#Adrien was and is and most likely always will be an entirled misogynistic creep who treats women like trophies

[mlwritingprompts]

submitted prompt: A different mask for a heroine.

Edited to fit the rules.

AU where Marinette broke the mirror in her room while trying to capture / get away from Tikki, and so rushes out after transforming without getting a chance to see her reflection.

The battle is terrifying and fast-paced, and she’s running so high on adrenalin it’s not until and hour after she gets back to her house that she’s finally calmed down enough to check the internet to see what people are saying, and sees for the first time exactly what “Ladybug” looked like.

The blood drains from her face.

She’d seen flashes of her arms and hands, red with black spots, but everything had been moving too quickly to take in any other details.

Now, looking at the hundreds of pictures and videos being uploaded by the second, she realizes with horror that she wasn’t so much wearing a suit as she was covered in red and black paint. It’s so form-fitting that she might as well be naked.

She hadn’t even had time to notice in the fight, she was too busy freaking out, but now she has more reason to freak out! She was out there swinging around practically naked! And people saw her! Everyone saw her! That “costume” didn’t leave anything to the imagination!

She’s hyperventilating before she knows it, panicking about what happened and panicking more and the thought of having to go out like that again. It’s like a nightmare where she went to school and forgot her clothes, but this time it’s real. It actually happened, and Tikki has to spend half an hour straight trying to calm her down.

The only reason Marinette doesn’t rip the earrings off and vow to never put them back on again is the crushing weight of the responsibility suddenly on her shoulders, and Tikki’s frantic, frantic assurances that the “suit” can be altered.

Tikki swears up and down that Marinette doesn’t have to ever look like that again if she doesn’t want to. It’s the most basic version of the protective suit the Miraculous can create, not meant to function on its own, but meant to be an undersuit for man-made armour or clothing for ceremonial or cultural reasons.

But it can and will change, Tikki just didn’t have time to explain how to do it because the situation with the Akuma was progressing so rapidly.

She apologizes over and over again, stressing that nothing like it will ever happen again, and wastes no time in explaining to Marinette how to change the suit. She has to tell Tikki what she wants--show her, preferably, so Tikki can get it as close as possible--then she and Tikki will confirm the choice, and then she has to instruct her to add the additions to the base suit with the specific phrase, “Tikki, donn this.”

The options aren’t limited to clothing, she can have any kind of weapon, or even multiple weapons she wants, and they aren’t constrained to the red with black spots that the undersuit had. Marinette’s imagination is the limit. If she wanted to, she didn’t even have to be human. She could give herself wings or claws or extra limbs. Anything Marinette can think of and describe to Tikki, she can have.

Marinette doesn’t waste any time. She grabs her latest sketchbook, and starts drawing. She goes all out in not only making an actual protective suit, but also makes sure that it hides as much of her body figure and face as possible. Going as far as having a magical mask that hides her face and also modifies her voice a little to be more neutral. And she gives it an actual dynamic design that makes her appear serious, not just endless, cutesy polka-dots.

Oh, she does have some spots, but they’re not cute. They’re the kind of spots poison dart frogs have. They’re the kind of spots poisonous animals wear as a warning for others to stay away. Ladybugs are poisonous, Tikki told her, and Marinette doesn’t want anyone to ever look at her the way they had to have while she was transformed the first time.

Tikki overwrites the understuit with Marinette’s new design, and Marinette transforms and de-transforms ten times in a row just to make sure it sticks, and to make sure it’s just as she imagined it.

When the Stoneheart Akuma begins to multiply and Marinette realizes her mistake, she goes out to fix things, now in her new, actual suit, to everyone’s confusion.

The new costume hides her identity completely, and is as far from the original version as it can possibly get. The armor conceals her figure, and her voice is different, and its easy for everyone--Chat Noir included--to assume straight away that she’s someone new. Chat Noir even asks her if she knows when Ladybug will be showing up--

And Marinette, without even a beat of hesitation, because she came prepared this time, she’s going to be prepared from now on, tells him, “She wasn’t prepared for the responsibility, so she gave her Miraculous instead. You can call me Simetra.”

To her confusion, Chat Noir reacts with anger. His ears flatten, his tail lashes violently behind him, and he demands, sharp teeth bared, “You took her Miraculous?!”

Marinette holds up her hands, confused. “No,” She said, “I didn’t steal her Miraculous. She gave it to me, because she didn’t want to be a hero.”

She was expecting him to calm down. She thought wrong.

“You have to give it back!” He snapped, clicking out his weapon and expanding it threateningly into a staff as he slid into a crouch, “You can’t just take someone’s Miraculous! Ladybug and I are meant to be a team! We’re meant to be partners! We’re meant to be together! Give her back her Miraculous, and give me back my lady!”

With a wordless yell, he charges at her, swinging his staff like it’s a baseball bat.

She blocks his attack with ease, spinning her flail to create a shield while she grabs her off-hand dagger, exclaiming, “What are you doing!?”

He doesn’t let off his assault, he just snarls and slams the staff into her shield again, shouting, slamming again with each statement, “We’re meant to be together! We’re going to get married! We’re going to run away together and live on a deserted island all by ourselves! We’re going to get a pet hampster, and name it--!”

“You just met her yesterday!” Marinette shouts, flabbergasted and quickly becoming enraged.

“I love her!” Chat Noir shouts back, “I’ve loved her since the moment I laid eyes on her! Give me back her Miraculous, and tell me where she is so I can return it to her! You weren’t chosen, she was! Ladybug and I are meant to be together! You’re could never replace her!”

Marinette has heard enough.

In one quick move, she slams her flail forward, forcing Chat Noir to stumble back. As he falls, she slashes out with her dagger, cutting his tail off at the base so that he won’t be able to maintain his balance.

He goes down hard, and for one split second, Marinette considers just leaving him there. She considers leaving, giving him a chance to cool down, a chance to be reasonable.

But only for a second.

He liked her when she was wearing nothing but the undersuit. He’s claming to be madly in love with her, when he only knew her for maybe a combined total of twenty minutes, when she was wearing nothing but the undersuit, practically naked. And now that she’s wearing actual armour, he doesn’t like her. And he’s claiming to be in lover with her. He’s claiming they’re meant to be together. He’s saying he wants to take her to a deserted island with no one else around.

She’s heard enough.

She knows what his Miraculous is, it’s the black ring on his hand.

Taking it from him is not difficult.

His identity being revealed as her new classmate, Adrien, is a little more difficult. But only for a second or two, then she gets over the shock. This is the boy that Chloe has been friends with her whole life. This is the boy who put gum on her and Alya’s seat to punish them for not bowing to Chloe’s every whim.

Why should she be surprised that he’s a sexist creep? Why should she be surprised that he’s an even bigger jerk than she originally thought?

She puts on the ring so she won’t lose it, snaps out her wings, and launches herself into the sky before she has to hear another word out of his mouth.

And she’s not just flying aimlessly, either.

She knows exactly where she’s going, exactly who she’s going to.

She wanted to give Alya her Miraculous.

Well, now she can do one better.

And she’ll make sure Alya knows everything she needs to know before she transforms.

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Excuse my language but, I really need to ask; what the hell were the writers thinking when they made every female superhero wear a bland sexist costume!?

And personally, the awful female costumes are the fourth worst things in the show, the other three being the disgusting treatment of the female characters (especially Marinette), the awful plot, and pointless lessons.

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