#hawk moth wins

[scooterpengie]

Blonde-boy-heroes-with-evil-dads gang!!

Sorry but the LEGO Ninjago Movie did this trope the best, evil father/son bonding is my favourite thing! (Star Wars and Miraculous, take notes 👀)

Disclaimer: I actually don't watch Miraculous (or LEGO Ninjago for that matter, I've only seen the movie)

[billiejean485]

... Look.

Since all of you are having trouble piecing this together, I will bring this up:

... I REPEAT:

I doubt this is the final ending.

Maybe the new Hawk Moth won't win and we won't see Gabriel ever again - but I truly believe that this message was meant for the ending of S5, not S4.

... I hope that LB will manage to undo this cursed wish somehow, and that the ORIGINAL Hawk Moth will be back to get his butt kicked properly - but even if he doesn't....

This stays.

[plumsaffron]

If one wishes for Marinette to truly evolve and not want those good to her be dragged down for opposing her by association (as they already unfortunately are still and probably always will be) even further, or not want Marinette's delulu actions of presuming bad or seeking the worst or attempting or succeeding to ruin others as predestined to be valid by many so she should react terribly for any in the future that don't act how she thinks they should or seem lila like enough, the thing that should not be desired is the viewer or fandom's fetish folly against Lila.

[nobodyfamousposts]

Do you really think all of ML's problems would be fixed if Adrien never existed?

Good heavens, no.

Adrien isn't the problem. He's just a symptom of a much larger issue. That issue being laziness and poor writing that comes in the form of "tell, don't show", plot threads that go nowhere, and lack of character development or plot progression that leads to a setup of "Status Quo Is God". Removing Adrien wouldn't fix all of that. Heck, it wouldn't fix any of that.

I can't fault the writers for replacing Felix with Adrien. Even if I and others could write out a plot with Felix, that's not to say everyone could or that the writers could. It could very well be that Felix as he was in the PV simply didn't work for the setup they had in mind.

...the issue here is that the setup they had in mind seems to require stagnancy. Where Hawk Moth attacks without winning and the heroes fight off the akumas without really trying to track him as the source and the two leads chase each other around in circles without anyone making any headway in either of these battles. Marinette wants to date Adrien. Chat wants to date Ladybug. It's why all her plans to ask him out fail while his attempts to express his feelings aren't taken seriously. And there is no forward movement, whether in their arc or in the fight against Hawk Moth. There wasn't even build or lead up to the two falling in love. They just started out episode one with crushes on each other and remained having crushes on each other until arguably season 5.

But no good story is stagnant. In this setup, characters need to do things and there needs to be a feeling of forward momentum.

Break it down this way: What is Adrien's problem? What is his goal? What is the obstacle to his goal?

Yes, we could say Adrien's dad being a supervillain and a neglectful jerk is Adrien's main problem, but it's not the problem Adrien is actually focused on in the show. Instead, if we could say Adrien has a problem, it would be that he wants to date Ladybug. And his goal is to date Ladybug. And the source of the problem and obstacle to his goal is...Ladybug.

So his problem, his goal, and the obstacle are all the same thing. This ultimately seems to make his problems Ladybug’s fault then because the problem would be solved if she gives in to his wants rather than by any real effort on his part.

Adrien as he is in the show doesn't do anything. And he doesn't need to do anything because he is at his base a character that things are done for. He doesn't have a goal or direction or drive. He just comes out to deal with akumas as needed, flirt with Ladybug when he can, and then be sad because his life is so hard when he doesn't get what he wants. We don't see him doing anything else. We don't see him making friends. We don't see him engaging in school. We don't even really see how he interacts with the classmates he only recently met. Things happen around him, but he is not a driving force in anything in the show.

But Felix in the PV is a very driving character. He had a problem: he's cursed. What does he need to break the curse? A kiss from Ladybug. What are the obstacles to his goal: Ladybug refusing to kiss him and Hawk Moth trying to kill her. How does he get that kiss? By flirting with her and trying to earn her affections while protecting her and making sure she doesn't DIE against an akuma before he gets that special curse-breaking kiss.

It's the start of Felix's journey. His goal and the various obstacles to that goal that make his story interesting and his growth possible. As such, I see him as a character who would progress in his attempts to obtain his goal as well as one who would progress the storyline...which is also accurate of 3D Felix since that's kind of what he's done more in his relatively few appearances than the series has in 5 seasons.

Adrien didn't have to have Felix's personality. He didn't have to have the same goals or level of drive. But he could still have had things where he grows and helps to push the plot forward.

Adrien...

...just started school. He has no friends, knows no one, and is trying to learn the ins and outs of public education. How is he doing in the different setting with teachers instead of tutors? How is he trying to get along with his classmates? Does he experience bullying? Does anyone NOT like him? What is he going through as a new student who had been homeschooled all his life?

...is friends with Chloe. What's it like learning his "only friend" is a bully? How do people respond to this? Does anyone (besides Marinette) fear him or avoid him because if he's friends with Chloe, he must be just like her?

...is a superhero. He could have been spending time learning the history of the ring and trying to develop his powers. Trying to get stronger? Trying to get to know Plagg? What is he experiencing as a highly known model who is also a superhero and having to juggle those dual identities?

...has a dead mom who died of a "mysterious illness". Given that this loss supposedly occurred about a year prior, he could still be mourning her. Maybe trying to learn what happened to her.

...has a neglectful father. How is he trying to interact with his dad? How does he feel about his dad not being around? What is he doing to try to resolve this?

...has a supervillain father. Like, I cannot stress this enough! His dad is a SUPERVILLAIN! His dad is THE SUPERVILLAIN THEY ARE FIGHTING! People were predicting him finding out and joining Gabriel to try and revive his mom! People were living for the eventual heartbreak of when Adrien finds out the truth! Entire AUs, fan arts, and fanfics were born of this very idea! Going into the drama and struggle Adrien would be experiencing being caught between the "right thing" and the girl he loves and his duty vs his father and his mother and his family. HOW CAN THEY JUST IGNORE THIS?!

But we don't get any of that. Instead, we get Adrien...

...just acclimated with no issues in school and automatically friends with everyone. Good for him, I guess. Wish it was that easy for the rest of us.

...doing little besides occasional comments to Chloe as she is completely horrible for five seasons including Chloe stealing from classmates, getting the entire school punished for something she did, stealing a Miraculous, trying to crash a train, and betraying the city to Hawk Moth. But it takes him learning about something she did to Marinette a year ago for him to finally decide enough is enough and drop her as a friend.

...only goes out to deal with akumas as they come but does nothing to try and figure out his powers and history, get stronger, or try to track Hawk Moth.

...just moves on from dead mom. No relevance here aside from wanting to see a movie she was in or making a passing comment about how she got sick. No attempt to find out what happened to her. No questioning what she may have wanted for him.

...is just sad about his neglectful father neglecting him but seems to get over it rather quickly.

...never learns his father is a supervillain. Okay, I take it back. He learns twice and those timelines are erased with no real repercussions other than trauma for Marinette, so it really doesn't feel like they count. The pieces are all there, though! He knows his dad has the grimoire but never questions him about it! Never asks his dad what the deal was with Tibet! No question about how mom died or what is going on with Nathalie or what he's doing with a hidden mechanism in mom's portrait.

Adrien has potential. He has plot threads and aspects that could be used and goals he could have. But the writing does nothing with him, so while he has a number of things he COULD do to move forward and progress as a character or for the plot, nothing comes of it.

And that all boils down to a problem with the writing.

Adrien was chosen over Felix as an "easier" option to keep the story at a standstill so they could drag it out for as long as needed. That doesn't mean it should have been. There were so many paths that could have been taken, but Adrien was given the personality of a wet noodle, so he acts on none of them because that was what the writers wanted out of his character.

[flightfoot]

ML Fanfic Recs for 2023: 5K - 10K words

So I’ve been going through and adding particularly good fics I’ve read throughout the year. Only Complete fics, of course. Enjoy!

Plagg eats Destruction while Tikki eats Creation. They choose not to tell their Holders exactly what that means.

Ladybug’s partner joins with Hawk Moth and she can’t figure out why. Not at first, anyway.

Adrien had started expecting the family breakfasts. He had NOT been expecting his father to collapse in the middle of one.

Adrien and Marinette both vaguely remember young playmates from when they were kids. Their first friend. Shame they didn’t remember each other’s names.

Marinette’s itching to win a prize for beating a merfolk in a race. Thankfully, a merman, Chat Noir, decides to challenge her. Pity that Adrien was busy that day.

Adrien finds a tiny, mousy guest in his new home, and makes a new friend.

Marinette helps lead a revolution to overthrow King Adrien with the help of her most trusted ally, Chat Noir. 

Ladybug and Chat Noir find a toddler wandering around during an akuma attack. Who could her parents be?

Chat Noir wrote a tweet mocking himself as Adrien. This totally does not come back to bite him in any way.

An akuma swapped Marinette’s and Chat Noir’s bodies. Marinette AS Marinette, not as Ladybug. This causes some problems.

All this and more below the break!

---

you don’t even know me at all (but I was made for loving you) by @ladyofthenoodle

They didn’t remember each other. The hospital told them there’d been an accident—brain damage—but Alya had told them the truth, later. Who’d they’d been to each other. What they’d given up, and why.

But even with their memories of each other gone, Adrien and Marinette are still inextricably tied together—by law, by their social circles, and by their hearts.

And in the apartment they share, there's only one bed.

Yep, it’s the “there was only one bed” trope XD! I especially love how it was used here, how Adrien and Marinette are strangers now but they had a whole life together, and they pine for each other even without remembering, and how Marinette just can’t believe how in love with her Adrien is even though he doesn’t remember her. I loved the emotional turmoil the two of them went through together in the fic, and the resolution, it’s great!

---

Experimental Feeding by Machina_Fun_T

Plagg eats Destruction*. Tikki eats Creation*.

They don't explain that to their holders.

*Warning - This diet has side effects.

I just found the whole idea here fascinating. Basically, Plagg and Tikki prefer to eat things that align with their concept somehow, and even get boosts from them. They decide not to explain the details to their Holders though (just to mess with them I think) which prompts Adrien and Marinette to both do a lot of experimentation to figure out what their kwami likes to eat the most.

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Until I Found You by @linnieluna

Working their way up to a settled adulthood, Marinette and Adrien, now 23, gain a reason to believe that they are expecting—way earlier than they ever planned. Still unwed, it evokes a revelation on Adrien’s behalf.

Was it time to take the next step forward?

I loved the emotions here, how Adrien and Marinette reacted to the results of the pregnancy test, how complicated their feelings about it were - and how it prompted Adrien to take action. It’s a really sweet fic!

---

From school bells to wedding bells by @linnieluna

When the superhero duo takes on another exhausting fight against an akuma, Chat Noir does what he never hesitates to do and takes a hit for his partner. The problem being: neither of them knew what power the akuma possessed.

That is... until he is transported into the future. More specifically, to his friend Marinette's wedding.

Ah I love time travel fics! Older!Marinette’s surprised, Younger!Adrien’s bewildered, and Older!Adrien is off knowing exactly what happened and giving his younger self some subtle heads-up. 

It gives Adrien something to look forward to, to cling onto, through bad days in the future at least!

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u + me = love by @xiueryn

Marinette has a massive crush on Adrien. He has a crush on the superhero, Ladybug. When he says the only person he'll invite as his plus one to an event is Ladybug, Marinette takes her chance to romance him for the night. AU.

(a fanboy and fangirl start to date.)

This is just a fun Ladrien story. Ladybug is happy to oblige in Adrien’s fantasies, and no one else believes that he’s actually dating Ladybug.

---

Disintegrated Pancakes by @scribeofrhapsody

Adrien had started expecting the family breakfasts. He had NOT been expecting his father to collapse in the middle of one.

I’m shocked I haven’t seen more of this sort of thing, with Adrien finding out his father’s Monarch via seeing the Cataclysm wound. I love that Alya gets involved in this, being the person Adrien runs into after fleeing the room, and then Adrien getting to talk things out with Gabriel and Nathalie. Thankfully Gabriel is at least not completely incapable of being reasoned with here, or things could have gone worse than they did. It’s a nice little read, though with an ambiguous ending (at least at the time when I write this).

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Like Smoke From A Furnace by @wackus-bonkus-maximus

Marinette and Adrien give up their Miraculous. Ladybug and Chat Noir never meet again.

This one’s an angsty fic with a happy ending (though there is a little fluff in there as well.) Adrien and Marinette get together and have a family together, while Scarabella and Kitty Noire continue to fight Monarch for the next decade. But it still eats at Marinette that she never found out what happened to Chat Noir, that he never said anything before they both vanished, and Chat reappearing during an akuma attack when Kitty Noire was taken out of commission doesn’t help with that - especially since he won’t leave her head and she needs to commit herself to her family, doesn’t want to be torn by his presence. She cares about her family too much. 

Ladybug and Chat Noir never meet again... but there are other ways for them to meet up and talk things out.

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with this ring by @thelibraryloser

She thought “you and me against the world” had sounded like lopsided odds before, when she hadn’t even dreamed “you against me” was a possibility. Or maybe she had dreamed it, but at least in those dreams he’d had cold blue eyes and a stark white mask.

The villain she’d fought today had looked at her through her partner’s own bright green eyes.

It wasn’t meant to be this way.

Short and sweet Sentiadrien enemies canon divergence fic here! I adored Marinette finding out why her kitty seemed to have “betrayed” her, and the righteous anger on his behalf once she figured out that it wasn’t of his own free will. Her comforting Adrien about it was just... really good. It’s a Hawkmoth Defeat fic too, so the immediate aftermath gets covered as well. Adrien needs a hug.

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Miracoffee by @pauliestorylover

Ever since the last Mr Pigeon attack over nine months ago, Hawkmoth has fallen off the face of the earth, seemingly for good. There’s never been a better chance for an identity reveal—but after keeping her identity a secret for so many years, Marinette feels incredibly nervous about one.

When Chat Noir accidentally finds Ladybug working at a café, Alya comes up with a brilliant idea. If Ladybug and Chat Noir interact regularly in a civilian setting, surely they’ll move towards an identity reveal without outside interference?

Adrien Never Goes To Public School Coffee Shop AU here! It’s funny how he clocks Marinette as being Ladybug IMMEDIATELY. And then after discussing it for awhile, decide to make a bit of a game of the identity reveal, having Chat come in on pre-determined days and seeing whether Ladybug can figure out who she is, all while they get to know each other, even if in passing. 

Love the other Miraculous heroes making cameos as well, Marinette seems annoyed that Nino cosplaying as Carapace actually doesn’t tip anyone off XD.

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Nothing Else Matters by LiquefiedStars

Marinette couldn’t figure out Chat Noir. He was supposed to be her partner, but instead ended up working for Hawk Moth. Still, her heart betrayed her and when a strong connection forms between them, Ladybug goes to Chat looking for answers, finding out more than she bargained for.

Sentiadrien enemies AU fic! He never wanted to fight against her, but Gabriel caught him before he could transform for the first time, and with his father using his Amoks against him, he had no choice. 

I like that there’s a solid explanation for why Fu let Adrien keep his Miraculous even though he’s been working against Ladybug, I don’t often see explanations for that that I’m satisfied with.

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For the Sake of a Ring by @rosie-b

An akuma that transfers people's consciousnesses into other universes hits Ladybug, sending her into a world where everything is the same... but instead of earrings, she's wearing a ring on one hand! She's only just arrived in this universe, but already Plagg seems to have gone missing. It's up to Marinette to figure out what happened before she's sent back home!

This fic takes place in the future, after Season 5, but it does not contain any leaks or major spoilers. Please keep the comment section spoiler-free, too!

This is really cute, Marinette gets transported into a world where she’s married to Adrien and is really confused as to why and how they got married at sixteen. Adrien’s just an adorable puppy who thinks his wife is the most amazing person in the world! 

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His Princess and Her Knight by @seas-of-silver

Adrien, Marinette, Nino and Alya have a group assignment about how the past has shaped them into the people they are today, but they’ll make a discovery that’ll send them searching for answers.

This fic is adorable, Adrien, Marinette, and Nino uncover that they all went to the same preschool together, with Adrien and Marinette immediately latching onto each other, Adrien being the knight to Marinette’s princess, and also making friends with Nino. Sadly he was pulled after two weeks, but it made quite an impression on him.

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A Friendship Not Abandoned (Just Delayed) by @nomolosk

Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste first met as tiny little kids, but then Adrien had to move away. When they finally meet again, will they even remember each other, much less become friends again?

Poor Adrien keeps on saying or doing just the wrong thing to give Marinette the impression that he’s a bully like Chloe when he’s not, and he keeps desperately trying to fix it. So a bit of an enemies au in that way, since Marinette doesn’t like him much. He does gradually manage to convince her that he’s a good person though.

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as luck would have it by @silver-hibiscus

It's Adrien's birthday, and there's an akuma attack. Luckily, Ladybug and Chat Noir are there to save the day! Even if they're not the heroes that we're familiar with...

Not so much a kwami swap as an another au entirely.

Same title as one of my own fics, funnily enough! Though entirely different premise. This is a Gabenath fic, with Gabriel as Chat Noir and Nathalie as Ladybug, complete with a lovesquare and some unspecified other person as Hawk Moth. In this version, Gabriel and Emilie had some terrible fights and were separated, with Gabriel realizing along the way that he’d been a distant father and working to rectify that, he’s a pretty decent person here. I could actually kind of see this being a feasible path Gabriel could have gone down, if he wasn’t so desperate to revive Emilie and hadn’t gone so far to try to distance himself from who he was and where he came from back before he met Emilie and started changing to fit in with the upper class.

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The Price by @clawsoutspotsoff  

He clutched his chest, feeling his lungs burn  as his body started to give out beneath him. No. Not now. Not this time, when he was so close.

He wrenched his arm back, striking with the other as he called his sword to his hand, fire and lightning and ice tearing through his nerves as he did, but finally, finally, the resistance gave way and he stumbled backwards.

Without looking, he turned and ran, calling a portal to appear before him. He fell through it, landing on a cold, hard floor in utter darkness. He could still hear shouting over the rushing in his ears, every part of his body failing at once, and before he could be pursued, before he could collapse any further, he forced raspy words through his torn, aching throat.

"Plagg, Tikki, unify!"

The world went blessedly, eerily silent.

---

Written for MiraculousFanworks' fanfic wars 2022

Will that be cash, credit, or memories?

This was a great look at how the Wish could potentially happen, what the kwamis might do to help mitigate the worst aspects of it on the people they care about... and what the price would be for it.

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Emotional Mountain Ranges by @liiinerle

After Zoé's attempted romantic confession to Marinette is interrupted by an incensed Chloé and Audrey Bourgeois, she's left distraught and adrift, a crying mess in an alleyway far from home. Ladybug saves her from the incoming akuma, and tries to help her back on her feet - and Zoé wonders what she could possibly have done to earn this much attention from a superhero...

Lovely Zoenette fic here! I especially like how Marinette talks to Zoe, reassures her that she’s good enough, that she (as Ladybug) isn’t as perfect and composed as she thinks, and just... tries to get Zoe to have more confidence in herself. It’s mostly from Zoe’s perspective too, which I like since there aren’t a lot of Zoe POV fics.

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The Mer-Human Race by @rosie-b

Bringing her hand closer to his lips, Adrien tried to plant a kiss on it, but Marinette pulled away before his lips could touch her.

“Save it for your girlfriend,” she said teasingly. “Or do you still not have one yet?”

Adrien smirked and crossed his arms.

“It’s a girl,” he said. “And I know her in real life. That’s all you get. Now, let’s get back to planning, shall we? We have a mermaid to beat.”

Lovely world-building here! Merfolk and humans have had a treaty for a long time, so there’s a tradition where merfolk can challenge humans to a race, and whoever wins gets to ask for a reasonable sort of reward (in Marinette’s case, she wants to be allowed to captain a ship at a younger age than is usually allowed). Alya, Nino, and Adrien are naturally very encouraging towards Marinette, and luckily for her, a nice merman going by the name of Chat Noir shows up and challenges her to a race...

Yeah you can see where this is going XD. It’s fun, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Late Bloomer by @generalluxun

On what might very well be the last night of her life, Sabrina Raincomprix pulls out a very special scrapbook, pressed between the pages is the past, the past she has never shared with anyone. She relives how she got to this moment one page at a time, preparing herself for the end. A phone call interrupts her self-imposed exile and brings news that could change her life forever.

Even if it does though the question looms... change it how?

Sabrina-centric Hanahaki AU here! I love how it goes into Sabrina’s relationship with Chloe over the years, the good and the bad - and even what happens post Revolution. 

I love the description of some of the plants involved, and what they mean, what they represent. If you want a fic that delves more in Sabrina’s character and her relationship with Chloe, this is a solid choice.

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Slowly Fading (from my misery) by @wehadabondingmoment

“You’re looking awfully deep in thought today, minou.” Ladybug’s gloved hand stroked over his hair and Chat Noir closed his eyes with an unstable breath.

He got like this sometimes. Lately, it had been getting worse.

Or: Gabriel likes using the rings to order his son around. After a while, it starts having effects on Chat Noir as well. (The more often Gabriel commands Adrien to act a certain way, the more it gets ingrained in his mentality. He suffers because of it.)

This is a gorgeous fic. Adrien’s been puppeted around, forced to obey orders for reasons he doesn’t understand, for so long, so often that a lot of times his own body doesn’t even feel like his. A lot of residual orders keep on bubbling up and stopping him from doing what he wants to do, and he just... doesn’t understand why. Considering how Adrien looked in Pretension when Gabriel forced him to go to his room so he could talk to Marinette alone, and how desperately Adrien tried to head back there but couldn’t make himself open the door, how terrified and confused he’d seemed, I think his feelings here, his mindset, is pretty close to canon.

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Spread Your Wings by @myladynoire

Set before the Finale. Félix uses his Kwagatama to summon his father's memory and has a talk with him.

I love Colt’s characterization here, how we see his mindset, his beliefs, and even what made him the way he is. We have a limited amount of knowledge about him in canon, only having the play Felix and Kagami put on to go off of, but myladynoire made good use of it! I’m glad Felix got some closure here as well.

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Cheating Cat by @11jj11

When Emma and Isaac Dupain-Cheng realize that Adrien is Chat Noir, that can only mean one thing... that he's cheating on Marinette with Ladybug, and they're the only ones that know!

This is really cute, with Emma and Isaac being worried about Adrien supposedly cheating on Marinette and wanting to talk to Ladybug to stop her from dating Chat Noir. That’s not all that’s going on here, though - Isaac’s actually adopted, but he and Adrien are still related, which puts an interesting twist on the tale. There’s a reason he’s especially sympathetic to the fact that Adrien being Chat Noir means he would have had to fight his own father...

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A Mousey guest by charliepoet13

Adrien Agreste has finally managed to break away from his father and make his way out into the world. One faithful night, after settling down in his new home, he spots a strange guest.

Adrien X Multimouse fic here! So this is inspired by the Borrowers, with little people the size of mice living amongst ordinary-sized humans, and Marinette got a little careless here XD. But soon finds that Adrien’s friendly and not a threat. It’s adorable and reminds me of the The Littles book series that I read when I was a kid!

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Three Crazy Days by @lea-panthera

In which Marinette's mind is forced to stretch a mile.

So Bunnix drops off Marinette’s future daughter for her to take care of, who blabs that her grandfather is Hawk Moth, and then things quickly spin out of control XD.

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all of your flaws and all of my flaws (are laid out one-by-one) by @coffeebanana

Ladybug and Marinette have both been acting strangely since Monarch's defeat, and Chat Noir would give anything to know why—to be able to help them. He just...didn't expect his answers to come when Ladybug drags him to his father's statue in the middle of the night along with a bag full of spray paint.

If you felt unsatisfied with Adrien being left in the dark about Monarch, with Ladybug lying about Gabriel being a hero, this is a great fic to read. Marinette’s breaking down keeping this secret, seeing people treat Gabriel as the hero she told people he was, until she finally snaps and has to do SOMETHING, has to tell SOMEONE the truth. 

Which Chat takes pretty well! He knows how persuasive his father could be, and he’s mostly just relieved at finally hearing someone say that Gabriel wasn’t a hero. It’s still a lot to cope with though.

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@ ladybug by @hefoundme

Trending in Paris

1 · Trending #JusticeForPapillombre

2 · Technology · Trending Tsurugi Corp Trending with Tomoe Tsurugi

3 · Trending #LadynoirStrong

So this is a multimedia type fic showing various online conversations and things that would likely be going on in Miraculous Paris. It doesn’t really have a coherent narrative per se, and is more like a series of vignettes. It’s a lot of fun, like there’s a section going over Andre’s ice cream reviews, Alix talking with Max about how she’s worried about Alim falling down conspiracy rabbit holes, an image of the most popular google search terms for Adrien, all sorts of things! It must’ve taken a lot of work and I think it’s worth a look. 

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Don’t be a Stranger by @wackus-bonkus-maximus

Chat Noir has been fighting Chrysalide alone for years when one day, Ladybug appears. She seems to already know him, and is a little too eager to be friends. But the more she pushes for her and Chat Noir to reveal their identities, the harder she is to trust.

Written for Ladynoir July Prompt 31 - “In Every Universe”

This is an intriguing story, with a somewhat open ending. I don’t want to spoil too much about it - the plot hook in the summary should already give you a pretty good idea of the premise. It is a little strange seeing LADYBUG pushing for an identity reveal and making jokes during akuma fights, but given what’s happened, I could see why she’d try to do things that made her think of Chat.

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hands red series by katrinette

Summary for the first fic in the series, a serpent in these still waters:

Marinette's on her knees before her new king, preparing to swear the oath that binds her to serve him to the best of her ability.

To the man whose father had her parents killed.

Every word tastes like ash in her mouth.

Marinette’s plotting to overthrow the corrupt monarch, as the French tend to do. She doesn’t know King Adrien all that well, since he just ascended to the throne recently, but she’s certain that he’s just as bad as his father.

Of course, rebellion’s aren’t very effective without help, so after biting her tongue with the new king, she rants to her partner in crime, a man whose true name and face she does not know, but who she deeply trusts nonetheless: Chat Noir.

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Falling (sick) with you by @chocoluckchipz

Nothing would be easier than taking a pair of earrings off an unconscious Ladybug. Doing so would bring his mother back and end their decade-long strife. He shouldn't be hesitating when a chance of a life time presented itself to him. He should not be looking for excuses and reasonings as to why spending another twenty or so years fighting this woman rather than pleasing his father and giving his mother another chance at life was not such a bad idea after all.

Ah, I love a good enemies au! Even when they’re enemies, Chat is unwilling to hurt Ladybug. Though honestly, he makes himself out to be more of a villain than he actually is, it’s pretty obvious to everyone that he’s not trying as hard as he could to get her earrings. There’s very good reason for that.

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Lost Little Kitten by soliea0death

Monarch hasn't been seen for a while, but that doesn't mean that Ladybug and Chat Noir aren't still needed as the heroes of Paris. Also, the new holder of the rabbit miraculous may need some more practice when dealing with time travel. One-shot Ladynoir ;);)

This is adorable. Ladybug and Chat Noir find a toddler wandering around and try to find her parents, to no avail, so they decide to take care of her (well Ladybug said she was gonna leave her with Marinette, but you know what that really means). Of course Bunnix had to come to collect her since she was displaced from time, but neglected to say who her parents were...

Anyway this was adorable, and I loved the explanation for how, exactly, the little girl ended up in the wrong time period.

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Eat, Pray, Duck by @trishacollins

Gabriel Agreste split his twin sons apart when his wife died, keeping one with him and sending one to London with his sister. Unfortunately, the Supreme was not willing to let this be.

He wanted a matched set.

Felix is a weapon, a servant of the Supreme. On a mission to retrieve the stolen Miraculous.

In a world that has outlawed kindness, sometimes the most dangerous person is the one who chooses it anyway.

I love this glimpse at what might have been going on with Felix back in Shadybug and Claw Noir’s world, I did wonder what might have been going on with him. Poor kid, he managed to have it even worse than he did in canon. I really loved seeing his interactions with Luka, the Couffaines rebel through kindness it seems!

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Front Page News by @tiredfloridianbutverygay

Nadja couldn't sleep at night, not when there were still so many unanswered questions about the final battle. How did the Alliance rings seem to have the exact answer, to know exactly what to say?

Why did they turn everyone into a Miraculous-powered army? Why was Gabriel asking everyone to join with Monarch to help capture Ladybug and Cat Noir?

It was time to get to the bottom of this, and Paris' best investigative journalist was on the case! No stone would be left unturned and Paris would never be the same.

This one’s a pretty unique follow-up to the season 5 finale! I love Alya and Nadja investigating to try and figure out what happened with Monarch and exposing the truth, people deserve to know.

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Friends who kiss by @kuromori4

It’s been about a week since Shadybug and Claw Noir’s goody-two shoes alternate universe counterparts convinced them to betray the Supreme and join the Resistance. And while they are determined to be better… It hasn’t been easy. While both Shadybug and Claw Noir have a lifetime of problems to untangle if they want to be good people, they realize a new look doesn’t magically make you a nice person. As if that weren’t hard enough to deal with, the two ex-Villains struggle with defining what their new relationship might be.

I love the two of them talking things out, and struggling. Shadybug in particular is still very prickly and prone to making snide comments about Adrien, even though she doesn’t really know him, and she still hasn’t totally come to terms with her own true feelings about Claw Noir. Though by the end they um. Figure that out, I guess you could say XD.

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Dragon by @liiinerle

Tomoe keeps telling Kagami about the importance of her heritage, but refuses to tell her what that heritage is. When Kagami looks it up for herself, she finds a lot of interesting information, a lot of frustration, and a deep and burning question - which Tomoe refuses to help her answer.

This is a Kagami character study, with Kagami questioning her mother’s actions, but knowing that standing up to her is a no-win proposition. It doesn’t help that D’Argencourt’s mirroring some aspects of her mother’s behavior, with being upset if she doesn’t fight well, but also being upset if she beats him. There’s no right answer here, which leads her to take out her frustration on others. Luckily, Marinette’s there to calm her down, to talk things out with her.

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adrien agreste and the consequences of tweets making fun of yourself by Anonymous

Well, Adrien thinks, what’s the worst that could come from a few poorly thought-out tweets lightly ribbing his own civilian identity?

I love the focus here on how people just assume what Adrien’s thinking and feeling and act on his behalf, without actually waiting to see what HE wants, and Adrien’s growing frustration. How they create a version of him in their heads, but don’t care to check with reality to see whether he actually wants their “defense”. 

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Spin the Bottle by @kasienda

When the bottle cap comes to a stop dead center on Nino, Adrien’s both relieved and somehow more anxious.

His first kiss - not his actual first kiss, but still kinda his first kiss - the first kiss he will remember, will be with someone he deeply cares about.

But Adrien also cares what Nino thinks of him, so what if he’s a terrible kisser?

Nino offers him a reassuring smile, and he relaxes. Adrien glances at Alya for permission, and she just shoos him towards Nino.

Adrien turns to Nino, leaning closer. If his stomach had been squirming before, it now feels like a half dozen Kwamis have taken up residence in his gut. But Adrien doesn’t hesitate. He blocks out the presence of all of his friends watching, and instead focuses on Nino - like Nino is a stage partner in a photoshoot.

Except kissing Nino is nothing like a photoshoot.

...

Adrien kisses Nino in a game of Spin the Bottle, and then neither can stop thinking about it. Alya really likes how flustered her boyfriend is by all this. Marinette though, can't handle it and keeps running away.

This is a great Alya X Adrien X Nino X Marinette poly fic! I love them all talking out their feelings and realizing new things about themselves. Alya’s instrumental and bringing everyone together, though she, herself, is also nervous about confessing to her longstanding crush XD

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a rose by any other name by @asukiess

Adrien's scared Loveybug only loves Catwalker.

Loveybug's scared Chat Noir only loves her, and not Ladybug.

How does the rest of the saying go again?

So obviously, this is part of the Loveybug AU, where Marinette gets stressed by her responsibilities as Ladybug and wanting to get away from that persona, and adopts a new persona as Loveybug, complete with a new transformation. This is a really good glimpse of this AU, I really love the Ladrien (Lovedrien?) especially, with her talking out her conundrum with Adrien.

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The Two-Body Problem by @mixelation

Good news: they now knew how the akuma’s power worked, and the akuma had run off and given them time to regroup.

Bad news: the akuma’s power meant she was now in Chat Noir’s body, and Chat Noir was in her body. Her body, which was currently still Marinette.

Ah, I love a good body swap. This is set while Adrien and Marinette are dating, so he can’t help flirting with Marinette a little, even in these circumstances - which is a bit of a problem since Marinette doesn’t realize he’s her boyfriend. And also they’re in each other’s bodies, which makes it feel weird.

And then there’s the whole “someone is gonna need to use the Ladybug Miraculous” problem. It’s not as if Chat KNOWS that he currently has her Miraculous in his earlobes...

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Windows 5 + 1 by @dadplagg-mamatikki

A bet between Kim and Alix trigger a chain reactions of events where Adrien jumps out of windows.

I love this. Adrien needs very little prompting to jump out of windows, heck he’ll do it with NO prompting, it’s hilarious XD. Heck he even asked whether Kim would prefer a normal jump or a theatrical one! It’s really not that surprising though, considering how we’ve seen Adrien dive from the top of his rock-climbing wall onto his couch.

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I know there’s been pain this year (But it’s time to let it go) by @ninadove

“What? Nooo! Adrien doesn’t hate Christmas.”

“Are you absolutely certain? What was he like last year?”

“Well, he —”

Marinette furrowed her brow, scanning her own memories. Of course she was absolutely certain. At least, she thought she was.

Okay — she could not ignore that Adrien had run away from home that night, wandering the snow-covered streets to escape the freezing cold of his own home. Nor could she brush away the disintegrated Morris column, cataclysmed for the crime of bearing his own face.

Oh, and the shaky videos circulating on YouTube. That musical number was… Concerning, to say the least. Still, it was no smoking gun.

Right?

“Oh my god,” she squeaked, plopping down against the counter. “Adrien hates Christmas.”

I love Marinette and Felix doing their best to cheer Adrien up, it’s adorable. Especially Marinette’s attempt. It’s very Marinette, I laughed out loud XD. There’s a lot of senticousin bonding here, so if you like that, this is a good one to check out!

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A Shadyverse Holiday by @lucid-ao3

The duo's curiosity grew after the encounter with their alternate selves from the Shadyverse. What was this other world like, and how were Shadybug and Claw Noir doing in the aftermath of their visit?

It's the polite thing to do, after all, for a superhero team to check in on their parallel universe counterparts and wish them happy holidays.

That is, if there's any happiness to find...

[In which Ladybug and Chat Noir take a holiday trip to the Shadyverse.]

I love this glimpse of the Reverse World, and how it makes Ladybug and Chat Noir question whether their own is really so different, if things could have turned out in their own world the way they did in the Reverse World - for better or worse.

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what makes a human (am I?) by GraceM_TheStoriedLife

Adrien comes to Marinette's out of nowhere. Usually Chat is her rock. Tonight, it's her turn. (Or, in which Adrien discovers some secrets he's not prepared for and Marinette is as Marinette-y as always.

So Adrien discovers he’s a sentimonster and immediately runs to Marinette for support. It’s as cute and angsty as you’d expect. She is, of course, very supportive of him. Also some discussion of Gabriel being abusive, since both she and Nino had been trying to get Adrien to see that. Especially with how, exactly, Adrien found out he’s a sentimonster. He can relate a little better to Felix’s experiences now than is healthy, I’ll just say.

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Caught In A Multimouse Trap by @a-flaming-idiot

Adrien was having a rather slow morning. That was until he discovered a tiny superhero trapped in his home and decides to be a bit of a hero even out of his suit.

This was adorable! Adrien does his best to care for the little miniature superhero caught in a mousetrap, bandaging her up as best as he can (thankfully only her tail got caught so it’s more of a phantom pain than an actual injury) and just... it’s really cute.

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fine line by @bbutterflies

“Catwalker?” Loveybug asks.

“Hmm?”

“Do you remember… what happened before us?”

“What do you mean?”

“Before we were heroes. Was there someone else?”

Catwalker goes quiet for a moment. “I don’t know,” he finally says.

This is a surprisingly angsty take on the Loveybug AU. Here, since the Loveybug and Cat Walker transformations are so unnatural, they’re having negative side effects on Marinette and Adrien, causing them to be constantly exhausted and even to get amnesia the longer they continue using them.

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You’ll be the prince and I’ll be the princess by @mexicancat-girl

With Team Miraculous now full-time holders, Ladybug has them patrolling in pairs like her and Chat Noir.

New partners Pigella and Purple Tigress get along phenomenally, their easy banter and similar wavelengths making working with each other a joy in and out of combat.

But sometimes Tigress is surprised just how close she is with her partner. Sometimes she tries not to feel too guilty thinking about it.

There’s some nice Julerose here! I love them kinda getting into a lovesquare with each other, though it’s not as much of a problem as it is in canon since it’s reciprocal in every relationship and they’re both down for a poly. It’s fun, and I love the “Luka attempting to woo some of his love interests” plot going on in the background XD.

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Plans Aren’t Everything by BeeRye

Feeling a bit fed up with constantly having her dates with Marinette cut short, Kagami sets aside some time in order to plan the perfect outing for the two of them. Despite being the holder of the Miraculous of the Black Cat, she believes one day of romance isn't too much to ask for. As long as she treats it all like she does everything else in her life, the results she wants should come to pass.

She doesn't quite know what to do if that ends up not being the case.

This was adorable and captured Kagami’s mindset well, she decided, rather optimistically that she could just brute force the date into going well. Unfortunately, that’s not gonna stop Hawk Moth. Fortunately, Marinette has her own back-up plans...

[seffen]

sorry

I found this interesting.

I see it as an alternative universe. I don't think I'll draw them in this image again, so I'll just describe it in text.

Our heroes are no longer schoolchildren, they have completely different problems.

In this universe, Ladybug unfortunately died and Genji copes with everything on his own. Since Genji cannot destroy Akuma, he acts differently to stop them - he kills the villains created by Hawk Moth since he is unable to get rid of them any other way. This seriously damaged Genji and made him very cruel, but fair.

Kwami chose a new hero, ladybug, who turned out to be the omnic Zenyatta. He is the ultimate novice. And he will have to face many problems. One of which is the fact that his face is not hidden in the reincarnation.

Genji goes to teach him everything he should know and be able to do. There is no hiding the fact that the omnic really infuriated Genji. Despite this, Zen, for some reason, knows how to win people over.

[ilikekidsshows]

Okay, so... I just realized something. No one told Marinette to keep information from Cat Noir until Syren. She was the one who didn't think to tell him about the spellbook, and she was the one who showed up to Fu's without him. In Volpina, The Collector, Robostus, and Sapotis, the idea of Cat Noir knowing is never brought up, mostly because Marinette and Fu don't talk about him. This makes Syren look really weird when you think about it. We suddenly have Fu saying that it isn't the right time and the episode acts like those aren't Marinette's secrets to tell, when this wasn't a factor in any of Fu's previous appearances.

Now, I'm not trying to defend Fu here. He's supposed to be the mentor here—even if Marinette doesn't think about Cat Noir, he has the responsibility to. It certainly is a writing choice is what I'm saying.

---

Considering the priorities of the writers, they most likely didn't think of it either. They tended to ignore Cat Noir's role in things even before the retool. It could be they totally forgot that Cat Noir was also a factor in the team dynamics. I'm guessing, depending on the writing order, ‘Syren’ could be the justification to keep him in the dark after they realized that Marinette keeping him in the dark of her own volition would make her look bad if anyone thought more deeply on it, and supposedly they figured the audience just wouldn’t question Fu’s authority in the matter, since he’s the “wise, old mentor” archetype. The writers tend to think giving some throwaway excuse is enough to justify everything they pull in the show.

That's why the show is so quick to give excuses every time Marinette does something hurtful towards others instead of just, you know, having her learn to not do it. The idea that people watching could disapprove of Marinette’s actions is too horrifying to them, she couldn't possibly do something actually wrong, so they try to explain everything away to justify her, either right away or retroactively when they realize fans actually have issues with something Marinette has done instead of just accepting that the hero protagonist can do no wrong by virtue of being the protagonist.

Miraculous, I feel, moralizes secret-keeping way too much. Alya and Marinette have a big debate on whether they’d reveal they were a hero to their respective bestie or not in ‘Sapotis’, where Marinette “wins” by virtue of Alya, under Ladybug's orders, not telling Marinette in her civilian persona that she’d become a hero by the end of the episode. The debate was “I’d tell you because I tell you everything” versus “I’d not tell you to keep you safe”, with Marinette acting kinda smug about it, like the writers considered this the ultimate “gotcha!” that the fandom is using for all secrets Marinette chooses to keep now.

“She’s keeping people safe,” she maybe thinks that, but how does that work in practise? Generally, the idea of not telling a loved one about your heroics is to keep them from getting involved and getting hurt, but Marinette is the one getting her friends involved by giving them Miraculouses. She breaks that safety justification herself. The show also raises the possibility of Hawk Moth lifting this information from their mind if they ever got Akumatized, but Marinette herself has almost gotten Akumatized but could avoid the butterfly with Tikki’s encouragement. The solution to getting Akumatized is to not leave your secret-keeper alone when they’re upset. Also, the show later reveals that this is a nonissue, because Kagami, who knew Ladybug’s identity, got Akumatized with Hawk Moth being none the wiser she knew, meaning Hawk Moth can’t read minds to that degree, but, to be fair, the heroes probably didn’t know that. I think most Miraculous holders' decision to reveal or hide their identity from their loved ones is one that's based on what they consider most functional and is, in fact, not based on morality at all.

So, here’s the question we should actually ask about Marinette’s secret-keeping: when you keep  a secret that “isn’t yours to tell”, is it really a moral choice or simply a choice? The thing about keeping secrets in real life is that it, by itself, isn’t a moral or immoral act. It’s what your secret-keeping accomplishes that determines whether you made a moral choice. Of course you're not gonna tell your friend your other friend is planning to throw them a birthday party if you want it to be a surprise, but, if the birthday hero just told you they're planning to go out on that date and time, it's just practical to let them know your shared friend has something planned for that time. It's not a moral choice what you do here, simply a practical one.

If your friend comes out to you about their sexual or gender identity, this secret deals with your friend’s personal life and really is no one else’s business. Keeping that secret is, of course, good. If your friend has queerphobic parents, revealing the secret to them would put your friend in danger, so it would be bad to tell.

If your friend told you they’d murdered one of your classmates in cold blood and had hidden the body, you keeping that secret makes you an accessory to murder and you could face legal charges. However, your personal moral code also applies here. Would you be cool with murder if the victim was also a murderer and killed your best friend’s sister? Would you be against murdering but even more against betraying your friend by getting them caught for a crime they committed? What if your friend murdered an innocent person and you both know this and your friend tells you they plan to kill again because they’re actually a serial killer and keeping their secret means more innocent people will die? Then it would undeniably be bad if you chose to keep that secret.

There are more important things to consider than whether or not a secret is “someone’s to tell”, like actual harm coming to people because of secrets that should be kept or revealed.

The matter of secrets is that we need to take into account who they affect. The things Marinette keeps from Cat Noir: the grimoire, Fu, her training, Rena Furtive becoming a permanent member, are all things that affect Cat Noir. I’m sure Cat Noir would like to know the history of the power he wields. I’m sure Cat Noir would appreciate some guidance and training too instead of being left to flounder and try to figure things out alone. I’m sure Cat Noir would like to know what backup is available in tight situations, especially if Ladybug herself isn’t available to be Rena Furtive’s sole contact. The excuse that these aren’t Marinette’s secrets to tell, because they’re Fu’s or Alya’s, are just excuses. These are Marinette’s secrets, because she’s benefiting from something she’s actively denying Cat Noir access to.

Her secret-keeping is even more questionable in the season five finale with Gabriel’s evil deeds, Hawk Moth’s identity and Adrien’s status as a Sentimonster. These secrets directly influence Adrien, his ability to recover from how his father treated him and his ability to keep himself safe when his free will can be easily hijacked. This information doesn’t just affect Adrien, it’s information he needs. And the stans are justifying Marinette keeping this information from him with “it’s not Marinette’s secret to tell”, implying the responsibility should be shifted to anyone else but their precious idol. Well, here’s what I think of that: these secrets are also not Marinette’s to keep.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

This is more of a rant, but something that still baffles me about the show is, The Collector being the ONLY episode besides the last few S5 episodes where the main heroes get ANY significant leads on who the main villain might be (ignoring Chat Blanc and Ephemeral, because those were more Gabriel’s luck strike than anything).

I understand why they lifted suspicion from Gabriel initially, but Master Fu should’ve 100% doubted the “he can’t akumatize himself” claim at some point later on (seriously, Gabriel only had to make an akuma, detransform, and renounce Nooro), but with how incompetent he was as a Guardian, I’m surprised he could even make the “Grimoire owner = Hawk Moth” guess. And the MULTIPLE TIMES he went into the Agreste mansion, no progress. The LEAST he should’ve done is ask Adrien about the whole ordeal with the Grimoire - Adrien stealing it from his own father should at the very least raise some questions.

(A bit tangential, but a headcanon I have is, the suspicion falling on his father back then is what made him want to know what Ladybug is up to at all times - it doesn’t excuse his romantic advances towards Ladybug or his S4 behavior, but I think it did contribute heavily to the whole Syren fallout, even if some of it was just Adrien being grumpy for no good reason. Of course, this wasn’t Ladybug’s fault, and Adrien didn’t have the full context for the accusation when the audience did… so that’s another thing I blame on Master Fu, he seemingly never clarified anything to Adrien about the suspicion of Gabriel being a genocidal maniac)

And after that… the one to make progress is Mr. Plot Device Felix. In SEASON 4!!! And the only thing they could come up with was Felix seeing the miraculous because Gabriel’s tie slipped - a gigantic win button handed to him on a silver plate (though admittedly, his plan of tearing Gabriel’s pants was pretty cool).

Just remember, the main drama of Season 5 was the romance between Marinette and Adrien, and trying to stop the psychopath from recreating the world.

Really shows that our heroes have their priorities straight.

[pupsmailbox]

BUG ID PACK

NAMES ⌇　adalia. adam. agatha. amber. andrena. ant. antony. aranea. arthro. aspen. attacus. beckett. bee. beetle. behan. benjy. bogárka. bubonic. bubonicholas. bubonick. bugsy. buzzie. býleistr. carrie. celastrina. cesare. cheli. chelicera. chrysalis. coley. cordulia. craniifer. crawly. creepy. critter. cuddlebug. dahlia. danuria. destiny. diseaselie. dishevella. dishevelle. dusk. dust. ella. ellsee. emery. eve. fern. fester. fifi. firefly. giselle. glimmer. hawk. hexa. hisser. hive. honey. hope. infestatianne. instar. jan. jeb. jed. jeddie. jeddy. jewelette. junebug. kaida. kaira. kieran. ladybird. lepidoptera. lester. lightsse. logan. lorcan. lovebug. luciole. luna. lyssa. mandela. mandibella. mandibelle. mandible. mangie. mangy. mantis. maurr. maxwell. midge. mikio. minii. mold. monarch. mordecai. mordechai. mordekai. mordy. mortimer. morty. moth. mould. naoki. nettle. ogtha. opal. osa. paul. pepper. phobianna. phoenix. ralph. ralphie. ralphy. ratianna. ratianne. ration. ravenesse. ravenette. ravenous. rex. rhene. rhyssa. roach. roark. rolf. ronan. rotgut. rowan. ruddy. rudy. ruth. salvia. scorpio. scurry. scuttle. sicknesse. sicknette. skittish. snugglebug. tawny. terry. thorax. toffee. vanessa. vespasiano. wesley. whiskey. wren. writhe.

PRONOUNS ⌇　ant/ant. antenna/antannae. antenna/antenna. anthill/anthill. aphid/aphid. arachnid/arachnid. arachnid/arachnids. arthropod/arthropod. bee/bee. bee/beetle. beet/beetle. beetle/beetle. bu/bug. bug/bug. bug/bugs. butterfly/butterfly. buzz/buzz. bzz/buzz. centipede/centipede. change/change. cicada/cicada. click/click. cloth/cloth. crawl/crawl. creepy/crawly. cricket/cricket. damp/damp. dig/dig. dirt/dirt. dragonfly/dragonfly. dusk/dusk. dust/dust. ely/elytra. en/entomology. ento/entomology. exo/exoskeleton. exoskele/exoskeleton. fate/fate. fester/fester. firefly/firefly. flea/flea. flow/flower. flutter/flutter. fly/butterfly. fly/fly. forest/forest. fy/fly. glow/glow. grey/grey. grime/grime. grime/grimy. hex/hexapod. hiss/hiss. hive/hive. hornet/hornet. hun/hungry. infect/infect. infest/infestation. inse/insect. inse/insectoid. insect/insect. insect/insectoid. it/it. jewel/jeweled. lady/ladybug. ladybug/ladybug. lamp/lamp. lice/lice. light/light. lin/linger. lost/lost. lur/lurk. mange/mangy. mant/manti. mantis/manti. millipede/millipede. mite/mite. mo/moth. mosquito/mosquito. moth/moth. night/night. pest/pesticide. pho/phobia. ro/roach. ro/roache. roach/roach. rot/gut. scarab/scarab. scurry/scurrie. scurry/scurry. scut/scuttle. sick/sickly. sick/sicknes. spider/spider. star/star. sting/sting. swarm/swarm. termite/termite. tin/tiny. twitch/twitch. venom/venom. ver/vermin. wasp/wasp. web/web. weevil/weevil. win/wing. wing/wing. worm/worm. 🐌 . 🐛 . 🐜 . 🐝 . 🐞 . 🕷 . 🦂 . 🦋 . 🦗 . 🦟 .

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

I actually thought that Adrien and Gabriel's relationship seemed like it might have been possible to salvage in the early seasons. What do you think?

@tallwriter Starting a new post since this one was getting super long as this is a different topic.

The problem with Gabriel Agreste's character is that they very clearly wanted to write a sympathetic villain - you can tell that from how the show handles his death - but sympathetic villains don't work if you make them cartoonishly evil. You have to handle the situation with nuance and delicacy, especially when one of the main heroes is the villain's son.

Gorizilla is not a perfect episode by any means, but it does showcase how Gabriel should have been written if they wanted him to come across as complex and sympathetic. In that episode, Gabe thinks that Adrien is Chat Noir and, because there's no way to magically force Adrien to reveal himself or confess his secrets, Gabriel has to come up with a situation where Adrien would be forced to transform of his own free will (since that can't be overwritten with a ring or something crazy like that). Which is how we get Adrien hurtling to his death while his father looks on:

Adrien: Always! (jumps out of Gorizilla's hand, and over the side of the building) Yeah-ha! Hawk Moth:(from his lair) No! ... Hawk Moth:(from his lair) If indeed you are Cat Noir, then transform, son. Please. (Adrien continues to fall downward, resolutely remaining as he is) Come on, son! (Ladybug looks down at Adrien, then raises her head, eyes closed.) Ladybug: Cat Noir, help!! Hawk Moth:(from his lair, to Gorizilla) Drop Ladybug!

This is good writing. Yes, Gabe's plan was kind of dumb (you live with Adrien, dude, just bug his room), but if we accept that this was the only way to go about a forced reveal - and that does seem to be the writer's logic - then we see a situation where Gabriel put his son above winning. A situation where he's still very much the villain, but he's not a dastardly, cold-hearted one. He does love his son.

There are actually several of these moments in the first three seasons. Some involve Adrien and many more involve Nathalie. It's why season five's claim that Gabe put beating Ladybug above everything else rings hollow. He never actually did that outside of Evolution (S5E1). He's almost always been loved-ones first when it really counts, a thing that Ladybug uses against him in the final when she tries to crush Emilie. The whole "Ladybug obsession" thing truly feels like something they just made up for that one episode to justify Nathalie "turning sides" aka doing nothing useful beyond maintaining the status quo (hey, they needed someone to keep the senti plot from having consequences and it wasn't like she was doing anything useful anyway!)

The problem is that this "loved ones first" mentality is only used for big dramatic moments, often as a way to keep Gabriel from winning. It's not Gabriel's main characterization even though it needed to be if you want season five's ending to feel even remotely earned. Going into that ending, we should have all thought that Gabe was a messed up dude who truly did love his son. And, if Gorizilla, Style Queen, and Ladybug had all been examples of his standard characterization, then we would have thought that.

But that's not who the writers told us Gabe was.

Instead, his standard characterization paints him as petty, controlling, and manipulative. Which is wild because there was no reason to do that! Gabe could - and should - have been played as stern and removed, but generally loving when he's outside of the mask. In other words, Gabriel Agreste could be well liked while Hawk Moth was hated.

The crazy thing is that this is such a simple change to make. You either removed the episodes where Gabe's awful parenting is the source of the conflict (ex: Bubbler) or you just make a few minor changes to show that he's conflicted about his actions.

For example, take Chat Blanc, the episode that ruined so many elements of this show! In that episode, Gabe is a total bastard. He happily sacrifices his son's happiness to make an akuma in the form of Marinette and then, when Adrien's secret is revealed, does Gabe have any sort of conflict about traumatizing his son? The kind of conflict we'd expect after episodes like Gorizilla? Nope! He straight up delights in showing Adrien Emilie's... corpse? Comatose form? Whatever! Gabe then akumatizes Adrien with a smile on his face.

That gets the writers a solid F for consistent characterization. It's why I highlighted "almost" in red when I mentioned Gabe's motivation. Because in Ephemeral and Chat Blanc, the writing ignores the sympathetic stuff that characterizes the dramatic moments and goes straight for the worst-father-of-the-year, love-to-hate-him, please-let-him-die-now characterization that we get in most episodes.

If you were writing Chat Blanc's Gabriel to fit his intended complex, sympathetic mold, then you would probably drop the breakup plot or you'd have spent all season setting Marinette up as the perfect akuma target, changing the breakup into something that Gabriel felt that he HAD to do instead of opportunistic evilness. You'd also have Gabe drop a line like, "I'm sorry, Adrien. You'll thank me later" before the Chat Blanc akumatization. Or at least don't have him grinning! Do something, ANYTHING to show that Gabe sees using his son like this as a necessary evil and not a fun time! You know, like how he was begging Adrien to transform during Gorizilla? Almost like Gabe had stopped caring about winning and started just wanting his son to live.

Would these changes make Gabe less of a fun cartoon villain? Yes, but that's the point. Cartoon villains are cartoony. They're over the top. They have no nuance. Sympathetic villains don't work with those characteristics.

The normal way to get around this in a cartoon setting is to have secondary antagonists who can be played as cartoonishly evil. And, confusingly, Miraculous has those characters. Chloe, Sabrina, and Lila have been here since season one (Kim could also have stayed a bully and been added to that list, but he's not a teenage girl, so I get why they didn't do that /s.) Felix has been around since seasons three. Nathalie has been an active villain since season two. Any or all of these characters could be the cartoonish, nuance-less villain while Gabriel stays sympathetic.

Instead, they play Gabe however they want to play him in any given episode, making it so that he's impossible to understand from an audience perspective. I personally like the sympathetic take and think that those are the show's best episodes because I like complex villains. It's even how I write Gabe in my stuff because I go for less cartoony takes on canon.

I don't think a redemption was needed, but a sympathetic villain doesn't require one. All that term means is that you can understand the villain and be sympathetic to their plight. Redemption is optional. In fact, the goal is often not redemption, but an understand that, "there but for the grace of the gods go I." I mean, we've all lost loved ones. Wouldn't the power to bring a loved one back tempt you, too?

If they wanted to go for evil, cartoony Gabe, then they needed to drop all of the complexity and go for a Disney villain type character who gets a Disney villain death a la Scar or Mother Gothel. Don't give Gabe the wish. Let him fall to his own hubris by falling into the water of his secret layer and lading as a puddle of ash while a sad Ladybug looks on, having just failed to save him.

If you want to see an excellent look at how cartoon Gabe could have worked, then I highly recommend @zoe-oneesama's Scarlet Lady comic, which is just nearing its end after a multi-year run. I think it's fair to say that Zoe and I largely agree on canon's flaws, she just fixes them by leaning into the cartoon side of things, creating a hilarious story with lots of heart. Canon could have absolutely gone that way too and worked out wonderfully! The issue is not a lack of nuance, it's that they tried to add nuance without ever fully committing to it, making a story that is the worst of both worlds. While a more serious nuanced reboot would be my ideal dream, a reboot that scraps all of Gabe's nuance and just makes him go full evil would be just as satisfying and Zoe proves that.

[animationadventures]

Let's go over everything that ML did wrong.

They refused to acknowledge any flaws Adrien had and called him perfect.

They refused to allow him a final confrontation with his father, and instead locked him in a room during a final battle with Monarch that should have included both Ladybug and Chat Noir.

They refused to redeem Chloe as part of a so called damnation arc instead of giving her the redemption they previously hinted at.

They sent Chloe off to live with her abusive mother, saying she deserved to be abused.

Nino never got his Scarabella treatment with the Black Cat, and was shafted in favor of Zoe for that.

They teased Lukanette and Adrigami at the end of S3, and immediately broke them up in the first episode of S4 because any other ships beside Adrinette aren't allowed.

After four and a half seasons, they brought up Marinette's stalking habits but blamed it all on Chloe instead of her owning up to her behavior and learning from it. There's also the inconsistency of her only having that behavior with Adrien and not Luka or Chat.

They introduced Zoe, Chloe's half-sister, without any foreshadowing in season four and immediately gave her Chloe's Bee Miraculous. Everything was basically handed to her where other characters actually worked to earn stuff.

They tried to portray Lila and Felix as these master manipulators, but the way they did it instead made everyone else look too dumb through plot armor and bad writing.

Nothing ever came up about Lila lying about being Ladybug's BFF after Alya learned Marinette was Ladybug, and should have not believed her anymore.

Felix didn't even get a redemption, and yet he's part of the team at the end while Chloe is not.

They shoved the last four hero debuts into one episode when they all should have had individual spotlight episodes because they were too busy salting Chloe and shilling Zoe to remember them.

They had multiple opportunities for the heroes to win back the Miraculouses Hawk Moth stole, but didn't because of plot armor and bad writing.

The retcons! The wish originally being equivalent exchange then retconned to world rewriting, Luka and Juleka being two years apart then retconned to twins, Socqueline and Zoe, to name a few.

The freaking sentikids plot! I hate that so much. They didn't start foreshadowing that until late S3 at best. They claim to be planning that since the beginning, but I call baloney!

There's probably more.

[rosie-b]

True Blue

Chapter 15: Trust Falls

“Marinette.” Gabriel cut her off with a solemn voice. “Listen to me. Adrien started wearing a ring last evening.” 

Marinette blinked in confusion. 

“Okay? Is that relevant to Golden Bug checking on civilians?” 

“Yesterday, you told Golden Bug to switch his Miraculous with Chat Grise. He would have to stop wearing his earrings and start wearing a ring instead. Just like Adrien did,” M. Agreste exclaimed, raising his voice. 

Marinette’s heart stopped.

You can read the rest on AO3 or below!

The akuma battle went flawlessly— from Golden Bug and Chat Grise’s perspectives, at least. Bluewing and Hawk Moth lost again.  

Marinette found herself distracted by the akuma throughout the battle, which contributed to their loss. She knew they were the innocent doubts of a civilian, but she couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Adrien was right when he accused Hawk Moth of manipulating people into becoming victims of his akumas. Each time the purple butterfly mask flashed over Reverser’s eyes, she remembered the pained look that had flashed over Nathaniel’s face when the same thing happened to him as Evillustrator. She remembered the way another person had seemed to take over his mind on the boat, forcing him to tie her to the railing and threaten her life. 

She remembered what it felt like to be just a pawn. And she wondered. 

There hadn’t been enough time for Golden Bug and Chat Grise to exchange their Miraculous, so there was no advantage for Bluewing to hide the weakness of her wandering thoughts behind. The battle took a turn for the better when Golden Bug and Chat Grise were each struck by Reverser’s paper airplanes, but despite how indecisive Golden Bug became and how boomingly loud Chat Grise was, making it impossible for her to hide, Bluewing ultimately lost to the power of Lucky Charm. 

And her fan got Cataclysmed. Again. 

Overall, though, Marinette managed to avoid botching the battle; after all, it was thanks to her distractions that Reverser was able to hit Golden Bug and Chat Grise. (She hadn’t expected the flirty line she’d pilfered from Adrien’s repertoire to have such an effect on Golden Bug, but she wasn’t complaining. It had been satisfying to be the one making  him blush and trip over his feet, for once.) 

She’d have to try that trick again sometime— if it was appropriate, of course! All she wanted to do was trip Golden Bug up and create an opening for the akuma. Her flirting with Golden Bug was nothing if not professional.  

Professional, like Bluewing was when she took the opportunity after her defeat to inform Hawk Moth that Golden Bug and Chat Grise would likely be switching their Miraculous within the next day or two. 

“What?” Hawk Moth demanded, his voice booming in the earpiece Bluewing had found in the base of her fan after the Miracle Cure restored it post-battle. 

“Golden Bug stopped by my balcony before the fight. He doesn’t suspect me,” she quickly assured Hawk Moth, “He just wanted to make sure I wasn’t in danger of being akumatized because of my nightmare. I pried for a little information,” Marinette said, wincing at the white lie, “And he admitted to feeling like he’s losing to us, even if he wins against the akumas. So I suggested he and Chat Grise switch Miraculous again, to practice in case they ever need to switch Miraculous in a fight again.” 

Hawk Moth growled. “Why would you tell him to do that? It sounds like you want him to be more capable of defeating us!” 

“I know it does, but I have a plan. Before they can get any practice in, we should attack with another akuma. Not now, in case they still haven’t switched, but before too long. Give them a few days to think it over, and then send an akuma; we can catch them off guard and attack with an advantage!” 

Bluewing waited anxiously to hear what M. Agreste would say. It was a risky plan, to be sure, and maybe she was half-motivated by how good Golden Bug looked in black, but she did think her idea was worth a shot! She just hoped that Hawk Moth agreed. 

“I see,” he eventually said with a hum. “This might work. I approve, Bluewing, and I appreciate you taking some initiative. With an attitude like this, we may soon have our victory!” 

“You’re welcome! I hope we do,” Marinette said.  

Yet even as she spoke, doubt coiled in her stomach. Adrien and Golden Bug’s warnings, while probably wrong, wouldn’t leave her alone. 

“Very well. Goodbye for now, Bluewing. Be ready to seize our chance.” 

Hawk Moth hung up, and Bluewing quickly ducked out of her hiding spot to head home. Her work for the day was done. 

__*__*__*__*__

The next day was Saturday, and for once, Marinette had nothing scheduled. So she decided to just relax and try to work through the confusion of the past few days, in honor of Nathalie’s advice. 

As she rinsed her dishes after breakfast, though, Marinette found herself frowning as she tried to prepare herself to meet the new secretary on Monday. She still couldn’t believe Nathalie had just quit! Had the stress of working for Hawk Moth finally gotten to her? Had she just not cared about Adrien and Marinette as much as she seemed to? 

Whatever the reason for Nathalie’s short-notice departure had been, Marinette couldn’t help but feel a bit of resentment toward her for it. After all, Gabriel, Nathalie and she had arguably the most important jobs in all Paris! What could possibly take priority over saving the world? 

Adrien didn’t seem to share the same view, though. If he knew what Nathalie had been helping his father to do, maybe he would have begged her to quit. But then again, maybe he would have finally realized that Hawk Moth and Bluewing were not his enemies. 

Marinette was startled to learn that Adrien didn’t think saving his mother was worth using the Wish, but she was still hopeful that he’d change his mind if he knew the circumstance just a bit better! The problem was that he was used to the narrative of Golden Bug and Chat Grise being the heroes. After all, he was friends with the Goldenblogger herself, and no one hated Hawk Moth more than Alya and the other super-fans of the ‘heroes!’ 

Marinette may have been friends with Alya, too, but she had inside knowledge to protect her from the media’s bias. If only Gabriel had trusted his son with that knowledge from the beginning, they wouldn’t be in such a mess now! Sometimes she wondered if he’d sent Adrien to public school just to keep him away from the house while he was busy with his akumatizations. The thought brought a scowl to Marinette’s face. 

Still, Marinette was determined not to let her doubts and anger get the best of her, so she decided to help her parents in the bakery and then watch a movie to distract herself from her emotions. It worked like a charm at first, but eventually, reality began forcing its way in. Still, Marinette had had worse days. 

Halfway through lunchtime, Marinette’s phone started buzzing with an incoming call. She didn’t think anything of it at first. When she saw it was coming from Gabriel, she was intrigued, since he normally didn’t contact her outside of the mansion.  

She excused herself and answered the call as she made her way to her room. 

“Marinette,” Gabriel said in a low voice. “I have some important information to share with you. It’s critical to our success, so if you are not in one already, get to a secure location. Make sure no one can overhear what I am going to say.” 

Marinette raised an eyebrow. She was in her room now, and no one else was there except Duusu, who was sleeping on one corner of her pillow. They’d seemed pretty wiped out by the trip to Adrien’s room, and so Marinette was letting Duusu rest. She’d asked if anything was wrong, but Duusu said they were fine, it was just the memories of the past decade and a half re-settling in their brain.  

Marinette agreed that that was an awful lot of memories, even for a kwami, and was more than happy to leave Duusu alone until they felt better or until Hawk Moth sent out another akuma. 

“We’re secure,” Marinette confirmed to M. Agreste. “No one is around to overhear.” 

“Good. Now I need you to tell me if Golden Bug has ever contacted you, outside your suit, before.” 

Marinette frowned, her stomach twisting. “Sir, if you think I’m secretly working with him, I assure you, I am not. We are enemies.” 

“I know that,” Gabriel snapped. “Just tell me, has he ever visited your balcony before? He was comfortable enough talking with you to share his own insecurities and take your advice. So tell me, do you know why?” 

“No, I don’t,” Marinette quickly responded. “The first time I met him was during Evillustrator, but we didn’t spend much time together after he rescued me. He did check in on me a while after that, but that was because Adrien asked him to. He thought I was down and wanted to cheer me up. Golden Bug is interested in making sure me and the other civilians are safe from akumatization,” she admitted, feeling her stomach churn. Where was M. Agreste going with this?

“Adrien sent Golden Bug to your balcony? He told you that?” Gabriel sounded stressed by this information, as if his son was supposed to inherently mistrust Golden Bug and never talk to him. 

“Uh, yes. Oh, and Golden Bug also broke into my room to wake me up when Sandboy gave me a nightmare. He didn’t leave until he knew I was okay. Then, since he noticed I was still shaken up, he stopped by again today and I gave him the advice to switch Miraculous after a short chat.” She hesitated, still unsure of M. Agreste’s goal with this conversation. “He’s just really friendly, sir. Why are you asking?” 

Gabriel exhaled sharply and muttered a curse. “Golden Bug cares about you, specifically, far more than any other civilian. I’ve never heard of him checking in on any other akuma targets. He cares about you, Marinette.” 

He sounded upset about that, Marinette noted. But this didn’t sound so unusual to her; checking up on civilians was just something Golden Bug did. As far as she knew, this was normal behavior for him! 

“I’m sure he’s checked in on other people before, M. Agreste. What about after the—” 

“Marinette.” Gabriel cut her off with a solemn voice. “Listen to me. Adrien started wearing a ring last evening.” 

Marinette blinked in confusion. 

“Okay? Is that relevant to Golden Bug checking on civilians?” 

“Yesterday, you told Golden Bug to switch his Miraculous with Chat Grise. He would have to stop wearing his earrings and start wearing a ring instead. Just like Adrien did,” M. Agreste exclaimed, raising his voice. 

Marinette’s heart stopped. M. Agreste thought that his own son was his arch-nemesis? That couldn’t be true. For so many reasons, it couldn’t be true! She had to make Gabriel see reason. 

Taking a deep breath, she ventured, “Just because Adrien started wearing a ring around the same time Golden Bug and Chat Grise might have switched Miraculous, that doesn’t mean that they’re the same person. Maybe Adrien just likes rings! Or maybe he’s taking inspiration from his favorite hero.”  

Marinette’s mind raced as she thought of explanations for this coincidence. It had to be just that, just a trick Mr. Agreste’s mind was playing on him! It was just the stress of being Hawk Moth catching up to him, it had to be! She couldn’t bear to think that she’d been fighting her best friend this whole time. She would have recognized him! Wouldn’t she? 

Gabriel made a dismissive noise. “Marinette, have you ever noticed how Adrien usually wears his hair? It’s not a style I picked for him, though I let him wear it since it frames his face well. But he chose it deliberately to hide his ears, his Miraculous,” he hissed. “Adrien is Golden Bug, and that makes him a traitor!” 

Marinette flinched at Gabriel’s tone. “No, Adrien’s not a traitor!” she cried. 

The words were out of her mouth before she realized what she was saying. Gabriel slowly breathed out, just barely audibly, as if to question her audacious outburst. 

Marinette, too, was surprised by her own words. But Gabriel was acting unstable! If she didn’t speak up, then who would? 

“Adrien’s not a traitor,” Marinette repeated in a quieter voice. “And I’m sure he has a good explanation for his new ring. You should ask him yourself, if you still don’t trust him.” 

Marinette could feel M. Agreste’s glower through the phone. “Miss Dupain-Cheng. There is no other explanation I can think of for this. Golden Bug took a personal interest in you, and Adrien has, too. We both know the depth of his emotions, misplaced though they may be. They share the same sympathies, the same childish behavior, and now they share a ring. Your advice prompted our enemy to reveal himself: Adrien is Golden Bug.” 

“Okay, well, I still think you should ask him first,” Marinette countered, and her heart beat wildly as she spoke. “I don’t believe they’re the same person. Besides, we still don’t have proof that Golden Bug even has Grise’s Miraculous! We shouldn’t jump to conclusions.” 

There was silence on the other end of the line for a minute. 

Then Gabriel spoke. “You’re right, we need proof that they switched Miraculous. Fine! I will discover the truth some other way. Thank you for your honesty, Marinette. You may go back to whatever it is you were doing.” 

He hung up, and Marinette’s shoulders sagged in relief. 

She’d managed to make M. Agreste stop and think. But would it be enough to change his mind? She hoped it was; there was no way Adrien was Golden Bug! 

As if her thoughts had summoned it, Marinette’s phone buzzed with a text from Adrien that moment. Curious, she checked what it was and found that he’d sent her a cat meme, a sure sign that he was bored. 

Silly kitty, she responded to the text. Adrien sent a few cat emojis, and then a longer text. 

Father stuck me with a surprise photoshoot, it read. I’m bored out of my mind and they’re only on styling my hair.  

Marinette giggled, then sobered. Maybe this photoshoot was part of M. Agreste’s plan to find out whether Adrien and Golden Bug were the same person? Was he planning to send an akuma to see if Adrien would suddenly vanish from the set? 

Teen model problems strike again, she responded. Hang in there! I’ll make sure my parents save some extra pastries to give you on Monday to cheer you up.  

Adrien thanked her in his usual, dramatic fashion. She smiled at his effusive texts, happy that they were still such good friends. It meant he didn’t suspect her after the stunt she’d pulled as Bluewing the other day, and that even Dark Cupid couldn’t tear them apart. They were the best of friends, completely the opposite of her relationship with Golden Bug! It was more proof that Adrien was not Golden Bug, regardless of what his father thought. 

Marinette spent a half hour cleaning her room, a rare occasion that had been becoming more necessary each day. Her bad mood from earlier was still threatening to return, but the quick interaction with Adrien left her feeling better than she had all day. 

She just hoped M. Agreste wouldn’t do anything to spoil her afternoon. 

A few minutes later, she received another call from him. Sighing, she picked up, hoping that this time, he was just calling to say she was right and Adrien was not a traitorous enemy withholding a Miraculous from them. (Even if he was Golden Bug, Marinette found herself thinking, that wouldn’t make him a traitor. That particular label could only apply if he’d been told what his father was trying to do from the start and had pretended to side with him.) 

“I am going to send out an akuma shortly,” Gabriel brusquely told Marinette. “Conditions are ripe, and with any luck, we will soon have conclusive proof on whether or not Adrien is Golden Bug. That is what you wanted, correct?” 

Marinette nodded. “Yes. You have taken into account that Adrien is at a photoshoot right now, right? You know I don’t want any akumas to put him in danger.” 

Gabriel sighed. “Just transform, Miss Dupain-Cheng. I am aware of your sensitivities. Rest assured that I am taking the best course of action.” 

Marinette frowned. “Okay, sir. Which way should Bluewing head?” 

“Head towards the park. I haven’t yet akumatized anyone, but I will have my champion soon enough. Oh, and Marinette?” 

“Yes?” 

“Now that Duusu’s brooch is healed, I’m hoping you will take the next step to help me. There is no risk to doing it now, so I want you to create a sentimonster to help us win this fight. Without one, we may fail again, but with a sentimonster of our own, we shall achieve victory. You know what you must do, Bluewing. Do not let me down again.” 

“Sir,” Marinette shot back in a tight voice, “I told you before, I won’t create a senti. They’re not monsters; Adrien is proof enough of that! Whatever I create would have its own mind and life. But Golden Bug and Chat Grise wouldn’t know that; they’d find and break or control the amok, which would violate the senti’s rights. I know you don’t agree with me, but I do believe that creating a senti for the express purpose of battle would be a misuse of the Miraculous power. I will help with this akuma, but you know the boundaries I set. Don’t make me cross them!” 

Silent for a moment, M. Agreste let out a sigh. “Fine, ignore my advice. But I think you will soon agree with me that sentimonsters will be necessary for our victory.” 

As M. Agreste hung up, Marinette struggled to hold in a sigh. Why did he have to be so moody? She understood that his fear of Adrien being Golden Bug would affect his emotions, but that didn’t give him the right to try and force her to break her moral code. He needed to calm down and act reasonably. 

Besides, he was sending an akuma to the park? Plenty of Adrien’s photoshoots were done there. She could only hope the one he was in now was being shot somewhere else. 

Marinette climbed up to her loft, feeling disgruntled. 

“Duusu,” she called, leaning over her bed to gently poke them with a finger. “Duusu, wake up.” 

Duusu opened one violet eye and slowly rose up from the pillow, stretching and yawning. 

“Hello master,” they said. “What is it?” 

“Don’t call me master,” she reminded Duusu. “I’m just Marinette!” 

Duusu blinked. “Oh, right. You are a nice holder, then. But I don’t have many memories of you talking to me yet.” 

Marinette winced. “I wasn’t allowed to talk to you while your brooch was broken. M. Agreste was afraid of what you’d tell me while you were... um, not in your right mind. But now that you’re better, I hope we’ll become closer!” 

Duusu smiled. “I’d like that, ma—e Marinette! But I’m still not completely better; my memory is still fixing itself. Why did you wake me up?” 

“Ah! M. Agreste called and told me that he’s going to create another akuma. We’re going to need to transform and get out there to help him.” 

Duusu hesitated. “A champion? The Guardian must have seen great need to send out a call for Nooroo’s Miraculous to be put in play. Is there some kind of threat to Paris?” 

“Yes,” Marinette said. “But it’s not one recognized by the Guadian. He is the one who created it! This time, Hawk Moth and I are working to undo the harm caused by the Guardian’s rules. We’re doing it to save your old holders, like I saved you. But to do that, we need a Wish.” 

Duusu’s eyes widened. “What? No! Wishes are dangerous, Marinette! If you don’t know what you’re doing, then... bad things happen,” they said, staring off into the distance. “Bad, bad things!” 

Marinette frowned. “Worse will happen if we don’t make the Wish. Has the Guardian lied to you, too? I promise we’re doing what’s best for Paris.” 

But something about the words did not feel right to say.  

Marinette hesitated, then added, “Or at least I am. The last thing I want to do is cause more harm than has already been done to the world.” 

Duusu narrowed their eyes. “Okay, then. Maybe I forgot something else, and I just need to remember what happened. Should we go, then?” 

Marinette nodded. “Thank you for trusting me, Duusu. Spread my feathers!” 

As soon as her transformation ended, Bluewing headed out to the park. Along the way, she saw a horde of people carrying posters of Adrien from the perfume ad he’d recently starred in.  

“What are they doing?” she asked herself as she watched them run down a series of alleys, chasing each other and taking pictures or live streams of what was going on. 

Bluewing dropped down into the alley once they’d all passed through, only to meet a latecomer dressed up like Adrien. The similarities between them was so uncanny, it made her take a step back. 

“Bluewing! Did you see which way Adrien went?” the boy gushed, seemingly not at all concerned to have run into a person widely considered to be both evil and dangerous. 

Bluewing’s heart stopped. Was this the akuma? 

“Adrien? No, why? What happened?” 

The boy grinned. “He was doing an outdoor photoshoot, and then took a break! Now’s our chance to catch up to him and show some appreciation!” 

Bluewing scowled. “Is there an akuma?” she asked. “How did this chase get started?” 

Not-Adrien shrugged. “I don’t think so. No, there’s no akuma, it’s just the power of Adrien making us go crazy for him!”  

Bluewing watched in disgust as the boy ran off to catch up with the rest of the mob.  

“Worse than normal paparazzi,” she muttered.  

Pulling out her fan, she opened the screen in its base and briefly checked the news. No reports of an akuma so far. Good. That would have been her last straw with Gabriel, regardless of his concerns about Golden Bug! 

Left with a bit of time on her hands, Bluewing wondered whether she should try to make it to the head of the stampede, to rescue Adrien from his predicament. But maybe the akuma would show up soon, and then Hawk Moth would accuse her of ignoring her job and letting Golden Bug and Chat Grise win! 

While she hid in a corner to ponder this, another person stepped into the alley by Bluewing. Holding in a gasp, she peeked out to check who this was and how much of a threat they presented to Adrien. This person cast a long, thick shadow, and as they came into view, she could see their muscly build, broad shoulders, and... sideburns? 

There was no threat at all! This was the Gorilla, which meant that Adrien was just minutes away from being saved. 

Then Marinette saw the deep scowl on the Gorilla’s face, and heard the low growl emitting from his throat. He was not happy to have lost his charge again. 

And the akuma flapping around him proved it. 

Marinette pressed a hand over her mouth in shock as she saw the akuma wedge itself in between the Gorilla’s clenched fingers, melding with the phone inside his fist. A butterfly outline lit up around the Gorilla’s eyes, and he grunted, stopping his slow march and standing up straight. Raising his free hand, the Gorilla pressed it against his forehead, seemingly trying to resist the akuma’s influence

But Hawk Moth’s symbol stayed where it was, and though the Gorilla shook his head and gritted his teeth, his attempts to lose the akuma were weakening every second. 

Horrified, Marinette watched from the shadows as the Gorilla continued trying to fight off the akuma. He looked like he was in pain from the effort, and she was just about to risk revealing herself to help him break out of the akuma’s hold when the Gorilla suddenly stilled, his head bowed low. 

Then a purple light flared around him, rippling his appearance and distorting it. When it faded, Hawk Moth’s new akuma stood where Adrien’s bodyguard had. 

The Gorilla’s attempts to resist akumatization had failed. 

Bluewing struggled to accept what she was seeing as the new akuma stormed off, causing a path of destruction to follow him as he continued his search for Adrien. 

Hawk Moth had just akumatized someone against their will. More than that, he’d chosen Adrien’s own bodyguard to akumatize. He was putting Adrien at risk, and he knew it! He had to know it! 

Bluewing scowled and took off after Gorizilla. This little game of Gabriel’s was going too far. 

As she avoided the hordes of people screaming while they escaped the King Kong-ish akuma, Bluewing took out her earpiece and called Hawk Moth. 

“The akuma. You chose Adrien’s bodyguard?” she accused as soon as he picked up. “This can only put him in more danger. I warned you not to do that!” 

“On the contrary,” Hawk Moth responded smoothly. “By choosing Adrien’s bodyguard, I am simply making sure we know where Adrien is at all times. He slipped away too easily. Furthermore, he will not be in danger; this is his bodyguard. Gorizilla is the least likely person to hurt Adrien.” 

Bluewing growled. “You’d better be right. This akuma is putting you on thin ice, Hawk Moth. Be careful; I’m running out of reasons to trust you.” 

Hawk Moth scoffed. “I am the only one who’s bothered telling you the truth, Bluewing. I gave you the power to defend Adrien and you still don’t want to use it, so Gorizilla will keep Adrien safe for you. If you don’t trust me, blame no one but yourself! Now excuse me, I’m in the middle of business of the utmost importance.” 

He hung up. Bluewing launched herself after Gorizilla, feeling rage build in her veins as she saw that the akuma had caught up to Adrien during the call. He was wrapped in the akuma’s fist, struggling to free himself. 

And yet, he didn’t seem to be hurt. Bluewing stumbled to a halt when she noticed the gentle, but firm, hold which Gorizilla kept Adrien in. He was trapped, yes, but he seemed to be all right. 

The sound of a yo-yo zipped through the air, and Bluewing turned to face Golden Bug. 

A blue-armored hero with long, dark hair stood in his place. 

“Chat Grise,” Bluewing said in surprise. Had Golden Bug taken Marinette’s advice, then? 

“It’s Lady Steel,” her opponent snarled. “Tell the akuma to drop Adrien, now.”  

Bluewing frowned. “Believe me, I wish I could,” she said. “But I’m afraid the only way this particular akuma will leave him alone is if you give me your Miraculous; you and Golden Bug— er, Chat, both.” 

Lady Steel lowered herself into a threatening stance. “Not happening.” 

As she clashed with Lady Steel, Bluewing caught Gorizilla’s movement out of the corner of her eye. Civilians screamed and ran as he stomped across the city blocks, over to the Montparnasse tower. 

Then, he began climbing it, letting out a challenging roar once he reached the top. 

Is Hawk Moth insane? Bluewing wondered. As she faltered, Lady Steel delivered a combo of hits that left her on the ground, wheezing. Lady Steel swung away before Bluewing could get up. 

But she didn’t really want to. That would mean she’d have to return to ugly old reality, where Adrien was being dangled off the top of a skyscraper by Hawk Moth’s own akuma, his old bodyguard. 

Gabriel had sent another akuma after his son, and he’d done it on purpose, against the Gorilla’s will. She’d seen the mask appear over Gorizilla’s eyes before he climbed up the tower; she knew whose fault it was that Adrien’s life was in danger now. 

Hawk Moth was trying to get Adrien to transform, just to prove the theory that he was Golden Bug. And he had no problem with putting Adrien’s life in danger to do that. 

Bluewing pushed herself off the ground, energized by her rage. Hawk Moth was not thinking clearly, and he refused to listen to her, when she tried to force him to! He was out of control. 

Then again, now that the ‘heroes’ had traded Miraculous, she and Hawk Moth held the advantage. If she ignored Hawk Moth’s ploy, maybe Bluewing could defeat Lady Steel and Black Cat or whatever name Golden Bug would be going by when he showed up. If she played her cards right, then this nightmare could still end today! 

Marinette’s heart raced as she approached the Montparnasse, leaping onto its steep side from the nearest building and running up to the top at full speed.  

Pulling out her earpiece again, Bluewing popped it in and called Hawk Moth, determined to at least communicate her moves, so that they could coordinate better. She dodged Lady Steel’s yo-yo swipe, but hesitated to strike back. Where was Golden Bug? He should be here by now! 

The battle was just getting started, she reminded herself as Hawk Moth picked up. He’ll be here soon enough.  

“Bluewing. Why are you calling me again?” Hawk Moth asked. 

Bluewing lashed out at Lady Steel with her fan, aiming for her ears. Lady Steel fell back with a grunt, leaving Bluewing with a little room. 

“Just trying this thing called communication. Don’t know if you’ve heard of it. I’ll whisper my moves ahead of time so you know what I’m doing, that’s all.” 

“Acceptable, I suppose,” Hawk Moth said, and fell silent. 

For a few minutes, Bluewing, Lady Steel, and Gorizilla fought, the latter fighter inhibited by his need to keep holding Adrien. From the cage of Gorizilla’s fingers, Adrien yelled encouragement for Lady Steel and tried to distract Bluewing, which worked disappointingly well. 

Her advantage was rapidly disappearing, even with an akuma to back her up.   

The mask appeared over Gorizilla’s eyes again, and he grunted loudly at Bluewing. 

It was a message from Hawk Moth, and she knew what it meant. 

“Use your power. Create a sentimonster,” Hawk Moth hissed in her ear. “This fight must end soon!” 

Marinette had several issues with his demand, which she’d already told him. Even if she didn’t, she failed to see how a sentimonster would reduce, not increase, the amount of danger Adrien was in! 

“No,” she huffed out, lashing at Lady Steel, who caught the fan in her hand. 

“Catacly— wait.” 

Bluewing smirked and twisted out of Lady Steel’s grasp. 

“Care to try that again?” she taunted. “Maybe you’ll have better luck this time!” 

Bluewing groaned as Lady Steel’s eyes lit up. 

“Lucky Charm!” she called. 

“Ha. Better luck. Nice one,” Adrien said with a laugh, and then flinched as Gorizilla squeezed him tighter. 

A red and black-spotted flower fell into Lady Steel’s waiting hands. 

“A freesia?” she asked, bewildered. 

“Pity. I’m not even allergic!” Bluewing remarked as she kicked Lady Steel’s legs out from under her.  

Gorizilla brought his free fist down, and Lady Steel moved out of the way just in time. The tower shuddered, and Bluewing was fairly certain she heard shards of glass fall from the windows and hit the ground. 

Adrien cried out, and Bluewing and Gorizilla twisted to look at him. He didn’t seem hurt, but it was clear that he was afraid, despite the bravado he’d taunted Bluewing with. 

Gorizilla looked upset, and he began to open his fist. Was he letting Adrien go? 

Then Hawk Moth’s symbol flashed over Gorizilla’s face, and he grunted as, once again, he fought the akuma’s influence. 

“What are you doing?” Bluewing asked Hawk Moth over the earpiece.  

He didn’t answer, too busy talking to the akuma instead, and soon, just like last time, Gorizilla lost to the power of the Butterfly. Marinette watched as Gorizilla’s face smoothed out, becoming impassive and devoid of emotion as the akuma took over. 

He backed away from Lady Steel, who had used Bluewing’s distraction to sneak up on Gorizilla, and stood close to the tower’s edge, clutching Adrien tightly. 

“We still need proof,” Hawk Moth finally responded in a clipped tone. “Get Lady Steel’s Miraculous.” 

Bluewing obediently moved toward her opponent, pouncing on Lady Steel and falling to the floor with her. They rolled, fighting for dominance, and Bluewing guided their path away from the akuma. Lady Steel didn’t seem to mind that much; she seemed reluctant to risk running into Gorizilla and startling him into dropping Adrien over the edge. 

Bluewing pinned Lady Steel beneath her, ready to make her move for the Miraculous, but her position was too loose. Lady Steel took advantage of her mistake and kicked Bluewing off before throwing her yo-yo at her. Bluewing dodged, but the yo-yo wrapped around her arm, pulling her off balance. She wobbled on her feet, but quickly raised her arm and spun back out of the yo-yo's grip in time to meet Lady Steel’s lunge and keep fighting. 

“We do need a sentimonster,” Hawk Moth hissed insistently through the earpiece as Bluewing grappled with Lady Steel. “You know it’s the truth, even if you keep denying it. Well, soon you will see reason, and I will have my proof.” 

“Hold on— bit of a problem here,” Bluewing panted, aiming a kick at Lady Steel’s stomach. 

Lady Steel caught it with her hands, and shoved Bluewing back and off balance again. The two circled each other, waiting for the other to make a move first, when a sharp cry came from Adrien’s direction. 

Bluewing turned in time to see Gorizilla raise his fists up to his head, fighting a command from Hawk Moth once again. Lady Steel took advantage of her distraction to grab the base of Bluewing’s fan, but she couldn’t pull it out of Marinette’s tight grip.  

“Adrien,” Bluewing whispered, noting the precarious position he and Gorizilla were in.  

His former bodyguard was slipping back under the akuma’s control, lowering his hands from his head. Adrien, still held tightly in Gorizilla’s right hand, was now dangling directly over the edge of the skyscraper. His eyes widened as he stopped struggling to get free, looking down in fear as Gorizilla seemed to relax further.  

The purple akuma mask vanished as Gorizilla’s expression calmed, his shoulders falling in relaxation. Bluewing sighed in relief, glad that the situation was back under control. Beside her, Lady Steel let out a shaky exhale. But in front of them, Adrien shivered and closed his eyes. 

Gorizilla’s fist had stopped moving, but as Bluewing squinted in his direction, she thought she saw his fingers twitch. Lady Steel saw it, too, and she tugged harder of Bluewing’s fan before giving up and throwing a punch at her face. She wanted to get to Adrien, Bluewing could tell as she reflexively fought back. They both wanted to make sure he was safe. But Hawk Moth had chosen the Gorilla for a reason, right? Gorizilla was only keeping Adrien safe. 

Bluewing flipped backwards, out of Lady Steel’s range, momentarily losing sight of Adrien. When she straightened, she lunged towards Lady Steel, but she wasn’t looking. Her attention was on Gorizilla, instead, as his fingers loosened, one by one. 

Bluewing froze, unable to process what was happening, as Gorizilla dropped Adrien over the skyscraper’s edge. 

For a moment, Lady Steel and Bluewing both watched in horror. As Adrien disappeared from sight without even a scream, Bluewing felt like she’d been punched. The feeling rapidly worsened as what she’d just seen sunk in. 

Gorizilla dropped Adrien. He’s going to die, all because of an akuma Hawk Moth promised I could trust! And it was all after Gorizilla received a new command. 

Bluewing sank to her knees, feeling like she was going to throw up. How could M. Agreste do this? Hadn’t he claimed to be fighting for his son? Then why would he endanger his son like this? Just to find out whether he was Golden Bug or not? 

No! He wouldn’t! This had to be some kind of mistake.  

Maybe Gorizilla wasn’t supposed to drop Adrien; maybe he’d been trying to fight the real command and couldn’t and messed up and now Adrien was falling from the top of a skyscraper.  

While Bluewing fought off her despair and forced herself to stand up, ready to fight, Lady Steel let out a bellow of rage and charged toward the edge of the roof. She pulled out her yo-yo, readying it to save Adrien, and Gorizilla watched her closely as the mask reappeared around his eyes. 

Bluewing sighed in relief. Hawk Moth was probably ordering Gorizilla to let Lady Steel go! Now she could save Adrien. He was going to be okay! 

But just as Lady Steel swung her yo-yo out and leapt toward Adrien, Gorizilla reached out and caught her, wrapping her tightly in his fist as he glared first at her, then at Bluewing. 

A cry of despair tore from Bluewing’s throat, and Lady Steel screamed, kicking Gorizilla and fighting to free herself from his grasp. 

He only squeezed her tighter, pinning her arms down and restricting her movement further. 

As Bluewing watched, horrified, the akuma turned to look at her. Hawk Moth’s mask reappeared over his face, and he pointedly looked down, where Adrien was still falling, then at the fan Marinette was holding. The message was clear. 

You want to save him? Then make a sentimonster. Now.  

The mask vanished, replaced by Hawk Moth’s voice in her ear. “Do it.”  

Bluewing shuddered at the spiteful command. 

Adrien’s fall wasn’t a mistake. This was Gabriel’s twisted ploy, meant to force Adrien to transform if he was Golden Bug, and to force Bluewing to create a sentimonster to save him if he was not. 

Hawk Moth had done this on purpose. There couldn’t be much time left to save Adrien, and yet M. Agreste still prioritized controlling her (and Adrien’s own bodyguard) over letting Lady Steel save his son. 

Bluewing’s eyes filled with tears as she ran towards Gorizilla, pleading with broken half-words that made no sense and did nothing to change Adrien’s fate. Could Hawk Moth even hear her? He must see her through the akuma’s eyes, but he did nothing, just forced Gorizilla to keep holding hostage Adrien’s only hope for salvation. 

But something about the way Bluewing’s face twisted up as she begged Hawk Moth to change his mind must have affected Lady Steel, because she, too, was watching. And unlike Hawk Moth, she seemed to be listening. 

She struggled once more to get free, but only succeeded in freeing one arm. Looking at the Lucky Charm she’d summoned, which lay forgotten on the roof, Lady Steel then looked at her enemy. 

“Bluewing,” she rasped out, pinning Marinette with her gaze.  

And then, with the one hand she’d managed to free, Lady Steel tossed Bluewing her yo-yo. 

Marinette dropped her fan and caught the yo-yo on instinct, feeling confused but realizing the same thing Lady Steel had within seconds. 

Today, they shared the same enemy. Hawk Moth had gone too far, and now they fought to save the same boy. Lady Steel couldn’t do it herself, trapped as she was. But with the help of her yo-yo, Bluewing could.  

So before Gorizilla could react, she hooked the yo-yo's string around her finger, flung the yo-yo out and down, hooking it on some unseen anchor, and launched herself off the building. The earpiece connecting her to Hawk Moth’s outraged voice fell out as she leaped, dislodged by the force with which the yo-yo tugged her downwards. 

As Bluewing fell, travelling much more quickly than Adrien had, she caught sight of a distant crowd gathered on the road, and between her and them was Adrien. He’d twisted around at the sound of the yo-yo, and now he was looking up and Bluewing, eyes wide and full of a fearful kind of hope. 

Adrien opened his mouth to say something, but the wind tore it away from his lips before it could reach Bluewing’s ears fully-formed. 

They were close to the ground now, and getting closer. But before Bluewing saved herself, she needed to make sure Adrien would be safe, too. 

Bluewing fell farther, and the last few centimeters of separation between her and Adrien vanished. She quickly wrapped her arm around Adrien, pulling him close to her as she tossed her yo-yo out again, pulling them forward rather than down.  

Adrien buried his face in her neck, and she tested the elasticity of the yo-yo's pull, praying it would work to slow them down enough.  

They fell in an arc, passing over the confused, shouting crowd, heading for the next city block over. Again and again, Bluewing tossed out the yo-yo, each time gaining a little more control, slowing their descent even more while they travelled away from the last of the scattered crowd, until finally, she felt safe enough to slowly drop down to the ground, Adrien still tucked securely under her arm. 

Immediately, Bluewing pulled back from Adrien and began checking him over, gently touching the area under his arms to see if he’d been bruised when she grabbed him. He stood still and let her, looking down at her with an open yet unreadable expression.  

Bluewing let out a shaky sigh and pulled him down into a hug, cradling his head against her neck and tightening her fingers around his hair. He melted into her, wrapping his arms around her and squeezing like he never wanted to let go. A wet spot grew on Marinette’s shoulder, but she didn’t mind. It was proof that Adrien was still alive, that she’d saved him, that Hawk Moth had failed. 

Her heart broke at that thought, and she pressed herself closer to Adrien as tears of her own began to fall. 

Adrien had nearly died. He’d nearly been killed, and it was Hawk Moth’s fault; Hawk Moth’s plan!  

He’d lied to Bluewing. He’d promised that Gorizilla would keep Adrien safe, but that wasn’t true. Gabriel had chosen the Gorilla to make sure that his akuma caught Adrien, to keep tabs on him and make sure he couldn’t turn into Golden Bug (not that he was Golden Bug).  

Hawk Moth had tried to pressure Bluewing into creating a disposable sentibeing, and when that failed, he tried again to convince her by throwing Adrien from the top of a skyscraper, apparently to see if that would force Adrien to transform into Golden Bug, or at least convince Bluewing to create a senti to save him if he didn’t. 

What a mess.  

And how much more did Hawk Moth lie about? Marinette wondered as she forced herself to stop crying and focus on the situation she’d gotten herself into. 

Adrien had already stopped crying, and now he was the one cradling Bluewing, rubbing her back and humming softly in her ear.  

She didn’t deserve his comfort. 

“Adrien,” she choked out, pushing herself away from his embrace.  

She looked up at him, unsure what expression she’d find on his face. Whatever she’d thought it might be, it didn’t prepare for the soft, tender way Adrien was gazing down on her. A blush covered his cheeks, and Marinette realized that she could feel the strength of his emotions through the brooch on her chest if she concentrated. 

She’d never done that before. It felt good. 

Adrien’s emotions were as warm as his embrace had been, heating up her chest and filling it with a wave as deep as the ocean. Bluewing closed her eyes, thrilling at the sensation of it, feeling trust and happiness and love radiate from Adrien. It was soothing and addicting and the most confusing thing that she’d ever known. 

“You should hate me,” she whispered, opening her eyes to find that she was cradling Adrien’s hand to her chest. 

The shocked ‘O’ of his mouth was curving into a smile as he looked down at it. 

“You saved me,” he whispered. His voice was hushed, almost awed.  

Marinette was happy that she could still hear it. She was happy she’d saved him.  

She was very confused as to how a boy who’d seen her as a villain for so long, even after she tried explaining herself, could suddenly trust her now. Could love her. Was this just Adrien’s emotions for Marinette coming through the brooch? 

They were deeper than she’d ever dreamed. 

“I had to,” she whispered in return. Bluewing let go of Adrien’s hand, letting it drop back to his side. “And you have to go. He’ll be looking for you. Stay safe, away from the battle.” 

“Ma— Bluewing, what are you doing?” Adrien asked, and Bluewing felt a ripple of fear and confusion come through the brooch. 

“I don’t want to leave you, believe me. But I couldn’t stand it if I let you get hurt! I lo— I mean,” she stuttered, feeling a blush stain her own cheeks red. “I care about you. I’m glad you’re all right. But now, you have to stay away from Gorizilla. I don’t want Hawk Moth to hurt you,” she pleaded. 

Adrien looked down at her for a second, his confusion receding, his fear gone. 

Then he pulled her into a short hug, turning to press a kiss to her cheek. “Thank you,” he murmured, sending shivers down Marinette’s spine. “I’m glad you did the right thing.” 

She swallowed as Adrien stepped back. “I’m sorry it took so long.” 

Bluewing watched as Adrien turned to go, before turning to face her again.  

Hesitantly, he asked, “Is Hawk Moth going to be mad at you for this?” 

Dread shot through Marinette. “Yes,” she said. “He will be.” 

“Are you going to leave him? Will you join Golden Bug and Chat Grise?”  

Marinette hesitated. “You need to go, Adrien. There’s still an akuma, you know.” 

Adrien frowned, and his stubborn behavior sent its echo through her brooch. 

“But you will, right? You know the truth now.” 

Bluewing felt tears prick her eyes again. “Just go, Adrien. I don’t know what to do.” 

Adrien offered a small smile to her as he began to leave. “You will, Bluewing. I know you’ll do the right thing!” 

Bluewing felt his assurance, his trust, through the brooch, and a small smile of her own curved her lips. 

Maybe she would be able to live up to Adrien’s hopeful expectation. But as it turned out, she never had before. 

As Bluewing stood there, considering, the yo-yo Lady Steel had lent her vanished from her hand. She'd had to detransform, then.

I hope she’s safe, Marinette thought, heading off to find a safe spot of her own to detransform. I hope they’re all safe. Especially Adrien.  

It had taken a while, but now, she understood why she’d been so devastated by Hawk Moth’s attack on him. Any person being put in danger like that would have upset her, but Adrien... 

What she’d felt from him through the brooch wasn’t all that different from what she felt for him. Wasn’t that odd? She’d spent all this time worried about her crush on Golden Bug, and here she was in love with Adrien! 

But it didn’t matter now; Bluewing realized that there was a far more important matter to take care of. Gabriel Agreste was not the man she’d once thought he was. He’d called Adrien a traitor with no proof, only baseless suspicions; he was willing to risk killing his son just to prove he was Golden Bug— and he’d lied to Marinette to get her to go along with his plan! He was manipulating her; how much, she didn’t know, but it was obvious that he’d lied about more than just Gorizilla protecting Adrien. 

After all, he’d lied about asking for permission to akumatize people. A months-old baby giving informed consent to terrorize Paris? Adrien was right, that was ridiculous! 

Hawk Moth had deceived her. 

The Guardian. The Wish. How much more had he lied to her about? What about Nathalie; had she quit, or was she fired? 

What if he’d killed her? 

Marinette’s heart raced as she ducked into a hidden alcove and released her transformation. 

“Duusu,” she said, her voice shaking.  

“Yes, Marinette?” 

Marinette swallowed and looked up, meeting the kwami’s eyes with a determined expression. 

“We need to talk.” 

[rosekasa]

“I was going for the cheek/forehead and I missed 😳” kiss for any side of the square ❤️

AHHH ANON THANK U!!!

92. “I was going for the cheek/forehead and I missed 😳” kiss - from this amazing list by @kisspromptsforthelovesquare !

Ladybug hates Hawk Moth for a lot of reasons. But interrupting the first date she's had with her boyfriend after his month away in Verona truly takes the cake.

Coming to a halt at Champs de Mars, she sets Adrien down on his feet. The power still hasn't come back on after the attack; the safety announcement hasn't been broadcasted yet, and no one has been brave enough to come back out and return to their picnic blankets.

"Thanks, Ladybug." He dusts himself off once he's out of her arms. Despite being cornered in an alleyway for two hours, he still looks gorgeous -- brand new white shirt perfectly pressed, not a strand of hair out of place. "You really didn't have to trouble yourself, though. I could've just walked."

She knows that very well -- but she wasn't about to let Hawk Moth win. He can interrupt all her dates as much as he wants, but he cannot stop her from exercising her God-given right of enjoying how attractive her boyfriend is up-close and personal.

"What are superheroes for?" she says with a smile. "I mean, I know Chat Noir is your favourite, but unfortunately you were stuck with me today."

He laughs awkwardly. "Chat Noir? My favourite?" he says. "I'd like to have a word with some of your sources. I've been a Ladybug fanboy since day one."

She rolls her eyes. "Your flirting is even as bad as his."

"You should meet my girlfriend. No one thinks my flirting is as bad as she does."

She can't help but laugh. Of course he wears that like a badge of pride. The thing he'd lamented the most while in Verona was how text messages 'didn't do justice' to his awful lines.

"Maybe you should follow her example more often and I won't have to save you from akumas all the time," she says.

He smiles. "But it's always nice to see an old friend."

She goes in for a casual, habitual side-hug. As if he's just a regular-schmegular civilian she's been saving for months and not the guy she was close to building a shrine for to get him to come back to Paris early.

Just as they begin to pull away, Ladybug leans in and presses a polite kiss to his cheek.

Except Adrien, about to say something, turns his head at the last second, and her lips land squarely on his.

They both freeze.

A beat passes, then two. He hasn't moved yet. Neither has she. One of them probably should, though.

But also... she hasn't kissed Adrien in a very long time.

No. Maybe enjoying how attractive her boyfriend is is her God-given right, but Hawk Moth would definitely have a field day if he found out Ladybug was kissing supermodel Adrien Agreste while his girlfriend was nowhere to be found after an akuma attack.

She leaps back, lips smarting. "I am so sorry."

He blinks a few times, as if she'd just hit him with her yo-yo. "No, I mean-- it's fine."

She opens her mouth to speak. Before she can, he reaches up and wipes a thumb over his chin. Pink gloss comes off. He looks at her, nonplussed. Blush shoots up to her hairline.

"You're not wearing your passion fruit lip balm?" he asks.

Silence passes over them for many seconds.

"...What?" she says.

He rubs his fingers together, pouting. "This is sparkly," he says, as if that's any kind of explanation.

"...What?"

He looks up, and his expression shifts. "Do you not... know?"

Eyes wide, she shakes her head.

More silence ensues.

"...How?" he finally says.

She stares at him. "What do you mean, 'how'?"

"I've seen you de-transform before almost every single one of our dates," he says. "You got to the airport five minutes after class ended to see me off. I thought you wanted me to know you were Ladybug."

Before, at least, she might've been able to convince herself they were talking about different things. Not after that.

"But you-- you said I'm an old friend!" she says. "You referred to your girlfriend!"

"I thought we were doing a bit!"

She sighs deeply, scrubbing her hands down her face. This is Hawk Moth's fault. She doesn't know how, but it is.

"Why were you shocked when I kissed you?" she asks quietly.

His face turns sheepish. He rubs the back of his neck, looking at the grass.

"I missed you," he says. "We haven't kissed in a long time."

Ladybug's heart leaps in her ribcage. No, she's not giving Hawk Moth credit for this.

Flying forward, she wraps her arms around him and brings her mouth to his, kissing him entirely on purpose.

The power comes back on after two minutes. While she's not sure about Hawk Moth, Twitter, at least, certainly has a field day.

[eksvaized]

[ Previous ┃ Next ] [ All In One ] part 13, MDNI

Over the course of two gruelling, intense days, Simon teaches you how to use a pistol. Each morning, while the first rays of the sun are just beginning to kiss the horizon, you and he would rouse yourselves from sleep and make the short trek to a nearby neighbourhood. He deems the backyard of your house not an appropriate location for your makeshift shooting range. The loud gunshots, combined with all the noise you and he makes, draw the attention of the dead. More often than not, your rigorous training sessions are abruptly interrupted. You are forced to desert the front yard of yet another desolate home since the biters, lured to the clamour like moths to a flame, start circling you.

Simon also takes it upon himself to provide some rudimentary hand-to-hand combat drills, teaching you a selection of basic yet effective moves to defend yourself should you end up in a situation where you need to spar with someone. His goal is to equip you with enough skills to protect yourself.

Despite being a novice, you surprise yourself with your shooting skills. The accuracy you show is staggering, like a seasoned marksman honed by years of experience. You manage to hit nearly every target that is placed in your line of sight. Each bullet finds its mark with the precision of a hawk swooping down on its prey. Yet, when it comes to sparring with Simon, success eludes you. No matter how hard you try to win, wrestling with Simon is like trying to overpower a mountain. Every practice session, without fail, ends with you pinned to the ground, gasping for breath like a fish out of water, defeated and humbled; Simon looms over you, a smirk spread wide across his face.

On the morning of your departure, you both wake up at dawn. The tension of the upcoming journey is palpable. Simon decides against bringing his duffel bag. Instead, he fills your backpack with essentials: food, several water bottles, and other useful items he thinks might come in handy.

The first day unfolds like a calm before the storm, unremarkable and serene. It's filled with endless hours of walking under the all-seeing gaze of Simon, who urges you onward like a relentless drumbeat. Throughout the initial day, you are fortunate enough to avoid any encounters with the dead. As the sun begins to set and the darkness cloaks the world in its inky shroud, you and Simon find a secure and suitable place to rest for the night, a small respite from the looming threats outside. Simon is firm in his stand against exploring the shadowy, dangerous streets in the dark, citing the increased risk of encountering biters. He believes in preserving strength and avoiding unnecessary battles that could lead to dire consequences. But, by the third day, the circumstances around you shift as dramatically as a calm sea turning into a tempest. The dangers you could once sidestep now stand defiantly in your path, leaving you with no choice but to engage in a fight...

With each step you take, your feet seem to drag reluctantly against the rough, uneven ground beneath you. You find your gaze fixated on the concrete, unable to muster the energy to lift your eyes and take in your surroundings. Exhaustion is seeping into your bones, making your every movement feel heavy and laborious. The muscles in your legs scream out in protest, begging you for a moment of respite, for a chance to rest, if only for a short while. However, Simon is insistent on pressing ahead, urging you both to cover just a little more ground before you allow yourselves to stop.

The sun has already set, casting long, dark shadows across the small town that you find yourselves in the centre of. The pressing need to find shelter for the night has driven both of you into this unfamiliar territory. Yet, despite your best efforts, neither of you managed to spot anything that looked safe enough to provide refuge for the night. Every potential haven seems to be fraught with danger or uncertainty, making the task all the more daunting. Tired and on the brink of despair, you suggest to Simon that perhaps you should simply settle in a random house or the smallest shop and clear out any biters that might be lurking within. Rather than continuing your fruitless search, it would make more sense to fortify a chosen spot, but Simon merely shakes his head in response. His determination is unwavering, and so you continue on, hoping that safety lies just around the corner.

Suddenly, like a snake striking its prey, Simon's iron-strong grip seizes your arm. He yanks you down with brute force, forcing you to dive behind the rusted car. Your body crashes into the unforgiving concrete, the shock reverberating through your bones. You are bewildered, your eyes darting to Simon, desperate for an explanation for the sudden chaos. However, before you can formulate a question, Simon presses his index finger to your lips. He gives his head a vigorous shake, his eyes wide with a fear that mirrors your own, and gestures for you to cast your gaze towards the other side of the desolate road.

At that moment, a weight of dread, as heavy as an anchor, pulls your heart into the pit of your stomach, making it feel as though it has descended to your knees. A cold sweat, chilling in its suddenness, breaks out on your brow, a tangible manifestation of your terror. A swarm of the dead, their groans echoing eerily in silence, is steadily advancing in your direction.

Simon, normally so composed, appears to be as horrified as you are. His face is ashen, his eyes wide with the same primal fear that has seized you. Yet, while you are rooted in place by your terror, he is already springing into action. He scans the surroundings, his mind working in overdrive as he attempts to devise a strategy to extricate both of you from this deadly trap.

"Do you see that tiny shop just across the street?" Simon speaks into your ear. You give a slight nod. "We need to run. As quickly and quietly as we can. If we're lucky, we'll sneak in before the biters notice us. Once inside, we'll lay low and wait for them to pass. Wait—take this," he rummages through the backpack that's slung over his shoulder and pulls out a black pistol. "Don't lose it. And don't shoot unless it's absolutely necessary."

You nod again. You understand the gravity of the situation, yet fear has frozen you in place, like a deer caught in the glaring headlights. Seeing no other option, Simon takes the lead and pulls you along with him.

As you begin to sprint, your heart hammers against your chest, its pounding rhythm echoing the surge of adrenaline that courses through your veins like a rushing river. Simon releases your arm, but remains close behind, a steadfast shadow in your peripheral vision. Your eyes remain fixated on the shop as you force your mind to block out the ominous thuds of nearing footsteps and the chilling groans of the dead. A quick, terror-laden glance over your shoulder confirms that the biters have yet to notice you. But just as you lurch forward again, the pistol Simon gave to you slips from your clammy, trembling palm. It clatters onto the concrete, sliding a few feet away like a discarded toy.

You skid to a halt, your eyes darting around in panic. The horde is getting too close for your comfort, raising the hairs on the back of your neck. But you can't just leave the pistol behind; Simon has made it clear you need to keep it safe.

"Damn it." Taking a deep, shaky breath, you spin around and dash towards the fallen gun.

You pick it up. But before you can dash back, you get caught. A dead man's fingers coil around your arm, drawing you into his deathly embrace. He growls into your face, his breath reeking of decay. You choke down a scream, swallowing it like a bitter pill as you kick at him. Your foot connecting with the hollow thud of his flesh. But once you dodge him, two others approach with unsteady, lumbering steps. Panic seizes you, hot and overwhelming, and this time you can't contain the frantic whimper that rises in your throat. You want to shoot them, to defend yourself and drive them back, but when you lift your hand, the pistol slides out of your trembling grip again, clattering to the ground.

Another scream, louder this time and laced with pleading, eludes you when another cold, lifeless hand grabs your shoulder. The horde, who were previously as scattered as leaves in the wind, suddenly converges, their focus sharpening on you like a hawk zeroing in on its prey. They close in, their menacing presence growing, looming over you like an ominous storm cloud getting closer and closer. Your body is teetering on the brink of collapsing. You draw out a knife from your belt, but it does little good, and eventually gets stuck in the skull of a biter, who attempts to bite your leg.

The shattering roar of a gun firing punctuates the air, a thunderclap that sends a frigid chill coursing through your veins. The scent of freshly spent gunpowder, pungent and dizzying, invades your nostrils - a harsh, metallic perfume that fills your senses until it's all you can perceive. Four bullets. That's how many it takes for Simon to close the distance between you two. With each gunshot, he moves closer, until finally, you are within arm's reach. He grabs your hand and hauls you after him. There's a certain desperation in the way he grasps your fingers — he is terrified of losing you again.

In a swift and forceful push, Simon thrusts you into the shop. He barricades the entrance and then makes you both advance further inside the building. The noise of the horde outside is deafening. Fear is paralysing you, but Simon's presence acts as a grounding force. Eventually, the pair of you stumble upon a dark, desolate room, a stark contrast to the pandemonium just on the other side of the wall. You both stagger in and, after ensuring the door is securely closed, collapse onto the ground, gasping for air amidst the adrenaline rush.

Simon shatters the silence, his voice a ghostly whisper that dances above the echoes of your laboured breaths. Yet, beneath his hushed tone, a current of anxiety rushes. "What the hell happened?"

"I went back for the pistol," you say, the words leaving a bitter taste on your tongue as the harsh reality of your reckless actions unfurls before you. You risked your life, throwing yourself into the jaws of danger for a mere gun.

Simon's eyes widen in shock, his mouth falling open in disbelief. It appears as if he's teetering on the edge of harsh reprimand, but he ultimately seals his lips and rubs his face in frustration. He recognises the remorse etched across your face and understands that you're already punishing yourself for your impulsive decisions, absolving him of the need to add to your self-inflicted guilt.

"We escaped the biters this time. So, all's well that ends well, isn't it?" He murmurs, stepping close to you. The relief of your shared survival is as palpable as the thick, humid air before a storm. Taking a deep breath, he leans in, pressing his lips softly against yours.

After the short kiss ends, he retreats to the shadowy corner of the room, sinking onto the floor and leaning his back against the wall. He pulls the backpack onto his lap, his fingers deftly working the zipper open before he starts rummaging through its contents. The soft rustling sounds fill the otherwise quiet space.

Feeling a sudden need for some space, you move to the opposite side of the room. You need a moment alone to collect your scattered thoughts and calm your racing heart. The room, as if mirroring your emotions, seems to shrink, its walls inching closer. Curling into yourself, you hug your knees, pulling them to your chest. For a long time, neither of you speak. The silence is thick, and heavy with the unspoken words and emotions that hang in the air. You're both still trying to process what has just transpired, the danger you faced together.

The persistent throbbing in your shoulder is becoming increasingly unbearable. You've been trying to suppress the pain, hoping it would fade away. However, as you glide your fingers over the skin in a futile attempt to massage it, you feel a sticky substance coating your fingertips. When you bring your hand into the dim light, you're taken aback by the sight of your blood. An icy shiver, far colder than any winter breeze, ran down the length of your spine, inducing a sense of dread deep within you.

Simon doesn't seem to notice your fiddling. His focus is on his hands, which are working to revive the flashlight that seems to have run out of batteries. While he's preoccupied, you seize the opportunity to further inspect your wound without drawing too much attention to yourself. Squinting through the darkness, you make a chilling discovery - you have been bitten. It wasn't the fingers that wrapped around your shoulder, but the teeth.

You know, you must tell Simon about the bite. However, the words feel like jagged stones lodged in your throat. All you manage to utter is, "I think we should go home. It's far too dangerous. We're chasing shadows... my brother may not even be alive. I don't want to go looking for him anymore."

It kills you to say this. But the bleak reality stands before you like a grim reaper, its chilling presence whispering that the sickness will seize your life in mere days. The last thing you want is for Simon to risk his life for you. You are a walking time bomb, and you can't let Simon be caught in the eventual explosion.

"What?!" Simon's voice reverberates like a shockwave, echoing his disbelief as he struggles to comprehend your words. "We can't turn back now. Not when we've come this far," he says, his voice a symphony of emotional turmoil. "I know you're scared, but we... I... We're against the clock here, and we've already walked more than half the distance."

You stay silent. Your hand is still clutching your shoulder. You know that without a solid reason, Simon will not turn and go back. But you can't admit to him that you are dying. Because the moment you utter the words, the moment you confess to having been bitten, it becomes your reality—an irrevocable truth that can never be unsaid.

TAG LIST: @randointhecloset, @lurkinwbreexy, @breadpitt69 , @browtfyoudoing , @yelenassafeplace, @itsthealice, @naxxsstuff, @lotionlamp If you want to be added, let me know!

[nobodyfamousposts]

More Norm Antics

Just a reminder that I am horrible and this is pretty much crack and to not be taken seriously.

“I wish Marinette was evil!”

“Uh…you suuuure you wanna wish for that?”

“YES!”

“It is the first year of Her Most Imperial, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, in her successful takeover of the world—with fashion!”

Nadja Chamack sounded strangely unconcerned with the news she was announcing, smiling cheerfully from the TV acting as the sole source of light and sound in Lila’s underground bunker.

Lila didn’t care about her. She was more concerned with the images behind the anchorwoman, which were apparently of Marinette’s coronation as Empress of the World and her giving a speech to the crowd.

And by “concerned”, what was really meant was “completely enraged”.

“WHAT THE HELL, NORM?!”

“Whaaaaaaat?” The genie whined. “She’s evil, isn’t she?”

“I didn’t mean for her to be a ‘Villain With Good Publicity’!” Lila shouted.

“You might want to keep it down. Don’t want people outside the bunker to hear you, after all. Calm your tush and all that.”

“I AM CALM! What I want are ANSWERS!”

He sighed, annoyed. “The wish was for her to be evil, and you can’t get more evil than politics.”

“So why is SHE queen of the world while I’M hiding in a bunker?” She demanded.

He stared back blankly.

“Uh…you want a list?”

Seeing she was about to blow her top and likely get them both caught by her screaming, Norm sighed again before proofing a script into hand, then putting on glasses and reading from the script.

“Apparently since she’s always been evil, she took over her lycée class and soon enough the school. Chloe Bourgeois has been a non-issue since her dad lost his reelection campaign and was quickly revealed for fraud and embezzlement, so the former ’Princess’ became a ‘Pauper’. Then Marinette turned Paris into the central fashion capital of the world—or at least more than it already apparently was in this universe. And once her parents sent her off to Dictator School, she graduated early and took over the world to enforce universal fashion sense with an iron fist.”

Lila gaped.

“You can’t be serious!”

Dictator School? Since when was there even a thing? Why hadn’t she known about it sooner?

“As her first decree,” Nadja continued from the television, regaining their attention. “Hawk Moth and all his allies shall be taken into custody and executed for their crimes.”

Both girl and genie stared at the screen.

“This can’t be happening!” Lila exclaimed. “There’s no way they can know I was involved!”

But sure enough, Lila’s photograph and name appeared on the screen.

“If you or anyone you know has any information on the criminal, please contact local law enforcement.” Nadja continued darkly.

Norm blinked.

“You sided with that fruitcake?”

This was bad! This was horrible! The absolute worst!

Lila took a deep breath to calm herself.

“No! No wait! It’s okay! This is fine!” Lila insisted, starting to smirk. “Ladybug’s a goody goody! There’s no way she would just sit by and let Marinette take over the world. No doubt Ladybug will do her ‘hero’ thing and stop Marinette. And since this is my wish, she won’t even know that this isn’t the real Marinette so she’ll be the one in trouble. Or better yet, they’ll destroy each other. Either way, the problem will be solved, so I still win!”

“Next segment will show Her Most Imperial coronate the Miraculous Protectors. People the Imperial has chosen to defend her empire and the world.”

Miraculous? No. No way. There was no way Marinette would have the Miraculous!

But sure enough, an image on the screen appeared of several of the classmates being bequeathed with titles and…were those really the Miraculous?

“How did she get those?!” Lila demanded.

Had she defeated Ladybug?

But then that meant she was right and Ladybug was probably dead or imprisoned so yay there, but it also meant now Marinette had all of the Miraculous and all the power and there would be no one to protect Lila from her!

No, no wait. There was Ladybug on screen. Appearing quite quite well and vexingly alive.

This was the absolute worst! Marinette had everything! The Miraculous! The entire WORLD in her hands! Even Adrien, as he has been presented on screen earlier at Marinette’s side as an official Consort of all things! Appearing quite happily so, for someone being bound to a tyrant.

And most infuriatingly, she couldn’t even have the small satisfaction of Ladybug’s defeat to make this situation at least a little better, as rather than cowering in defeat, it seemed that Ladybug had joined the regime as she stood at the head of the group, giving a speech to the masses.

“—I will do my utmost to find and eliminate the last of the criminals that sought to do harm to the city of Paris and the world!”

The crowd erupted in cheers and a few calls to “burn the witch!”

Lila gaped at the screen

“Sooo….no Ladybug fix then?” Norm asked.

She stared, unmoving.

“Also…not sure how to tell you this, but your bunker isn’t well stocked and you’re out of hot water for showers.” Norm added, scrubbing his back with a bath brush.

Lila twitched.

________________

“Okay, this time it’s bound to work!”

“Uh. Maybe you should stop making wishes about the pig-tailed girl?”

“No! I just need her to do something evil but not world-dominatingly evil for others to see and despise her for! So just take away any restraint and make her horrible!”

“Okay.”

Lila found herself cowering in a bathroom.

Marinette’s voice sweetly came from the other side of the locked door.

“Open the door, Lila~!”

“N-no!”

“YOU LOCKING DOORS, LILA?!”

An axe started slamming into the door.

“YOU LOCKING DOORS?!”

Lila screamed.

She had thought that wishing Marinette to be horrible would cause her to act out more blatantly against Lila and lead everyone to turn against her. She hadn’t thought that it would make her go full blown murder!

It was like something out of some old horror movie.

As if to further illustrate that point, Norm poofed in. Holding a carton of movie theater popcorn and wearing 3-D glasses.

“Wow, the 3-D effect really makes it look real.”

“That’s because it IS real!” Lila hissed at him, barely able to be heard over the sound of the axe being slammed into the door. “Now undo it!”

“You sure? I mean, at least this way everyone will know she’s evil. Once they find your body, of course.”

IF they found her body went unsaid.

“There’s no point in everyone knowing she’s horrible if I’m dead!” She snapped. “UNDO IT!”

Norm shrugged and snapped his fingers.

[flightfoot]

Adrien Angst Fics and Series that finished in 2023

So I love some good Adrien angst and hurt/comfort, and I figure a bunch of other people do as well! Hopefully these fics scratch that itch! They're all from the collection I set up earlier for the fics from 2023 that I recommend! I've got 31 fics in here. It's a popular genre that I like a lot, there are a lot of fics for it!

home is where the fight is by @rosie-b

Nadja Chamack’s voice greeted Adrien as he sat up straight, wiping his clammy hands on his pants and ignoring the black kwami floating by his shoulder. “—shocked to see our heroine fall in battle today, taking a direct hit from the akuma just as she detransformed. Parisians are torn between blaming Hawk Moth and Cat Walker for their roles in this tragedy, which ultimately revealed the civilian identity of Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” Adrien turned off the TV and lowered his head as his vision blurred. Written for Ladrien June Day 7: Injured

I adore this fic! Which shouldn’t be a a surprise, it’s no secret that I love Sentiadrien Enemies AU. Adrien’s so worried about Marinette getting hurt, and wishes that he could help keep her safer, could tell her what’s really going on or get rid of the ring or something, but he can’t. Still, he IS able to find clever ways around some of his father’s more problematic orders. Loopholes for the win!

---

Guilty by Association by @rosie-b

Marinette respected Adrien’s strength and courage more and more every day. No matter how many times people threw nasty words or literal tomatoes at him; no matter how many companies refused to work with him anymore; no matter how clear it was becoming that he would never be forgiven for his father’s crimes, he chose to greet new people with a smile and hope that this time, someone would recognize the kind heart hidden behind his hated name. She wished she’d had the chance to meet him before she’d accidentally ruined his life. Written for the Ml Writers Guild September event ‘back to school’

I love how Marinette keeps reaching out to Adrien, trying to protect him, even if it doesn’t always work. To let him know that she’s in his corner at least. Hawk Moth had to be taken down, but the consequences for Adrien… she never wanted anyone to get hurt in the process. 

---

oh, look now, there you go with hope again by @ladyofthenoodle

After the defeat of Hawkmoth and his accomplice, Chat Noir, Marinette is ready to return to her normal life, but she can’t escape Adrien Agreste, who was sentenced to a fate many consider worse than prison: public school. Specifically, her public school. Still, that doesn’t mean she has to interact with him, does it? Except, if she doesn’t… who will?

I love a good enemies au, and seeing the aftermath of an enemies au… that’s rare. She’s wary of Adrien, but with how he’s being bullied, and how he’s just taking it in the hopes of being accepted, she can’t help but reach out to him.

---

Disintegrated Pancakes by @scribeofrhapsody

Adrien had started expecting the family breakfasts. He had NOT been expecting his father to collapse in the middle of one.

I’m shocked I haven’t seen more of this sort of thing, with Adrien finding out his father’s Monarch via seeing the Cataclysm wound. I love that Alya gets involved in this, being the person Adrien runs into after fleeing the room, and then Adrien getting to talk things out with Gabriel and Nathalie. Thankfully Gabriel is at least not completely incapable of being reasoned with here, or things could have gone worse than they did. It’s a nice little read, though with an ambiguous ending (at least at the time when I write this).

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with this ring by @thelibraryloser

She thought “you and me against the world” had sounded like lopsided odds before, when she hadn’t even dreamed “you against me” was a possibility. Or maybe she had dreamed it, but at least in those dreams he’d had cold blue eyes and a stark white mask. The villain she’d fought today had looked at her through her partner’s own bright green eyes. It wasn’t meant to be this way.

Short and sweet Sentiadrien enemies canon divergence fic here! I adored Marinette finding out why her kitty seemed to have “betrayed” her, and the righteous anger on his behalf once she figured out that it wasn’t of his own free will. Her comforting Adrien about it was just… really good. It’s a Hawkmoth Defeat fic too, so the immediate aftermath gets covered as well. Adrien needs a hug.

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Nothing Else Matters by LiquefiedStars

Marinette couldn’t figure out Chat Noir. He was supposed to be her partner, but instead ended up working for Hawk Moth. Still, her heart betrayed her and when a strong connection forms between them, Ladybug goes to Chat looking for answers, finding out more than she bargained for.

Sentiadrien enemies AU fic! He never wanted to fight against her, but Gabriel caught him before he could transform for the first time, and with his father using his Amoks against him, he had no choice. 

I like that there’s a solid explanation for why Fu let Adrien keep his Miraculous even though he’s been working against Ladybug, I don’t often see explanations for that that I’m satisfied with.

---

Slowly Fading (from my misery) by @wehadabondingmoment

“You’re looking awfully deep in thought today, minou.” Ladybug’s gloved hand stroked over his hair and Chat Noir closed his eyes with an unstable breath. He got like this sometimes. Lately, it had been getting worse. Or: Gabriel likes using the rings to order his son around. After a while, it starts having effects on Chat Noir as well. (The more often Gabriel commands Adrien to act a certain way, the more it gets ingrained in his mentality. He suffers because of it.)

This is a gorgeous fic. Adrien’s been puppeted around, forced to obey orders for reasons he doesn’t understand, for so long, so often that a lot of times his own body doesn’t even feel like his. A lot of residual orders keep on bubbling up and stopping him from doing what he wants to do, and he just… doesn’t understand why. Considering how Adrien looked in Pretension when Gabriel forced him to go to his room so he could talk to Marinette alone, and how desperately Adrien tried to head back there but couldn’t make himself open the door, how terrified and confused he’d seemed, I think his feelings here, his mindset, is pretty close to canon.

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all of your flaws and all of my flaws (are laid out one-by-one) by @coffeebanana

Ladybug and Marinette have both been acting strangely since Monarch’s defeat, and Chat Noir would give anything to know why—to be able to help them. He just…didn’t expect his answers to come when Ladybug drags him to his father’s statue in the middle of the night along with a bag full of spray paint.

If you felt unsatisfied with Adrien being left in the dark about Monarch, with Ladybug lying about Gabriel being a hero, this is a great fic to read. Marinette’s breaking down keeping this secret, seeing people treat Gabriel as the hero she told people he was, until she finally snaps and has to do SOMETHING, has to tell SOMEONE the truth. 

Which Chat takes pretty well! He knows how persuasive his father could be, and he’s mostly just relieved at finally hearing someone say that Gabriel wasn’t a hero. It’s still a lot to cope with though.

---

Falling (sick) with you by @chocoluckchipz

Nothing would be easier than taking a pair of earrings off an unconscious Ladybug. Doing so would bring his mother back and end their decade-long strife. He shouldn’t be hesitating when a chance of a life time presented itself to him. He should not be looking for excuses and reasonings as to why spending another twenty or so years fighting this woman rather than pleasing his father and giving his mother another chance at life was not such a bad idea after all.

Ah, I love a good enemies au! Even when they’re enemies, Chat is unwilling to hurt Ladybug. Though honestly, he makes himself out to be more of a villain than he actually is, it’s pretty obvious to everyone that he’s not trying as hard as he could to get her earrings. There’s very good reason for that.

---

adrien agreste and the consequences of tweets making fun of yourself by Anonymous

Well, Adrien thinks, what’s the worst that could come from a few poorly thought-out tweets lightly ribbing his own civilian identity?

I love the focus here on how people just assume what Adrien’s thinking and feeling and act on his behalf, without actually waiting to see what HE wants, and Adrien’s growing frustration. How they create a version of him in their heads, but don’t care to check with reality to see whether he actually wants their “defense”. 

---

what makes a human (am I?) by GraceM_TheStoriedLife

Adrien comes to Marinette’s out of nowhere. Usually Chat is her rock. Tonight, it’s her turn. (Or, in which Adrien discovers some secrets he’s not prepared for and Marinette is as Marinette-y as always.

So Adrien discovers he’s a sentimonster and immediately runs to Marinette for support. It’s as cute and angsty as you’d expect. She is, of course, very supportive of him. Also some discussion of Gabriel being abusive, since both she and Nino had been trying to get Adrien to see that. Especially with how, exactly, Adrien found out he’s a sentimonster. He can relate a little better to Felix’s experiences now than is healthy, I’ll just say.

---

Vengeance Noire by @phiellydinyia

After a horrific argument with his father, Adrien escaped from the mansion with his heart in pieces. In hindsight, it made sense why an akuma was sent his way. He shouldn’t have let his emotions get the better of him. But he never expected Plagg to be even more upset than he was. He never expected his own kwami to be akumatized. To become the threat of a city he swore to protect. And what’s worse is the fact that Chat Noir can’t jump in to save this one. But Ladybug can. And that’s why he has to find her as quickly as possible, suit or no suit.

I love some good Adrien angst, especially with a delicious side order of Plagg and Adrien’s bond with each other. Even as Adrien’s barely functional, though, he’ll do everything in his power to save Plagg, even if Plagg wishes he wouldn’t go quite that far. 

---

This Distance Between Us by @coffeebanana

After defeating Monarch, the search for the Peacock Miraculous brings Ladybug and Chat Noir to a hotel room in London. But it’s hard to enjoy the victory when Ladybug can’t figure out why Chat’s been so quiet, why he seems so sad. How’s she supposed to help if she has no idea what’s wrong?

This is a great Sentiadrien fic, with Chat freaking out about it and feeling like he’s not worthy of Ladybug’s affections, but not telling her what’s actually wrong because he thinks she won’t want him anymore if she knows. Of course, he’s wrong about that.

Also there’s a pretty intense confrontation with Felix, pissing Chat Noir off is a bad idea.

---

Rocking the Cat-Eyes by @buggachat

“I like being a girl.” “That’s the alcohol talking,” Marinette snorted. “I’ve always been a li’l jealous,” Adrien admitted. “… Of what?” “That you get to be a girl,” Adrien murmured, “and I don’t.” — When Marinette and Adrien host Girls’ Night at their apartment, Adrien is easily welcomed to attend as “one of the girls”… but has a bit too much to drink. Some drunken confessions are spilt, some assumptions are made, and most of all… Adrien is confused.

This is a great Genderfluid!Adrien fic. Marinette actually figures out that Adrien’s not entirely cis before he does, and tries to let him know she’s supportive… but unfortunately Adrien comes to some incorrect conclusions…

Anyway it’s a lot of fun, and Adrien rocks a dress and makeup!

---

Family by @unecoccinellenoire

“You know,” Nino grins, “if you need advice on being a big brother in a year or two I’m sure I could help.” The bottom of Adrien’s stomach dropped out. — Adrien struggles with the concept of his father and Nathalie having children.

So this is a world where Adrien and Marinette managed to defeat Gabriel, taking his Miraculous, with them giving him an ultimatum: they won’t out him as being Hawk Moth so long as he doesn’t cause any more trouble and does right by Adrien. Gabriel does, in fact, move on finally to Nathalie, giving Adrien a lot of mixed feelings to deal with. He still loves them both despite everything, but he’s also angry at them and he definitely does NOT want them to have children, both because he thinks they’d like any biological child they had more (he’s also harboring guilt from indirectly being the cause of his mom’s death), and because frankly, they screwed up too much with Adrien for him to want them to inflict that on another child.

And then there’s also Adrien dealing with the realization that he’s a Senti on top of that and wondering why he and Felix look the way they do, what Emilie’s reasons were.

It’s mostly just Adrien getting to talk things out, navigating this emotionally fraught situation he finds himself in now that the dust is settled.

---

When Secrets Come Undone by SortaArtsy

Ladybug promised not to tell Adrien… but she never promised not to confide in Cat Noir. What happens when Ladybug unintentionally vents to the one person who wasn’t meant to know any of it? ****MAJOR SEASON 5 SPOILERS WARNING! **** May not be season 6 compliant when it comes out.

This is a “Adrien finds out what everyone’s been keeping from him post-S5″ fic, and I think it’s handled really well! He feels very hurt, betrayed, and disbelieving initially about being a Senti and his father being Monarch (…mostly being a Senti, it ain’t that hard to believe that Gabriel was a supervillain), and is angry at everyone who kept it secret from him, but he still handles it well, going and talking to the people involved, getting their reasoning and perspective. 

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Wanted: Catnap by SortaArtsy

Adrien Agreste has barely been sleeping, trying to be everything expected of him. What happens when he spreads himself too thin? Sick!Adrien/ Cat Noir

Adrien’s just pushing himself so hard, trying to do his regular duties, until his illness forces him to rest. I love how concerned everyone is over him - even GABRIEL eventually relents and wants him to rest. It’s just cute and nice and fluffy.

---

a winter so warm by @rosekasa

winters were hard for even the best of vampires, but at least adrien had marinette to keep him warm with her cuddles. december was going to suck without her. so it was only to be expected to get extra cuddles in before she left, right? (well, not really, considering those heating supplements he was taking, but she didn’t need to know about that).

This one’s mostly just cute cuddly adorableness! It’s basically like all those “Marinette gets the Ladybug trait of needing to cuddle up to someone for warmth”, but with Adrien instead. And of course featuring Marinette being a very talented witch who just wants to help Adrien stay warm when she isn’t there XD.

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and I thought I heard you sing by @into-september

When Hawkmoth has been defeated and unmasked, Marinette is left with two problems and no solutions. First, that Adrien is further out of her reach than ever before, and no-one can tell her how to get to him. Second, that Cat Noir is far more troubled than she knew, and the only thing she can do is wait for him at the place they agreed to meet.

It’s your classic “Hawkmoth’s defeated and taken into custody but that means Adrien’s in for a rough time” sort of fic. Everyone’s worried about Adrien and wants to give him what comfort and support that they can, but he’s being hidden away from everyone (which I mean, honestly that’s a good move), so that’s not really possible. Plus, Ladybug’s noticed that Chat’s having a tough time in his civilian life, which worries her.

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Betrayal by @jennagrinsoverml

MAJOR EPHEMERAL SPOILERS!! Ladybug planned to use Viperion’s power of Second Chance to get Chat’s identity to Su-han without Chat knowing or agreeing. Of course, then the world went crazy, and she didn’t go through with it. But when an akuma exposes Ladybug’s plan to Chat, he doesn’t know that. He just knows that his Lady betrayed him. He deals with his feelings in the best, most mature way he can think of. He disappears.

So I, like a lot of others, wanted more follow-up on Ephemeral, and particularly on the betrayal of trust it was for Marinette to try to trick Chat Noir into giving up his identity to a third party without his knowledge or consent (I wrote my own take on that at the time, called Transcient, that I’m proud of). This fic did a good job of exploring that, with Adrien reacting in a manner that made sense to me (repressing his negative feelings about the situation as much as possible and trying to justify it to himself, but still feeling terrible despite his own best efforts), and how Marinette realized that she messed up, since Luka keeping it secret that he knows hers and Chat’s secret identities caused her to be upset as well. It did a great job of exploring those negative feelings and letting everyone talk things out, explain their viewpoints, and rebuild their relationships afterwards, which is something I really value.

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I’ll give myself a name (something stupid and pretentious) by @bbutterflies

Nino looked at the number and didn’t recognize it. Usually he wouldn’t answer, but he had nothing better to do – and could still really use a distraction – so he did. “Hello?”

“Hey, Nino.”

Nino stood up quickly, chest tightening. He knew that voice. He’d been waiting to hear it again for over two years. “Adrien?” he whispered.

“Yeah. It’s me."

-

When Monarch is defeated (and revealed to be Gabriel Agreste), Chat Noir immediately goes missing. Adrien disappears not long after. When Adrien finally shows up in Paris again, Nino would do anything to make sure he doesn't disappear again.

Ah this is lovely, Adrien’s been in a lot of emotional turmoil since Monarch’s defeat, convinced that everyone would hate him, SHOULD hate him, for not realizing that his father was the villain, and should hate him even more for disappearing like he does. But slowly Marinette and Nino get through to him, convince him that they just want him back. 

And also Adrien and Nino smooch. Multiple times. So that’s a bonus XD.

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Two Steps Back (One Step Forward) by @buggachat

Sure, Adrien hadn't been texting her as often as he used to. And sure, Nino noticed it too. But just because Adrien had struggled with depression in the past, didn't mean he was struggling now. Surely, he'd tell her if something was wrong. Right?

Marinette just missed him, and she had a tendency to catastrophize. Surely, he was fine.

But if he wasn't... well, she wasn't above hopping on a flight back to Paris to make sure.

—————

Marinette's at an internship in New York, and Adrien has a depression relapse.

Once again buggachat comes out swinging with a fic centered around Adrien being super depressed and his friends charging in to help him, despite him not wanting them to because he feels like a burden. It’s not easy and Marinette goes through a lot of emotional turmoil, especially since his apartment is in bad enough shape that it can’t be changed to something that a human should be living in without also going shopping, but gradually she helps drag Adrien out of the hole he’s gotten himself stuck in. The emotions are on point and just... if you want to read a hurt/comfort fic with Found Family helping one of their own who’s struggling and doesn’t think they deserve it, this is a great fic to read.

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If only I could break free by megetstoread

It started with Adrien being upset about going away, but led to a lot of revelations.  

Another Sentiadrien fic here! After telling Adrien that he’s being sent to London, Gabriel takes advantage of Adrien being distraught to akumatize him. Luckily Ladybug’s right there and deakumatizes him before he can even do anything, but it shakes both her and Chat, leading to her allowing him to tell her a lot more about his home life than usual, and for her and Adrien to investigate to see whether there might be more to Adrien’s inability to stand against his father than just psychological abuse.

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Dr. Walker & Kitty Hyde series by @pearl484-blog

Summary of the first fic, Rain Falls, Everybody Lies:

Chat Noir loves the rain. He loves the danger. He loves the excitement, and he especially loves how much Catwalker hates it. 

Jekyll and Hyde AU

Adrien AUGreste Entry 3: Rain

So like the summary says, and the title indicates, this series is inspired by the popular conception of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - not how the book actually goes, but how it’s portrayed in popular media, with Jekyll splitting himself in two, with a “good” side and a “bad” side. 

During Kuro Neko, instead of just changing his appearance through changing his mindset, Adrien took more extreme measures, sealing off his “undesirable” characteristics, his anger and sadness and all his sharp edges, into the ring so he could assume a more placid, genial persona that’d be more accepted - Cat Walker. 

But Chat Noir’s still there, taking over whenever Adrien gets too testy, and desperately trying not to be pressed out of existence entirely. With embodying Adrien’s sealed anger and snappishness and rebelliousness, he’s not too kind to the other heroes - he already felt looked down upon and ignored before this, and seeing them accept Cat Walker while he’s fighting for his life doesn’t endear them to him either.

The series isn’t unfair to them - this isn’t a case where one party is entirely in the wrong and another’s entirely in the right. Marinette, Zoe, Nino, and all the others - they did wonder about what was going on with Chat, but he wasn’t in a position where he could see it, and he did have legitimate questions about how much Ladybug would budge on things, if he’d told her what he was going through. It’s a series that emphasizes characters hurting and lashing out in some terrible ways, but that hurt still being respected, and working things out, trying to get everything to a better place.

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The Parable of the Caller by @nemaliwrites

A week after Hawk Moth’s identity has been revealed, Adrien finds himself with nowhere to go, nothing he can do, and worst of all, strange gaps in his memory he can’t explain. In a stroke of luck, he stumbles upon a burner phone filled with voicemails from one of the Saviors of Paris: Chat Noir himself, who disappeared following Hawk Moth’s arrest.

But with each new voicemail Adrien listens to, he’s forced to confront the fact that there might be some kind of connection between himself and Chat Noir — and discovering it might leave him more broken than before.

I absolutely adore this fic, it’s a fantastic character study for Adrien! Basically in this universe, Ladybug and Chat Noir talked about who should be Guardian, with Chat eventually convincing her that he should be the one to take it on, primarily due to the whole “the Guardian gets amnesia about Miraculous-related matters” situation, and wanting to protect Ladybug from that. Then he finds out Gabriel is Hawk Moth, they take him down, and he relinquishes the Miracle Box and his guardianship to Su Han - all without having a Reveal with Ladybug, since well, he’s not in the greatest shape mentally at the time.

It’s a real treat to see Adrien’s thoughts and feelings about one of the Heroes of Paris leaving him all these voicemails, treating him like this close friend for reasons he doesn’t understand, and just seeing Chat Noir as this outside person. He’s got a very different viewpoint on Chat when looking from the outside than he would from the inside, with being able to see his heroic and good qualities far more easily when he doesn’t know that he is Chat.

Also Marinette’s struggling in the background of the fic with the loss of her partner and guilt over sending Adrien’s father to prison. It gets touched on at various points, and you can tell that she’s having her own story off to the side that we’re just not entirely privy to, what with this tale being told entirely from Adrien’s perspective.

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call it even by @anna-scribbles and @sha-nwa

After a year of dating, there is one thing Marinette knows for certain: it's her and Adrien against the world. Through it all, Adrien is kind, patient, and endlessly understanding—even as she tries her best to keep her secret superhero identity hidden from him along with the rest of the world.

Nothing could ruin it, not even the supervillains of Paris: Hawkmoth and Chat Noir.

(adrinette dating // ladynoir enemies au)

This is one of those fics where Adrien and Marinette are REALLY going through it emotionally, with them starting off with wildly different perceptions of each other when untransformed, and then reckoning with the person they love the most being someone they think of as a villain, with all the betrayal and doubt that involves. Especially with Adrien having been lied to extensively by his father, and not knowing who or what to believe.

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drowning (in plain sight) by @buggachat

Everybody had expected Monarch's defeat to be a moment of triumph. Nobody had expected Gabriel Agreste, unmasked and mind frayed from continual abuse of the miraculous, crying out to all who would listen and making Paris certain of one thing:

His son, Adrien Agreste, is one of his sentimonsters.

And now he's missing.

Nobody can find him— not even the superheroes, and not even his closest friends. But Marinette, Nino, and Alya aren't ones to give up so easily. They'll find him, no matter what it takes.

(But, geez, would it kill Chat Noir to lend a hand?)

I’m sure everyone saw this one coming. If there’s one thing buggachat’s good at, storywise, it’s capturing raw, tumultuous emotions, frantic breakdowns as the characters desperately try to navigate bad situations. This was a real treat to read, as I’m betting most people reading this will agree, given just how popular the fic has been. It also has a ton of fanart, both by buggachat and by random fans, if you go looking for it (there’s a drowning in plain sight tag which I’d advise perusing). 

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Eventually by @lucid-ao3

Adrien’s life has been dictated by rules, monitored, and controlled for years. He has learned to compartmentalize. It’s not that bad. It always gets better, eventually. Doesn’t it?

Recovery can be an unexpected obstacle when you didn’t realize you were being hurt in the first place.

OR: How Adrien lives and copes with the emotional abuse inflicted on him over the years, and how he ultimately could overcome it.

If you want a good “Adrien doesn’t realize how abusive his father is but slowly buckles more and more under his tyranny, until things come to a head, and he actually gets the HELP HE NEEDS” fic, this is a good one!

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Not a Monster at All by @book-sandwich

Adrien Agreste overhears a conversation he shouldn't, and a revelation sends him falling onto the terrace of the only person he can trust: his good friend (?) Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Takes place sometime after the first two episodes of season 5!

As you can probably guess from the title, this is a Sentimonster Adrien, Monarch takedown fic. Adrien’s going through a tough time, and Marinette’s just trying to be there for him as his whole world’s collapsing around him. Unfrotunately, they still don’t know what the object is, or how likely Gabriel would be to control Adrien if he hinted that he knew the truth, which leaves Adrien in a precarious position - still not having done an identity reveal doesn’t help matters.

It’s a really solid fic for the genre, though since it started up before the later parts of season 5, there are a few things that don’t match up with the canon information we obtained later on. 

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Awaken by InkyIbis

The previously white butterfly, now oozing black and purple as a conduit of the butterfly miraculous powers, flutters softly within the silvered-gloved hand.

It sits there for a long time.

"Go, my akuma," The soft sigh pushes the butterfly, the akuma, out towards the despair of a love not returned. The same ache within his chest. On a level so great that he's willing to sacrifice the city to mend it.

It's okay if he's the villain for now. He'll force the miraculous of creation and destruction to be revealed, and once he gets his hands on them, none of this pain, none of his loss, will ever happen.

This is essentially a canon rewrite for Miraculous (specifically seasons 1 and 2, with a bunch of the events mixed around) that focuses primarily on Adrien, with his relationship with Nino being the main driving relationship of the fic. (Don’t worry, Marinette’s still treated fine, she’s just not the focus). This is the best “rewrite Miraculous with more of a focus on Adrien” type fic I’ve seen, with it reworking the plots of the episodes so that they’re different enough to be their own distinct thing - it’s not trying to just rewrite the canon episodes but from Adrien’s POV, there’s a lot of lore changes going on as well, and things occur in different orders.

Like lorewise, Chat’s given a more important role in cleaning up the mess the akumas leave, with his power helping to cleanse akuma victims and he and Ladybug needing to use their powers in tandem in order to cast Miraculous Ladybug. There’s also no Miracle Box holding the kwamis. Instead, Chat sometimes surpasses his limits and ends up summoning kwamis, which is dangerous to him, but very useful.

What really makes this fic great though, is its focus on Adrien’s emotions. You really get a feel for Adrien’s insecurities, especially when it comes to not feeling like he’s good enough for Nino, with not wanting to bother him when he absolutely should, with feeling like he’s not a good enough friend to him, and then there’s dealing with all of Gabriel’s usual abuse on top of that.

Speaking of Nino, this is an Adrino fic (though several characters get crushes on Adrien, Nino’s the one who matters most for this), though a slowburn one. Nino’s clearly head-over-heels for Adrien, but Adrien has like, no context for what a romantic crush feels like and is basically viewing Nino the way he viewed Marinette in canon prior to season 5. He clearly cares for him a lot, including romantically, he just... doesn’t get it.

Anyway, if you want an interesting canon rewrite fic from Adrien’s perspective with Adrino as the main pairing, this is a good story to pick up!

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one does not love breathing by @wackus-bonkus-maximus

All of Paris watched as Hawkmoth murdered Chat Noir, taking the Black Cat Miraculous for himself. Ladybug swears revenge, but her enemy—and every miraculous in his possession—disappear without a trace.

Six years later, a new team of villains launches an attack for the last remaining Miraculous: Volpina, armed with new powers; Queen Bee, with questionable loyalty; Argos, the new holder of the Peacock Miraculous; and Cat Walker, who Ladybug hates the most.

Takes place after S4 - Strike Back.

This is a simply phenomenal fic. You get to explore a lot of different perspectives, like Felix, Kagami, Marinette, and Adrien’s, just to name a few, and see their different thought processes and plans and priorities, and how it can cause their plans to collide with each other, even when they all ultimately are aiming for a good outcome for everyone. The characters are pretty complex and can mess up at times, even when they’re doing things (or not doing things, looking at you Luka) with the best of intentions. It was a joy to read and a real nail-biter the whole time, I actually wrote a fic for it halfway through just to resolve some of the tension for myself, One Does Not Love Shadows.

It also features the version of Luka I’ve connected best with to date, as he feels like Luka, but also is a lot more fleshed out, and can make some major errors while simply trying to avoid missteps. It’s helped me get a better handle on a character who I’ve generally had a lot of problems with really understanding.

It is an M-rated fic, though I think Wackus is being overly cautious on that front. There’s no sexual content and I wouldn’t put the violence or gore above a T-rating, so I wouldn’t let the rating scare you off.