however are sealed and his official student report shows him to be a “good student” without any problems. Suspicious? Suspicious.

When I first started writing about the Corruption of Blackwell, I was thinking along the lines of the $5,000 in cash found in the desk drawer of Principal Wells. It was just the tip of the iceberg, but it still smells fishier than Arcadia Bay’s docks. Yes, the money is marked as “handicapped fund” but legitimate businesses will use checks to finance construction. That includes schools. If there is a bake sale or the like to raise funds? Those funds are put in a bank account. You don’t go paying cash for business unless it’s under the table - at least, not when you’re a legitimate and popular private school. 

Amusingly enough, the money for the Handicapped Fund gets used to put in a handicapped ramp at the school. But the ramp is being built for the Prescott Dormitory. (Oh, hey, the Prescott family again!) Do note, Blackwell Academy is built on a hill. To reach the school from the street, students have to walk up a couple flights of stairs. If you go to the parking lot, you have to climb a flight of stairs in a narrow enclosure to reach the school - if you use a wheelchair you cannot access the school at all. 

David Madsen’s map of Blackwell Academy (for placement of security cameras) shows no means of reaching the dormitories from the parking lot. In fact, the parking lots are placed poorly and students checking into Blackwell have to trudge across the entire school with their belongings, up a flight of stairs and down another flight of stairs. It is poorly designed and I can hear the griping of every student and parent on moving day about how it’s messed up that you can’t just park the car next to the dorms.

In short? Putting a handicap ramp at the dormitories makes absolutely no sense. Students in wheelchairs cannot reach the ramp because when they get off from the street in front of Blackwell they have to climb a flight of stairs. If they park in the handicapped spaces in the parking lot, they have to climb a flight of stairs. They cannot get into the school itself because of more stairs, so installing a handicap ramp at the dormitories makes absolutely no sense at all. (If Blackwell was interested in becoming ADA-compliant, the first ramp would be at the parking lot, followed by the school itself.)

Let’s look at this further. We know that Sean Prescott has a construction company (Prescott Development) seeing he’s pushing a housing development, Pan Estates, a gated community that will be built in the “deep forests” near Blackwell. He’s run into some problems with local protests and the like keeping him from just building everything he wants. So Principal Raymond Wells gets $5,000 in cash to build a pointless and useless handicap ramp that workers at Prescott Development can use for a quick job. Further, cash is often used to pay undocumented workers. Prescott is spending some money for a fluff job to keep his undocumented workers paid and busy. 

If Max and Chloe take the money, there is no investigation. There was a break-in at the school. The police could easily lift Chloe’s fingerprints from the scene and arrest her for the theft. They most likely have her fingerprints on file seeing she has been arrested in the past for various minor crimes (such as vandalism). So why would there be no investigation unless there was a reason to keep the money hushed up? 

As I said, the corruption at Blackwell and Arcadia Bay goes deep. The Prescott family is at the heart of it... but at its head is Blackwell Academy. I truly feel for Max in this. She really wanted to go to Blackwell. A favored photographer of hers was teaching there, her best friend lived in the town, it was her childhood home! And she goes there and finds skeletons in the closet, bodies in the junkyard, and signs of corruption everyway she turns. Talk about a coming of age story... maybe Chloe was right. Turning the town to glass? It may have been for the best. It allows Max and Chloe to leave and make a life for themselves. It would be a better life than what they had back in Arcadia Bay.

[taliaquinn]

Why Me!? Chapter 10

"I am finally putting in my withdrawal"

“From Bustiers?” Max asked. Although somehow a small part of him knew what was about to happen. 

“From Francis Dupont,” She said, although with a bit of a smile.

Marinette finally felt happy. She was going to leave a Toxic environment, and for once she didn't give a crap about who it might hurt. What people didn't know was that in-between leaving Damocles Office, she left to go to the bathroom. Honestly, she was fully prepared to cry. However mid-sob she got a call, From Gotham. 

She quickly answered through teary eyes, not realizing she left facetime on.

“ Mari I Can't wait for you to come to you won't believe it, Bruce is going to take some time off, Cass has been a whirlwind making sure to have everything ready, Oh boy Jason and Tim are excited to meet you, Damian is excited to have a sibling to which he can teach proper Swordsmanship, and Alfred has been fussing over everything and everyone.’’ Dick was rambling while shoveling in spoonfuls of cereal into her mouth, Not even noticing he was face timing. It was amusing to Marinette. 

“Oh and Bludhav- hang on were you Crying!?” Dick suddenly seemed to notice a red-eyed Marinette. 

“Actually no I was just about to start” 

“About to start??? Huh? Maribug what’s going on?” Marinette couldn't help but flinch slightly at her new nickname. Seriously if only they knew about her extracurricular activities. She’ll be seen as such a weirdo.

“I just withdrew from my school after I got accused of assaulting someone again and honestly I’m s-so FED UP!!!! Honestly, I put in 100% in making sure the class is great and fun. Everyone has what they need. We are always the highest-ranking kids' grades wise because of me. But I can’t even say anything or else I'm being too greedy, or too narcissist or too selfish” She finally unleashed everything.

Dick seemed to be quiet and was just staring at her as she rambled. Finally, he let out a sigh god this sibling he’s only known for a bit and she's already rambling about her issues. Thank God. He couldn’t deal with another family member that liked to hide their feelings. This was his chance. 

“Maribug Listen that school honestly sounds like a sh*thole and you need to get out. The sooner the better. You know that you’re at risk right” He was a Police Officer, he knew that situations like this often ended with those who suffered from abuse blowing up. In the Worst Ways.

He decided to continue. He had a plan.

“Look ya need some perspective, some space. You’re coming to Gotham? And you’re Parents are withdrawing you from School already, by the way, excellent parenting, so you’re essentially schoolless. Why don't you apply for school here? You could go to school here for a semester and then figure out everything else.” He finally asked.

Wait a minute. That was a great idea. Ten times better than her original plan of just going home and crying while shoveling pastries and ice cream into her face. She hoped to get hopefully accepted into online Highschool. School In Gotham would be a nice change. School and Life in America would be another chance. She’ll get to learn more about her Father's family. Maman and Papa would finally be able to see another possible location to possibly open a new bakery.

“That sounds so Great you have no idea.” She said with a slight smirk.

As soon as she announced her withdrawal there was an immediate uproar. Most of the screaming came from Chloe, and Marinette couldn’t help but feel touched by how much Chloe cared. 

“ DUPAIN-CHENG YOU CAN’T ABANDON US WITH THESE IDIOTS!!!” Chloe shouted. 

All of a sudden Adrien stood up and went to grab her by the arm and drag her out. But shockingly Marinette dug in her heels and shoved his hand away. 

“No I am not going to hide away, I am going to stand here and you guys are going to Listen,” She said while staring at Adrien in the eyes. Lila for once seemed to be quiet. She was so interested in this. For once she wanted to see the outcome without her manipulation. 

“Fine” Adrien moved to sit back in Marinette's old seat. 

“I am going leave School, Right now I'm planning to enroll in a school at Gotham”

“Gotham as in crime-ridden, dirty and dark Gotham City?” Adrien asked incredulously. 

Okay, Marinette needed to do more research on Gotham City….Dick would help her get by. Hopefully. Maybe Damian had a point when he was forcing her to learn how to punch. She's been relying way too much on her magic. She wasn’t exactly bad at fighting, she was just inexperienced. Luckily Damian decided to be helpful, mean but helpful nonetheless. 

“Yes precisely that Gotham” Maybe she should have picked a Boarding school. Oh Well. Too late for regrets now.

“OH MY GOSH!? GOTHAM HAS BATMAN!!!” Alya suddenly jumped up and yelled.

“Since The Waynes suddenly left before Lila could get me an interview, You could act as my correspondent in Gotham,” She said excitedly.

“Are you kidding me no way.” Marinette spat out. Was this girl demented?

“You and Lila are both setting me up for expulsion, you released a video expecting me to get backlash-which backfired horribly by the way- and now you have the nerve to ask for my help?” Marinette seethed, upset and annoyed. Gosh, she’ll take Gotham Crazies over these Lunatics any day, at least those she would be allowed to punch. Without repercussions anyway.

“What video are you talking about Marinette?” Chloe asked because of course, that's what she focuses on.  

“The video on the Ladyblog” Max finally stated because he likes to keep track of information.

“ oh that explains why I didn’t know, I quit reading that trashy tabloid a loooong time ago”

“WHAT Bourgeois you better take it back, The Ladyblog is respected and adored”

“You're kidding, right? Please traffic on your blog has slowed ever since Aurore released her blog which is ten times better. Did you hear? Lois Lane from the Daily Planet, a very respected newspaper in America,  loved her blog and even gave her advice” Chloe taunted.

Alya was pissed. Ever since Aurore released her blog she has stolen a bunch of her audience. Honestly, her blog was losing so much traffic to Aurores since she had an endorsement from Killer Bee. 

Alya, of course, got an invitation to go to the Journalist banquet but she wasn’t allowed to take a plus one. Which of course was devastating to Lila since she couldn't go and see Damian Wayne. Poor Lila quietly told her how sorry she was since that meant she wouldn't be able to get Alya the interview. 

Of course, Alya being Alya tried to get sneak Lila in however they soon saw another girl who was trying to get in as well. However she had an invite, and Lila needed it. Lila however quickly pointed something out. 

“Alya can you believe what she’s wearing and oh go is she trying to come off as a junior reporter for some trashy tabloid, hmmm seems like someone more else deserves it more” Lila softly stated.  Of course, Lila was right, someone else deserved it. And Alya needed that interview.

Quickly Alya pulled Lila along towards the girl who was taking out her pass. 

“Excuse me, I’m sorry but I seriously need that Press Pass” Alya stated. Alyas' back was turned, so she couldn’t see Lilas growing smirk.  

The girl was slightly startled however she noticed that the red-haired girl with glasses already HAD a press pass, why would she need it? Of course, she couldn’t just SAY that. “W-why would you need it if yo-you a-already h-ha-have one?” she managed to stutter out while tightening her grip on the press pass around her neck.

“BECAUSE my friend over here was denied one, even though her boyfriend is going to be in there so please just give it to us so I can get my interview” Alya snapped she was honestly losing her patience.

“I-uh No Way it’s mi- '' Quickly as a flash, Alya leaped forward and snatched the pass straight from the girl's neck. Of course, the girl leaped forward to try and take it back. Alya, however, stepped back and roughly shoved the girl back who promptly fell back and landed on her behind, ripping the girl's skirt and tearing her suit jacket. 

Alya quickly handed the pass to Lila, who walked up behind her to take it. “You should have learned how to fight back better” Lila sneered towards the now tearful girl. Alya looped her arm around her and dragged her towards the entrance. Unfortunately for the security personnel witnessed the incident and refused to allow them entrance and were about to go check up on the girl. However, it was too late. 

“Yes Hawkmoth”

They all heard it coming from where the girl previously was.

That was one of the few times she caused an Akuma, unfortunately, they had to run after the girl was akumatized. Lila, unfortunately, had to leave due to her mother worrying. Luckily Adrien was gracious enough to grant her an interview, but he was distracted and jittery throughout the interview, a huge boom from far away caught his attention and he mumbled a quick apology and dashed off. Alya was desperate for more gossip and intel so she followed him but unfortunately lost him. Luckily she caught an argument between her ex-friend and Chat Noir. The outfit was beautiful and eye-catching, however, Alya only got angrier because that meant Marinette was allowed entrance.

Alya with the sudden realization snapped her head and glared in Marinette's Direction. 

“Why were you even allowed in?” Alya snapped. 

“Because I Designed and Made Nadia Chamacks Dress” Marinette Snapped back allowing a bit of pride to seep into the words

“Marinette Sweetheart it's time to go, we have to go and pick up your luggage before dropping your luggage,” Sabine said while standing in the doorway of the classroom. Sabine had her head turned towards Marinette, she quickly stepped out but quickly directed a glare at Madame Bustier. 

Suddenly Chloe surged forward along with Juleka towards Marinette. Chloe quickly latched to Marinette. “ MARINETTE PLEASE I AM BEGGING YOU TAKE ME TO THE STATES WITH YOU IF YOU LEAVE ME HERE WITH THESE IDIOTS I MIGHT AS WELL SAY ADIOS TO MY SANITY RIGHT NOW” Chloe wailed while still clutching to Marinette. Marinette felt bad but hey what could you do?

Juleka quickly stepped forwards and struggled to yank Chloe away from Marinette eventually needing Max to Help. Finally, with a Final tug, Marinette was released from Chloes clutches.

“Don’t Worry I’ll take care of her and keep her from committing homicide” Sabrina stated.

Marinette quickly had a few words with them. With a final Group Hug which consisted of Juleka, Max, Sabrina, Ivan, and Chloe. Chloe still had Marinette in her clutches for a few seconds afterward. With a sigh Marinette freed herself. 

She turned towards the “Lila Side” however looking at them with slight disdain. Keeping eye contact with Lila she finally said whats she's been wanting to say from the day she met Lila.

“Goodbye”

Tag List:

 @amayakans​ @depthfire

[akimmito]

They thought they won #2

Well, here is the second part, I think it was weak in comparison, but it is not terrible either. It is acceptable.

Taken from the indications of @chocolate1721.

I hope you like it. If there are errors, at some point I will correct it.

----------

Tagged: @dawnwave16 @pirats-pizzacanninibles @mochegato @silvergold-swirl

----------

On Bruce's recommendation, the girls wait four days before showing up at school. Four days that were used to build a case with the French School Board, collect and deliver physical evidence of abuse and bullying. Tim did his fair share by involving every person who could have been harmed by Lila's lies, getting collaboration from many of those affected (being the victims of the teenager's most outrageous lies).

They also took advantage of those four days to think about what they will do when the chaos with the director and their teacher in charge are set, they will be adrift and that will be unfortunate. Neither of them wants to waste time due to the incompetence of a teacher. The safest option is to request an immediate transfer to another class, preferably with a serious teacher who doesn't allow similar situations.

Marinette also took advantage of those four days to better relate to the Wayne boys, although she has a special connection with Tim (she's sure it wasn't hallucination induced by lack of sleep). They talked about many topics, but found brain games and all kinds of riddles in common (she advantage and led him to Ladybug's reasoning to solve a problem with the most random object possible; the fourth day hhe understood the game when he saw the heroin hit to the villain with a bicycle chain). She even had time to drag Damian to Kagami's house to get to know each other (she realized his mistake when she had to prevent them from killing themselves in the middle of the fight and take Damian to the bakery).

Neither Chloe nor Marinette were excited to see their classmates, but they saw it as a necessary evil to deliver the coup de grace. And that does excite Chloe, that morning she woke up eager to see her revenge come true.

The class had already started when Marinette and Chloe entered the classroom, the two families waiting at the door. Only Bruce Wayne went to the Principal's office to have a talk about responsibility and professionalism.

"Good morning, Miss Bustier," Mariette greets with a kindness that, for her smile, it shows that she is not entirely sincere. The surprised look of the woman only manages to generate irritation in the back of the girl's mind.

"Why have they been missing class? It is very irres..."

Chloe almost jumps on Caline, but is stopped by Richard, who sneaks into the classroom to prevent the young woman from attacking the teacher (however deserved it is). In the back, Tom has an arm over Sabine's shoulder to prevent her from attacking too, his calming touch is enough to discourage her from doing so; Damian snorts and Jason swallows his comment. The class is ready to react when Marinette responds, her brow furrowed and a disappointed look she only gives Chat.

"You abandoned us at the mercy of the Joker in Gotham, we were rescued by the Batclan. You didn't worry or look for us, nor did you bother to call the police and you leave the country without us. "Marinette says and her gaze sharpens towards her teacher.

"Marinette, you need to be more responsible. The Joker is very dangerous and trying to protect two criminals was silly. Furthermore, Lila had to return to Paris to help her mother with her next diplomatic trip. "Caline responds.

Chloe almost got free of Dick and Tim must grab Jason to prevent him from taking out the gun he saw him keep before leaving the hotel. Tom helps to contain his wife and avoid any movement from Damian (who considers that someone so stupid would be more beneficial if she was dead and not simply out of sympathy with the girls).

Bruce arrives just in time to hear Caline's wonderful words, the cheap excuse she gives them to leave two students behind. He stands in front of the woman, managing to intimidate her with his mere presence.

"If the student had previous commitments that clash with the itinerary and its possible setbacks, why was she included in the trip? Two students were in danger, with or without the Joker, Gotham is dangerous on its own and leaving them abandoned with no chance of leaving the country is negligent just for prioritizing one student. What if there hadn't been only two? If it was half your class would you still prioritize that one student? ”Bruce is relentless and doesn't allow her to respond. He's furious, burning with hot anger ready to burn her alive.

They all hold their breath when a purple butterfly appears and heads straight for Bruce, but Marinette gets in the way and lets the Akuma into one of her hair bands, the purple mask appears. Sabine and Chloe break free and start talk with her.

"Maribug, you must fight him. You're stronger than him. ”Chloe grabs her shoulders, but Marinette is focused on her thoughts, listening to Hawkmoths speech.

"You can't let him win. "Sabine entreaty.

Tim also approaches, but says nothing. His gaze meets hers, a sign of recognition and that she is nowhere near being manipulated, but no one else realizes it.

"Yes ... but if you give me those powers, I will go after you and no one else." Mariette smiles at Tim when the butterfly leaves her. Everyone is relieved, nobody wanted an Akuma at that time; the class, on the other hand, is surprised by the ease with which it rejected the butterfly and the white color with which it was released.

Adrien smiles, showing misplaced pride.

"You are amazing, Marinette, that's why you are our everyday Ladybug, you even reject Hawkmoth."

Marinette turns to Adrien, her sense of calm withered by the model's comment.

"I may have rejected it, but it would be better if I wasn't forced to do it in the first place." She frowns at the blonde, who is still smiling completely oblivious to the passive-aggressive tone of the young woman.

"We saw that you can handle it and that ..." A slap silences him, everyone looks at Chloe in surprise.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE SO FOOLY! DO YOU KNOW HOW PAINFUL IT IS TO FIGHT AGAINST CONTROL? WHERE HAVE YOUR BRAIN CELLS LEFT, AH? YOU SHOULD GO FOR THEM, YOU'RE UNDERSTANDING NOTHING."

"How dare you, you fucking bitch ?!" Alya gets up ready to hit Chloe, but Jason  gets in the way.

"Though it would be amazing to see her take your shit out of you."

"Jason!" Dick scolds him for the choice of words, Jason barely gives him a funny look.

"We have more important matters. "

Tim just denies. Chloe smirks, but returns her attention to what's important.

"When does the School Board arrive?" she smiles an arrogant smile at the teacher, who loses her face color much faster than when Bruce faced her. "What's the matter lawyers of the celebrities abaout Lie-la lied to? They should be here by now. "

"Hah! You're just words, Lila is not a liar and this whole show will explode in your face, Chloe. "Alya answers smugly, sure nothing will happen. She has not even called her father, she has nothing. "Stop wanting to attract attention like that, it's pathetic. "

Lila just frowns, the presence of Bruce Wayne only indicates future problems. Damn to Marinette in her thoughts.

"Wayne's attorneys are here, though, right? "She doesn't need to receive a verbal confirmation, the arrival of the police to the classroom accompanied by two men in suits is enough proof." Yeah, I took so long to convince her to press charges for assault, harassment, and damage to private property, but here we are; They will file lawsuits for destroying Maribug's room and, best of all, we have video evidence and photos of everything destroyed. I appreciate that she's so paranoid that everything important always safeguards her in two layers of security. ”She smirks, after all, the lawyers called the parents of everyone involved first and  it's a sight worth appreciating.

The lawyers decide to intervene, unwilling to be part of the girl's delight.

"We regret to inform that the following people should co

"That's a lot, Mari. Don't you think about his parents?"

"Did they think of mine? How much money would it cost to restore my room and all my things? They didn't, I'll not. I'm tired of always turning the other cheek so they hit me too. ”Tim places a hand on her shoulder, before Dick squeezes her into his arms and she laughs, forgetting for a moment the annoyance towards Adrien.

me with us, their parents have already been informed and are waiting: Lila Rossi, Alya Cessaire, Kim Le Chien, Max Kante and Sabrina Raincomprix. We wait for you in the teachers room. "

The officer Raincomprix looks with disappointment at his daughter and only gestures for her to follow them, he will leave his other officers in charge to arrest the teacher for child abuse and neglect.

Everything from there is chaos, the police officers take the teacher after telling her their rights and the class gets out of control, Adrien just watches his friends go towards an inevitable demand. Look at Marinette, she looks indifferent to the facts; He doesn't understand how everything got to the point of involving lawyers.

"Marinette, are you serious?"

"Seriously what, Agreste?" Marinette is hard in her treatment towards him, Chloe won the blow to him, but nobody will gain the words to him. Damian frowns at the blonde, waiting for him to say something that will bury him a thousand meters underground.

Everyone is waiting, the students in the Bustier class don't understand how everything got to that point. They are surprised, but also embarrassed for not noticing Marinette's absence, because despite not being the sweet girl they knew (and she's, but not with them), she would have looked for them and would has confronted whoever it was to find them. They want to say something, but they have a lump in their throats. Knowing that there will be legal problems for the things that they considered insignificant for Marinette, because they believed that the girl was worse ... Actually, it's the logical solution if someone is attacking you, especially if you have real evidence. So why did Lila refuse to stop the problem if she had as much evidence as she claimed?

Of course, even they can say that Adrien's question is totally out of place.

"Are you really going to sue them? They are your f..."

"They are not my friends. They destroyed my room, Agreste, they destroyed my work. Do you know how much the designs cost? Your father is a designer, you should know… I had to do everything again and put the materials that were lost to complete the works FROM MY POCKET. In a week I did a full month's work… ”Marinette replicate Tim's angry expression, making Adrien nervous by the annoyed glances that are directed at him. "And I'll make them give back every penny of the damaged material. "

"That's a lot, Mari. Don't you think about his parents?"

"Did they think of mine? How much money would it cost to restore my room and all my things? They didn't, I'll not. I'm tired of always turning the other cheek so they hit me too. ”Tim places a hand on her shoulder, before Dick squeezes her into his arms and she laughs, forgetting for a moment the annoyance towards Adrien.

"Look, Adrinkis, if they don't learn that their actions have consequences now, they'll just keep it up and eventually go to prison for something like that. You imagine? It would be wonderful to see it, sure, but that's not the point here."

"But…"

"If you say something that could come out of Bustier's mouth, I'll hit you again, and this time it will be with my fist." Adrien raises his hands and is silent. "And that would be very little, seeing that you knew everything and preferred to remain silent. Although they were not subtle when they attack on Maribug. You validated it and that, darling, is a thousand times worse than having fallen into the clutches of a liar. "

"Did you know?" Nino asks, he is not entirely sure what is true or lie, but if it's true that Lila is a liar (he is already assured that she is a bully) and his best friend has known all that time, oh, the pain. He already feel bad enough in the whole uncertain situation.

At some point, Sabine and Tom go out to meet the parents of the boys who destroyed their daughter's room. They must deal with it.

"I don't understand why you care so much about these ceporros, they are not worth your time." Damian looks deathly at everyone, who seems truly unintelligent if their idiot faces are an indication of their IQ. Dick can't help but snort.

"What?" Nathaniel is the only one who has a verbal reaction to what was said, he didn't understand the word, but he assumes that it was an insult.

"You see?"

"Yeah..." Marinette sighs and smiles at the boy, who walks away from her with an expression of disgust.

"Come on, you like her." Dick doesn't allow him to walk away and hugs him by the shoulders with an amused but affectionate smile. He has noticed his behavior around her, actively looking for her because he considers her nice, in a way; the same way he came to connect with the Teen Titans, so it was with her. He found something in common as an initial union and in four days, a record, he managed to form a linkage (small, but it exists).

"Now. I think we should go for a coffee. ”Tim approaches Marinette and whispers in her ear, she nods in response. "But before, if you are so kind to check twitter, in the @NotAddictedToCoffee account you will find a link to an article in the France International Journal where they express the worrying situation of parental neglect, I think you will find it interesting. Maybe you recognize the case they are exposing... So, coffee?" He turns to Marinette and she smiles. His job is done, pity for Chloe who wanted a true social massacre and they won't even let her be present for she watches the lives of the defendants break in front of them. Oh, but the Wayne boys are sure to be able to access the surveillance cameras in the teacher's lounge. She turns to the only one who knows how to help her, Jason.

"Hey, Todd. I need your help. ”He turns to her with a raised eyebrow, she gestures for him to lean. "I want access to the surveillance cameras in the teachers' room, can you? "

"Do you want to see their teary faces at the lawsuit?"

"Obviously. "

The two smile and as casually as they can after a suspicious conversation, they leave the classroom. Richard follows them to prevent them from causing trouble.

While all the students take out their phones to confirm.

Marinette and Tim also leave, followed by Damian. Only Bruce stays for a moment, but then decides it's best to notify a teacher for review.

Adrien knows from the beginning who the person in the example is, the implication was clear. All the time they read, an awkward silence surrounds them, a teacher arrives while they are busy on their phones.

"Very good. I will be in charge until the Board of Education decides what will happen to the class. "The class pays no real attention. They are focused watching the approach presented in the article, where they explicain how neglect causes children to seek any type of validation going to any extreme, without it being exactly something to justify the person's actions and that should be treated with a psychologist to avoid It gets out of control and affects the lives of those around you.

There is even a cited psychologist and an expert in criminal pathologies. Everyone is livid the more they read, it's an extensive and very detailed article that aims to raise awareness, but above all, expose Lila in a subtle way to avoid repercussions for publicly humiliating her, now it's a shadow that will not go away and will remain in the criminal files of the girl, which is enough to keep an eye on her (especially with the demands of some people who are almost affected by those lies).

"It was Lila, wasn't it?" Someone asks.

"Yes ... how strong.And Marinette, oh God, I'm not surprised that she hates us. "

"Guys, Marinette doesn't hate us. She's too good for that. "Adrien tries to reassure his companions.

"You have no right, Adrien! You knew it, man, you knew it! And did you let him use us like that?" Nino now is experiencing true treason. He feel very hurt.

"I wasn't hurting anyone ..."

"AND WHAT ARE THESE DEMANDS?! JOKES?! REACT, ADRIEN. HE LIED US AND HANDLED TO THE POINT OF ACHIEVING THAT FOUR OF OUR COMPANIONS DID SOMETHING ILLEGAL. THEY COULD GO TO PRISON FOR INVASION AND DAMAGE TO PRIVATE PROPERTY!" Nino has jumped on Adrien by grabbing his shirt, he could cry right now.

"Dammit, Agreste. Were you always so stupid?"

"Youngs, this behavior will lead to a sanction in your school record. The Board of Education will personally take care of you if you continue to display hostile behavior. "

"Whatever. Anyway, we're screwed. We hurt the only person who was always unconditional with us. "Juleka is clear with her words and regrets not having listened to her brother, she should have known, Luka is always right.

Everyone is silent, being aware of the situation more than others times.

"She will forgive us..."

"WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR MIND?! AIR?! Nothing we can offer her could make she forgive us, besides, did you see your new friends? She doesn't need us, least of all with the boyfriend who got herself in just five days. "Alix is realistic, overwhelmingly realistic.

Rose allows herself to cry, she wasn't actively hostile, but she knows she was purposely ignoring her under pressure from others.

"Guys…"

"Look, Agreste, don't speak to us again unless you mature. You're the worst thing in this whole thing… I can't forgive you and I'm sure you're the last person Marinette would forgive, heck, surely one day she could forgive Lila, but you, ha, never. "Alix is scathing in her words breaking Adrien's heart, though he refuses to believe that.

While in the park, Marinette guides Tim to one of her favorite cafes. She tells him about the different embarrassing moments that went through her awkwardness and he, in return, explains uncomfortable moments.

Marinette feels good, she still has to remove Adrien's Plagg ring, but at the moment, she feels good. She can face whatever comes.

-----

Thanks for reading!

[aaliyrah]

i fell in love with are i don’t understand - chapter 8 is out!

GOD IT HAS BEEN SO LONG SINCE I’VE UPDATED THIS FIC. i’ll never abandon it, it’s my fucking baby dude. punk!max is, at least. i’ll even make more art for this shit. 

anyway, i know most people have followed me because of my art and stuff, but hey, to my oldest of oldest followers (and the life is strange half of my followings) please please please give my fic a try. you’ll probably be bribed more with art, so i can only promise that a comic is going to come out of it soon! 

but here’s an excerpt of it and one of the fun scenes i got to write:

“What was your band?” “Hm?” “Yesterday,” Chloe continues, absentmindedly doodling at the sidelines of her paper, “when we played two truths and a lie. I never asked about them.”

Max hummed again, but this time it was in realization. “Well you know...just some punk band.”

“Don’t want to talk about it?”

“No, not too much.”

Chloe pursed her lips. It’s clear to see that Max is oblivious to the damage her bluntness causes, but Chloe learned to swallow her pride to not let it get to her. Too much, at least.

“A’ight; loud and clear.”

“But I can tell you that I was the bassist,” Max continued, twirling a piece of her hair that framed her face around her finger, “ oh , and also the keyboardist sometimes. I’m still in touch with them and play here and there, mostly bass though. But photography comes first, of course. Couldn’t stick with the band since I had to move, and I think they’re still looking for a replacement right now, last time I checked.”

“For how long?”

Max scrunched her nose as she calculated a number in her head. “...Around a month?”

“Hah. Were you that good?”

“Maybe. I guess. I’m keeping humble.”

That smirk says otherwise, Caulfield.

“...But enough about me,” Max continues. She starts to shift her whole body so that her front was facing Chloe’s, her forearms bridging together on top of her knees to rest her chin on, “you haven’t done your part of the game.”

Chloe hummed, acknowledging the comment. “Well I’m flattered that you’ve noticed,” she confesses, “I honestly didn’t think that you would, and I was also kind of hoping you wouldn’t.”

“Why, think you’re not all that interesting?”

“Hmph. And what gave that away?”

“You’re interesting.” Chloe was caught off guard with how serious Max sounded. Her voice was flat and her face held no emotion, but the eye contact had too much intensity it caused a burning blush from Chloe. She had to avert her eyes somewhere else. “I mean, you’re seen as the leader standing against the Vortex Club and you’re the daughter of the head of security here in Blackwell. If anything, you must be filled with stories.”

“I-I uh, well,” Chloe coughed into the side of her fist, vigorously wiping away the sweat forming at the back of her neck, “I just have stories of people who are interesting , b-but there’s not really much to say about me —”

“Do I need to repeat myself—”

“N-no! No, don’tcomeanycloser , ” Chloe rushes in a breath, hovering a hand on Max’s chest. Max stiffened, her nose fluttering dangerously close to the edges of Chloe’s personal space. Max, completely oblivious to her effect, only furrowed her brows and slowly reverted back to her original position. “Let’s just—yeah! Game. Right. I’m thinking.”

Max let a beat of silence interrupt their flow of conversation. Chloe appreciated it, but the waiting stare she got from the girl might as well have been more anxiety-filling than an interruption. Even with Max’s patient aura, Chloe still felt rushed. It made her mind mush and everything she knew about herself was out the window.

She decided to wing it and let her mouth run. “ Fuck . Okay, okay, uhhm: I used to be a literary arts major, I’ve designed covers for magazines once, and I used to be religious.”

Those words seeped in a slow matter. Max’s face changed at the same pace as a sloth would move, her eyebrows elevating higher and higher. Even her head started to rear back.

“Way to sell yourself short, Price.”

“ Pfft . Really? I could see the magazine one being interesting but everything else is just…”

Max giggles. Chloe couldn’t help but smile. “I don’t know you, Chloe. Remember that? They’re all cool even if one of them is a lie.”

“Heh. Just a little. Do you have your guess?”

The punk makes a low, thoughtful hum. With pursed lips, there is a genuine concentration that plasters her face as she squints.

“...You weren’t a literary arts major.”

Chloe allowed a flash of shock to be expressed before suppressing it. “Yeah. What made you think so?”

“I figured you probably wrote as a hobby, but it wasn’t serious enough for a major.”

“Yeah, that’s...basically on point.

I guess you could say the magazine one is also a lie since people usually think of People or Vogue when the word ‘magazine’ is said… but really I’ve only done covers for the school’s literary magazine. Literally speaking though, it’s not a lie. Just...a psychological one maybe.

The religious one is kind of funny since no one really expects it. My parents—before David—forced me to go to church since one of their friends invited them and they didn’t want to be rude. I think I was...ten? My parents weren’t listening and I was actually really invested in the sermon. It was a weird phase; I even read a children’s version of the Bible in my free time...I kind of tortured my parents into church since I kept having to force them to go.”

“Wow.” Her laughter could be a drug. “This is, like, the reverse of what’s supposed to happen. What got you to stop?”

“They got to the whole gay thing. That’s always the breaker, ain’t it?”

Max’s face went soft after that. There was a distant look in her eyes, but her smile was still there. “Yeah. It always is.”

[pan-cakez]

A Strange Meeting

This story was inspired by @virgil-is-a-cutie​‘s post about an AU where Dr. Hugo Strange is Marinette’s father. I haven’t written in years, so it’s pretty shit, but I definitely enjoyed writing it. It’s almost 3000 words and I’m proud! :) Here we go!

One last romp. This was supposed to be the end, but it sparked a new beginning. Sabine knew that Hugo loved his work. Maybe too much. There was no space in his heart for her, and she grew weary of missed dates, and so many rain checks. She still loved, him, but just couldn’t take it anymore. He did a lot of good work, she just felt like she was just a side fling, whereas science was his wife. She said her goodbyes, but they had one last go before she left, and that changed both of their lives.

~ 14 years later ~

Marinette was way too excited to go to Gotham. There was the chance for her to meet her biological father. Don’t get her wrong, she still loves Tom, and she wears the Cheng Dupain-Strange name with pride since she sees Tom as her primary father figure, she just wants to know more about her history. Her mom told her all about Hugo, and how she keeps in touch with him. Marinette thinks it’s sweet that he’s invested in her, and is encouraging her love for science. Sabine finds it endearing he’s warmer to Marinette than he ever was to her. When Sabine found out that Marinette’s class was going to Gotham, she told Hugo immediately, and the letter read as if he was excited, but Sabine could tell that he was nervous. She wasn’t worried about that, because she knew that once he met Marinette, his worries would be at ease.

 The day of the trip, Marinette brought four dozen macarons. Three dozen was vanilla and for the staff so she could impress them, and one dozen was matcha for Hugo since Sabine told her that it was his favorite flavor since she made it for him all the time. She also designed a couple ties for him. She just really wanted to impress him. She knows that her mom told her that it would be fine, and that he would adore her anyway, but she wanted to be sure.

When she got to the school, Adrien was waiting there alongside Juleka, Nino, Max, Ivan, Kim and Nathaniel. Everyone had their luggage in tow, and the air felt charged with energy. Marinette was just full of excitement to see her friend group. Lila’s lies destroyed some of Marinette’s friendships, but these people stood by her throughout the situation, and still do. They’re the ones who are getting her through the whole situation and are her rocks. Juleka actually didn’t believe her at first, but Luka called her out, and made her realize her mistakes. When she apologized, Marinette took it step by step with her, and they managed to get their friendship back to where it used to be. Juleka ran up to Marinette and threw her hand around her shoulder. “I’m excited that we’re roommates!” Marinette giggled and the both of them walking to the boys. Adrien smiled and her and waved. “Marinette! I’m so glad to see you! I’m excited that you’re coming.” Once Madame Bustier called them to the bus, they all started buzzing with excited for the trip.

For the majority for her travels, Marinette sat with Adrien. With the whole Lila situation, she just needed as many friends as she can get. She also knew that Lila was careful around Adrien to protect everything she has with his father. That didn’t stop her from tripping Marinette when they were boarding the plane. Adrien knew it was Lila, but Marinette told him that it was just her own clumsiness just to avoid with issues with Lila and their classmates. Adrien made sure that Marinette sat with him, and they were far away from Lila. He also made sure that she had the window seat and he was on the isle so Marinette doesn’t have to deal with Lila doing anything while she’s walking past their seat.

 When they arrived at the hotel, Lila tried to claim one of the luxe suites that was booked for the trip. She claimed some kind of chronic back issues and needed the softer bed. Chloe scoffed and stood in front of Lila. “My dad specifically paid for those rooms for my friends and I. You aren’t my friend and never will be, so. Back. Off.” Lila rolled her eyes and looked to Mme Bustier. “Mme. Bustier, could you please ask Chloe to accommodate me? I don’t think it’s fair that her and her friends get special treatment in the first place, but at least they can give me a space for my health issues.” Chloe scoffed again, but Mme Bustier looked at Chloe made a disappointed face. “Lila’s right you know.” Chloe put her hands on her hips, and hissed at Mme Bustier stating, “My father paid extra for these rooms. Unless either of you are willing to pay him back for a room, I don’t want to hear it. Now suffer Lie-la.” Chloe grabbed Marinette and stormed to the concierge desk with the rest of the friend group followed her.

When they checked in, Chloe made that Marinette’s room was right next to hers. When Marinette got into the room, she laid on the bed and sighed, with Juleka sitting down on the bed. “Hey, thanks for everything. I know things have been hard, but you still managed to be kind to me despite how I treated you.” Marinette sat up and looked at Juleka. Despite them being across the room from each other, Juleka can still feel the emotions in Marinette’s eyes. “You changed your mind and believed me. Even if it cost you your relationship with Rose, you still decided to do the right thing, and I think that’s amazing.” Juleka moved to lay down, and they both laid there silently, thinking about lost friends before going to bed.

              When they woke up, it was to someone banging on their door. Marinette looked through the peephole and saw an annoyed Chloe at the door. Marinette opened the door and Chloe stormed in. “Get ready Cheng, we’re going to breakfast. And it’s important to look nice because I’m meeting a family friend. I was supposed to meet Sabrina, but she disgusts me, as well as everyone who believes that idiot, so that’s why you’re coming instead. If you embarrass me, I will never let you live it down. Meet me in the lobby.” Chloe stormed off, and left Marinette looking astounded before quickly running to get ready.

              Marinette waited in the lobby, looking around before she saw Chloe stepping out of the hallway. When she saw Marinette, she huffed and checked her phone impatiently. Suddenly Adrien came running towards them. Chloe huffed at him and started walking out to the waiting car. Adrien and Marinette followed Chloe and Adrien chuckled softly. When they were in the car and on their way, Adrien apologized for his lateness. “Dad wouldn’t let me leave until he made sure that my outfit was impeccable. I don’t know why I called him in the first place.” Chloe rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. Adrien and Marinette giggled at her behavior, and they talked the entire way while Chloe interjected from time to time.

              When they arrived at the restaurant, Marinette was surprised. It was extremely upscale, and intimidating. Chloe dragged her in, and scanned the place until her eyes landed on a boy that looked about their age. “Bruce!” The boy looked up when he heard Chloe and smiled. Chloe pulled Marinette over to the table and sat down. Marinette sat down next to her, and Adrien joined Bruce in sitting across from the girls. Bruce extended his hand to Marinette. “Hi, I’m Bruce Wayne.” Marinette smiled and took his hand. “I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” “Marinette,” Bruce whispered, as if he was trying her name out, and he smiled softly. Chloe poked Marinette and said “Stop flirting, the both of you.” Marinette blushed and Bruce laughed.

              Breakfast went way less embarrassingly for Marinette after that point. She tried to order smaller food items since the restaurant was higher scale, but everyone talked her out of it. She insisted that she wasn’t that hungry, but Chloe and Adrien knew she was lying. Bruce offered to pay for her food, and she didn’t have to have to pay him back, which eased her. She ended up ordering enough to make her full, and Bruce ended paying for everyone since he believed they were his guests in his hometown, so it’s the least he can do to welcome them. Goodbyes were said and Marinette was pleasantly surprised that Bruce hugged her. She felt like he opened up to her, and that maybe he could be a new friend. One that was removed from Lila and was basically a blank slate for friendship. They could be friends without the trauma. Although she was worried that this was a front, and that he was really hurting, but didn’t tell anyone after the death of his parents. She really hopes that he gets all the help needs, and is surrounded by people that care.

              When they got back, Marinette went straight to her room and dressed a little more casually for the asylum tour. She grabbed the purse that she packed the macarons in, and ran to the lobby. When she got back there and saw Adrien, it looked like he had the same idea. Adrien saw her and laughed. “Your clothes were a little too stuffy too?” Marinette smiled and walked over to him. The rest of her friends made their way over, and Lila looked at them from across the lobby in disgust. She wanted to get at Marinette, but how can she do it in a way that still makes her look innocent? A plan was hatched, and Lila was almost too excited to put it into action.

              When they boarded the bus, Adrien asked if Marinette was excited, and she blushed, and nodded. Everyone took their seats and they were on their way. The bus ride was uneventful, which should have relieved Marinette, but it instead worried her. What was Lila planning, and when was she going to do it? Would it embarrass her in front of her biological father? Will it make him hate her? All these questions raced in her mind and her unease radiated off of her for the entirety of the ride.

              When they got into the asylum, Marinette was quite fidgety. She usually learned to internalize these feelings, but it was too much for her. She held her purse close to her, feeling some comfort in the baked goods. A lot of staff members sent soft smiles her, which made her much more nervous and she felt sick, but she ended up pulling herself together. When they got into the staff office, she placed the vanilla macarons a desk. She looked around, and saw him talking to one of her coworkers. She felt as if her heart was ready to beat out of her chest.  Her throat felt dry and she felt rooted in her spot. What does she say to Hugo? ‘Hey, I’m the kid you didn’t want, but here I am to meet you, like some kind of haunting ghost?’ There’s really nothing she could say. She was wearing gold and red hair ties since she wrote him that it’s how he can pick her out from the class. He could tell her apart anyway, but she didn’t know that. He was actually quite terrified to meet her, because he didn’t want to disappoint her. But when he turned and saw her class, he knew it was time to face his fear.

              Lila looked around, and saw the boxes with the logo of Marinette’s bakery and sneered at her. “Why’d you bring these?” Marinette stepped up and put her hand in front of the macarons. “They’re not for you. Or anyone else from our class for that matter.” Lila laughed loudly to grab everyone’s attention. “You brought them for the inmates, didn’t you? You’re probably related to one of them! It explains your issues.” Marinette stood in front of Lila and placed her hands on her hips. The class hushed, and watched in silence. “I’m not related to one of the inmates.” “She’s related to me.”  Marinette turned around to see Hugo in the entry way, and she smiled softly. Everyone looked shocked, while Marinette walked up to Hugo. “It’s nice to finally meet you.” She hugged Hugo immediately after speaking and he was shocked for a second before hugging her back. When they pulled away, he smiled softly. “Your mom has been sending me photos of you since you were born. You look more and more like her every time.” Marinette blushed and pulled the matcha macarons out of her purse. “Mom told me you would like these.” Hugo smiled and took them. “I’m sure I’d enjoy anything you make.” Marinette twiddled her fingers before Hugo cleared his throat and spoke to the class. “Hello everyone. I am Doctor Hugo Strange, and I will be taking you on a tour of the facility. Everyone, follow Marinette.” He started making his way out of the office with the class in tow.

In-between stops on the tour, Dr. Strange made an effort to talk to Marinette. He could feel her happiness radiate through him. The more they talked, the more he regretted leaving her and her mother. He wishes he could take it all back and be able to experience everything, but he can’t. All he can do is focus on being more active in her life from this point on. He was so nervous she would hold some kind of sentiment against him, but she clearly doesn’t, and it made him so happy. All his nerves just melted away. The same went for Marinette. She knew that Lila couldn’t try anything because Hugo would see and punish the class in some way, and Lila would be blamed for ruining the tour. She genuinely had fun.

At the end of the tour, Hugo said there was a special place that he could only take several students to, and that Marinette got to pick. There were enough spots for Marinette’s friends, which she thought was a coincidence, but Hugo knows it wasn’t. He knew of all the issues Marinette was facing with Lila, and thought that it would be great for Marinette to have her friends experience something great for staying with her. He took them into a room in the back, where bunch of people were waiting. They weren’t scientists, nor inmates judging by their clothes, so who were they? One of the people waiting there saw Doctor Strange and smiled. “Ey Doc! Gotta say your daughter is super adorable!” Hugo chuckled and Marinette blushed. “Students, I would like you all to meet ex-patients of mine.” One of the women walked up to Marinette and shook her hand. “Fish Mooney. Nice to meet you sweetheart.” Marinette smiled at Fish. The other ex-patients didn’t really introduce themselves, but engaged with the students nonetheless.

After talking with the ex-patients and learning about their experiences, the group went back to meet their classmates, who looked bitter, especially Lila. Marinette looked at her smugly before hugging Hugo. “Thanks for everything!” Hugo smiled and kissed her forehead softly. The class started to head out, and Hugo looked sadly at Marinette. He sincerely wants to be in her life, but the work he does, is unethical to say the least. He’s putting her at risk to pay for his sins, and she’s too good for that. Her and her mother are both too good for that.  He needs to change, here and now. He can’t undo all the damage he’s done, but at least he can prevent a lot more.

When it came to stopping his backdoor dealings, it was a lot easier than expected. When he explained about his kid, no one really gave him retaliation. He reached out to Bruce to start funding the program that Hugo and Bruce’s father started decades ago. He willingly did so, and as per Hugo’s request, split the ownership between Bruce and Marinette. Hugo started pushing boundaries, but in a much more humane and legal way. He’s been sending letters to Marinette explaining his discoveries, and making sure that Marinette knows that should she need an internship, the company doors are always open. The demons from Hugo’s demons haunt him from time to time, but the strength that Marinette gives him, allows him to defeat those demons, and keep making those discoveries that make a positive difference in the world. Hugo knew the saying that having a kid changes you for the better, but he never imagined it being to this extent. You know what though? He’s definitely glad that she’s made him a better man.

[spoonielivingfree]

Taking Chances//Chapter 3

Jac spent the weekend in bed. The headache overwhelming. Nausea and dizziness so consuming that Emma had brought the sick bowl into the bedroom and looking after her mother. Jac did contemplate calling Jonny to take Emma as he had moved back into the area but she didn't want him to think she was too sick to look after Emma. That may end in Jac losing Emma again and she didn't want that when there may be so little time left. Anyway, he was working all weekend and was taking Emma from Monday. She didn't want to unnecessarily disrupt him from his life over a bad migraine. "Heavy weekend," Sacha asked on Monday morning, walking into the hospital at the same time as Jac, who had sunglasses on. Jac gave him an icy glare, not that Sacha could see behind the sunglasses. "I wish." She responded. It was just the tumour symptoms. "The tumour is giving me migraines." "You should be at home resting Jac." "I'll be fine. I'm not cutting anymore anyway. I can hide in the office if I need to." She said as they got in the elevator, Sacha noticing Jac wobble and hold into the wall. "Ever so fine." He said sarcastically. "Shut up Sacha," Jac replied. Sacha walked her to her office despite much protesting once getting out of the lift, worried about how wobbly she seemed and not wanting her to have a fall. Jac took her sunglasses off once she was in her office and could control the lighting, getting on with work, having to run to the toilets to vomit. "Everything okay?" Max asked, hearing sounds of someone vomiting when she came out of the cubical she was in. "It's me, Max," Jac said before vomiting again. "Jac are your Anti emetics not helping?" "What do you think?" She replied harshly. Flushing the toilet, slowly getting herself up and out of the cubical. "Oh Jac," Max said. The make-up didn't hide how much she was suffering. "Have you been keeping fluids down?" "Yeah. I'll be fine." Jac responded. The last thing she wanted was for people to make a fuss and send her down to the ED for fluids. "Okay, well I'll prescribe you some ondansetron. Might work better." Max responded, looking at Jac. The surgeon looked really unwell. Normally she would only prescribe it as a last resort Or for cancer patients as it was one of the more expensive anti-sickness medications for the NHS, but she knew she could justify a bit of leeway for Jac to be prescribed it. "Thank you," Jac replied. She still felt sick and planned to work reclined on her office sofa to help ease the extent of the symptoms. But at least now she'd thrown her breakfast up she should be able to get a few uninterrupted hours of work in, and it was Jonny's week with Emma so she could go home and sleep after work. Chloe paged her when a patient had an emergency. Eli wasn't responding. He'd said something about needing a longer lunch break to go off hospital premises. "We need to operate immediately." "Okay. You need to take the lead though and remind me to hire another cardio-thoracic surgeon." Jac knew she really shouldn't be operating but right now there was no choice. Her and Chloe were currently the only two cardio-thoracic surgeons on the ward right now. Everyone else either had a day off, was on the night shift or on their lunch break. Darwin definitely needed an extra pair of hands now Jac shouldn't be operating. "Uh yeah, sure." Chloe responded, knowing the tumour symptoms were clearly going to remain too bad to safely lead a surgery. Eli came down to the theatre once he was back from his lunch break. "Do you need me to take over Jac?" He asked. She seemed okay but he knew he should check to make sure everything was in fact okay and she shouldn't really be in theatre with a symptomatic tumor regardless. "All under control." Jac replied. Eli watched from outside the theatre, standing by incase she suddenly needed him to step in. Fortunately she was okay and left Chloe to close. Jac leaned on the sink after scrubbing out. "Are you okay?" Eli asked. "Yeah. Just a little pre-syncope." Jac replied, praying it would pass. "I'm going to get a wheelchair." "I

don't need a wheelchair Eli. Just help me back to my office." She hadn't yet fainted as a result of the tumour and new it would stay at pre-syncope so she could walk. It'd just be hard. Luckily with Eli's help and the length of time she had spent working on Darwin meant she could navigate the corridors back to her office even with her vision blurry and ears ringing from the pre-syncope. Eli complied, not wanting to argue with Jac over her health and got her laying down in her office, checking her blood pressure and sugar.  "When did you last keep something down?" He asked, noticing her sugars were low. "If you mean something other than water and electrolyte tablets I can't remember." "Okay, I'm going to get you IV glucose." "I don't need an IV, Eli. Just get me a juice I'll be fine. I'm not that low." Eli sighed and got her some orange juice. "If you can't keep it down or it doesn't help you need something more though. No arguments." "Okay, mum." She replied sarcastically, sipping at the juice.  "Don't you have real patients to see?" "Going to see them now Jac. If you need me for anything let me know." He replied, leaving her office. Jac went home early to have the video call with Amelia in private. Not wanting to tell everyone that she had decided a surgical route yet. She left the hospital and drove herself home. The pain in her head was coming back and her vision was going. She had to pull over until it passed, taking another tablet and applying a topical treatment to her head. She was relieved to get through the door safely and in time for her call. She knew she needed to think about not driving anymore but she hated public transport and ubers every day would add up more than her pride would allow. The call with Amelia went well. She wanted copies of all her previous scans to assess growth and set a feasible yet realistic date for surgery with Jac. Once she came off the call she got a phone call from her daughter, saying goodnight before going to bed herself. It was early for her but the tumour had been exhausting her between her eye muscles overcompensating for her deteriorating vision, the extra concentration needed to do basic tasks and the nausea and vomiting. At least Max prescribing her ondansetron meant she'd been able to keep food down that evening.

[dawnwave16]

Gamer Girl pt 2!

part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4

AO3 link

Part 2 and 3 were meant to be one chapter and it wasn’t supposed to get this long but here we are! 

Story:

When Marinette walked into the Bakery so soon after having left for school, Sabine knew something was wrong. For one thing, Marinette tried not to miss school if she didn't have to, the last time she had gone to school only to come back home was a particularly bad day when Marinette was nine. For another, Marinette didn't even bother to greet her simply walking past her and up the stairs without a word.

“Marinette?” Sabine called tentatively after her daughter. “Maman, with all due respect I need to calm down right now before I speak to anyone.” Came the terse reply from her daughter's retreating form. “I'm going to see if I can go into full dive and join Kirito and the others for a while. When I'm calm I'll tell you what happened.” Sabine exchanged a look with Nadja, who had just walked in and shrugged. If Marinette asked for time to calm down first, it had to be something bad but both women knew there was nothing they could do until Marinette was ready to talk. * * * * * * * Marinette waited for Tikki to climb out of her bag before she tossed it onto the chaise with her backpack joining it shortly after. She had just taken her jacket off when a voice echoed in her mind. “Lady Morning, I am-” “Yeah, I know who you are Hawkmoth and the answer is no. I am in no mood to deal with you or anyone else except those who truly would understand how I'm feeling right now. If you try to akumatize anyone else since I'm saying no, then I will track you down and I will make you feel all the pain I'm feeling right now.” Marinette growled at the villain. “Just for future reference, Ladybug will be told who you are because I've recognised your voice Gabriel Agreste! So leave me alone or it won't be Ladybug you have to worry about!” Tikki watched from her vantage point as Marinette fought off the Akuma that had flown into her jacket and listened in growing horrified pride as Marinette stood up not to Hawkmoth but to the person she had once looked up to. She hadn't known about the connection between Hawkmoth and Gabriel and under normal circumstances, Marinette wouldn't have been recognised his voice either. It seemed her anger was so potent at that moment that it burned away the magic that normally hid that sort of detail. Tikki watched as the dark purple butterfly escaped from the jacket Marinette was holding and quickly swooped down and purified it. She looked at Marinette's face but seeing the tears making their way down Marinette's cheeks, she decided to simply eat the offered cookie and return to her nest to watch over her chosen. Marinette, now free to feel, let herself cry for a bit before checking with Yui to see if her group was online and quickly joining them. * * * * * * * * * * * * When Marinette had stormed out of the classroom, the class had taken a moment to process what had just happened before turning to Max and Markov for clarification about what Marinette had said. It took him a moment to find the information but when he did his face paled and he ran for the rubbish bin and threw up. “Max?” Mlle Bustier asked softly. Max was quiet as he processed what he had just read further then he turned and faced the class. “We messed up. Big time. When Marinette said that people died from the game, she wasn't lying. That 'game' was called Sword Art Online or SAO to most people. Anyway, on the day it launched 10 000 people logged on only to find they couldn't log out. To people not logged on it looked like the people who were, were simply in a coma. It wasn't until after everyone had logged on that a message was released saying that if the people that had logged on wanted to survive, they had to clear the game. If they died in-game, they died for real because the headset, or NerveGear as it was called, they used would fry their brains.” Max closed his eyes and fought the urge to vomit again, his face was still ashen when he opened his eyes and looked at the class. “If the family members of someone who had logged in tried to remove the NerveGear, it would kill the person in full dive anyway. 3,853. That's how many people died in the game or through people trying to remove the players NerveGear. Over half of that was in the first month!” Max sank to the floor as his legs gave out from shock. “I can't believe Marinette was one of the ones that survived. From the video, we can guess that she was really strong but the other players we saw must have been strong too...” His voice trailed off as he thought about what his classmate must have gone through. Several members of the class nodded in agreement with his words. Suddenly Chloe spoke up. “Wait how long were they stuck in the game?” “I don't see how that's relevant Chloe but to answer your question two years two days one hour and fifty-five minutes. The extra day comes from the fact that 2024 was a leap year.” Max said softly. Chloe closed her eyes as though she was in pain. “Fuck! How did she not lose her temper with me?! I've bullied her for how long now about being clumsy but after that long in a coma, of course, she is going to be clumsy!” The class stared at Chloe in shock and even Mlle Bustier didn't say anything. Alya had her eyes on her phone and her hand was flying over a page she had next to her as she went over all the information she could find about SAO, presumably for a new story for her blog so she missed Chloe's statement completely. “She's stronger than the rest of us that's for sure,” Adrien's voice was soft but seemed to echo around the silent room. “What do you mean Adrian?” Chloe asked for once using his name instead of one of her twisted nicknames for him. “Think about it. Not only did she survive SAO but she is one of the few people who has never been Akumatised. Even with everything Lila and this class has done to her she has avoided Hawkmoth's notice. As we are yet to get an alarm saying there is an Akuma on the loose now, I think it's safe to say that she hasn't been Akumatised today either. Any of us would have been a prime target in Marinette's state but there's nothing so far.” Adrien's voice was still soft as he explained his logic and he was surprised when he saw a number of his classmates' nod in agreement with what he was saying. He was about to say more when there was a knock on the door and a smartly dressed man walked into the room. “Pardon the intrusion so early in the morning, I am Jean-François Thévenet. I'm one of the members of the school board. We were in the principal's office for our annual meeting when we all received a rather interesting email. Due to the nature of the contents of this email, we have decided that a formal investigation has to be launched.” The man paused as he took in the various looks of surprise and disbelief on each of the class members faces. His brown eyes cataloguing everything he was seeing with an impassive expression. “The results of this investigation will be determined by the findings. Now, each of your parents have been call and as such we have obtained permission to interview you all. Some parents have requested that an adult other than ourselves be in the room and we have agreed so long as they don't interfere with the investigation. To be clear, we have a very good record of what has been happening in this class for the past six months, all we want is the clarification of why it has happened and why it wasn't brought to our attention before now. Interviews will be done in a random order, so will Rose Lavillant follow me.” He didn't give anyone a chance to react, turning on his heel and walking out of the room with Rose scrambling to catch up to him. Whispers broke out as soon as the two were out of the classes eyesight as Caline Bustier stood in shock. An investigation? Six months? What was going on? As far as she knew, that morning was the first time anything untoward had happened in her classroom. Eventually, she managed to shake her thought clear and start the much-delayed lesson on the french revolution. * * * * * * * * * * * * When Yui had sent him a message to let him know that Suiren (Waterlily aka Marinette) would be joining him online shortly, Kirito had been confused. She was in Paris which meant that if he had the time conversion correct, she should be in school at that moment. His confusion Vanished the moment he saw her. “Suiren! Are you alright? Silly question, never mind.” Without giving her a chance to reply he pulled her into his arms. “I'm here, let it out,” he murmured to which the only reaction was her burying her face into his avatars chest and bursting into tears. They stayed like that even as the rest of the group arrived thanks to Yui calling them. Kirito slowly ran his hand up and down her back in comfort even as he looked at his friends in confusion. It was at the moment that Suiren murmured something that had Yui nodding. “Sui-chan said I could show you what has her so upset and why she isn't at school. I'm just glad that I copied myself to her phone!” Without further ado, a large screen appeared hovering in mid-air that showed Suiren as he everyday self walking into her class. It showed her teachers actions and Marinette's reactions. It skipped over playing the video of that fateful battle though, for which Suiren was grateful. She didn't think any of the people present needed to see that video. Instead, it skipped to Marinette telling her teacher off and carried on from there giving those present a view of what was carrying on in her class at that moment. Suiren turned to Yui. “How are you doing that?” “I tapped into the camera's you had the school install in every classroom after that Lila girl almost got you expelled.” Yui chirped happily. Suiren was quiet for a moment. “What are you thinking, Suiren?” Kirito asked her quietly. “That I'm honestly sick of Paris. I understand that it is where my parents are but I am the only person

at my school that went through SAO and I'm beginning to feel completely alone. I was never one to enjoy being the centre of attention and I feel like if the people I thought were my friends were truly my friends, they wouldn't have been swayed by Lila.” Suiren's voice was soft as she spoke, almost as though she was trying to work through an idea as she spoke. “I think I'm going to talk to my parents about the possibility of me moving to Japan and joining the school they set up for SAO survivors in order to make sure I'm at the right level educationally. I can always attend the Tokyo branch of ESMOD and most of the people I design for live in Japan anyway. Those that don't live in Japan, travel to it now and then for work much as they do to Paris so it's not like that's an issue.” “Want me to talk to Kikuoka to see if he can pull some strings? He owes me a couple of favours anyway...” Kirito offered, and after a pause, Suiren nodded. “I think that might be best. This is the last week of the current school term so I'll stay in Paris for another month and get everything sorted out that needs to be sorted out. I'll also need to talk to my parents. Yui if you could send what you've found to my home computer that would be a great help in convincing them to let me go!” With that plan settled the group moved to an area where they could do some mat collection for both Liz and Suiren as they had been talking about upgrading their gear for them. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The investigation that was going on at Collège Françoise Dupont had been slightly brutal in Marinette's opinion, even if it had had to be that way in order to get the full truth to be revealed. M. Damocles had tried to protest against the investigation and the board had eventually had to threaten to suspend him before he had reluctantly stepped aside and let them have access to everything that they needed. The interviews with her class as well as some of the other classes had gone about as well as the board had expected though and they hadn't been impressed by their findings. They were, even more, displeased when they had finally managed to contact Lila's mother. When the board had first tried to contact Mrs Signora Rossi they had been puzzled as to why her phone kept going to voice mail. As Alya was Lila's friend they asked if she had Signora Rossi's number on the off chance. She didn't but she willing handed Lila's number over to the board and when they compared it to the number they had for Signora Rossi they found that the two numbers were the same. So the board did the next best thing since Lila had said her mother was a diplomat for the Italian Embassy, they phoned them and asked to speak to her. Once again that failed to bring the desired result as there was no Signora Rossi registered as working for the Italian Embassy as a diplomat or otherwise. It took them two days but they eventually found her working long hours as a waitress in an out of the way restaurant. She had been shocked when she had been asked about everything that Lila had said or done as well as Lila's frequent 'trips' and 'illnesses'. It was only through sheer luck that Mr Pigeon had struck at that moment instead of her being akumatised. She had been absolutely devastated to find out that while she was working two jobs to give her daughter a better life than her own, that same daughter was lying through her teeth as though she was ashamed of her. Once that had been discovered, the board had taken a closer look at all the documents that Lila had given the school. These ranged from various doctors notes to letters that had supposedly come from her mother regarding her trips abroad. Once they had been check thoroughly they had set to work on trying to get hold of Lila who had proved to be most slippery. In the end, the board had simply handed her file over to the truancy office and made sure that she would be held back a grade due to all her absences and the sheer amount of work that Lila had had her classmates do for her. In the end, Lila's mother opted to move Lila to a different school where she gave the teacher very strict instructions on what to look out for with her daughter. As for the rest of Marinette's class? Well, they had found that life wasn't as easy as they remembered it being before Marinette had finally decided she had had enough. It seemed like all the little things were missing and for the first time, they started to realise how much her smile had brightened the day for many of them.