#lila being redeemed? why not. she could use some friends who see her for her

[blessedfatui]

Chloé fans🤝Sabrina fans: hating Zoé’s guts for ruining their potential

I cannot stand that stupid, blonde, fill-in of a “character”. 

This is just me ranting underneath the cut and pointing out everything wrong with Zoe’s characters, and the poor writing that is both Sabrina and Chloe, because that’s all I do is bitch about this show (it’s the autism I swear). 

The way that Zoé was only added to show that Chloé is this abusive monster and she just abused Sabrina when three seasons before, we’re shown that both Sabrina and Chloé care about each other and are willing to protect each other. Sure, their friendship is unstable at the beginning, but it was slowly becoming healthy and the way Chloé defended Sabrina when the akumas almost attacked her in Ladybug, when Chloe bought her a gift (granted, it was worded poorly but you could see that Chloe was happy that Sabrina was happy to receive her new gift in Antibug)🥹 Also the fact that if they wanted someone to stand up to Chloé or address her abusive tendencies in a relationship, Sabrina was right there. This bullshit arc where she only calls Chloé out because she got replaced by Lila just irks me. Sabrina was right there, front and center if they wanted to have some meek character finally grow a pair of balls (besides the Mary-Sue of a protagonist). Worded crudely, I know but the way this show is just—irritating isn’t even the right word. It’s downright infuriating how they not only portray Chloe as this heartless, abusive monster who has never cared about anyone/uses people for her own entertainment/doesn’t care about her (little group of) friends, but they’re also using Sabrina as a plot point to make Chloe worse than the majority of the abusers in the show (i.e André, Audrey, Tomoe, Gabriel, Lila’s three sets of parents, Felix’s father). Then, you have the Chloe antis running to say that she was never abused by Andre because he gave her a life of luxury—hate to break it to y’all: neglect is still abuse! He neglected to raise her with ANY morals, failed to properly punish her when she was in the wrong, failed to protect her from his abusive wife/her mother, failed to teach her how to be a decent person, and he enabled her behavior which is why she ended up being spoiled and thinking the world revolves around her.

If they wanted someone to replace Chloe as the new Queen Bee, Sabrina would have been a better fit because it would be the chance she gets to finally become her own person and stand up to Chloe (granted, it’s behind a mask, but it’s better than nothing). We’ve seen their dynamic and actually know more about Sabrina than we do with Zoe (which irks me because why is she getting a miraculous after being in the new season for two episodes and is declared the true holder of the bee miraculous when none of the miraculous have true holders; we have a terrorist running amok with the butterfly miraculous, but go off, I guess). 

I’m getting off topic. This show is just so poorly written has does not utilize all of their characters to the fullest. Most of the characters are just there (if not, 95% of the cast) are there to either stroke Marinette’s ego or always worship her and the only way you can get redeemed is if you’re Marinette’s friend (ie, Kagami, Sabrina, Felix)

TLDR: the show sucks and Chloe and Sabrina could have had better writing and Zoe was completely unnecessary to the plot. 

[vividaway]

mini analysis on the finale

yall im not even gonna lie..........i liked the season 5 finale. the concept that these are teenagers who have been beaten and worn down to a crisp to the point of multiple mental breakdowns from both marinette and adrien.........like of course marinette didn’t tell adrien. she’s a literal child, and she loves him, and honestly? its really not her PLACE to tell him. emilie knows about gabriels involvement with the miraculous. nathalie knows about EVERYTHING. there are multiple ADULTS who can step in and talk to him about this, and they chose not to. multiple people have said it: of COURSE adrien deserve to know, and i will be very upset if they never write in him finding out. but it also seems excessively cruel to do that to adrien. as far as adrien is aware, his dad was trying. he thinks his dad is a man chiseled away by depression and grief, who turned towards his works to cope with the loss. he believes there was a turning point where his father started to try. he allowed him to go to school, to make new friends and go to their house, allowed him to quit, started to show up to school events, and finally started to show him affection. adrien is none the wiser on WHY, and it feels extremely cruel to take away what little happy moments he had left with his father. what is the bare minimum to us, is literally EVERYTHING to adrien, and to me, that does mean something. to me, seeing gabriel sacrifice himself for adrien and his wife-- means EVERYTHING. it is what differentiates an evil, unrecoverable person, from a dynamic character who was never meant to be a good person. we were never meant to like gabriel. he’s the villain! but that doesn’t mean we aren’t supposed to be sympathetic to certain aspects of his journey.  i really do think his character was written well. gabriel is a bad, unredeemable man, who did one good action. i personally can’t look at gabriel from season one and say, “he shouldve sacrificed his life in place of his wives life sooner”, it feels wrong. gabriel from season 1 was EXTREMELY different from gabriel from season 5. we see him change (for the worse) over the course of five seasons. 

and the thing about how gabriel is written is like, its realistic. gabriel isnt just a cartoon villain from some kids show, he show’s patterns of real life villains as well. the manipulation, the lying, the guilt tripping, the abuse-- all of it. and thats why, i understand why some people are pissed he got redeemed. but for me, i see the build up. lila has the photographs from gabriels house, and she knews he was monarch. on top of this, it seems like she’s the successor to the butterfly miraculous. people know what he did, and its not just the people on the good side. i don’t see gabriel staying a sympathetic figure for much longer. but all this being said, i dont think it was the worst. the pacing was great, and the animation was top tier for me. theres so many episodes where i can predict whats going to happen next, but i couldn’t with this one. some thing about it just felt....special. like if you showed alyssa from 2016 the finale, i could literally die. no need to show a peasant child, just showing Season One Era fans what happened and how it looks and we’d just. die. everything about it 10x better than we couldve imagined. the writing, the animation, the pacing, the score, the dialogue, the way the world has expanded and been built up and how often we’re interacting with “background characters”.  for once, it felt like i was watching a real show, with a plot that made sense, and wasnt a dumpster fire. but...from reading the #MLBS5Spoilers tag....yall do NOT agree with my sentiments! and thats okay! 

[geekgirles]

So Determination has already started to sink my hopes, seeing as how Chloé literally berated Ladybug for losing the miraculous and indirectly caused another akuma out of pettiness and jealousy, but I really do hope they don't go with the predictable route and have Lila easily manipulate her now that they are supposed to be allies.

The thing is, their whole villainous team-up is a great chance to explore Chloé's character beyond the rich spoiled brat aspect of her personality the show's been reinforcing for most of its run. I'm not saying they try to redeem her—that ship has regrettably obviously sailed at this point—, but it'd be good if they went back to the characterisation she was given in seasons 2 and 3 when her time being Queen Bee proved she can actually be rather resourceful and competent when she puts her mind to it.

Which are qualities she will need if we hope to see something interesting out of her little alliance with Lila.

Personally, I think it would be very compelling if Chloé never really stopped suspecting Lila after the secret formula to call Ladybug fiasco. Or at least if the writers kept that aspect of their relationship consistent and didn't sweep it under the rug now. 

As @nobodyfamousposts ‘s posts have proven, I might be setting myself up for disappointment with that one.

If you think about it, after season 3 Chloé has, objectively, no reason to like or trust Lila. Nor does she have a reason to understand why she (Lila) would want to ally herself with her, of all people.

During Miraculer Chloé was about to discover Lila is a liar and a fraud and call her out on the fake secret formula she gave her. And she would have learned the truth hadn't Lila been quick enough to point out Ladybug did come to her, which was the whole point of the stupid dance she made her perform anyways.

What does that tell us?

Just like everyone else, Chloé is under the impression that Lila is either best friends with Ladybug, or at least in close contact with her.

With that in mind, why should Chloé ally herself with her after the events of Miracle Queen? More importantly, everyone knows Chloé no longer stands Ladybug, so why would her supposed best friend want anything to do with her?

One could argue their alliance is actually against Marinette, someone whom Lila all but admitted to hate back in Penalteam (but let's be real, she was clearly referring to both Marinette and Ladybug). And while Chloé clearly has a bone to pick with Marinette, from her perspective...Lila has absolutely no reason to dislike her that much?

Because from Chameleon to Ladybug Lila has repeatedly made it so it appears obvious to everyone that the one holding a grudge is Marinette against her, while she seemingly acts like she respects and tries to be her friend just like everyone else in the class. With that in mind, Chloé should have no reason to believe Lila hates her too.

And here's where Chloé’s characterisation could benefit from!

Chloé got confirmation from Lila that she hates Marinette, meaning she's not quite the saint she makes herself out to be to their classmates. I believe it would be very interesting if Chloé were the one to realise how much of a liar she really is by pretending to be friends with her while she tries to expose her for intending to use her.

I mean, there is absolutely no way Chloé would just accept the mere idea of being used by someone. Her! Chloé Bourgeois manipulated by some nobody? Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!

Who knows, it might even be satisfying and fun to watch if it's Chloé, of all people, who ends up exposing Lila for the liar she is. Because maybe Marinette will try to listen to Adrien's advice and take the high road. But Chloé? Yes, she's definitely that petty.

I don't know, maybe some less emotionally-driven, more objective analysts like @kisilinramblings​ will be able to come up with a more likely outcome, but I just feel that, despite of everything, Chloé’s character deserves better than to be reduced to being Lila's puppet.

[automaticdata]

Holy shit the bots are out in force, I’m getting what seems like at least one a day for like the past week.

Joke’s on them, I’m using this account to talk about a mediocre kid’s show.

Babble about the alleged Miraculous leaks under the cut.

To preface: the leaks I’ve seen are second- and third-hand. I haven’t delved into any of the google drives myself, nor do I intend to, so my knowledge of some of this stuff is kind of sketchy. Also apologies for any typos, it’s late, my sleeping has been weird lately, and I apparently managed to accidentally switch to my computer’s international keyboard setting partway through ranting and didn’t notice for awhile.

Okay, so the thing about Miraculous is, the writing is so inconsistent that I can’t tell if these leaks are real or just someone very, very dedicated to the bit. Most people have been taking them at face value, as far as I can see, and I ... guess that sorta makes sense? Because who would make fake animated storyboards for several episodes?

But.

But.

Yeah.

There’s some shit I just don’t buy. 

1) Gabriel’s “real” name being Gabi Grassette. Like, what? Why? Didn’t we already establish that Gabriel was a lower class than Emilie before they married? Why give him a silly name? What is the point? It’s not like this negates his creating a huge fashion empire or anything, it just feels ... weirdly classist? idk.

2) Mayor Bourgeois resigning as mayor, divorcing Audrey, and adopting Zoe. Like, I saw the info first, then saw the alleged leaked script, which just made it look even stupider. It’s such an about-face for the character, and, oh yeah! Zoe already has a father. Like, ffs, what even is this.

3) Ladybug’s lucky charm at one point being ... panties. Yeah, no, I ... really don’t think that will fly in a kid’s show. Like, at all.

4) While the contents of the animated storyboard showing Felix’s tragic backstory makes some sense, the execution of it is really stupid and doesn’t fit with how Miraculous has ever done stuff before. Like, it’s such a weird vibe compared to everything else, I don’t know wtf is going on.

Also, that whole thing about him trying to get the ring to save Adrien is either bullshit or the world’s biggest retcon. “Yes, I will get the ring to save my cousin from his father’s control! And then, instead of giving my cousin the ring, I’ll give it to my mom! Because that makes ALL OF THE SENSE!”

5) Adrien throwing a fucking chair at Kim is so out of character, I don’t care how mad he is on Marinette’s behalf. We’ve seen Adrien get angry on Marinette’s behalf before, when he chewed out Lila. His anger doesn’t manifest as physical violence.

6) Alya & co still not believing Marinette about Lila is so fucking salt fanficcy that it’s surreal. Marinette can very easily pull the “she said she was Ladybug’s best friend, Alya, and you know how I knew that was a lie” card now.

7) Also the show calling Marinette out on her stalkerish tendencies is uh ... yeah I don’t see the show being that self-aware. Could be wrong, but Kagami literally thought it was a sign of Marinette’s love that she knew Adrien’s schedule for the next five years, and now there’s a script leak where Kagami teases Marinette for acting like a stalker? Um.

8) If they make Zoe crushing on Marinette explicitly canon before making Rose/Juleka and Marc/Nathaniel explicitly canon, I will riot. Like, I feel like they’ve made it clear that Rose/Juleka and Marc/Nathaniel are canon as much as they can within the constraints of the networks the show airs on, so if they could make it more obvious all along and didn’t, only to pass that honor off to Ms We’re-Too-Lazy-To-Redeem-Chloe-So-Have-A-Nonsensical-Replacement-Instead ... yeah, I won’t be happy.

9) I saw a scene were Chloe was like ... using robots to control Paris or something? Um, what? She’s a fourteen-year-old girl? And Ladybug’s all, “well, can’t do anything because no akuma involved.” WHAT? We have literally seen scenes of you guys rescuing cats and preventing helicopter crashes when no akuma was involved, and now a teenage girl that you both know has questionable judgment somehow is in control of Paris and you’re like, “welp, our hands are tied!” Not to mention wtf a teenage girl is in control of Paris there is obviously some magic shenanigans involved.

10) Luka calling Juleka “twinsie.” Unless he’s under some sort of magical influence that makes him loopy, I’m calling BS.

and just ... so much. So much.

Stuff I can believe but I’m not happy about:

1) No reveal. It’s fucking stupid and bad fucking writing and an astounding lack of audience awareness, but they also want to continue the series past season five, and secret identity shenanigans are kind of their whole shtick, so. *shrug*

2) Adrien remaining in the dark about Hawkmoth’s identity. It’s fucking stupid and unfair to him, but these are the same people who gave up on Chloe’s redemption arc, so I can totally see them chickening out on showing the fallout of that particular reveal.

3) Them having some stupid traumatic event to explain Marinette not being able to confess to Adrien. This is so stupid but I feel like they’re actually foreshadowing it in the episodes that have already been released. It’s still strange af though that it’s never been mentioned before and none of the characters who were involved in it have mentioned anything, buuuuut this is also the same people who didn’t hint at SentiAdrien at all until season 4, when they ramped up the SentiAdrien hints to 11, and didn’t do any SentiKagami hints until season 5, either, when they dropped them like anvils.

4) If the stuff with Andre resigning as mayor turns out to be true (big motherfucking if there) I can see them going “mm, yes, the middle school teacher with no reason to want to be mayor nor any previous political experience will make a good replacement ...” *sigh* let Caline Bustier teach her students, she seems happiest doing that.

Stuff I saw from a mile away:

1) Lila being the next Hawkmoth. The forshadowing in Time Tagger was not subtle and I remember thinking it was weird how many fans seem to have missed that.

2) Feligami. From the first look they shared back in season 4, I was like, “Yes. Yes them.” There was no other effing reason for that Look. And yeah this may be wishful thinking on my part but they work so well together, dammit.

3) Some people becoming permanent holders. Gotta admit, still =/ about all of them being permanent holders, but yeah.

and I’m out of steam for now. Ugh, this show will drive me nuts, I swear.

[shootingsun]

First Time For Everything

Yes I wrote over 3,000 words of Platonic Felila fanfiction. No I don't regret it.

@shslharrisonkinnie I finished it, Lila now has friends, yayyyyy

#Give Lila a real friend 2021

Class was tiring, Lila thought, starting aimlessly into space. Who would need this stuff when she would end up being rich and powerful anyway? She didn’t even know what the lesson was about, it didn't matter to her. Lila looked at the board and tried to pull her head out of the clouds. But it was no use, so she thought, she thought and thought.

"Please come in Miss Rossi," The doctor's had said to her. She remembered questions, about her home life, about her school, about her as a person. But. She had lied, she said things were fine, they weren't. She had told them she had friends, she did, but not exactly good ones. She had told them about her glamorous life, full of adventure and intrigue, the kind of thing adults ate up. They hadn't believed her.

There were more tests, she had lied her way through those too. She hadn't exactly wanted to lie, it just happened. Lila "Lie-a" Rossi, that's who she was, no, who she is. And so, when the letter had came back in the mail, it hadn't really been that much of a surprise.

"Lila, honey, come and talk to me," Her mother had said, before explaining her disorder, to a 12 year old Lila, this had been fine! It just meant that she was good at telling stories. That was what she did to everyone, spin them pretty stories. About her. About them. About others. About anything really.

"Tell me about yourself Miss Rossi?" My name is Lila, I've stared in movies, ("Why haven't you shown us them, Lila?") I fly on a private jet, ("When are we gonna get to see it?") And I know a bunch of celebrities! ("Stop lying to everyone!") She could spin her stories well, she had found.

'Compulsive Lying Disorder' that was what the doctors had called it. She had passed the test with flying colors.

"Alright class!" Miss Bustier cut through Lila's thoughts like a knife. "We have a new transfer student coming in today, so please treat him the same way you treat each other. Félix? Will you come in please?"

And then… Adrien came into the room?! But that can't be right, Adrien is sat at the front of the class with that Nino kid. Besides, Adrien doesn't wear a turtleneck. The class murmured amongst themselves about the model's look-alike. Lila was stunned. There were two of them now??

"Hello, I'm sure you're all wondering why I look so much like Adrien. Well, that's none of your business, but if you must know - we're cousins. My name is Félix, that's all you really need to know about me." The boy in grey said.

"Well… that was- anyway! Félix would you sit next to… Lila! Go and sit with Lila please," She smiled at him and gestured to the empty seat next to Lila. He shrugged and walked to the seat, placing his bag on the ground next to the chair.

Now that she could look at him better, she noticed the differences between Félix and Adrien. Félix carried himself with something that Adrien lacked, although she wasn't sure what. Félix wore a dark grey turtleneck that contrasted Adrien's famous snow white jacket. It was like looking into an alternate universe. What Adrien could have been…

They sat in silence for a while as the teacher talked. Lila hated the quiet, her house was always so silent and still. Félix kept his head down and scribbled away at a notebook. She tried to sneak a peak, just to see what he was writing about, but his hand covered the writing almost instantly. He stared at her.

"Do you need something?" Félix deadpanned. "Or are you just being nosey?"

Lila blinked. How dare he? Nobody at the school talked to her like that! Nobody ever talked to her like that, not since… not since-

"Li-la!" Noemi, her sorelle called out to her. "Come over here!"

Lila was 7, at the time, and loved Noemi more than anyone in the world. Her sister was the sun and Lila was the planets. Noemi was the epitome of perfection. Perfect hair, perfect style, perfect tan, perfect skin, perfect smile. Lila wanted to be just like her.

"Wow Noemi, your sister is like a mini you!" Her sisters friends giggled. Lila liked it when people compared her to Noemi, it meant that she was doing something right.

Besides, the teens weren't wrong. Lila wanted to be like her sister. Neomi wore a pleated baby blue skirt, a black blazer, and a tucked in white shirt. She was so beautiful, at least, in Lila's eyes she was.

"Lila, didn't you get the gymnastics solo in your class? Noemi told us all about it. Congrats! You have such a talented sister Noemi!" The teen girls smiled down at her, but Lila was confused.

She hadn't gotten the solo. Lila was the understudy, whatever that meant. So she told them the truth. That she didn't get the solo. The girls got angry at her, and at Neomi. They left, her sister wasn't pleased.

"Why couldn't you have just gone along with it?! Huh?! Don't you get it, people like you more if your an interesting person! And now you've ruined it for me!" Neomi had screamed in 7 year old Lila's face, which made her cry.

"Don't be pathetic Lila! God. You're hopeless."

"B-but I don't understand! Why would you lie to them if they're your friends?" Lila sniffed, trying to wipe away the tears.

"Lila, it's not lying if you tell them what they want to hear, is it? And besides, keep your little nose out of my business!"

"Hello? Lila Rossi? Are you still here?" Lila blinked and came back to reality, Adrien's clone was waving his hand infront of her face. Rude.

"Ugh," She pushed the hand away from her face. "Yes I'm still here and- wait. How do you know my full name?!"

"Adrien told me, Miss Rossi." His green eyes were like steel, unmoving and cold. "We talk a lot, so I know things."

"Oh yeah? Like what?" She raised her eyebrows, he doesn't know anything about Lila. Not even Lila is sure if she knows anything about Lila.

"Hm, I'm not sure, you seem to be a walking contradiction, Miss Rossi."

"Honestly! My name is Lila," She doesn't tell him how much she hates it, and how even though she's carrying the name of the man who left them, Rossi sounds better to her. "How would you like it if I called you Mister…"

Then Lila realised that she doesn't know his last name.

"De Vanilly, Graham De Vanilly." Then he smirked, just a little, and she wanted to finish her sentence and her thought but Miss Bustier interrupted again!

"Alright kids, we're gonna have a science project in partners this half-term! So I'm gonna read off the pairs, and then you guys can get started on this after school, okay?"

"Zoe and Sabrina, Nino and Luka, Chloe and Ayla, Rose and Juleka, Alix and Mylene, Kim and Max, Marinette and Adrien," Lila glared at the mention of that girl. "Lila and Félix."

Absolutely not!

Lila's hand shot up. "Um, actually Miss Bustier? My parents don't like it when I work with other pupils and so I can't work with Félix!"

"You didn't seem to have an issue when you were working with Adrien on the last project Lila?" The teacher stared at her.

She opened her mouth, not really aware of what she was saying. The story's flowed out of her, winding and winding, coiling up almost everyone in the room. The coils seemed to cut into her. She couldn't help it, and it didn't matter. It doesn't matter.

But she still had to work with Félix. How unfair!

"Well then, come in I guess." Lila held the door open for him. 

"Thanks Miss Rossi." He stepped into her room and glanced around, it was a nice room! What was his issue?

"Why do you call me that anyways? It's weird." Lila scoffed, flopping onto her bed. Félix took the seat across from her.

"Oh, I have a system."

"A system? For names?"

"Yes, if you're an acquaintance I call you Mr/Miss/Mx whatever your last name is, family I like are called by their first name, family I don't like are called by their function to me, and friends are either called by their names or a nickname." Félix said, waving his hands slightly as he spoke.

"Huh, so I'm an acquaintance then?"

"No you're a family member- of course you are." Félix said calmly.

Lila made a small mental note to refer to him as his last name, just to annoy him.

"Speaking of family members, did you know I'm distantly related to the British Royal Family?" No! No! Stop talking! Lila wanted to scream.

"Really?"

"Yeah! And I know tons of celebrities, like-"

"No offense, but I think that you're lying to me." De Vanilly stared at her. Lila recoiled - just keep talking! Make him believe you!

"What?! No! I would never!" Yes, Yes you would Lila. You know that you would so why do you say things like that? Bashing her own head into a wall or taping her mouth shut seemed like very favorable options to Lila in that moment.

De Vanilly was quiet for a while, looking around the room. His green eyes settled on her bookshelf. What is he looking at? Lila wondered before realizing. Oh, oh no. He pointed to a picture.

"Is that you?" He asked, moving over and picking the picture up carefully.

The picture was one from Lila's childhood, a family photo of one of Lila's gymnastics contests. Noemi, her mother, and Lila were all staring into the camera. The photo was taken after Lila had "won" the contest. Lila hadn't won, Lila came fourth. But her sister payed to have an exact copy of the first place medal made. They had taken the picture a few days after the actual contest. Neomi was smiling, but it didn't meet her eyes, her mother was looking the other way and Lila, despite her forced grin, looked like she was about to cry.

"Uh yeah, it's a medal that I won, it was awarded to me by Alberto Busnari. Cool right?" She just hoped her smile didn't look pained. 

"Yeah, who's that then?" He pointed to the triumphant Neomi, if the medal wasn't around Lila's neck, you would have thought Neomi had won there. Maybe, in a way, she had…

"Oh, that's my sister Neomi," Lila said, wincing slightly, looking at the picture, she looked so much like her.

"You look like her." He looked between her and the picture twice, before settling on her face.

"Well, I'm not her okay?!" Lila hissed. Before covering her mouth with her hands.

Older students.

"Oh isn't that Neomi's sister?"

Her classmates.

"I've heard of Neomi, she's like insta famous! You're so lucky!"

Even her teachers!

"Ah Rossi, you must be related to Neomi then. You have a lot to live up to!"

It was always "Neomi this! Neomi that!" Never about Lila. People only ever liked Lila when she lied.

"Are you… okay? You're shaking." He reached out to touch her.

"Of course! Why wouldn't I be?! By the way, did you know that I-" Lila turned her brain off as she spoke, rambling about celebrities and adventure.

The boy only looked at her with concern.

It had been two weeks. Two weeks before the incident. De Vanilly had been working with her at Lila's house ("Anything to avoid my uncle," He had said) and their unstable opinions of each other had gotten quite better.

They were walking together, Lila needed to see the counselor for her… condition. And De Vanilly wanted to learn the school's layout, so he went with her. It had been going fine. Things had been fine.

They weren't fine anymore.

It wasn’t Lila's fault. Another lie, designed to make her feel better. She hadn't looked, and ran into that stupid, clumsy girl. Marinette Dupain-Cheng.  She had tripped, her bag fell to the floor and although she hadn't seen it at the time, her diagnosis papers fell out. Marinette had scuttled away, and Lila clambered off the floor only to see, Vanilly going through her stuff?!

"What are you doing?!" She had yelled, snatching her shoulder bag and papers out of his hands.

"I picked up your stuff. You have Compulsive Lying Disorder?" He had looked at her dead on, bluntly.

Her heart rate quickened. She blinked rapidly. No no no no no, this won't happen again! It won't! It… it can't.

"No! Shut up! I don't have that because if I had that then I would be always lying wouldn't I? And I don't tell lies so why don't you take your false accusations of me and go away!" Lila turned tail and ran out of the school, heart pounding out of her chest, eyes stinging.

Lila gasped as she reached the park near school. This went wrong, so wrong. Now she's gonna have to transfer schools again and she'll be all alone and tell more lies and- Lila vaguely felt tears run down her face. She clutched the diagnosis papers in her arms.

"Guys, guys! I wanna tell you something!" Lila had waved her friends over, excited to tell them about her new label for her mind.

She had tried to explain her disorder to her supposed friends. She had tried, but by then, her friends had already thought she was a liar. And the label, was just the proof they needed. She had only wanted to tell three or four people until she was comfortable.

The next day, when Lila went to school, everyone avoided her. Everyone stared. This went on for two weeks, her trying to reach out and being rebuffed for her efforts. She was confused, they were her friends… weren't they?

Then, the nickname came, nobody addressed her as Lila anymore. It was always "Lie-la" or "Lie-a" with special emphasis put on the lie sound in her name. Eventually, even the teachers called her "Lie-a". And Lila the Liar was born.

Kids would push and shove her in the halls. Then, when Lila accused them, they would just say "Lie-a is just lying! As usual." And they would believe them. Nobody believes a liar. 

And soon Lila didn't have any friends at all, no one could trust her not to tell her lies and not even Lila could help but believe them. She was bad. She was awful.

She was a liar!

Her mother moved to Paris. Lila went with her. A new school, a new chance.

Just tell the truth, she had repeatedly told herself, just tell the truth! Another lie that she told herself.  She lied to Ayla, she lied to Adrien.

She lied to everyone.

And then, and then! This stupid girl had the nerve to accuse her of lying (Marinette was right). She had the nerve to point out the flaws in her story (It wasn't Marinette's fault that Lila had lied in the first place). And then she told her to stop lying!

...like it would ever be that easy.

But the truth? The truth was that Marinette was the person Lila had wanted to be. Talented, special, honest, LOVED. That was the reason why she hated her. The real one.

"It's called lying!"

"B-but I don't understand! Why would you lie to them if they're your friends?"

Why would you lie to them if you just want them to be your friend Lila?

She hadn't even seen the Akuma coming. It was flying toward her quickly, she gasped. Not today, not now. Please, please! Lila doesn't want to be akumatized again, not right now! Was that pounding noise coming from her? From her beating heart?

It wasn't.

Hurry, hurry! Kali demanded in his head.

Félix was running, he had to get to Rossi. He hadn't meant to find her diagnosis papers, she had to have had a reason not to tell the other pupils about it. Whether it was privacy or a previous experience, everyone deserved the right to tell things when they felt comfortable.

Judging by the look on her face, she was clearly distraught. Félix, for some stupid reason, wanted to make sure she was alright. Make sure that his Uncle didn't get to her first. And he was right. Lila was sobbing on the ground, and although he couldn't see it - Kali could sense the akumas presence.

Watch out! The kwami yelped to him.

She tilted her head up, and there was the Akuma. Ready to pounce. Félix wouldn't let that happen, he may not be a hero, but he has an ounce of compassion!

Lila recoiled, trying to escape the Akuma but- someone jumped in the way… a blond boy wearing a grey sweater?

He winced as the Akuma went into his ring. The boy sharply inhaled. He went completely still for a moment. No…

His head dipped. No, no…

He clenched his fist. No, no, no-!

And then he laughed. He brought his head back up and relaxed his hands, all while laughing.

"You seriously think that I want to help you! That's pathetically naive and genuinely sad. I would never betray my loved ones. Not. Ever." Her acquaintance declared, scratching his arm up and down, the Akuma flew away.

Lila was speechless.

"I- you- Akuma- what?" She forced out, De Vanilly turned around to look her in the face, and he was smiling? Stranger and stranger.

"Didn't you know? Physical pain can ward off Akuma's, only if you don't have the negative energy though," He bent down and sat with Lila on the floor.

"Oh, I bet you're wondering why I followed you. Well, I wanted to apologize. It wasn't right of me to look through your things like that, it was an accident, but I'm still in the wrong. I hate to think what would have happened if I wasn't quick enough…" He placed a hand on hers gently. She looked him in the face, green met green.

"You, you took an Akuma for me." She was confused, nobody had ever done anything for Lila without her having to convince them to. But this boy, who was barely even her acquaintance, had saved her.

"Yes, I did."

"You won't tell anyone right? About my whole disorder thing because then-" She was interrupted.

"Not until you're ready." She smiled gratefully at him.

"Well then, Mr. Graham De Vanilly, it seems I'm in your debt." She said, taking his hand and standing. Although the idea of owing someone made her slightly uncomfortable, maybe he wasn't like most people.

"It seems you are," He began to walk away, heading for the gate to the park.

Her owing someone was something that Lila was unfamiliar with, how did it even work? Would he just tell her what to do or demand something of her. She wasn't sure.

It didn't matter though.

Because, it wasn't like he wanted her around. She was just an acquaintance, he had only helped to make himself feel better. Lila would never have a real friend. Lila had never had a real friend.

That was fine.

She would learn to live with it. Probably.

He stopped.

But then again, Lila thought.

"Actually, I do have an idea of how you can pay me back,"

A real friend might be nice.

Lila whirled around to look at him. "You do?"

Maybe she did want one?

"Yes," De Vanilly said, green eyes glittering like a peridot gem.

Lila did want a friend. But she could never have one.

"How?" She insisted, anything to repay her debt and keep her secret, even if it was embarrassing or annoying.

"You could call me Félix."

Lila Rossi had never had a friend, but there was a first time for everything.

[arlakos]

Miraculous Rant

Actually, you know what, while im still mad from the previous post I made, lets go off on a rant. No punches pulled. Lets do this.

The lovesquare is the most terrible ship in this fandom. One girl is a hyper obsessed stalker who tracks her crush with her planner for 3 whole seasons, while the boy couldn’t learn to take a hint and stop flirting for 3 whole seasons until he decided to move on with another girl. Ironically that makes them perfect for eachother, but its in a creepy kind of way, not a loving kind of way.

Adrigami and Lukanette in the S3 Finale were wasted events and never should have occured because they were immediately axed in the first few episodes of the next season. I feel sorry for those that were hoping their ships could be real for at least a short actual while, and it makes me want to curse the writers for their story-boner for the status quo of teases

Despite what I said earlier, none of the girls are good for Adrien. Marinette’s stalkery and a borderline yandere, Kagami’s somewhat controlling and too similar to Adrien help him grow as a person, Chloe is a queen bee beyotch and honestly too much like a sibling to Adrien, and Lila is garbage. Fuck it, have Luka date Adrien and they can play some sweet music together (not like that you pervs, I meant they both play instruments).

Nino needs more love. Not only that, but there needs to be more Adrien/Nino bro moments. If Marinette and Alya can have moments together, why not the bros?

Chloe’s character is a mess, and is neither redeemable, nor notably evil. Her role as a villain in season 1 is very hamfisted, such as in the episodes Mr Pigeon and Kung Food. Not only that, Chloe also lacks any of the qualities that makes a good “bully villain” or rival to Marinette, and her sympathetic moments (which are Written by Sebastien) are mostly overshadowed by the fact that Astruc wants her to be a bully, so it just makes her bipolar and confusing when her character is tugged between two writers.

Chloe should not have joined Hawkmoth in Miracle Queen, see my other post as to why I think so. TLDR, its kinda ooc  for her to go full on 2d villain like Hawkmoth especially after Miraculer, plus Lila was being build up to be the main antagonist of S3

Chloe got kicked from the Team in Miraculer because people know her identity? Fine. Kagami gets to be Ryuko again despite being known to Hawkmoth in Ikari Gozen? Not cool. Ladybug shouldn’t be a hypocrite and be willing to break her own rules just because “Kagami is my friend and Chloe’s not”. Same goes for her breaking the rule with secrect identities with Alya, only for her to go on and on about the rules to Chat when he pries.

Zoe is a bland character who’s only notable trait that she likes Marinette, which automatically makes her worthy of a miraculous after two episodes and no actual development.

Astruc is a petty frick who makes episodes that give the finger to fans of the show that have a different opinion than him. Queen Banana, Miracle Queen, and Reverser are good examples of this (Reverser did Nathaniel dirty).

Master Fu is a shit guardian. Read my post for more.

FRICK THE FEAST EPISODE. Not only did is ruin Fu as character, it ruined all the good theories as to why the order fell, and wasted the idea of a new villain being introduced or even taking over as the main antagonist! Speaking of Feast, despite the sentimonster destroying an order when he wasn’t even big, he still go beat by 2 kids even when he was supersized!

Marinette is not a good Guardian. Her ability to choose heroes does not make her capable, and just because “tradition is stupid” doesnt mean that Marinette shouldn’t be tested like others before her!

Despite the Kwami’s being ancient magical buildings, they seem to act like kids a lot, and that annoys me when in S1 they are supposed to apparently be mentors to their wielders, like how Tikki was before she was mentally de-aged.

Lila is trash and should be removed from the show. The only reasons her lies work is because the writers dumb down every other character in the show and ignore the fact the people have smartphones with google.

The “Miraculous” Ladybug spell should require both Ladybug and Chat Noir to cast, because not only does the power have nothing to do with creation, but it also “destroys” anything created by the akuma, which thematically makes no sense. Also it would place more emphasis on the two heroes being equals and “two halfs of the same coin”

On that note, Ladybug has too many powers. Not only is she the only one who can purify akumas, and can cast a spell that can fix Paris time and time again like its no one’s buisness, but she also now gets a new suit and the ability to nullify Hawkmoth’s akumas. Like COME ON! Give Chat some powers too.

Mayura’s feather’s shouldnt be able to be purified by Ladybug since they have no dark energy, and (thematically speaking) Chat should be given an ability that allows him to “vanquish” the energy in Mayura[’s feathers similar to how Ladybug can purify Hawkmoth’s akumas. At least it would develop a rivalry between Chat and Mayura, and would make Chat necassary against Shadowmoth rather than being replacable with any other hero.

The are too many temporary heroes. They should have just stuck with the 3 heroes from s2 and leave it at that. Sure, new heroes were cool, but the overuse has made the whole hero thing feel less special. It made sense for the first 3 to have them, but now it’s just like Oprah where everyone gets a miraculous. Except Gabe.

Chat Blanc was a stupid reason as to why secret identities cant be revealed, also Chat could have told LB who Hawkmoth once he returned back to normal was and the show would be over.

Hawkmoth should not be Gabriel. Frick the lore about Gabriel’s wife dying and him going evil to get her back, it makes the story feel too much like a star wars/Darth vader reference and leaves Gabriel acting bipolar, flipping from wanting to save his wife and doing this out of necessity to being a power hungry madman wanting to take over the world ( which is said in his canon music video). Having Hawkmoth be his own character means he can be an actual maniac who wants world domination and not just have villanous plot that rely on obtaining magical jewellery (perhaps doing other evil things/taking a more active role), while Gabriel being his own character means he can be a father that has become estranged from his son due to the lose of his S,O, and thus can have a plot about him reuniting with his son (I liked the end seen in Simon says, ok?)

On that same note, I think Mayura shouldn’t have been Nathalie. Considering Hawkmoth’s plans were repetitive as heck for most of the show, when I heard about the Mayura leaks back in Season 2 (when she was called “le Paon”) I was theorising that Mayura would actually being Hawkmoth’s boss, the villain the was responsible for giving him his Miraculous and the one who destroyed the Order of the Miraculous, and would take over as the main villain in season 3 due to Hawkmoth’s failures. However, that turned out not to be the case.

Not only that, but Mayuras power is a copy paste power with some modifications to make it complement Hawkmoth’s power, by basically giving his akuma’s magic pokemon.

Speaking of Hawkmoth’s power, for a miraculous that is supposed to be used for good, how can his power mind control people and make them become evil? More importantly, for a miraculous that is supposedly weaker than the main heroes of the show, having it be able to multiply and posses people to create an army is kinda strong.

Fuck the Maribat ship that the salt fandom came up with. Its trash, it was made to bash most of the Miraculous cast sans Marinette, and anyone thinks it is good are either those same salters or are the same people who think that Rey-lo and the Twilight Saga are masterpieces of romance.

Whew! I needed that vent. Hope you enjoyed it as as much as I did, and Tune in next time on the next episode of:  Arlakos loses his Mind and Rants for 2 pages of writing!

[marinetteplztakeabreak]

okay now that we’re in the middle of a hiatus and the fandom is mostly calmed down

I’m one of the very few people who’s actually hoping for a Lila redemption arc? I don’t want her to be friends with Adrien or Marinette or anyone she’s really really hurt, but she is still like 14 and we don’t know her full story and I honestly want to see her grow and be a person and make some actual friends and get some hobbies. Again, I think she’s burned the bridge with a few characters, but that doesn’t mean she can’t ever be friends with anyone else

and anyway, my ideal takedown/ redemption arc for Lila is one where she unknowingly lies about having several disabilities that other students in the class actually do have

BUT I don’t want it in a “oh actually, Lila, you dumb fool, I have real medically diagnosed tinnitus, so I know that’s not how it works, haha everyone look at Lila the stupid liar” kind of way

I want them to be like stupid levels of understanding and try to bond with her

(detailed explanation of my Lila arc under the cut, obviously don’t read if you’re uncomfortable with the idea of Lila being redeemed)

Lila is like “oh... actually... I can’t participate in the PE final... I have scoliosis... that I just found out about right now” and Juleka is like “oh! I have scoliosis too!” and Lila is panicking because she’s about to be called a fraud, but instead Juleka just happily sits with her for the entire PE final and rambles about stuff and is super happy to have a bench buddy

Alix mentions that she has tinnitus and Lila is like “wait what? why aren’t you in front of the class?” and Alix is like “oh, for me it’s kind of a waves thing? on good days, I can hear her from anywhere in the classroom, and on bad days, nothing can really help me hear? so Ms. Bustier just gives me lecture notes that I can read and it works for me.” And Lila is completely expecting to be called a fraud but Alix is just like “it’s super cool that it does help you, though! everyone’s different! If you ever want to compare notes about what helps, you can text me!”

Lila starts to say the beginning of a well practiced and overly researched speech about how she can’t go on a field trip because she has a super rare medical condition and Max just pulls her aside and is like “hey, I know it can be scary and you feel like you have to justify yourself, but you really don’t have to give super personal information all the time. It’s totally fine if you are comfortable, but really, I know from personal experience that Ms Bustier and this class are super understanding. You can just say ‘personal reasons’ or something and we’ll all leave you alone. You’re allowed to have privacy.” and Lila is like “huh”

this is getting long but basically, eventually she talks to someone in the class with ADHD or anxiety, I’m going to say Alya for now, so she literally catches Lila lying about knowing some celebrity, and instead of being angry or judgemental she’e super discreet about it, she pulls her aside like “hey, I know it feels hard to make friends, but I promise you, people do think you’re interesting as you are, and we care more about you than the people you know.” and she doesn’t even call Lila out for lying? she’s literally just like “u dont have to know celebrities”

and then Lila actually finds out that there’s at least one actual compulsive liar in the class. And, if you didn’t know, Lila’s not an actual compulsive liar, and I’m not going to get into a rant about that now but... She lies on purpose, and tells planned lies with an agenda, whereas compulsive liars don’t usually plan to lie or have a reason for lying. So anyway, Lila gets actually caught lying, and someone, lets just say Nino for the sake of picking a character, is like “hey i know its hard but you do still have to apologize, even if you did your best, you still messed up and you’ve got to own up to it. I believe you that you’re trying to be better but you can’t just use mental illness as an excuse.” and Lila pulls out the fake tears and is like “you don’t understand-” and Nino is (not in a rude way, just trying to be kind) like “I can’t understand you exactly, no, but I literally did have a problem with compulsive lying and I have a therapist, so if you want to talk about it I probably understand more than you know” and Lila is like “oh.”

and anyway, Lila’s arc doesn’t come through someone she’s harassed trying to defend her, and it doesn’t come from her being traumatized into being nice, it just comes from her classmates treating her like a human person, and doing their best to understand her while also actually finding ways to make things accessible to her so she stops being able to get out of things. And then it turns to “hey Lila, just so you know, you don’t HAVE to give explanations for not wanting to go places, you can just SAY if you’re uncomfortable.” and she starts getting called out on it a little bit more, but in a friendly way. Her classmates are just like “Lila please just tell us what you want, I don’t need your medical history, I’m not going to do a background check, just, say you want to borrow a jacket and I’ll let you borrow it. I literally have an extra hoodie”

But simultaneously, everyone with a disability “in common” with her starts latching on to her and opening up, and they actually hold her accountable for listening to their needs. And Lila, who already has the mindset of “oh u are legally required to help Disabled Person or everyone will hate you,” which is literally the basis of half of her plans, is now surrounded by classmates who are asking for her help with reading things because they’re dyslexic, or asking her to grab a textbook from across the room, and asking her if she has any heating pads, and, well, Mylene actually bought her some heating pads when she was faking having cramps earlier, so she might as well lend those out so that she can get more credit with her classmates

And it’s not because she *cares* obviously, she’s just doing it to get them to rely on her, and to get on their good side

and then she’s invited to join the disabled students activism club, and it would look suspicious if she didn’t join, so she agrees, and then whoops, she is now working to do actual charity work-- because it’s really nice to have such solid evidence for her claims, and some charity work that she can actually point to solid evidence for if she ever gets called out-- and honestly it is pretty stupid that its so hard to get accommodations on tests for students with anxiety, because aren’t those the students who are the most afraid to talk to the teachers-- not that Lila cares. And it’s super dumb that no one even knows proper etiquette for helping people in wheelchairs,, and people keep Leaving Things in the Hallways that make it too narrow, and-- Lila doesn’t care at all though, and she definitely doesn’t care about her “friends” in the club because they’re not her friends, and she totally does not cry when she finds out that most of them are literally self-diagnosed, and then it turns out that Mylene was actually wrong, and she probably doesn’t have Lyme disease like she thought, and no one judges her or treats her any different? they’re all just like “oh thats great! glad you could keep getting new information!”

and Lila realizes that literally no one will be mad if it turns out she doesn’t have any disabilities. Except also, she’s starting to become more and more sure that she Does have several things wrong with her, because apparently it’s Not Normal to feel constantly on guard when she’s around other people, and apparently it’s Not Normal to just have days where you literally cannot drag yourself out of bed in the morning and then get hit with terror that if you tell anyone about how numb you feel they’ll immediately think you’re unworthy as a human being, and she’s like, oh, huh, i should  look into that

and anyway Lila doesn’t even try to be a good person at first she just wakes up one day and is like “what the heck when did i get actual friends and passions and hobbies,, i did not sign up for this” but she does start making an effort to be worthy of them and she ends up growing a whole ton once she’s given a support system

and anyway i know lots of people are uncomfy with Lila and that’s fine, but i’m continuously a sucker for “evil devil child is actually a pretty decent human being once their basic needs are met and they feel safe” trope

[unmaskedagain]

Irredeemable my foot

Hi everyone, I decided to write a fic centered on Chloe; is a sugar fic. I always liked her character. And I would like to dedicate this fic to Sienna, aka @catsandfanfic. Happy 14th birthday. Her birthday is March 6th. In my time zone it’s March 6 so hopefully you’re not getting this too early. I hope your birthday is amazing, and I really hope you enjoy this fic; i heard you like Maribat. And @justdyingontheinside gives you a shout out on your special day.

Chloe knew how everyone expected it to go. The blond could admit… She was spoiled, selfish, petty, and insecure, with mommy issues galore.

           But she wasn’t a villain. Yet she could understand why people thought she’d go down like one.

           Nevertheless, for people to think she’d ever willingly work for Hawkmoth; a man who ruthlessly used his power to corrupt the hearts and minds of innocents (like her father, mother, Adrien, Sabrina, and everyone else in Paris) and use them to further his own agenda… was too much.

           The people who believed that was basically saying Chloe was irredeemable; that there was no way she could ever be anything more than what she was. Like she couldn’t grow. Like she couldn’t better herself; like everyone in the world had that ability except for her. She was fourteen-years-old.

           Only fifteen!

           Why was it so easy to write her off?

           Chloe Bourgeois was a bully, not a freaking serial killer.

She wasn’t a Supervillain.  However, Chloe could admit, that for one brief moment when she realized she was passed over yet again by Ladybug for the chance to help save the day, hurt and anger had filled her. That if Hawkmoth had sent a butterfly after her that maybe… MAYBE for a second, she’d take his offer.

At least, he thought she could be of some use.

It wasn’t fair, Chloe remembered stomping her foot as jealously filled her.  Why didn’t Ladybug pick her? She was so much better than all those other stupid heroes! So much better than that mangy Chat Noir even. Queen Bee would be a much better partner. If she could just prove it!

           And that suddenly it was like a lightbulb went off above her head, the kind you only see in cartoons. A smile spread over her face.

           The dark butterfly that was headed her way suddenly changed its course.

Yes, Chloe had thought, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll prove it. I’ll show them all. I’m a hero. And I’m going to save everyone!

She could be better.

She would be better.

           (And once she did, maybe Ladybug would think so too)

           Nevertheless, even if Ladybug never knew. Chloe would. She would know she did the right thing because it was the right thing to do; no other reason. That would be enough for her. Even if it meant she’d never be Queen Bee again.

           Chloe was going to prove she was a hero after all. With or without the mask or magical powers.

           The world thought she wasn’t redeemable. Well, she was going to show the world what a real redemption arc looked like.

           The first thing needed to do was plan. Hawkmoth was too strong. He needed to be brought down fast before he becomes unbeatable. Ladybug was perfect but she was still just a kid. She needed more help.

           Outside help. Chloe knew there were other superheroes out there. The Avengers. The flash and his team in central city. Superman and his superfam in Metropolis. The Teen Titans. The Justice League. But to beat Hawkmoth would take stealth. It took intelligence. And people used to dealing with total nutjobs in costumes. Heroes who could help finally crack the mystery of who Hawkmoth was.

           Paris needs the Batfamily.

           Which means Chloe was going to Gotham. But she wouldn’t go alone. She needed an Ally, or preferably Allies.

Chloe decided to figure out who was who on the best board of life.

           The first was easy Ladybug was the White King; a true, just, and kick-butt hero. Chloe made herself the Queen; because whether Ladybug knew it or not, Chloe had just become her strongest protector. (She only just manage to argue against making Chat Noir a pawn; instead named him a Knight.) Sabrina, though had some major insecurity, was a good friend of Chloe. She was smart enough not to fall for Lila’s fool’s gold.

           Sabrina had learned at the heel of her father when it came to detective work. She had mastered computers thanks to her mother who was a high-level computer programmer.  She knew self-defense since her parents shoved her into Karate when she was younger. The redheaded was organized to the point of being OCD. She was loyal to a fault.

           With a little confidence, Sabrina could be a real asset to Team Ladybug. And she would be. Chloe just needed to show that she trusted the redhead, believed in her.            

Chloe wished she could bring Adrien in but he was a civilian with the backbone of a twizzler. He was too forgiving and to sheltered from the real world. It had worked in her benefit before, otherwise, he’d have dropped her as a friend a long time ago. But things had changed. Chloe needed friends who would stand up against her not just threatened to not be her friend anymore. It wouldn’t do any good in the long run after all.

           Hawkmoth was the Black king; pure evil. The Peacock shrew was his Queen. And, Chloe decided, Lila was his bishop. The sausage haired was a manipulative, rancid, liar. And from what she had seen of Lila’s akumatization, the Italian girl was fully in control of her actions. Which meant Lila was working with Hawkmoth willingly.

           And since Lila was the only bad guy she could give a real name for, Chloe decided she would be the key to bringing down Hawkmoth.

           Thus Lila Rossi became public enemy number one.

           Lila was dangerous in a way hawkmoth couldn’t be. She lied and twisted minds with no powers whatsoever. She turned nearly all of Bustier’s class into untrustworthy minions. They should’ve been White; on the side of good. But they had proven to be disloyal and easily influenced. The class couldn’t be trusted.

           They had turned against the one person even Chloe had a hard time not deeming a Saint.

           Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

           Chloe strongly disliked the girl, mostly out of envy. The blond didn’t need therapy to know that she wanted what the bluenette had; a mom that adored her, a dad that actually tried to help and not just throw money at any situation, sheer talent, and pretty much the instant admiration of almost anyone she met.

           However, she was also strong and fierce. Marinette was a force of good hard to reckoned with. Chloe needed all the help she could get.

           Which meant recruiting Dupain-Cheng for the cause.

           That might prove harder than getting Batman to help out.

           When Chloe and Sabrina showed up at the bakery and politely asked to speak with Marinette, she was given a suspicious look by Marinette’s mother (Sabel or something, Chloe couldn’t remember). Still, she called her daughter downstairs.

           Marinette walked into with a bright happy smile that quickly faded when she saw Chloe.

“We need to talk, Marinette,” Chloe forced herself to say the other girl’s first name. “Its an emergency.” Sabrina nudged her. “Please.”

           It was obviously the shock of Chloe saying please that got Marinette to take them up to her bedroom.

           Marinette tried her best to smile, “So what’ s the emerg-” Chloe cut her off.

“We’re going to Gotham to recruit Batman and his fam,” Chloe told her. “To help Ladybug bring down HawkLoser. You coming or not.”

           The bluenette just blinked.

           Sabrina winced at her best friend’s lack of tact, “What Chloe is trying to say is… We could really use your help. Ladybug could use your help. Everyone likes you. You can convince Batman to come.”

“…Why?” Marinette asked after a moment of silence.

“Ladybug needs help!” Chloe told her. “Chat Noir throws tantrums all the time. Hawkmoth has the Peacock and Lila at his deposal. Ladybug hasn’t called in Rena or Caraprace in almost a year, so there has to be a reason for that. She needs help! She needs us!”

           The Asian girl nodded slowly, “I mean, why come to me? Why help Ladybug like this?”

           Chloe frowned, “Because you always do what’s right; the good, noble thing even if it’s utterly ridiculous for you to do so. I’m doing this, helping, Ladybug, because she needs help. I’m a hero, no matter what anyone says or thinks. And Heroes help.”

           The bluenette looked at the two girls. They had been a thorn in her side for years. But she always thought they could change. She believed they could. And coming to her, Chloe archenemy, was proof that they were changing. “What’s the plan?”

           The blond smiled. “Sabrina managed to outline the patrol routes for the batfamily.”

“They switch who does what route but there is a predictability to it,” Sabrina added. “The idea is to force a confrontation. I’ve gathered evidence to show them so they could understand the gravity.”

“My job is to get us,” Chloe said. “You have plenty of time to come up with one of Disney motivational speeches to get them on board. We leave for Gotham tomorrow.”

           It was after midnight. Three girls stood on top of an old condemned building in the heart of Gotham; dressed in black, shivering from the cold.

“By my calculations,” Sabrina said. She held a computer under her arm. “At least two of the bats should be by monitoring the area during this hour.”

“And we’re sure this is going to work?” Marinette asked.

           Chloe smirked, “Oh yeah.” She took a deep breath and screamed. “AHHHHHHHH!! Help!! Help! Someone please!!” She gave a fake sob and fell to the ground; causing Marinette to jump back in shock. She looked up at Marinette and Sabrina with a wide grin on her face, “How was that?”

“Become an actress,” Marinette told her. “Let me design the dress you wear when you accept the Oscar.”

           There were two loud thuds behind.

“What’s going on?” A tall hero they recognized as Nightwing asked.

“We heard screams,” Red Robin stated.

“Its go time,” Chloe told them as she got up.

           Sabrina nodded firmly as she opened up the laptop and started quickly.

           Marinette smiled at the heroes, “Hi. My name is Marinette. This is Sabrina and Chloe,” She motioned to her friends. “We’ve come from Paris to seek the aid of Batman to stop a supervillain that has been terrorizing our city.”

           Red Robin stepped forward, “A supervillain? In Paris?”

“We haven’t heard anything about it,” Nightwing said. “We know there are heroes there that takedown small-time villain, But nothing too damaging that we’ve seen.”

“Hawkmoth possesses people,” Chloe hissed. “Turns them into monsters. Turns kids into monsters. Literal Babies into monsters. A girl who can control the weather and could end the world.  Another who absorbed energy from people so she could travel back in time. Until the people she steals energy from will freeze and slowly disappear. A man with the power of the Egyptian gods and tried to revive the dead. A villain who could trap people in pictures. Another that can bring people the worst nightmares to life. How about one that caused most of the citizens of the city of Paris to drown. One man caused all that happened. Our city gets destroyed over and over again. People die over and over again. Hawkmoth is behind it all.”

           Sabrina turned her laptop to them, and show the video they clipped together. “This is a news real, videos sent from regular smartphones.” The video showed proof of the fights, the monsters, the deaths, the damages, the terror. “Check any new channel centered in Paris. It will show you. This. IS. Real.”

Marinette fought the urge not to tremble as she remembered every villain she fought. “Ladybug fixes the damage the akuma causes; including bringing people back to life. But the people who die still remember. Ladybug can’t do this alone anymore. Even the help of Chat Noir isn’t enough. If Hawkmoth gets what he wants, it could be the end of everything and everyone.” It hadn’t been for a long time, she thought bitterly. Chat Noir loved the glamor and excitement of being a hero but it was like he never really felt the burden of the weight of Paris on his shoulders like she did. To him, it was all game. Or some stupid action movie. And he was too busy trying to get the girl to realize that they might not be able to save the day.

The bluenette looked hard at the heroes, “We need help. I know it’s not your city. I know you don’ have to care. I know you have your own villains and problems.” Tears burned in her eyes. “But we wouldn’t be here if we had other options; if we could handle it by ourselves. So We’re asking anyway. Will you please help us?”

Two identical horrified looks were on the batkids’ faces. Dick and Tim looked at the three kids, thousands of miles away from home, in the middle of the most dangerous city in the world, at night, to beg for help against what sounded like an undeniable monster. The teen girls were scared, near hopeless, and willing to ask for help from Batman and his family, heroes most civilians were too scared to even cross paths with.

Their situation was dire. Direr than the risk of being three, alone, beautiful, teenage girls in Gotham.

The other bats had been listening and or watching the conversation and were equally horrified. But that quickly gave way to fury.

“Red Robin, I want the intel off Sabrina’s computer,” Batman growled. “Oracle, I want everything you can find on Hawkmoth. We’ll start preparing to leave for Paris”

“On it,” Barabra stated. “I also brought up info on the girls. They’re all clean. Sabrina’s dad a cop. Marinette’s an all-star student, who has quite a few famous friends. Chloe’s the daughter of the Style Queen and the Mayor of Paris.”

“I get to kill Hawkmoth, right, B-man?” Jason asked. “I mean, I’m watching a video where he turned a crying baby who literally just wanted a lollipop into Gigantitan and used him to terrorize people. That’s gotta be a free pass on the killing thing.”

           There was silence. No answer from Batman.

“Holy shit, are you considering it?” Jason asked stunned. “Kids really are your Achilles’ heel.”

           Nightwing nodded. Batman always had a soft spot for kids. But even Dick was considering beating Hawkmoth to death. “Batman has agreed to help.” He told the girls who visibly sighed in relief as weight had come off them.

“May I use your laptop?” Tim asked the redhead. Sabrina nodded quickly and handed it over.

           Nightwing observed the girls, “What else can you tell us about Hawkmoth?”

“No one knows his identity, obviously?” Chloe rolled her eyes. “His Allies include another villain named Mayura, identity unknown. And a civilian named Lila Rossi.”

Sabrina still couldn’t believe Lila stooped so low. “We have evidence that she has been willingly working with the known terrorist Hawkmoth and has allowed herself to be akumatized multiple times.” She pushed up her glasses. “She’s in our class. She has been lying and causing emotional distress to multiple students, increasing Akumas.” Lila had always caused the near break up of Ivan and Mylene, Nino and Alya, and for several friendships to nearly be destroyed. It was awful. “We think she will be the best way to finally snuffing out the villain. She has some connection to him we’re trying to figure out.”

“Suspects?” Damian asked in comms. “Stop being obtuse. We need to know who they suspect.”

“Robin, you shouldn’t be on the comms,” Batman reprimanded. “It’s your day off. Relax.”

           Tim nodded, “Any leads on Hawkmoth’s identity.”

“Just one,” Marinette admitted. “A man named Gabriel Agreste. But we ruled him out after he was akumartized.”

           Chloe snorted, “That’s stupid.” She said. “If Ladybug’s cure can heal the damage of an akuma, including what’s inflicting to her and that Alley Chat; there’s no logical reason, Hawkmoth can’t use his own powers on himself. To think otherwise, would be ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous.”

           Sabrina agreed, “Or he could’ve gotten Mayura to use it. I mean Ladybug and Chat Noir switched before. Why couldn’t they?”

           Red Robin nodded, “That’s a good point. We’ll investigate him further.” He told them. “How much are you involved?”

           The girls shared a look. Chloe stepped forward proudly, “I was the Hero, Queen Bee.”

“No!” Marinette said strongly. “She is the Hero Queen Bee; a loyal friend and ally of Ladybug.” She swallowed hard as she fought the nervousness. Tikki and her had talked about what would happen next. Chloe had proven herself as far as two were considered. The blond deserved a real chance to prove she what type of hero she could be.

           Marinette took a deep breath and reached into her bag and pulled out a necklace and a hair comb that Chloe recognized instantly. A series of emotions flashed over the blonde’s face; recognition, understanding, disbelief, envy, embarrassment, frustration, acceptance, and then finally a look of admiration.

“Here,” She handed the comb to Chloe and the necklace to Sabrina. The kawami’s floated out.

“My queen,” Pollen purred as she landed on Chloe’s shoulder. The blonde looked ready to cry.

           Trixx spun around Sabrina’s head, “Kit. I have new Kitt!”

           The batfamily was just confused.

           Marinette straightens up, “Chloe for your show of loyalty, for your dedication to justice, and for your willingness to help from shadows; I name you an official and permanent member of the miraculous team. Keep moving forward. Keeping bettering yourself. I believe in you. And I welcome Queen Bee back.”

“Wha…” Nightwing said only to be cut off by Chloe

           She yelled, “Pollen, Buzz On!" And before they’re eyes, she transformed into the hero Queen Bee. “Eat your heart out, boys,” Chloe smirked at the stunned heroes.

           Marinette giggled. She focused on Sabrina who now realized exactly what was about to happen. “Sabrina, when Chloe brought you, I didn’t know what to expect. It turned out you had spent months researching and gathering evidence. I didn’t there was proof Lila was working with Hawkmoth willingly, you did. You saw through the lies and deception to find the truth despite the danger it could bring you. Which why I give you the kwami of Illusion.”

           Sabrina shakily put on the necklace. Trixx patted her head, “Now say, Trisx let's pounce.” The redhead did as she was told as was instantly transformed into a fox themed hero. Unlike Alya, Sabrina’s look was grey and a startling silver. It was more like an actual combat uniform.

“Truth is neither right nor wrong,” Sabrina stated. “It's not good or evil. It's not light or dark. Truth just is. I am Renarde Gris.”

           Marinette smiled and then said, “Tikki, Spots on.” And was transformed into Ladybug. Her suit was different; darker and better armored. “I am Ladybug.” She told the bats. “And I thank you for help.”

           Nightwing opened and closed his mouth repeatedly.

           Red Robin just pinched his nose, “Did you just make a civilian into a superhero just like that?”

           Ladybug tilted her head innocently, “Why? Isn’t that how batman got you?”

           Jason snorted, “She ain’t lying.”

“You were trained before going into the field,” Batman corrected. “You all were. But let’s focus, Ladybug is a child!”

“You’re just a kid,” Nightwing said. “You’ll all just kids.”

           Sabrina crossed her arms, “Weren’t you the first Robin? And didn’t you start at like ten-years-old? At least we’re teenagers.”

“And we don’t dress like traffic lights!” Marinette and Chloe snapped together, to their surprise, and then high-fived with a laugh.

           Red Robin examined Ladybug in a new light, “You’ve been protective Paris for three years.”

“Alone?” Damian growled in their ears. “Father, you said I was too young. I am the same age as them. I demand to be treated befitting of my status.”

           Ladybug shrugged, “The current Robin has protected Gotham on his own many times. He’s even led Teen Titans on missions. He has proven as I have that age is meaningless in the pursuit of justice. “

           Nightwing shook his head, “You’re just kids. Robin is just a kid.”

“Tell me, what bothers you more?” She asked. “The line of children that followed in your footsteps. Or that current Robin is better than you ever were.”

“…I love her.” Damian said. “Father, I love her and I will marry her.” It went quiet. “Red Robin, tell her of my affections. Superboy wants Chloe’s number. Spiderman requests Sabrina’s. I still don’t understand, why, you thought a ‘kids’ game night’ was necessary, father?”

           Batman just sighed.

           Tim cleared his throat, “Robin would like to, uh, court you.” He said. “Superboy would like Queen Bee’s phone number.” He could wait to tell Conner that Jon had a crush. “Spiderman request Renarde Gris’.”

           The girls all blushed prettily.

“Then he can hero up and ask me himself,” Sabrina smirked in a way that made Chloe proud.

“Same,” Marinette said with a smile. Chloe nodded in agreement.

“…We’re on our way,” Damian said into the comms.

           The sigh that answered that statement clearly belonged to Bruce.

[aliensunflower-fics]

A Sinister Sneaky Lila Prompt

(( So I was just thinking about the first meeting between Lila and Marinette and how our favorite spotted hero only learned about Lila being a bad person because her crush on Adrien made her freak out and immediately get suspicious of Lila and while Lila did end up being a bad person the fact that Marinette only figured it out because she had a jealous freak out always sat poorly with me so I thought up a different scenario one where Lila is more conniving and patient.))

What if Lila was a little more calm the first time we met her? What if instead of immediately showing up and spilling lies she initially goes with a much more subtle approach? Sure she still lie’s but she starts off with small things instead. But the biggest difference? She doesn't go after Adrien right away therefore Marinette’s first reaction isn't to freak out about another girl talking to Adrien but instead to greet the new girl and let her know she's the class president and maybe even warn her about Chloe the resident class bully?

Now I don’t think that even a subtle Lila would be ‘subtle’ so I imagine even on her first day her interest in Adrien is plain to see. But maybe instead of freaking out or trying to immediately claim the blonde she plays up the fact that she's a ‘fan’ of his and isn't he so gorgeous and friendly? And yeah of course Marinette doesn’t want competition but he's a freaking celebrity she can't really expect or demand other girls NOT to see how gorgeous and perfect he is! And maybe with Alya to encourage her bestie it turns into Marinette and Lila gushing together about how kind he is and his various photoshoots and from there Lila slips in a lie about having some modeling experience from her younger years? Because Lila doesn’t want enemy’s she wants ‘friends’ she wants Adrien and based on what she was able to glean from his social media accounts and her first meeting with the model he’s an absolute idiot who admires ladybug the heroin and is all about ‘friendship’ and ‘forgiveness’ so Lila needs to make herself look like the biggest sweetest everyday hero. 

A few days into Lila being at school she learns that while lots of girls in school like Adrien the only real competition is Marinette. A review of the baker girls social media shows she has quite a few connections of her own so Lila doesn’t want to risk cutting the girl off when she’s a potential source for fame. More so with how much attention Adrien gives the pigtailed brat Lila definitely does not want to risk being caught threatening or bullying the girl in any way. So Lila decides to try a different approach. Using her talent for lies Lila infiltrates the girl group at school, she gets on with Alya by encouraging ALL her theories and validating even her crazier ideas to try and unmask Ladybug, she gets on with Mylene by talking about how she was THE  actress at her old school and would love to give Mylene advice on her acting! Alix? Its all about how she’s not THAT much of a girly girl last summer she was at a survival camp! Rose is easy as pie and just as much of a bubblegum airhead and Juleka… Well Lila see’s no point in befriending her anyway! She’s just the weird quiet girl. 

Now with her way into the group guaranteed Lila can ‘help’ with operation Adrienette she pretends to think the pair are cute and she “respects” how Marinette is drawn to Adrien for his “kindness” the sheer amount of will it takes for Lila not to roll her eyes is staggering really. But its all worth it to learn about the plans to try and help Marinette confess to Adrien and Lila makes sure to ruin each and every single one. Well she TRIES… Admittedly her success rate is more like 70% the ones she ruins range from Marinette just tripping up literally to  the ‘pasta’ incident where Marinette wound up covered head to toe in delicious noodles and sauce. The ones she fails to ruin result in her grinding her teeth as Adrien and Marinette spend time together. But of course Lila isn’t just content to ruin as many ‘Adrienette’ moments as she can. No the real goal is to have Marinette give up on Adrien completely hopefully to the point of avoiding him then Lila can swoop in for the steal. In order to achieve this Lila makes sure to ‘comfort’ Marinette after every failed attempt when really shes just finding ways to tell Marinette how she failed and “oh you must have been sooo embarrassed when that pasta fell on you right in front of Adrien I have no idea HOW you’ll ever face him” the rest of the time? She’s reminding Marinette about the pressure on her how Adrien has to date someone who can match him in style, how whoever he dates will be under scrutiny from the media, how Gabriel might have certain expectations from whoever Adrien dates! Their just tiny comments, tiny nitpicks, tiny little doubts she sows into Marinette ruining her already fragile self esteem while no one's the wiser. 

Only what if someone does notice? Juleka who Lila never bothered to befriend thinking she was just another quiet weirdo notices the drop in Marinette’s esteem, how could she not? After all Marinette was always pulling her out of HER shell and now no one but her is noticing that Marinette is crawling into one of her own. And Juleka notices that its Lila’s doing, because Juleka is sneaky she see’s Lila cornering Marinette she hears the subtle jabs against the girls self esteem all disguised as ‘friendly concern’ she notes the way Marinette pulls away from Adrien with time how she discourages the girls from planning anything new after SO many attempts have left her bruised and ashamed. With Juleka on the case she starts trying to pick up the pieces of Marinette trying to rebuild her confidence and distance her from Lila until she can find some way to let the rest of the class know about how Lila has been ruining their class presidents self esteem in a way worse than anything Chloe ever did.

But how does the story end? Does Juleka unknowingly guide Marinette into the waiting arms of Luka? The calm guitarist eager to help out in rebuilding the girls now fractured self confidence? Does his calm presence and the lack of pressure and bad experience make Marinette’s heart flutter? Lila rejoices in her victory poised to take Adrien for herself but failing as the model now suddenly seems hung up on the baker even though he never noticed her before? Does Luka rise in stardom with Marinette at his side the two becoming a power couple no one saw coming? All while Lila looks on in jealousy because even though she’s won somehow shes lost? Does she reveal herself in a fit of rage because she WON  and she should be happy but Marinette ruined it by somehow scoring the bigger fish? Does Marinette cry at the lose of what she thought was a friend? Does Adrien kick himself for not noticing her earlier? Does Juleka secretly dance because her brother and her dear friend are madly in-love and absolutely adorable together? 

Or maybe its Adrien? Because despite all the pain and all the failures and embarrassment and ruined attempts at dates and confessions thanks to Lila’s meddling Adrien felt himself getting drawn to Marinette? Maybe even the failed attempts made him feel closer to her somehow because of how vulnerable and honest the girl is with him and how she picks herself up even when she falls. Does he remember her face red as a tomato unshed tears in her eyes her hair dripping with noodles and sauce and he questions why he didnt grab her hand and wipe her tears and do anything he could to make her smile? Does Lila rage when she realizes her failure does she Juleka catch her threatening and admitting all her misdeeds to Marinette in the bathroom later that day? Does Adrien protect Marinette fiercely and vow to replace every day that Lila ruined with a day full of his love and appreciation for her? Does Lila turn out to be wrong completely and every fear she instilled in Marinette crumbles away as the media embraces the couple completely, and Gabriel adopts the girl eager to grow her talents? 

Or maybe its someone else? Felix? Kagami? Chloe? An OC? Lila herself having accidentally fallen for the baker and now needing to redeem herself so she can earn the girls love because she was sneaky and conniving and a liar and she ruined Marinette and tore her from Adrien and regrets it?

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[trainsinanime]

Zoé can never replace Chloé (and she’s not meant to either)

There’s still quite a bit of dialog in the Miraculous Ladybug fandom about the question: Is Zoé supposed to be a replacement for Chloé? I felt like examining that a bit further. The key to figure this out is to look at what Chloé’s role in the story is, and how it does and does not overlap with what we’ve seen from Zoé so far.

For example, is Chloé’s role to be the mayor’s daughter? I would argue no. Being the mayor’s daughter is how she gets her (considerable) power over the class, and thus, a large part of her ability to influence or create stories. You could just as easily imagine her getting that power from elsewhere, e.g. by her father being Monsieur Damocles or some school superintendent, or just a really rich political donor, and it wouldn’t change Chloé’s role at all. Alternatively, there are characters who are in similar positions of power and privilege, but don’t actually use it. Adrien and Kagami are both rich, and Gabriel seems to have at least an indirect connection to André, so you could easily make stories about Adrien abusing that power and privilege if you really wanted to - except it doesn’t fit his character and his role in the story at all.

Is Chloé’s role to be the carrier of the Bee Miraculous? Again, I don’t think so. The bee miraculous is a result of how Chloé acts. Its power of telling people what to do is tailor-made for her personality, and by that I mean pre-possible-redemption-arc personality if that makes a difference. The story does not really need to her to have the bee miraculous specifically. Any would do. The bee was created for her because it fits her established personality best. This is in general how the show works: It’s ultimately never that Marinette has a certain miraculous and has to find a wielder for it; it is that the show wants to highlight a certain character, and gives them a specific power-up that matches their established character and the plot of the episode (except arguably for Alya, where the only link is “orange”, but that’s a different post). The story works just as well if Chloé got a different miraculous, or a different way to get a glimpse into the superhero world, because the point of her getting this is to tell us more about who Chloé is as a person, what she really wants, and how she acts when she both gets and loses it.

Is Chloé’s role to be a close friend of Marinette’s? Clearly not. That may change in the future, maybe, who knows, but so far, when Chloé is important in a plot, it is often specifically because she dislikes and resents Marinette.

Ultimately Chloé has a very simple role. It is literally the same as Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter, Cordelia Chase in Buffy, Libby in Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and many, many others like them. Almost every teenage TV show has someone like them. Chloé is here as the school life antagonist, as a counterpoint to Hawkmoth. Some author (I remember it as being Marjorie Liu, but I’ve never been able to find the quote again) once said that the fun the thing about writing teenagers is that everything has equal importance: Tomorrow is the big dance, and also the world is going to end, and both things are equally important. Miraculous Ladybug follows that scheme strictly, and in it, Chloé’s job is to make the „big dance“ part of this challenging.

A fun thing is that the show generally tries to link the problems she causes to the superheroics, because that makes for a better story. The obvious case is when she is the akumatized villain herself. But there are also for example things like Darkblade, where the show uses the situation with Chloé to draw explicit parallels even though her situation isn’t really linked with D’Agencourt’s at all. A few times Chloé’s role is to literally just show up, upset someone for no reason until they become Akumatization material, and then leave again, such as in Frozer, Stormy Weather 2 or Frightningale. And sometimes the superhero plot is all about Chloé’s actions and also a hilarious homage to every single zombie movie trope ever (Zombizou). Either way, Chloé exists to cause problems - and by extension, episode plots - on purpose.

Another aspect of that is that she helps Marinette grow. Sometimes she is simply motivation for Marinette to go out and be a better person (Darkblade), but she can also appeal to Marinette’s darker instincts so that Marinette can then reject them, or at least feel bad about her actions, such as in Animaestro.

Zoé, who is friendly and passive, and whose stories are all about her relationship with Chloé, is as far from a replacement as you can possibly get. Yes, Zoé has taken over the bee miraculous, but that was part of a plot that was all about Chloé as a person, and not at all about Zoé herself. And it doesn’t really matter, because Chloé isn’t here to get the bee miraculous, the bee miraculous is here to tell a story about Chloé.

Now, yes, Zoé may seem like she has taken over from Chloé if you look at it from a hypothetical end point: Throughout parts of season 2, it looked like Chloé might do a standard grade 1 redemption arc, become nice, a friend to Marinette and a member of the team. There were hints that Chloé might be interested in that, and hints that Marinette might be open to the idea, and then the show went very hard in another direction. Zoé is indeed very, very roughly the kind of person that Chloé and parts of the fandom thought she deserved to be. 

But that isn’t actually a replacement of Chloé, because the role of Chloé is not to become redeemed as quickly as possible. The point of a redemption arc, or in fact any arc, isn’t the endpoint, it’s the way there. That’s why people read 100,000 word enemies-to-lovers stories despite the fact that eventual result is already literally there in the tags. Miraculous Ladybug doesn’t need "mayor’s daughter who looks good in yellow and is nice" and takes shortcuts to get there; it needs - and most importantly clearly wants - an interesting story about Chloé specifically. You can’t replace Chloé in a story all about her personality and her relationships with people with anyone except literally Chloé herself, and certainly not with someone who is noticeably nicer.

(This does not mean Zoé is pointless; it means Zoé’s role is something else entirely. Maybe someone who pushes Chloé to be better? We’ll see.)

Now, will this story be told well? As of right now I’m honestly giving it 50:50 odds, and my guess is that it will both feel drawn-out and rushed at the same time in the end thanks to the "occasional large dumps of plot" technique of storytelling the show generally uses. We’ll see. But I am certain that the story will be told at all. If the show writers didn’t want to, they could have literally sent her off to America, that was literally a plot point in the season 3 finale.

So: Zoé as a replacement for Chloé? That’s ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.

And final thought: Once more, I want to point out that literally all Chloé-related salt is true if and only if you insert Lila instead at the right place. First, she is the obvious replacement for Chloé. She makes Marinette’s life more challenging when not in costume, and she is very good at that because she’s specifically designed to push all of Marinette’s righteous fury buttons. Lila is literally an explicit counterpart to and partner of Hawkmoth. And finally, she’s the character the creators don’t seem to like at all, or at least don’t seem to know what to do with, considering how little she appears and how she’s gotten no development whatsoever. We really need a "justice for Lila, turn her into the meaningful dastardly villain she deserves to be" movement in the fandom.

[adrinoir]

Who will be the next Hawk Moth?

Alright, well there’s a lot of different theories on who will be “the next Hawk Moth”. So I wanted to do a break down on some possibilities (warning: this analysis is REALLY long lol)

Lila

I feel like Lila is very likely to be the next one. She already has a leg up in working with Gabriel (despite not knowing he’s Hawk Moth).

Even though Hawk Moth hasn’t reached his goal of getting Ladybug and Cat Noir’s miraculouses, he’s made good progress. With Lila’s help, he’s gotten PRETTY damn close to getting them since she has that deep hatred of Ladybug. Without her, he wouldn’t have had his invasion of scarlet moths possessing Paris.

Additionally, Lila is pretty full of herself and does just about everything for her own benefit. She could easily grow a bigger hatred towards Ladybug and find out about the benefits of their miraculouses to have her own wish granted.

It’s really difficult to see her as a redeemable character since she has yet to show any redeemable qualities. But, hey, maybe there will be a plot twist where she’ll change her ways.

Chloe

As much as I’d LOVE to see Chloe develop into a better person since we see she is the way she is, I don’t have too much faith in Thomas Astruc’s writing.

Thomas initially started Chloe off as the annoying and conceited bully, then she started seeing the error of her ways, and finally...she was pulled back to square one.

It’s obvious that Chloe is pretty strong. She knows Hawk Moth is evil and has fought off an akuma even when she was super angry with Ladybug. However, Hawk Moth IS a rather powerful man and was able to akumatize Chloe on many occasions. She became his most successful akumatized victim as Miracle Queen. I feel like the fandom doesn’t talk enough about how Chloe managed to get almost ALL the miraculous holders to reveal their identities. (Don’t come for Hawk Moth in saying he hasn’t made a lot of progress - he HAS.)

The main issue with Chloe is that she can easily be manipulated into doing things for Hawk Moth because she has that disliking for Ladybug, deep down. She doesn’t want to hate Ladybug but obviously it’s been tough since she won’t let Chloe have her bee miraculous, and being Queen Bee is very important to her. Chloe wants to be powerful and heroic to feel good about herself since her mom doesn’t see her as something special (which is awful, I feel so bad for Chloe, honestly.)

Even though the likelihood is there, I really don’t want Chloe to become the next Hawk Moth. In season 4, it’d be nice to see some of her character development come back, and hopefully her and her mom build a stronger relationship now that Audrey has decided to stay in Paris with the family. Thomas Astruc needs to make Chloe better but KEEP it that way. She’s shown redeemable qualities and we know why she acts the way that she does. There’s a ridiculous amount of potential for her to be a wonderful, well-rounded character instead of just the evil bully Thomas makes her out to be.

Felix

So far, we’ve only seen Felix in one episode, but we already have a good idea of what he’s like. He’s very manipulative as a form of coping with his father’s death.

Felix already has a bit of a vendetta against Gabriel for keeping Emilie’s family heirlooms, and managed to steal them from Gabriel. He also wasn’t very nice to Adrien in pretending to be him and attempting to hurt his friendships. All of those things Felix did just prove he’d make a *good* villain.

My theory is that he’ll come back for at least one more episode, since he took the wedding rings that were very precious to Gabriel. However, it’s kind of strange to me that Felix hasn’t even been mentioned since his debut episode. So, we will see if this devilish boy makes a comeback.

Adrien

People have had this theory a while back, but it’s just incredibly unlikely at this point.

Adrien cares deeply about his mom and wants her back, of course. However, we see in Cat Blanc that he tried to cataclysm his own father for what he’s done. He was so hurt by his father’s motives, he triggered the end of the world.

There could potentially be an episode where Adrien hears his father out and tries the butterfly miraculous out for himself, but Bunnyx would come out of her burrow and shut that shit down.

OR, we know Gabriel is an awful father and he could somehow manipulate his own son to take his spot as Hawk Moth. (But again, Bunnyx could easily shut this down, too.)

Adrien loves being Cat Noir; he’s shown to be the Cat Noir in the future. He has an extremely good heart. So they’ve pretty much denied Adrien becoming the new Hawk Moth, at this point.

Luka

I think this is the most interesting idea I’ve seen on who the next Hawk Moth will be. (I recommend watching Cat Blanc x Princess Justice’s YouTube video analysis on this. It’s really good! I mention some of her points in here.)

Luka is almost too nice of a character. He cares a lot about other people and just sort of lets Marinette take advantage of his kindness, which is really sad, BUT there could easily be a motive we don’t know behind that, or he’s secretly bothered by it deep down.

There’s that theory that Luka knows Marinette is Ladybug. He could be trying to get closer to her to take the miraculous from her since he might know the power the ladybug and black cat miraculous hold.

Or, like I mentioned before, if Luka is bothered deep down by Marinette’s romantic feelings for Adrien, there could be something that happens that pushes him over the edge. We’ve even seen that Luka makes a terrifying villain as Silencer. He was super manipulative and had a lot of good tactics. Ladybug and Cat Noir DID in fact have a really hard time fighting him. Luka is also not the type of person to get angry like that, but Hawk Moth needs STRONG emotion to feed off of. So, considering how powerful of a villain Luka was, there’s clearly some anger boiling within him.

We also don’t have that much of a backstory to work off of. We’re slowly learning more, but think about it, for instance, we don’t know who his father is. Some people have theorized it’s Jagged Stone but we’re REALLY not sure. So, maybe it’s a motive of his to find his father.

Thomas Astruc made Luka a very likable character, enough so to get most of the fandom to actually like the Lukanette ship. Luka could have been made purposely likable so that the fandom won’t believe that he will be the next villain.

Another good point Cat Blanc x Princess Justice had made was that Miraculous World made a tweet that Miraculous will be introducing a new villain in season 4 - but it’s a character we already know. Lila and Felix are already known BUT they’re also already well-established villains....

Kagami

If Luka is a possibility, so is Kagami. Half the fandom thinks Kagami is great, the other half thinks she’s awful.

Kagami is shown to have a very strong personality (that sometimes comes off as a bit threatening). She’s very blunt about everything, very uptight, doesn’t beat around the bush. Those three characteristics are similar to Gabriel, HOWEVER Kagami has a caring soul and she really wants to be good to Adrien and Marinette.

So, it’s possible, but unlikely and definitely hard to pinpoint what intentions she could possibly have of becoming a villain. Maybe her mother pinches a certain nerve, or she can’t understand why Adrien doesn’t love her.

Additionally, Thomas Astruc doesn’t cut Adrien a lot of slack, let’s be real here. Adrien’s father is already Hawk Moth, he could switch it to his “girlfriend” being Hawk Moth.

Alya

So, I have a bit of an interesting theory on this since I haven’t really seen anyone else mention anything about Alya potentially becoming bad.

Despite Alya/Rena Rouge having a strong bond and trust with Ladybug, there’s that possibility she still wants to unveil who Ladybug really is - she still runs The Ladyblog, after all. And of course, unveiling Ladybug’s identity is extremely dangerous. She even posted the museum exhibit to her blog in Feast, which she didn’t realize was dangerous. It shows that she might slip and reveal something that she shouldn’t have.

Or, maybe Alya manages to lose Ladybug’s trust. Something monumental could happen. There’s already that bit of danger surrounding Ladybug and Rena Rouge since they’re such close friends in real life and know nearly everything about each other.

Hawk Moth also now knows that Alya is Rena, and could do something to push her to reveal something on The Ladyblog, therefore turning her into a villain.

Also, Alya already knows SO much of the Ladybug lore. She’s dedicated so much time to researching the lore behind the miraculouses. Also pretty dangerous and suspicious.

Nino

Like Alya, there’s a chance Nino also loses Ladybug and/or Cat Noir’s trust. When Nino first got his miraculous, he wasn’t very good at acting like a different person in his superhero persona. He could easily slip and reveal an something he isn’t supposed to.

He is the least likely possibility, but not completely impossible.

Tom or Sabine

I put these two in the same excerpt because they have about the same amount of likeliness to be the next Hawk Moth (or maybe one is Hawk Moth and the other is Mayura 👀)

Tom and Sabine are both super sweet, but also, we don’t know a whole lot about them. Since Gabriel - father of sweet cinnamon roll hero Cat Noir - is Hawk Moth, who’s to say superhero Ladybug’s own parents couldn’t become evil? It’d create a super interesting dynamic in the plot because it’s like how would Marinette react if one of her parents was Hawk Moth?

I have a stronger theory that Tom and Sabine used to be the old Ladybug and Cat Noir, but still. Don’t put it past Thomas Astruc to trick us somehow.

How would Gabriel fail (or lose his miraculous)?

One last thing I’d also like to analyze relating to this is this question.

Does Gabriel NOT end up ever getting Ladybug and Cat Noir’s miraculouses? Let’s look over some possibilities:

1) One of the villains he creates or senti-monsters Nathalie creates becomes too powerful and doesn’t give him the miraculouses once they’re captured.

2) He gives up and realizes all he needs is his dearest son Adrien.

3) He gets sickly and can’t fight anymore and passes on his miraculous for someone else to do the job.

4) Simplest answer: His miraculous is stolen.

[salthaven]

A Lady’s Scout (and the Salt within her Soul)

A Lady’s Scout (and the Salt within her Soul)

   Marinette doesn’t know how the rumors started. Oh scratch that, of course she knows how the rumors started. Hell, she encouraged them herself!

   She was pissed, and rightfully so. Her friends had all left her, betraying her, forgetting her, leaving her behind for Lila. A single incident turned into multiples, and Marinette ended that same week in the back once more, now a permanent resident of the back row. All it took was a few crocodile tears from Lila to Miss Bustier, complaining about sight problems. But of course, she just needed to be a little closer to the board. Like Marinette’s spot kind of close. But it’s fine, because Marinette can sit with Nathaniel, and aren’t they such good friends?

   Marinette didn’t even try to complain, already knowing that she’d lose. And so she ended the week in the back, silently fuming as Alya didn’t even bat an eye at the change.

   And it only continued. Days turned into weeks, and the weeks never ended. Suddenly Marinette was being forgotten, abandoned on an island, watching in vain as her classmates were left in awe of Lila’s latest ‘travels’. Sure, she had Nathaniel, but he was wrapped up in his comic most of the time.

   So Marinette became wrapped up in her own little world of designs. Without her friends by her side, Marinette found herself with more free time than she’d had in months! (It looks like Lila can bring some good into her life!)

   The first creation was a fox themed shirt, styled after Rena Rouge’s costume. Bold orange merged seamlessly with a creamy white, little embroidery creating a picture in the corner for searching eyes to find. A little fox, prancing among the flowers. A little fox, searching for something.

   A little fox, searching for the Miraculous she’d never get again. Because why would she? Why would she, when she was no longer dependable? When she was no longer trustworthy, no longer loyal? When she’d forget Marinette for the next best thing?

   So maybe Marinette was a little bitter, but who could blame her? And besides, why would she want to keep a fox that betrays her when she could have a friend who would silently stand by her side, or rather sit there, and come up with his own little illusions each and every day?

   Fennec debuted three weeks after Marinette is exiled to the back, on a sunny day that does little to represent Alya’s mood.

   Marinette presented the shirt on that following Monday.

   “Th- thank you, Marinette,” Alya said, eyes widening as she gazed at the shirt. “But why is it fox themed?”

   “Oh, you reminded me of Rena,” Marinette said with a wink, but there was no smile on her face. There wasn’t one on Alya’s, either, but only teary eyes.

   Later, Marinette would look down at Alya and be met with skeptical, questioning eyes. But the eyes turned away quickly, downcast.

   Marinette watched on from her spot in the back, eyes searching for flaws. She found them in her partners, and she created.

   Next came a hoodie. A soft green, with a hexagonal pattern stitched in with darker thread. A hood, large enough for an old friend to hide his head in, even with a hat on.

   He was protective, but not of Ladybug. Only Rena Rouge, only ever Rena Rouge. But Rena was gone, and so he would be, too.

   Luka swapped teal for green, becoming Protecteur. Her protector. Because he’d never harmed her, he’d never betrayed her. He’d always been there, a silent support, and now he could be the same for Ladybug.

   When Marinette gave Nino the hoodie, his eyes locked with hers, an unusual trait.

   “Hey, what’s up with the Carapace theme, dudette?”

   “He was just like you, wasn’t he?” She asked, and then she was gone, hidden in the back.

   It’d be hard to miss how he tensed from so high up. Perhaps it was good, being forced to the back.

   A bee themed skirt was made quickly. Light and simple, the white skirt had little yellow bees buzzing along the hem. Cute, yet impractical. Focusing more on looks than on functionality.

   Yes, that was the way Marinette worked out her stress from Queen Bee, from the hero who never was, and never would be forevermore.

   She presented it before she chose a replacement, and was met with weariness.

   “You never give me gifts, Dupain-Cheng,” Chloé pointed out bluntly, eyes challenging. “What’s with the skirt?”

   “Oh, I just thought you’d like a little keepsake,” Marinette responded, already turning away.

   Three days later, a new bee was chosen. Monarch rose up, a force to be reckoned with.

   Kagami was all too happy to take up the mantle, to take out her stress on the poor Akuma victims. She was honored to be chosen, and Marinette was happy.

   Her team was chosen, fixed to her liking. She was protected, she was safe, no longer relying on classmates who would only let her down.

   And the rumors spread. From Alya and Nino, whispering to one another about what the gifts could mean. To an accidental comment near Lila, who used it as fuel to spread her fire. Because if Marinette knew...who’s to say she isn’t acting as some sort of scout?

   “Ladybug and I had a falling out,” Lila explained with a flip of her hair. “I didn’t approve of the idea, so she and I had a spat.” She smiled at Alya, all sugar and sweetness. “I’d never replace someone like you...but Marinette would encourage it.”

   Alya had glared at Marinette the rest of the week, and the whisperings picked up.

   Chloé learned from Lila, and came marching up to Marinette immediately.

   “Lila says you’re some kind of hero scout, huh?” Chloé said, shoving her face into Marinette’s. “What, are you some kind of goody two-shoes who talks to Ladybug, crying when someone upsets you?”

   Marinette raised an eyebrow. “Me? Why, I do nothing of the sort! I’d never complain to Ladybug like that.” She smiled, fully aware of the searching eyes. Aware of the awe stricken gaze Nathaniel sent her way, of the shock in Nino’s eyes and pure hatred in Alya’s. “I wouldn’t complain, but if she does come by for advice...who am I to lie?”

   She saw how Lila glared, teeth grinding. She saw how her classmates reacted, some with excitement, others with worry. Unsure how to feel, unsure how to act.

   Fennec, by then permanent much like her Bee and Turtle, questioned her during patrol, right in front of Chat Noir, Protecteur, and Monarch.

   “Hey, Ladybug?” Fennec asked, eyes full of nerves.

   “Yes, Fennec?”

   “Is Marinette some sort of hero scout for you?”

   With those words, Ladybug saw how her three teammates paused. Protecteur and Monarch seemed shocked by the words, Chat Noir just leaned in closer, waiting with baited breath for her answer.

   “She is,” Ladybug replied easily, knowing the rumors would spread, knowing the rumors would lead to hatred and excitement and an alibi. (Because how could Ladybug’s scout be a hero, especially Ladybug herself? It just wouldn’t be possible!) “I tried giving her the Fox Miraculous back during Sapotis, but she suggested a friend of hers. They were good, so I asked her for a Turtle recommendation. Carapace worked well. She thought Queen Bee could redeem herself, so we gave Chloé a shot.”

   “Why did you replace them?” Chat Noir asked. “If Marinette suggested them, why would you change your mind?”

   “They stopped being reliable.” Ladybug shrugged, twirling her yoyo. “They left Marinette alone to be isolated. They let their friend be threatened by a liar, and when Marinette finally admitted it to me? I can’t have people who act like that.”

   “Did she recommend us?” Protecteur asked, and Ladybug smiled.

   “You three were the first people she could think of, and she had shining recommendations for all three.”    She saw the way they reacted. Monarch smiled, Protecteur beamed, Fennec looked ready to have a stroke...and Chat Noir seemed pensive, eyes searching for something.

   Marinette went to class the next day, and things had changed. For some reason, Max, Kim, and Alix were being extra nice to her. For some reason, Adrien spoke directly to her, despite having shied away the moment Alya got mad. For some reason, she felt like she was being watched. It was more than usual, more than when Lila first spread the rumor that Marinette was a hero scout.

   But it didn’t click on why until Kagami spelled it out during lunch.

   “They want to be heroes, too,” Kagami muttered, inching closing to the bluenette. Luka dropped into the spot beside her, and Nathaniel quickly sat across from them, setting his bag in the last remaining spot.

   “So they think I can help with that?” Marinette questioned, an eyebrow raising.

   “You are a hero scout,” Nathaniel pointed out, cheeks tinted red with embarrassment. “If you deem someone worthy, Ladybug will give them the Miraculous.”

   Marinette glanced around, saw the way Kim eyed her, expression eager as he waved excitedly.

   Of course. Her one time Roi Singe...and the Pegasus and Bunnix to follow. They knew she had a say, and so they were sucking up to her.

   Marinette turned her gaze away, focusing on her true friends. “I only tell Ladybug about the real heroes,” she muttered, missing the way her three friends blushed.

   That night, she was itching to create, and so she did. A monkey inspired sweatband, with a tiny, comical version of Xuppu stitched on the inside. It only took a few hours, and Marinette was happy with it.

   Kim jogged up to her as she walked into the classroom, still beaming. “Hey, Marinette!” He said happily, as if he hadn’t ignored her, too. “Want to hangout soon? I have a track competition, you should come see it!”

“I can’t,” Marinette replied dismissively, “but here’s a good luck gift.” She pressed the sweatband into his palm, and watched him stumble as he realized what it meant.

“Oh...okay,” he said with a frown, deflated and hurt. He moped over to his seat, allowing Max to console him.

By lunchtime, Max seemed nervous, glancing at Marinette with panicked eyes. He seemed to be calculating, consulting Markov. Whatever he realized, it was enough to set him on edge.

   Two days later, he was sure of his results. Marinette came up to him, and she smiled coldly.

   “I made you these,” she said, and set a pair of sunglasses in his hands. “I thought you’d like them.” She turned, ignoring the way his eyes dropped, and then paused. “And don’t worry, they’ll protect your eyes from dangerous napkins.”

   Later that day, Marinette would sit at home and laugh at her comment, then continue on to start one of her final gifts.

   Her class was chaotic. Half of them followed her around like she was Lila, trying to do favors for her, trying to get into her good graces, trying to be someone special in her eyes. Many of them stayed far away, however, hiding from her sight, unsure if they should hate her or hate themselves, unsure what went wrong, unsure of what to do.

   And then she had her actual friends. Nathaniel, Luka, Kagami…

   And, according to the school, Ladybug.

   Alix became pushier. The young girl practically bounced like a rabbit as she’d follow Marinette around, trying to prove herself. She thought she was in the clear, that the future was set in stone. She owned the watch, after all, so it was rightfully hers, right?

   Marinette presented her with a hat, light blue with a little white pom pom on top, and Alix froze.

   Later that day, Ladybug made a trip to Alix’s house, and she left a perfect replica of the watch behind. Perfect, of course, except for the lack of a certain bunny-themed Kwami.

   Alix didn’t show up for school the next day, and Marinette didn’t bat an eye.

   Just like that, her team was complete, and justice had been served.

   But Marinette wasn’t done.

   No, because there was one last thing to do. One little thing.

   Marinette donned the Mouse, one last time. She split herself up, until a dozen little Multimice were running through the school. She snuck into each class, gathering information. Looking for future options.

   And playing her final card in the game she’d been playing for months.

   Her class was silent as Miss Bustier took attendance, eyes on their teacher as Multimouse slipped underneath the door.

   “Marinette?” Miss Bustier asked, eyes curious, and Multimouse raised her hand, as if on autopilot.

   “Here!” Her little voice squeaked out, and then she gasped, covering her mouth.

   But it was too late, she’d been ‘found’. Miss Bustier stared, wide-eyed, crouching down to see her student on the floor.

   “M- Marinette?” Miss Bustier asked, and Multimouse shook her head.

   “No, no, of course not!” But it was too late, wasn’t it? Marinette was never a good liar, was she?

   “You’re Multimouse?!” Alya shouted the question, hands slamming onto her desk. Lila, beside her, stared, but the stare quickly turned into a dangerous glare.

   “I, uh,” Multimouse sighed, curling in on herself. “Fuck.” She turned to face Miss Bustier. “I...I guess I’ll explain, but just wait a second. I’d rather do this at full height.”

   “Okay?” Miss Bustier nodded, still baffled. “What do you need?”

   “Oh, just my other me’s. They should be here right about now.” As if on cue (oh they were definitely on cue), the other Multimice came darting under the door, making their way to Multimouse. They went up to her, quickly combining into one normal-sized Multimouse.

   “Woah,” Nathaniel whispered, eyes shining with excitement. The rest of the class seemed to feel the same, any negative feelings forgotten (well, except for one certain girl) in the moment.

   “Why were there so many?” Rose asked, eyes searching for any others that may have stayed small. “What were they- you- doing?”

   Multimouse laughed. “Wasn’t it obvious? I’ve heard the rumors, guys, I know what you think.”

   She watched how they paused, how their mouths dropped and their eyes widened.

   “You were looking for new heroes?” Adrien asked, speaking up for once in his life, and Multimouse shrugged.

   “Ladybug wanted new blood. Sent me out to search. She’s done it a few times, dropping the Miraculous off so I could get stuff done.” She looked to Miss Bustier with the sweetest, most innocent smile she could ever give, and said, “I hope you understand why I’m late so often. I couldn’t exactly tell you the truth, it’s supposed to be a secret after all.”

   “Of course,” Miss Bustier said, and Multimouse smiled wider.

   (So maybe it’s a partial lie, but Marinette was sick of getting detention for saving the goddamn city every day.)

   “How long has this been going on?” Alya asked, hands shaking as she held onto her desk, as she struggled to not grab her phone.

   Multimouse made a show of pausing, of tapping her finger to her chin before smiling. “I’ve been sneaking around since Carapace’s debut. After that, Ladybug wanted me to search more often. It helped her get a grasp of what goes on in the world. She can’t have eyes everywhere, but I can.” She giggled, then frowned. “It’s been tough, having to hide this for so long. I had to hide from Chat Noir, too, in the beginning, in case he got possessed. If he only focused on Ladybug, he couldn’t go after me during my secret missions. I nearly lost the ability to use the Miraculous when I revealed my identity to him...oh no.”

   “What?” Adrien asked. “What’s wrong?”

   “I suppose Ladybug won’t use me any longer.” Multimouse hugged herself, looking out the window. “She can’t, not anymore.”

   “Why not?” Nathaniel asked, looking hurt.

   “You all know my identity. I can’t be a hero, it isn’t safe. Especially when Ladybug’s stalker- shit.”

   Like a conductor of an orchestra, Multimouse played them once more. She struggled to hold back her smirk as the class went berserk once more.

   “She has a stalker?” Adrien asked, slamming his hands on the desk. “Who is it?”

   Multimouse shrunk back. “It- it’s not my place to say. Ladybug said to be nice, that she can fight her own battles.”

   “Is someone hurting her?” Nino asked, and Multimouse just took another step back. “Who?”

   “I really shouldn’t-” but the class is wild now, and they want the truth. So Multimouse sighed and pulled on her jump rope, opening up a hidden phone. “Alright, I’ll call her.” She hit a few buttons, then nodded. “She’ll be here soon. I should go...Ladybug will want the Miraculous back.” One last sad look to her class, and then she leaped out of the window, sneaking up to the roof.

   One quick change later, Ladybug hopped into the classroom, eyes narrowed.

   This time, Alya pulled out the phone, finally unable to control her desire for footage. “Ladybug! Ma-”

   “Multimouse,” Ladybug cut off quickly.

   “Multimouse told us that you have a stalker?” Alya asked. “Who is it?”

   Ladybug raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t you know? You put her on your blog every single week, after all.”

   Alya froze, and so did Lila.

   “I- I’m not-” Lila tried to start, but Ladybug was ready.

   “Lila Rossi has been claiming many things since she got to Paris. I’ve heard claims of her being Volpina, a superhero. I’ve heard her claim that she was a better hero than me, and that she and I are best friends. She’s been Akumatized multiple times, and I’m not quite so sure whether or not it’s just to get close to me. She has tormented my scout, ostracizing her and claiming that I would support her, that I would listen to her. Lila Rossi has created an illusion in her mind that I owe her my friendship, and that my scout has done her wrong, and I would never trust someone like her.” She glared at the girl, at the camera. “There is one good thing Lila Rossi has done. She has been a wonderful test for my previous temporaries in order to see where their loyalties are. Other than that, she has been stalking me, creating up stories, and ruining lives.” She glared at Alya. “Now, if that’s all you want, I must go find my scout. She seemed rather upset, and I’d rather not fight my favorite civilian.”

   Then she left the room, and she didn’t come back for the rest of the day. Instead she stayed home, claiming she felt sick, and let herself relax.

   She created her final design.

   When Marinette came into class the next day, she wore a beautiful pink dress, embroidered with little gray mice. The message was clear, and Nathaniel seemed disappointed. Adrien did, too, but Marinette wasn’t sure why.

   She was greeted with apologies, with promises to be better. With questions, wondering how she’d managed to be Multimouse for so long without raising suspicion. With admiration, as their friends realized who the true friend of Ladybug was.

   And Marinette just turned away, turned to her true chosen heroes.

   Later that day, rumors of a heroine in a dragon’s red were heard, and if Ladybug was suspiciously absent…

   Well, the other heroes enjoyed patrolling with their scout, and the world was right for one more day.  ----- And with that, I have finally written this fic! Thank you to @liamnl for letting me use this idea, it was really fun! (To be honest, I wasn’t sure how to end it, so I figured Marinette could get her last revenge and call out Lila once and for all.) I hope you all enjoyed it! <3

[cornholio4]

Terms of En-Rampagement II

I honestly don’t like the fics subset of another character being the biological father of Marinette but I thought fo this idea on Twitter, thinking I may treated it as crack not to be taken seriously. There is some influence here from Supervillain Backstabber by quicksilversquared.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng always knew that her dad wasn't her biological father, but it didn't matter to her as Tom Dupain was the best dad that she could ever ask for. However when the subject of her biological father was brought up, her mother never had anything positive to say about him.

Sabine Cheng had only said that between her and Marinette's biological father was a fling when she and Tom had temporarily split up while dating. Just before they got back together and through her life Marinette never sees her mother as angry as she was whenever she was ranting about what happened between her and Marinette's biological father after their one night fling. Marinette could never get the full details but she was sure she didn't want to get the full details since they involved her father turning out to be a complete jerk (the nicest way that Sabine had put it), Sabine being knocked out after an accident and waking up to almost being buried alive!

Marinette could never blame her mother for not wanting to bring him back, especially after hearing that detail.

Plus her mother would really be tense whenever she apparently reminded her of him, if she lost track of a joke she was going to make and muttered "wait, I had something for this..." Whenever there was Top Gun airing on the TV and when she started getting into the song Highway to the Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins after Nino played it for one of his parties.

She admitted that at night she would overhear rants Sabine would give to Tom whenever someone asked about Marinette's biological father (mostly by Tom's mother and Marinette's grandmother Gina) she managed to get the name 'Sterling Archer'.

Any desire for details about her biological father had been left aside as she had bigger problems, like having to stop Hawk Moth's Akumas as Ladybug and balancing her Superhero life with her normal one.

One night after taking care of an Akuma she found masked people tailoring them and managed to take them down when they found her going to her home. She had then tied up with her yoyo and interrogated them. It turned out they were CIA agents from the US, sent in undercover to try and retrieve the source of the French Superhero powers for the US government. She shook her head as the two agents were embarrassed about being defeated by a teenage girl. She made them promise to not to come back and keep any secrets they found out secret plus to tell their superiors to never try that again or else she will make it known that the CIA were here in France.

What an international incident that would become.

The man grunted and the woman was being embarrassed about backing down to threats from a teenage superhero. Marinette warned them to make themselves scarce before anyone comes out especially since her family the Dupain-Chengs owned this bakery. Then the man called Archer by the woman grunted about knowing a woman with the surname Cheng 14 years ago when he had an assignment there, what they had between them one night and the woman Lana shouted at him not to say this in front of the girl.

Marinette was shocked and open mouthed at this and did not move as she was transformed back into civilian with Tikki next to her, the two agents jumping at the floating red and black spotted bug but otherwise concerned about what was wrong with Marinette. "My name is Marinette and my Mum knew a Sterling Archer..." Marinette told them with Archer's mouth open in shock and Lana shaking her head as they had obviously realised where this was going.

"I think I'm your daughter." Marinette told them and Archer was open mouthed. Marinette told them by as she transformed again to sneak into her room but before the agents left Lana gave Marinette an email if she wants to contact them.

She mostly went back to normal but the thought of having a way to contact her biological father made her wonder and deciding wanting to know about him was what she wanted to do. She would keep this from her parents especially since she didn't know how her mother would react as well as having to explain how she came across them in the first place.

She contacted Archer by emails and as it turned out he was a tough secret agent which she thought was cool (though apparently terrible at most parts of his job, especially the 'secret' part) and currently she was working under the remnants of the spy agency run by his mother Mallory (from the descriptions even her grandfather Roland would find Mallory unpleasant) and was now part of the CIA under the supervision of Agent Slater. They were not pleased that the mission was a failure and was thwarted by a teenager.

Archer told her about his adventures and Marinette thought that she was sure that most had to be made up or embellished. Plus he did sound kind of unpleasant but it felt nice getting to know her biological father (like trying to say that he helped cover up the death of the Prime Minister of Italy?). He told her about how the agency his mother set up was never actually sanctioned by the US Government so they had to spend a year as a cartel (which apparently they were even worse at than even spying) before joining up with the CIA.

Plus she was told about her half-sister Abbiejean along with a photo sent to her, she was already thinking if she can meet up when they were older then she can make some designs for her.

She talked about her friends, helping out with designing for celebrities like Jagged Stone and a band featuring her classmates called Kitty Section. Plus with help from advice that he had gotten Lana (apparently he knew that any love advice that he would come up for her would be terrible) she managed to ask out her friend Juleka's brother Luka (who she had wanted to try pursuing after given up on her crush on Adrien) and they were now dating.

She didn't know why she decided to go as far as she did but she admitted problems with bullying from classmates; her lifelong bully Chloe Bourgeois who she trusted as a Superhero ally and seemed like she was trying to be nicer only to decide that she preferred being selfish and that the idea of not being Queen Bee anymore being worth joining with Hawk Moth. Then there was Lila Rossi who had her classmates enthralled with ridiculous lies that were easily disproven and made her out to be jealous for pointing them out.

Then she got the response saying that Lana would kill him if she knew what he was going to suggest to her. She was told about how he was a breast cancer survivor before it went into remission (freaking her out and causing her to send messages making sure he was alright) and how he was sold phony cancer drugs and made a home movie of his revenge rampage against those responsible.

He suggested that she made a sequel.

Against all common sense and advice from Tikki, she thought she would try it, using cameras she got footage of both Lila and Chloe jumping to catch Akumas with audio of them taking the deals. Especially with Lila being excited about taking down Ladybug and Chat Noir and Chloe making Hawk Moth promise they can retrieve her Bee Miraculous. She would go down and fight the Akumas along with Chat Noir.

Once she had enough evidence, she contacted Max, Nino and Alya wanting their help with them jumping for chance.

She had Nino filming with his camera and Alya filming love for the Ladyblog as came into their hiding location were two smug looking Chloe and Lila who looked confused when they noticed and recognised eachother. She had gave them separate messages in person with her lying to Chloe about wanting to negotiate giving her back the Bee Miraculous this time full time and Lila about wanting to make peace with her about before and giving her the Fox Miraculous.

They were both put into the cage traps that Marinette set up for them as she as Ladybug greeted the cameras "Hello Paris, I hope that you can join me today as this will be the day that Hawk Moth will be defeated for good and we will start with his two civilian accomplices!"

She then had both cameras playing the footage collected with her two friends shocked and stunned by what she had done. Lila snapped and shouted "you stupid false Superhero! I can't believe that i wasted my time convincing people that we were best friends, you were too much of a goody good and I wish that Hawk Moth beat you on Heroes Day! To use Volpina to play everyone for saps!"

"You lied to me! You told me that I was your best partner... this is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!" Chloe ranted as Marinette made sure to include the news footage of her not even bothering to deny that she purposefully set a train to fail on her Superhero debut.

"Marinette was right all along, if only she knew how bad Lila really was..." Alya was close to crying as Nino comforted her. Marinette told them that they needed to bring Hawk Moth down at his lair.

She had a plan for it too, Archer had told her about how Cyril got a Pirate Virus stuck into the agency's computers in a stupid attempt to solve it and redeem his reputation as a loser. She asked if he had a copy of the virus to send to her.

At the Agreste Mansion she had them sneak to the side as she had Max use Markov to hack into the computer systems at the top and insert the Virus. There was Chat Noir appearing asking what they were doing when they heard missiles going off at the top. The two Heroes (along with Markov who had a camera to record live for the Ladyblog) at the top as in the lair up there was Hawk Moth and Mayura trying to fight the out of control missiles and lair. They were unprepared for the Heroes taking them down and taking the Miraculous away reveal Gabriel Agreste (seems that the Collector was a trick) and Nathalie Sancoeur much to Adrien Agreste's shock.

The police came after seeing the Ladybug feed and the sound of the missiles and were there to arrest Gabriel and Nathalie. Ladybug went to the camera and shouted "Booyakasha!"

Chloe and Lila were taken in to be investigated as well due to the footage as well as look into what they had been doing at Francois Dupont. Marinette's class were in hysterics to hear that Lila's mother had denied pretty much every story and trip that Lila had told her and so her claims of disabilities plus trips were being investigated. Also were Chloe's bullying going on at the school and this was causing trouble for her father the Mayor. The school was closed for the foreseeable future.

The classmates were contacting Adrien to make sure he was alright after finding out his father was Hawk Moth.

Marinette had the filmed footage made into a movie called Terms of En-Rampagement II and now as Ladybug she had Chat Noir, all the Kwamis besides (Tikki & Plagg) and all their former temporary Miraculous allies (besides Chloe of course) come by at a screen in a remote location every Friday to watch it since then. That was months ago it started.

Ladybug had the ending rewinded and everyone assembled simultaneously and unenthusiastically shouted "Booyakasha!" along with Ladybug in the footage. "My Lady, when can we stop as I didn't think I would get sick of watching Hawk Moth's downfall when it happens but after all this time, I have gotten sick of watching it!" Chat Noir complained with everyone else there in agreement.

"I worked so hard to make Terms of En-Rampagement II so we are going to watch it and celebrate the downfall of Paris' Supervillain." Marinette told them firmly with her arms crossed.

"Please Ladybug, I have a girlfriend and I had been wanting to have a Friday night date with her for the longest time and you making us watch this has dampened this song I want to sing." Pleaded Luka as Marinette was tempted but remained firm.

"Seriously, we should get Marinette over here. She is a brilliant friend and I think she would be a great positive influence for you." Kagami spoke up with mutterings of agreement from the others. Marinette was silent as the Kwamis watched wanting to see how Marinette spoke her way out of this.

"Yes My Lady, bring in Marinette. Why haven't you brought her in before anyway, she was Multimouse." Chat Noir spoke up causing questions about that and Marinette was silent.

There was another camera there sending the feed back to the office where Sterling Archer, Lana Kane and their co-workers were watching having been informed that one of Archer's illegimate daughters was the French Superheroine they failed to capture the power source of. Archer was beaming with fatherly pride as Mallory muttered "as if the first movie wasn't bad enough..."

[ladyanput]

Seeing Green Ch. 13

The figure that rose once the purple cleared away. He looked about two feet above the tallest man there, his muscular body wrapped in bandages, reminding Marinette of a mummy. Chains hung from him, and his eyes glowed a sickly green.

"Jason.. Oh no.." Eva whispered, tears welling up in her eyes.

" I am not Jason." Those vile green eyes turned towards Eva, and he grinned to show off his mouth full of sharp teeth. "I am Lazarus, and I am here to destroy those who aren't worth redeeming."

Lazarus gripped one of his chains tightly in one hand, the rusted metal beginning to glow green. He trained his eyes on Lila and he grinned. He back and struck, lashing out with the chain.

"Lila, look out!" Sabrina screamed. Lila let out her own scream and grabbed Sabrina's arm, shoving her in front of her. Sabrina was then wrapped up in the chain, and let out a howl of pain as her eyes glowed green. Everyone watching could see the veins in her body light up the same sickly green colour and her howls turned into screams of rage.

"Everyone, you need to get out, now!" Marinette stood firm and shouted. That seemed to shake the dumbstruck crowd and a mass panic ensured. Marinette reached out and grabbed Eva's hand, gripping it tightly and the two began running, looking to hide and transform. But those ideas were quickly dashed when Kim grabbed the both of them and dragged them off.

So here they were, locked in a room with their class and Miss Bustier. All the meanwhile, Lila was seated in a chair, sobbing while her entourage tried to soothe her.

"P- poor Sabrina sacrificed herself for me, she was such a good friend!" Lila whimpered, while Mylène patted her arm and Ivan tried her best to cheer her up.

"Are you all fucking serious?" Marinette snapped. Everyone turned and stared at the girl in shock, as her cursing was… Impossible. Marinette stormed right up to Lila, fury blazing in her eyes. "This is all your fault, yours and Alya's. Why, why can't you just leave things alone, Lila? Now Jason is akumatized, and he's not just some civilian, Lila, he knows military combat, he's a fighter and now he's out for your blood."

"But how is an akuma here?" Rose whispered in horror, clinging tightly to Juleka, who looked equally as terrified. "Hawkmoth is in Paris, isn't he..?"

"Obviously not anymore." Max muttered, his own nerves wracked horribly at the sight of the akuma.

"None of this would have happened if you had kept your kids under control, Caline." Eva snapped, leaning against the locked door and trembling. When she heard Lazarus roar, she shut her eyes tightly, a few tears streaking down her cheeks  "Now Jason is akumatized because you let a liar and her rabid bitch run loose."

"Excuse me?! You're the one who's been fucking my boyfriend!" Alya snapped, taking a threatening step towards Eva, only to be cut off by Nino getting into her path.

"I broke up with you because you're not the same Alya I first started dating. You're selfish, self absorbed, and only think about yourself and Lila. I don't love you anymore, I hate you. Eva never touched me, Lila lied, just like she lied about everything else!" Nino got right in Alya's face, trying to get her to see reason. But it was like talking to a brick wall and Alya began screaming in his face.

Marinette looked around the room, dread curling in her gut as she saw no other doors, no windows. There was only one exit and there was no way to get out.

How could Damian and his family handle an akuma alone? They didn't have her powers of purification, or her Cure, or her Lucky Charm. She had to get out, but with her classmates here…

"Marinette, I need the necklace." Eva turned out, her body shivering and her voice strained with pain. This caught the class' attention. Eva strode up and grabbed the young heroine's shoulders. "Please, he's hurting! I can't just leave him out there, I have to save him!"

"B-but…!" Marinette stared into those tear filled eyes, her mouth going dry as she realized they didn't really have a choice.

"What the hell are you talking about, you don't have to do anything. Lila can just call Ladybug and she'll come and save us." Alya snapped, having returned to sit beside Lila, all the while everyone listened to the screams of horror and Lazarus roaring for Lila and Alya to face him. 

"They can't fight this alone, you know this! And Hawkmoth is in Gotham, Marinette, how else could there be an akuma here?! He's here, he's in unknown territory!" Eva's voice became more frantic.

Marinette was quiet for a heartbeat, before she grabbed her clutch she had set on a table and opened it. Tikki stared up at her in shock, then grim acceptance. When the Kwami flew up, the class went deathly silent.

"I'm sorry, Tikki, I wish I didn't have to." Marinette whispered, cupping her hands to let the Kwami sit. "I'm going to be exposed."

"... This may be your only chance to get Hawkmoth. We'll figure this all out later, I promise." Tikki smiled, and then it finally seemed to click.

"Marinette, you're… Ladybug?" Nino whispered as realization hit him. Marinette merely met his gaze and smiled.

"Tikki, spots on!"

And as Ladybug stood firm before them, she looked different. Gone was the spandex one-piece of spots. Her long dark hair was up in a ponytail, her body clad in a red suit with black armour on the shoulders, around her waist, arms, and legs. Her signature yoyo hung at her hip and her feet were clad in black combat boots.

The class erupted in a surprised frenzy, but Marinette ignored them, turning instead towards Eva, opening her yoyo and taking out a small box, setting it in her friend's hands.

Eva gratefully opened the box and Trixx appeared, going and nuzzling his Chosen as she out on the necklace.

Lila and Alya stared at the familiar looking necklace as reality finally clicked in.

"That's mine!" Alya screeched, getting to her feet and racing over, only to halt abruptly when Trixx flew into her face, the Kwami looking furious.

"You, Alya Césaire, were unworthy to hold this Miraculous. I may be the being of tricks and illusions, yes, but I am also the being of truth. How can one expect to create convincing illusions if one cannot see the truth in all things? You and Lila Rossi are beings of lies, her weaving the tales and you drinking them down as if they were a fine wine. I never thought of you as my kit, Césaire, you are only a disgrace."

"You… You're wrong.." Alya whispered, taking a shaky step back. Eva merely stared at the reporter as she transformed, revealing Lady Vixen in all her glory. Said heroine then reached out and grabbed Alya's phone, throwing it against the floor to smash it, swiftly doing the same to Lila's phone before either girl could react.

"You breathe one word about our identities to anyone and I'll never forgive you." Ladybug announced, the look in her cold blue eyes scaring everyone in the room. "Now stay here and try not to make things worse."

The class watched wordlessly as Ladybug left them without taking a look back.

Gone was the loyalty and the trust. She'd never give any of them a Miraculous again, even to those who had asked for forgiveness.

If their loyalty was so frail, why would she bother?

…

Robin hated Lila with every inch of his being at that moment. He dodged another chain, causing it to wrap around a pillar and thus breaking it. He landed on one of the tables, only to be tackled by one of the brain washed drones of pure madness Lazarus had created.

Damian knew this madness, he had been affected by it once himself. He drew back and punched the man on top of him in the face, sending him flying backwards.

"Anyone seen Ladybug?" Nightwing spat out some blood, having taken a fist to the face, courtesy of Lazarus.

"No, Red Robin, did you see where the butterfly touched?" Batman called out as he tried to get in a clear shot to try and taze Lazarus, but there were too many of the goons in the way.

"Look out!" Queen Bee used her spinning top to pull Batman out of the way of oncoming chains, Ryuko and Viperion quickly joining after.

"We need to find the akumatized item and destroy it!" Ladybug called out, as Red Robin jumped onto Lazarus' back, tasering him  to try and weaken him. But it had little effect, with Lazarus grabbing the hero around the waist and tossing him through one of the glass windows.

Lazarus was brutal and bloodthirsty, in the simplest of terms. When he punched or grabbed, he sought to destroy. He grabbed onto Nightwing's leg and crushed it. Starfire, infuriated by the harm caused to him, began pelting the akuma with attacks.

"I need to find what was akumatized!" Ladybug called out, watching as Vixen kept calling out Jason's name, telling him to fight it. Ladybug glanced over at Robin, feeling her panic spike. "Then we need to break it, I can't purify the butterfly without it."

"What's the plan?" Ryuko landed beside her, watching as Queen Bee and Viperion tried to distract Lazarus, attempting to give them more time.

"I…" Ladybug stared at Lazarus, an icy feeling growing in her belly. She watched as Queen Bee was knocked to the ground, then brutally stomped on by Lazarus, the sound of cracking bone and Queen Bee's scream rattling Ladybug to her very bones.

Ryuko and Viperion cried out Queen Bee's name,  rage filling them as they rushed forward. Robin avoided a swipe, then saw Ladybug standing there, frozen in place and looking terrified.

"Angel? Ladybug, what's wrong?" He ran over, pulling her out of the way of an oncoming chain and both of them rolling under a table. He held the trembling heroine close. "Mari?"

Blood rushed in her head, the roaring sound filling her ears. She couldn't do this, she couldn't think of a plan… Chat had usually helped and now she didn't have him anymore…

She was useless without him…

"Angel, snap out of it!" Robin gave her a rough shake, snapping her out of her stupor. He stared at her, then cupped her face in her hands. "Don't listen to anything he's told you, understand? You are amazing, smart, and you handled Hawkmoth and his minions all by yourself. You've done it and I know you can do it, we're all behind you."

Ladybug's eyes seemed to focus and a determined look took over her expression. She rolled out from under the table and grabbed her yo-yo.

"Lucky Charm!" She shouted, tossing it in the air as Batman was sent flying by Lazarus hitting him. 

When a spotted crowbar landed in her hands, Nightwing saw it and let out a slew of curses.

"Is this some sort of sick joke?" He snapped, while Ladybug stared up at him before shaking her head, dumbfounded. "Well this isn't funny! You don't take that think anywhere near him, you understa-"

Nightwing was cut off by being promptly grabbed and slammed into the floor, the marble cracking beneath them.

"Give me your Miraculous, Ladybug!" Lazarus snarled as he grabbed a different chain, and it shot out at her. She screamed as she was ensnared in the chain and sharply dragged over to the akuma, dropping the crowbar in the process. As she was dragged, she struggled to get the chains loose, but they were bound so tightly that she could feel even her bones straining.

 Lazarus quickly grabbed her by the throat, his other hand going for her ear. A purple mask appeared over Lazarus' enraged face, and a sickly grin spread. He firmly grasped one of the earrings, and began to pull. Ladybug gazed deep into those madness ridden eyes, and frowned.

"Bruce wouldn't want you to do this. Neither would Dick, or Tim, or Damian. Fight it, Jason, please. We can get Lila without you doing this." She urged him, her hand managing to find her yo-yo and she began to fiddle with it. As she distracted the akuma with her speech, as he halted his movements, she kicked the Black Cat ring in Robin's direction. And she knew deep in her heart that she was making the right choice.

"That's the thing, I know people like Lila… They never get punished. They only care about themselves and feed off the weak, and it seems nobody is doing anything about it.." Lazarus snarled, his grip tightening on her throat, making her squeak in pain. "I will give her an experience that she'll never forget."

"My, my, this is quite a surprise." The voice snapped both Lazarus and Ladybug out of their stupor, and they looked over and saw the Joker standing not too far from them, firmly grasping the spotted crowbar. "I must say, hot shot, you certainly do know how to clear a room."

"You…" Lazarus snarled, dropping Ladybug to the ground as he suddenly began his advance towards the Joker. "You bastard!"

Ladybug watched in horror as Lazarus charged at Joker, who drew back the crowbar and hit him in his thigh. Before she could call out, a figure landed by her side.

She stared at the new Black Cat, his outfit reminding her of one of the pictures Alfred had once shown her on young Damian, when he first came to Gotham. It was all black, with accents of the acidic green, the emblem of the Black Cat shown firmly on his chest. His hood was drawn up, having the faint outline of cat ears, and his face was adorned with a black domino mask, the eyes only a glowing, constant green.

"Hello Angel." He held up a powered up and pressed it against the chains. They crumbled into dust, finally freeing the heroine. He stumbled back a step when Marinette suddenly hugged him, but he quickly hugged her back, holding her close. "It's okay, we can do this."

Ladybug nodded firmly and turned towards Lazarus, where he had Joker pinned to the floor, his hands wrapped around his neck and squeezing tightly.

"I'll kill you, finally doing something Batman was too cowardly to do." Lazarus snarled, completely immersed in strangling the clown, even when a purple mask appeared over his face and Hawkmoth screamed in his head.

That was when Ladybug noticed something. Bound to Lazarus' chest by the yellowed bandages was a single rose. Her eyes narrowed in confusion, before realization kicked in. She rushed forward and shoved Lazarus, knocking him off balance and away from Joker, who quickly turned back into a gasping Lady Vixen. Eyes focused, she quickly ducked under Lazarus' swinging arms, before grabbing the flower and promptly crushing it.

Jason collapsed to the floor with a groan as the black butterfly left the destroyed flower. Ladybug grinned and quickly shot out her yoyo. Batman watched as she let the small creature go, then tossed the discarded crowbar in the air.

"Miraculous Ladybug!" 

And suddenly the destroyed room was back to its immaculate form. There were a series of beeps and everyone except Ryuko and Queen Bee transformed back.

"I suppose you want this back." Damian smiled as he strode towards the exhausted Marinette, beginning to take off the ring. But Marinette set a hand over his to stop him.

"Damian Wayne, I, the Guardian of the Miraculous, hereby grant you the Miraculous of the Black Cat. May you serve it well." She smiled up at him, taking his hand and lacing their fingers.

Damian stared down at her. He had known he had outgrown the mantle of Robin for quite some time, but he had never expected this. A grin spread across his face and he scooped her up for a fierce kiss.

"I promise I'll be much better than that mangy alley cat. Tadmir, the new Black Cat, vows this to you." He promised, resting his forehead against hers. They heard the giggles from Tikki and Plagg, but chose to ignore them. But it was when they noticed everyone rushing over to where Jason was struggling to stand, that they pulled apart and ran over.

"Well.." Jason gave a shaky smile, being supported by Dick and Tim. "That was one hell of a party, huh?"

…

The Miraculous team stared at the city skyline, seeming deep in thought, as Batman and his team approached.

"Are you certain he's in the city?" Batman spoke as Ladybug turned towards him, her arms crossed.

"Yes, Tikki told me she could sense the Butterfly Miraculous as well as the Peacock. They're here, and things will get worse if we don't stop them."

"We'll find them, and then we'll finish this once and for all." Tadmir set a supportive hand on Ladybug's shoulder, earning himself a smile from her.

But then a flicker of bright blue caught everyone's attention. 

Ladybug watched, slack jawed, as Mayura ran across the rooftop adjacent to them, carrying something in her arms. No, not something, someone.

Adrien.

"No…" Ladybug whispered, her voice shaky with rage. Something in her snapped and she immediately took after the villian.

"Ladybug!" Queen Bee called out, the others quickly following.

But Ladybug didn't pay attention, her heart pounding, the blood roaring in her ears as she focused in on Mayura.

Follow Mayura, find Hawkmoth.

And he wasn't going to escape, he wasn't going to hole up in some liar and sent out minions. 

Ladybug was going to finish this once and for all.

Taglist: @realrandomposts @interobanginyourmom @ladybug-182 @ladylb @zalladane @mochinek0 @persephonebutkore @urbanpineapplefarmer @vixen-uchiha @angelofmusickaterinapetrova @thewheezingbubbledragon @northernbluetongue @violatiger8 @thequestionablyhuman @ginamarie1512 @maude-zarella @2sunchild2 @saphiraazure2708 @ayuchan07 @virgil-is-a-cutie @thepeacetea @miraculous786 @enchanted-nerd @ficsforthestars @emo-elaine13

[silvia7272]

8 ~ The Blog-Off

I thought it would be time to meet some of the secondary characters I haven’t introduced yet. Also, I think this might be the third to last one before Piper is introduced to the gang? Maybe, just soon, I hope. And I think it’ll feel like a massive info dump but oh well, I wanted more people than just the class.

Also, I want to give these characters some actual personality traits, hope you like them.

Since I’ve made it that Timetagger isn’t canon in my storyline then I’ll have to add that Alix’s watch is just a unique watch and not a Miraculous since she’s a part of the class salt. Hopefully, that makes sense. Also, the episode Feast hasn’t happened either.

Word Count: 5698

Tags: @queenmj10, @fangirl39, @animegirlweeb, @northernbluetongue, @maribat-is-lifeblood, @raisuke06, @indecisive-mess-named-me​ @luleck​, @themotherofhogwarts​, if you wish to be tagged all you have to do is say. Also, if you change your name please tell me, I don’t want to leave you out since you’ve asked to be tagged.

.

Ok, so I just checked on the fanon website information for Miraculous Ladybug and it says Juleka and Alix are 15, how? And why couldn’t they just make it simple so they’re all 13 at the start? I really don’t get it, could someone explain it to me, it just seems so odd to only have 2 people at different ages, (Just saw that Kagami is 15 as well)? For now, they first became heroes at 13, Adrien 14 because his birthday was in the bubbler. Including those 3 cause it makes more sense, because if Juleka really is 15 it's said that Luka is 2 years older than her so that means he’s 17 and that makes me extremely iffy about him liking a 13-year-old Marinette. Yikes, I like Luka leave him alone damn it.

So, the second year of Miraculous Ladybug, they’re all 14-15.

***

It was a particularly sunny day at Collège Françoise Dupont. There hadn’t been any Akuma’s for a while. Leaving everyone a chance to relax.

Well, most could relax.

“Aurore I’m sure its fine, you don’t need to stress so much” Her friend Mireille tried to calm her friend down to no avail. She was still staring at her phone.

“Y-Yeah cheer up. It's only been a day. Maybe people just haven’t l-looked under that tag yet?” But that response only made the blonde glare.

“How could they not. Its an actual Akuma battle I was able to get hold of and nothing? Unbelievable!” The video itself was of the Akuma SleepSis, Aurore was able to get some footage, shaky, but she was able to upload that battle.

Unluckily for her, it seemed that no one was interested but a few people. She couldn’t understand, it had Ladybug and Chat Noir as well as that new hero everyone wanted to know. But because she was new no one paid any attention to it.

“Hey, it's only the first video. Maybe if you make more people will see you.” Mireille suggested, she didn’t want to see her friend upset, they had started to become closer after their rocky start and she didn’t want her to be Akumatized because of this.

“It's so not fair, my video is the latest Akuma fight and nothing has come of it, meanwhile little miss blogger gets all the attention and she hardly does any posts about Akuma’s anymore, it's all about this Lila girl, who by the way is completely fake. Nothing on Akuma’s, more about Ladybug’s love life, why should we give a damn about that-” And here we had a completely wild Aurore, she was ranting while her friends were trying to calm her down. Marc already knew Lila was lying when Marinette told him after… Certain events happened. And Mireille was a good friend, believing Marc and Aurore right away, they had come at separate times and besides, after hearing the girl, all Mireille could see was fakery everywhere.

“Excuse me? Can we sit here?” A voice spoke, breaking the three out of their conversation.

“Huh? Marinette! How are you?” Aurore stood to hug the bluenette who was overjoyed with the fact they saw each other again. Their class schedules were so spread out, this had been the first time, before Rosina joined in fact, that she could see them.

And boy did they change.

“Err Marinette I don’t want to tell you this but Chloé is behind you, extremely close behind you” She pointed to the blonde who didn’t seem amused at all.

“Geez blondie, don’t talk about someone who’s in-ear reach!”

“Well maybe if you weren’t so close to us you wouldn’t hear!” They glared at each other so hard you could see the literal spark in their eyes.

This was going to be a long day.

***

“Sooo you two are friends now?” Mireille concluded after hearing this whole story.

“I find that extremely hard to believe” Aurore spoke, her eyes still not breaking away from Chloé.

“Well, no one's forcing you!” She retaliated.

“Eheh… So where is this miracle worker?” Marc but in, he found it better that Chloé was trying to mend her old ways, and try to redeem herself. It seemed to be working at least, she wasn’t insulting everyone at the table, only Aurore.

“She said she was coming later, she wanted to go explore something” Marinette explained, oblivious of Chloé’s horrified expression.

“And you let her!? You know she needs to be kept in check, what if she’s halfway across Paris by no-” Arms appeared around the girl's shoulders.

“Mari! Chlo! Hiya” It said.

“Ahhh! Don’t scare me like that!” Chloé hit her head, she was too surprised to realise who it was, but she wasn’t sorry, no one should scare someone and expect nothing to happen to them.

“Hey, no fair, it was only as they say a jest” Marinette held an embarrassed smile. Taking Rosina’s arm as they sat down at the table.

“Anyway Rosina, these are the friends I was talking about. Aurore, Mireille and Marc” She pointed to them as Rosina excitedly waved.

“H-Hi-” Marc couldn’t finish that sentence.

“Wow, I love your pigtails they look so cool. Aww, you look so cute in that outfit, like a cute little panda. Wow, I love your t-shirt I so want one for myself.” They all seemed confused. Why was this girl flattering them?

“Don’t worry she does that to everyone,” Marinette clarified.

“Yep, I read if you want to make a good impression you must compliment to provide a friendship with them, now that we’re friends what should we do?” She smiled an enormously large smile, she looked cute and happy, like they could feel the positivity radiating of the girl.

“You’ll get used to this as well, she’s always this happy.”

It was silent after that. No one really seemed to talk, because there was still a big elephant in the room. And it was all pointing to a specific blonde.

“Ugh fine I get it. I’ll go and leave you all in peace” Chloé got up and started to walk away. But two hands pulled her back.

“Wait Chloé it's fine. You seem like you’re really trying so I’ll give you a second chance.” Mireille said.

“Mmhmm, yeah Chloé you’re getting so much better, she even got me a phone” She held it up, her charm still intact, she wanted to take good care of it.

“Wow really?” Marc was surprised, Chloé actually gave someone a present? Was she an imposter? No, it didn’t seem like an Akuma.

“Yeah wanna see?” The redhead excitedly showed off her first-ever phone to the boy. Even explaining things Marc knew but didn’t have the heart to tell her.

“Mhmm buying your way into friendship now?” Aurore so wasn’t convinced at all; sure, people could change but she wasn’t about to forgive Chloé after all the years of her bullying her.

“For your information, Rosina was in need of a phone because she’s never had one. So, it was a gift” She retorted, arms crossed as Marinette put her hand to her forehead. Her and Mireille had given up trying to hold them back, it was obvious they weren’t going to like each other, it might take more time for them to get along.

“As if I’ll fall for that trick. I’ll see you crack under the pressure real soon Chloé Bourgeois.” She huffed as her head turned, refusing to look at her anymore.

“Whatever Aurore Beauréal” The other four were paying attention to Rosina as she was showing all her new apps.

“Err, R-Rosina I can’t understand any of it, what language is it in?” It wasn’t in French that was for sure.

“See see, since I’m still getting used to the French, so I’ve put it in Arabic since it's easier, that way whenever I text my friends they won’t get confused if I get anything wrong.” She gleamed as she put it back in her bag.

“It's fine Rosy, we can help you just tell us ok?”

They continued to talk as they had 1 hour of a free period left. And a previous topic came back to relevance.

“So, you’re a blogger as well?” Rosina was told what a blogger was after Alya overheard her uncertainty. She was dragged off by the girl as she explained. She showed all of her videos to her. Rosina was amazed by the fact one could capture motion and replay it. She had heard about a blog before but had yet to see it. Chloé and Marinette were able to steal her away after causing a distraction.

“A beginner, I was kinda inspired by Alya’s, but it slowly derailed into fake news, so I wanted to make one myself, for Ladybug. She’s been amazing for us and she deserves to be respected. Not pry about her love life or identity” Marinette was beaming on the inside, finally, someone wanting facts and information, plus she knew Lila was bs anyway. She couldn’t be more relieved.

“But… No one seems to want to watch it” Her confidence wavered, Marinette felt dejected, how could she help her she wondered?

“Can we see it? I wanna see what it's about” Aurore beamed with joy, she happily showed her, watching for any change in the girl's faces.

But before the redhead could state her opinions, the blonde beat her to it.

“There's nothing special about it”

“What! H-” She held up her hand, she so wasn’t done.

“It looks like a video that Césaire girl could do, hell I could do that with my eyes closed. There isn’t anything special here” Aurore had enough, how dare she walk in here and disrespect her like this. The pigtailed girl was so close to being done.

“Chloé’s right”

“Rosina you can’t just say it like that!” Marinette was concerned, please don’t make her have to face off Stormy Weather again!

“No wait- I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry Aurore, I just think you can change it, that’s all” She frantically waved her hands around as Aurore blinked.

“Huh?”

“I just mean, Chloé is right that it does look like Alya’s, so maybe you can make different err- what's the word… Content yeah that. Make different content, like an analysis of Akuma, and their powers and weapons.” Marinette shot up, ideas filling her mind.

“Maybe you could interview the heroes about questions regarding Akuma’s? I know people would feel better having their queries answered.” Mireille then joined in.

“You could include tips on how to stay safe during an Akuma attack? That could be useful.”

“I-If you want a script to use, I could help with that?” Marc piped up.

“And since I’m feeling generous, I guess I could lend you some space to use for your videos. Anywhere else would be barbaric” Aurore would’ve glared at her, but she couldn’t make herself do that. They were all encouraging her to continue, to make it unique, to make it her own.

She smiled.

“Thanks, you guys. I’ll be sure to remember this. And you too Chloé” Said blonde smirked.

“What? Sorry I didn’t hear that” She became irritated.

“Chloé please stop teasing her, that’s not a very nice thing to do” Rosina grabbed onto her arm, trying to stop the inevitable argument.

“Ugh fine, it wasn’t any fun anyway” Now they felt shocked. Chloé willingly giving up her teasing? That was unheard of- maybe Rosina really was a good influence after all.

***

[This is great, love the special guests]

[Thanks so much for the advice!]

[Thank you, sweetie, I’m sharing this with everyone xxx]

Hundreds of comments like these appeared within minutes of her second video. Amazingly Ladybug had somehow heard of what Aurore wanted to do and brought Crisono along for the ride as well. Because it was a quiet night, they were able to gain so much information, and Aurore was able to stop fangirling and have a proper conversation with them. They got so many recordings done in a single night Aurore was able to go to sleep feeling peaceful.

Her second video consisted of self-defence demonstrated by Ladybug, it held a serious yet comedic approach as Ladybug demonstrated what would happen if someone, Akuma or not, attacked you using Crisono. Ladybug playing the hero while Crisono played the villain, and what a funny villain she was. It was a huge hit and the viewers wanted more, wanted to know more about Crisono.

Luckily her third video would consist of who exactly Crisono Tassa was? They knew she didn’t hold a Miraculous, so the mysteries surrounding her were endless.

She was so happy by the boost she couldn’t help her locking onto Rosina the minute she spotted her at school.

“Thank you thank you thank you! They love it, and Ladybug and Crisono came to help me. Rosina, you’re the best” Rosina could only pat the girl on her back as her limbs were constricted from moving.

“I didn’t do anything really. But I’m so glad you’re happy Aurore, I mean I know my acting wasn’t the best bu-”

“What?” Mireille asked, what acting was she talking about?

“In the v-” Marinette clamped a hand over the redhead's mouth.

“Well I think I heard the bell go, and you know how Mlle Bustier can be with tardiness so byeeee!” Once they were out of earshot of the three new friends Rosina had made Marinette gave a glare to Rosina.

“You can’t keep doing that?” Rosina tilted her head.

“Doing what?”

“Revealing your identity to people Rosina. It was fine with Marinette because she’s Ladybug, and there were circumstances with Chloé but you can’t do it with other people it can be really dangerous” Tikki came out lightly reprimand the girl, Tikki had long ago deemed Rosina safe to be around as well as hold a secret, and came to care for the girl just like Marinette, she only wanted to protect her.

“But it's fine, it doesn’t matter if people know it's me” She tried to reason. But the bluenette shook her head.

“Yes, it does Rosina. Your friends and family could get hurt if Hawkmoth ever finds out your identity. Please Rosy. Don’t reveal yourself to anyone else”

“But Mari, I only have you, Chloé, Kagami, Adrian, Chat, Aurore, Mireille and Marc as my friends” Marinette would’ve winced at the mention of the blonds but now wasn’t the time.

“Yes but-”

“Plus, I have no family, so he can’t use them to get to me”

.

.

.

“W-What?”

“I don’t have a family, I only have 8 people to protect, so that’s why I’ll strive to protect all of my friends.”

“B-But what about-”

Riiiiiiiiiiing

“Well class should be starting soon, c’mon Mari, we don’t want to be late ok” Before the bluenette could answer she was already being dragged off, she couldn’t stop her as the words went around in her head.

I don’t have a family

‘How can she say that so casually? And what about Franchezca, what about her?’

These questions whirled around the girl’s head so much she couldn’t pay that much attention to the lesson. Not like Bustier called on her. She was glad for that.

Maybe she could ask later?

***

“Rosina?”

“Yep,” A voice spoke, popping the ‘P’. They were walking around the city; they were meant to be meeting everyone as they had planned to all hang out later but Marinette was able to convince Rosina to go earlier. And Marinette felt it was a good enough time to ask Rosina what she meant beforehand.

“You said you don’t have any family to protect. But you also call Mlle Franchezca Aunt? So, if it’s not too much trouble, could you explain?” She stopped walking.

“I mean you only want- I mean, only if you want to. I don’t want to force you or anything” She really hoped she hadn’t offended her.

“Its fine Marinette, I just don’t know where to begin”

She placed her hand under her chin, looking to reminisce on something.

“Let’s see, how did Aunty say it again?”

~

In the middle of a desert, an older woman with a cane walked.

She was searching for that damn forth Trinklet and it was nowhere. But she needed to find it fast, if not then it would crack.

And she really didn’t want to spend any more time in this stupid desert than she had to.

But then she saw a glow.

‘Perfect’ She thought, making her way towards it, believing that would be the end of it.

But it was only the beginning.

As she came closer to the glow, she saw a bundle of blankets next to it. She was surprised about that discovery.

But that was nothing, because then she heard a cry.

“What the-?”

She rushed to the blanket, if it was what she thought it was then she had to move quickly.

And like she was able to predict… It was.

A baby.

“Who would leave a kid all the way out here?” Franchezca decided that she would try and find out who the baby belonged to. Of course, she wasn’t going to get attached to her.

No, of course not.

That would be absurd.

~

“She always blamed my smile was the reason she couldn’t give me up” Rosina had finished her story as Marinette stood there.

“So, you really don’t have any other family members?”

“Nope, I don’t know anyone related to me. And Aunty always told me to call her Aunty cause she didn’t want to be called Grandma.” She laughed as she remembered the embarrassed look she gave when the Silver-eyed girl said Grandma once.

“You were just… Left alone?”

“Yeah, she told me this poncho was the only thing I had on me. That’s why I wear it everywhere. But it's alright. Aunty took care of me for all that time, and then I got the chance to train to fight all the Trinklets in the world. It's great” She raised her arms in the air to exclaim she wasn’t even sad.

Swish.

“I didn’t know you wanted a hug, Mari?”

‘She doesn’t seem bothered at all; I want to feel sorry for her but… Should I?’

“You do have family”

“Mari I-” She was about to repeat herself but Marinette jumped to cut her off.

“You have me and Maman and Papa. We’re your family. All of our friends are family and your Aunt. That’s why you can’t reveal yourself to anyone” Rosina paused. She wasn’t expecting… That.

“Really?” It was barely audible but Marinette heard it. And it was so sincere.

“Yeah, so please promise me you’ll stop doing that”

“…Ok. But if I can’t transform in time you can’t blame me if anyone sees” She cheekily replied her usual self-returning.

“Fine, but that’s only if, ok?” She shot back; Rosina nodded before they continued on their walk. Apparently, there was someone she wanted Rosina to meet. All she knew was that he didn’t attend Collège Françoise Dupont.

***

“Rosina, this is Luka. Luka this is Rosina.” They had arrived at *Pont des Arts the meeting place Marinette had organised earlier, all of her friends arriving later gave Rosina enough time to get along with the newcomer, everyone else knew him, it was only fair if Rosina got some time too.

“Pleased to mee-”

“Wow, your hair looks so cool, were you born with it or did you dye it? Wait, are you by any chance related to Juleka? Wow you look so cool” She repeated as he stood back just a bit, he had predicted her melody to be calm and slightly childish, now it had just changed dramatically… He needed a moment to adjust.

“Sorry Luka, I should’ve warned you she was hyper.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it, it’s good to see you so happy, Rosina seems to have drowned out that melancholy you had” That caused Marinette to blush before she looked back at Rosina. They continued to have a small conversation, at least before everyone else arrived anyway, although it did surprise Marinette when Luka kept looking around and checking his watch, was he waiting for someone? Was he just biding time before leaving them? Was it going to be his girlfri-

“Hayo, Luka long time no see? It’s been like sooo long” A girl who looked like the same age as Luka approached the gang of 3. And she looked so pretty.

She had green hair that complimented her dark skin, her orange jacket looked of high quality and red trousers, was this who Luka was waiting for? Was this his gir-?

“Noémie, it’s been a while, I should have asked before, but I was wondering if my friend could hang out with us?” Marinette was slightly put off, ever since the Lila situation she’s been ever so slightly apprehensive of new people, but she guessed since she’s a friend of Luka’s she would soon be a friend of hers.

“-Gasps- Luka is this the Marinette ya keep talking and gushing about? Oh, my life. She is the cutest little thing ever. Selfie child” Before Marinette could respond she’d already taken a selfie.

“You look even cuter on camera, oh stop ya gonna kill me smols” Noémie’s hand was then grabbed by someone else, it wasn’t forceful at all, but she did lookup.

“Hiya Miss, I just wanted to say that I love your green hairstyle, it looks super cool on you”

.

.

.

‘Is that a tear-’

“Oh my god these two smols are so like adorable, I’m officially adopting you two, my precious little babies.” Marinette would soon learn she would never be able to finish another thought around the green-haired girl. Ever again.

And adopting?

“Eheh no thanks, I have a Mother and one is more than enough” She tried to get out of the hold but couldn’t.

“What’s adopting?”

“I’ll… Tell you later” Mari sighed, this seemed to become a long day.

“I was going to tell you that she can be a bit extreme, but she beat me to it.” Luka sent an apologetic smile towards the two, more to the bluenette since Rosina seemed to be enjoying the affection. It wasn’t like Noémie was doing anything harmful, but he knew she could be a bit… Overbearing at times.

“Selfie time”

“But you just took one?”

“Like girl, ya can never have too many selfies with smols like ya. All these photos can stay online forever. All these memories we can have and keep and look back on is like sooooooo cool. Now say cheese!” her monologue was filled with so much passion for selfies Marinette was able to giggle.

Ok, she liked her, she seemed really quirky.

Whether it was luck or not the others arrived not too long after, unluckily Noémie tried to use that same trick on Chloé because she was apparently a fan of the Mayor’s Daughter…

Yeah, that didn’t turn out well.

But she got over it when they both started taking selfies.

To the extreme.

It was a selfie war at this point.

The 6 were put on edge, but they decided to stay with them, so it was their fault.

Although there was one thought a young blonde had since the day they met.

And it was starting to get to her. And considering they were at the mall anyway she could enact on her plan.

“Rosina let’s get you a new outfit. My treat” She had to try and slowly ease her into it. If not, it would sound mean, and she couldn’t possibly do that to the redhead.

But said redhead couldn’t reply before a new blonde nuisance had to but in.

“Why? What's the occasion Chloé, you wouldn’t happen to be buying more ‘gifts’ to keep your friends, would you? Or could it be that you simply don’t like Rosina’s fashion sense?” She wrapped her arms around the redhead, her new innocent friend who didn’t deserve to be tricked by anyone, even if she knew Chloé was trying to be better.

“Aurore” Mireille tried to ease the tension, but she knew it was to no avail.

“No, I just thought we could all go on a shopping spree. But of course, you wouldn’t know anything about fashion to begin with.” She shot back, two could play at that game and so far, she was winning.

“Chloé” Marinette was now trying to keep the piece as Luka squeezed her shoulder in support. He knew they were just teasing, and it was kinda fun to watch.

Marinette.exe has stopped working.

While everyone else was concerned over a passed out Marinette, Rosina started smiling. The two blondes grew confused before their hands were grabbed.

“Ok, let’s go shopping. I’ve never shopped for clothes before so let’s go” They were dragged off with a bouncing Noémie following as the others were preoccupied.

Chloé and Aurore both wanted to drag the girl off to separate stores but unfortunately, they found out if you start pulling on a person, it will eventually hurt. Marinette had to pry them off her before scolding the two, the others either laughing or taking photos, although I think you know who was taking photos, with the caption: new Mum of the group.

Rosina’s first pick from Chloé was a lovely white knee-length dress, black leggings and a light blue jacket. It seemed lovely before Aurore gave her own pick. A floral pattern navy blue dress with white leggings. Of course, the two bickered which one was better as Marinette gave her own pick. And she looked so cute.

A blue tank top with a matching skirt with a teal bodysuit underneath.

“Wow, this is so stretchy, look look I can do the splits in these.” That earned her a clap as she excitedly bounced up and down. And Chloé couldn’t help the feeling of happiness in her gut. It never happened before with Sabrina or Adrien, was it because she wasn’t just bossing them around?

Yeah, that might be it.

“Hey, I could probably sew something onto it to make it stand out if you want?”

“Really? That would be so cool Mari, thank you bestie?” They hugged before Mireille and Marc chose a new outfit as well.

Did she deserve this? After everything she’s done? Did she really deserve this?

Did she-?

“Hey, your friends are trying to help you Chloé, you are included blondie, don’t screw it up” She nudged her shoulder gently.

Huh, she must’ve been able to tell what she was thinking?

But Chloé wasn’t about to admit that. Especially not to Aurore of all people.

“Whatever, I know I’m their best friend, something you could only dream of having” She gave a playful smirk back, they were starting to get along without even knowing it.

“Hayo guys, let’s take a selfie to mark the beginning of this beautiful like friendship with all of you smols. Hope we all hang out some more” Holding out a camera for the 8 people there, posing for the camera, Noémie planning to tag them all later.

“C’mon Chloé! I wanna buy you something too” they were all dragged off to continue their shopping spree. So many clothes were brought, including the ones that the blondes had chosen, Rosina really loved them as well.

They all ended up getting some really cool shades as well, as well as the fact Chloé was able to spot a jacket that had the words ice queen written on the back. She so had to get one for her and Marinette to wear at school for kicks.

Rosina got everyone a bracelet with some colourful charms on. She got one for 3 others, but they weren’t there. They all beamed with glee as the girl was tackled with a hug by them all.

Marinette felt as if she could finally relax around them. They didn’t just hang out with her to try and make a plan for how to get her together with Adrien, they didn’t just hang out with her to just talk about her crush on Adrien, they actually all just wanted to hang out and enjoy each other’s company. Something she never got the chance to do before Lila came in… Not like she thought she’d be able to do, no doubt the topic would soon go towards Adrien eventually.

But she was able to take in the calm atmosphere around the group of 7.

She knew deep down in her heart that they would all soon be the best of friends.

***

The weekend had ended, and boy was a lot packed into that.

A lot.

Not only did everyone have tons of bags pack with new clothes and various items, but they also decided to dine out in Chloé’s hotel. Friends discount was applied here.

And amazingly Kagami was there along with her Mother. Rosina and Tomoe surprisingly had a conversation about fencing, Kagami was still apprehensive considering her Mother’s opinion about friends but it seemed to dissipate once Tomoe heard her Daughter laugh for the first time in a long time.

Tomoe also heard how fond Kagami was of Rosina after hearing about their fencing match, she wished to challenge Rosina to a match of her own to which Rosina happily agreed, much to everyone's surprise.

But they knew the girl could handle herself, 3 more so than the others but it was fine.

Also, remarkably, Rosina was able to convince Kagami and Tomoe to attend more get-togethers with the rest of the group. It might have something to do with Rosina speaking to her in Japanese and found Rosina to be a good influence.

So that’s how the group of 8 became 9.

The next day Rosina had finally started her contract with the Agreste’s. Rosina would start to be Adrien’s “bodyguard” at school, at fencing lessons as well as at photoshoots. On Sundays, she would be a language tutor for him as Saturdays would most likely be a day off, unplanned photoshoot or more piano lessons.

Adrien was ecstatic once this was all sorted. Finally, he wouldn’t be alone anymore, yeah, he wouldn’t be able to talk to Plagg as often, but as long as Plagg had his cheese he was sure he’d be alright. Besides, since Rosina was actually Crisono, he didn’t have to give a reason for his disappearances.

It did give him more of a reason why secret identities shouldn’t be so secret, but he knew he couldn’t reveal himself for his Lady and Master Fū.

The girls, however,

They were less than impressed with Rosina’s decision considering they told her they weren’t friends with Adrien anymore, but, it was Rosina’s choice and they couldn’t tell her not too.

Besides, it was who Rosina was. If she thought of Adrien as a friend, they couldn’t stop her, they may not like it but if they forced her to deny any interactions with him, they would be as bad as Lila.

So they had to learn to accept it and slowly, it didn’t faze them, sure they couldn’t hang out as much, but when you have a girl full of energy you find that they can and will spend as much time as possible with them.

So, when they arrived at school, they weren’t surprised to see Adrien hug Rosina.

“Thanks for agreeing Rosina” The latter nodded as they headed inside. Even if the blonde still hadn’t accepted it fully, the bluenette was there to help.

But then they heard something that made them both smirk.

“Alya are you alright, that new blog just skyrocketed up, it's halfway to the number of followers you have” Mylène seemed devastated but to that Alya waved her hand around, not the least bit interested.

“Oh please, that blog isn’t half as good as mine, where’s the pizazz? Its soo boring to look at I got tired after that first video.” Rose and Juleka didn’t look convinced.

“But her other videos are so much better. They even have that new hero no one knows about on it.” That perked the girl's interest.

“WHAT! How in the world did she get an interview with Crisono?” She soon watched that video and was furious to find Ladybug there as well.

“She’s even provided tips and other stuff with Akuma’s” Juleka joined in as Alya furiously search through the contents of the Let’sBugOut page. It somehow featured Ladybug in most of them, whether it was by video call or in person.

“So, she doesn’t accept interviews from me but from some amateur! How could she?” Alya didn’t know what she had done to receive the cold shoulder from Ladybug but she supposed that maybe she didn’t want her to be in any danger, that maybe if they stopped talking, Akuma’s wouldn’t be so interested to pick her as a target.

At least… That’s how Lila put it when she had come to the girl for help.

“Very easily, don’t you think? At least Aurore doesn’t pry about unnecessary details about Ladybug’s life. And she actually provides facts, something the LadyBlog is really missing.” Chloé retorted, returning to the desk at the back, everyone glaring at her she had become accustomed to it.

“Chloé how could you say that about Alya? Is this just because you aren’t Queen Bee anymore? And you're taking out your frustration on Alya. If you want, I could always ask Ladybug for advice on how you could improve and be a better person?” The girls swarmed around Lila appeared to be shocked while the other two were annoyed, how dare she sully Ladybug’s name!

“Girl there's no need to help someone like her, I know you're extremely kind, but you don’t need to extend it to the likes of her” Alya replied, that girl had a heart of gold.

“Are you sure, I wouldn’t want Chloé to become too upset at being rejected by Ladybug, I couldn’t imagine the shame she must be feeling now.” The duo was able to see that obvious jab made towards the blonde. How no one else could was a definite mystery?

Marinette paused, how Chloé decided to answer may decide on her future prospects of being a hero, what would she say?

“I wasn’t rejected by Ladybug, and how dare you lie about being friends with someone way out of your league.” The girls were quick to retort but Chloé paid them no mind.

“And I am still Queen Bee, in or out of costume. I don’t need it to define me. I’m more of a hero than you’ll ever be” She smirked at the last line before grabbing Rosina from Adrien, who was talking about schedules by the way, and promptly sitting down with Marinette. The blue-haired girl impressed by the blue-eyed girl's words. She didn’t spill the fact that technically she was still Queen Bee, just changed.

Chloé was learning.

She just wished the others would as well.

***

*Pont des Arts = A Pedestrian Bridge In Paris.

I hope you enjoy my new OC I put out. I just thought I wanted Luka to have more friends so here we go.

After making that outfit for Rosina I couldn’t stand it and knew I needed to change it, so I thought why not throw some Chloé sugar in there as I’m at it. Also, I think it’s reasonable for not everyone to believe or accept Chloé’s redemption since not everyone is so ready to forgive, right?

And with that, Rosina has kinda met all of the Marinette Protection Squad members (Minus Felix, he’s gonna be a special case)

1 more chapter till Piper, I really can’t wait for it, the next one will contain some unexpected salt towards a certain bluenette. Hope you’ll all enjoy it as much as me, I just think it’ll be great and clarify stuff.

Also, could someone help me with Rosina’s backstory? Or be willing to read and see if it's alright? Since she was found in a desert I was going to put her birthplace as Egypt, but with Franchezca travelling around she doesn’t really know anything about it, but later she learnt Arabic after her Aunt told her the story of how and where she was found.

Is that alright. I’m not offending anyone with that am I? do I need to change anything with that?

Sorry if it sounds stupid, I just want to make sure it's not insulting anyone.

Also, maybe some help with accents? Her first language was Spanish, but her favourite is Arabic, so what sort of accent would she have?

Anyway, I hope you liked this part can’t wait for the next it will be shorter, maybe haven’t planned it all out yet, but I hope that’s alright.

Note: Updated the pictures. Also, I keep updating Noemié’s design because of the artist in me, haha. hope you like hers.

[flightfoot]

which one of these redemption that interest you most and why : chloe, gabriel, lila, alya, adrien

Alya and Adrien have done nothing bad enough that they need to ‘redeem’ themselves for it and thus, should not be on the list. If that’s the standard of ‘needing a redemption’ we’re at, then Marinette, Nino, Kagami, Plagg, Tikki - almost every other character in fact who’s had screentime and has done something that could conceivably be worthy of criticism, ought to be on the list as well.

(And no, that doesn’t mean I want to talk about redemption arcs for almost every named character in ML).

Onto the characters who do GENUINELY need redemptions:

Chloe: I generally like Chloedemptions so long as they aren’t combined with bashing other characters. She’s shown to be capable of compassion and to care a lot more than she lets on, especially with that message she left for Adrien in ‘Felix’ and her feelings about Ms. Bustier in Zombizou, along with breaking down in Malediktator and showing the audience that she WANTS to be useful but feels useless instead, that she DOES care about her father and feels terrible about helping to drive him to the point where he was vulnerable to akumatization, that she DOES care that her classmates hate her.

Chloé: It— it was me. I hurt my daddy's feelings. Because I want to leave Paris, forever.

Ladybug: Because of what happened in school? I'm sure Marinette probably didn't exactly mean what she said.

Chloé: Oh, it's not just her— actually, I don't even care about her— it's because I have no reason to be here: nobody likes me; I have no friends. I'm… useless.

Chloe is capable of compassion and caring, wants to have friends, but just... seems to have absolutely NO idea how to actually go about BEING a friend, and little idea what that really even means. Heck, she doesn’t even list SABRINA as a friend, which says something. 

Plus she’s a kid and... well. She’s screwed up BADLY and while I can see her taking the villain route, I’d far rather see her learn, even be taught, how to be a friend, what that even means, and how to get the sort of positive social relationships she’s craving. She doesn’t seem to understand HOW at this stage.

Lila: Don’t get me wrong, I don’t love Lila. Her very first appearance was her stroking her finger down Adrien’s chest while his eyes were as wide as saucers and he looked ready to bolt. But I’ve SEEN her punished a million times to some absurd extremes, and while she hasn’t shown much capacity for redemption so far - she needs a reason to WANT to improve first, to care about other people - I do want that for her. She is, ultimately, a kid, and I’d like to see her improve. Especially since I think vengeance has been meted out a lot already; it’s just been done to death.

Gabriel: SCREW GABRIEL. SCREW HIM SO HARD. The man’s a grown-ass ADULT, is responsible for every akumatization in the series, abuses and manipulates his son like W O W, even to the point where he willingly, KNOWINGLY BEATS HIM THROUGH THE ROOF OF THE CAVERN?! WITH A SMILE ON HIS FACE?! And uses him as a bargaining chip for manipulating Lila, even KNOWING how dangerous and awful she is, because he doesn’t give a CRAP about his son, just on how he can use people. SCREW. HIM.

I’ve seen a good redemption for Gabriel where he was at canonical levels of awful ONCE, with the “Butterflies and Bad Decisions” series, but he was put through the WRINGER first in that and fully realized and comprehended how terrible he truly was and became a genuinely much better person.

Aside from that? SCREW HIM HE CAN GO TO PRISON FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE.