#Arnold: See! Now I bet your readers are all mad! It's because you NEVER use me! You ALWAYS use Archibald! You lazy idiot...

[unreachablevoice]

Wear Your Heart On Your Wrist And Together, We'll Soar To The Sky

... 

*immediately drops to my knees and bows into a dogeza*

I beg for everyone's forgiveness and I will take it if you would like to give out punishment.

(yes, it's supposed to sound that formal)

*insert ugly crying noises* It's been a really long time, I know, I'm sorry!

I'm really really sorry! I know it doesn't really make any difference because all I do is say and not do but still, I'm really sorry!

It's been like half a year—six months!—since I updated and I know some of you may have dropped this because of how long you've waited for an update and I completely understand that. And for those who stayed, thank you very much! I'll try not to let you down too much (I can't really promise to update more because my brain is just that lazy but I will try!) 😔

So, um, without further ado, please enjoy :')

Warning: Swearing and cuss words may be present. Please read with caution, thank you!

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Chapter Six – Chaotic Aura

Marinette's morning started on the right side for a short while… before it turned into utter chaos.

Allow her to elaborate.

Firstly, for some reason, there was a bit of sunlight creeping into Gotham’s cloudy skies (which was a bit weird since she heard that Gotham has typically dark and murky skies all season). The air smelled a bit cleaner than it did when they first arrived, and she and Juleka had even bonded for a while before they joined their classmates down the lobby and waited outside for their bus to arrive.

But, as the saying goes, all good things come to an end. Because Lila freaking started again! She swears it’s like she can't even take a break around here.

She was there—just minding her own business—when Lila decided to bother her. It isn't that her deciding to drag Marinette into her conversation with Alya about Kwami-knows-what is a bother (who was she kidding? It is a bother), it's just that they have this unspoken rule not to spite the other person for no reason or out of the blue unless they were starting one of their unsolicited class fights.

But she guesses that Lila is still going to be a headache no matter where they go.

With a sigh, she focuses back on Kim’s tirade about his newest dare with Alix that strangely involved banana peels, hot pink glitter, a bucket of glue, roller skates, and a yellow jumpsuit... Yeah, she also doesn’t quite understand.

With a smile—albeit a rather confused one—Marinette watches quietly as her friends converse with each other while they all board their bus and sit in their respective places.

She sat between Adrien—who’s in a middle seat—and Chloé—who’s sleeping with an eye mask on, with Max and Kim sitting together behind them while Alix sits by herself on the seats beside because, by her words, she wants to hog all two seats for herself to lay down on like a Queen Bee 2.0 (and Chloé was strangely okay with her using her name like that!).

Really, thank the heavens Alix is on the shorter side of the human spectrum, otherwise, she’d be curling in on herself and cramping her back.

“You good there, Alix?” Marinette calls out to the girl who’s currently lying down with her head resting on her hand that’s propped on her elbow like she’s sitting on a gold-encrusted sofa, smirking as Alix pinches her index finger and thumb together with the three fingers remaining raised to show an “OK” sign as she nods her head in response (add in a pair of sunglasses and her gangster look would’ve been complete).

Shaking her head in amusement, Marinette looks back at Adrien as he shakes her whole arm just to get her attention.

“What?” She chuckles at Adrien’s constant tugging and sees him smirking while signaling her to keep quiet.

Not wanting to miss out on whatever action that’s about to happen, Marinette nods her head sagely and sits properly on her chair, complete with even her legs crossed and her hands intertwined on top of her lap.

She first wonders what Adrien is on about before Mme. Mendeleiev briefly walks past them and it becomes eerily quiet, so much so you could almost hear a pin drop.

“ALIX!”

A voice so very loud and scandalized (that Marinette almost choked) screamed, all the while Adrien laughs loudly beside her.

She hears a vague, “Sorry, Mme. Mendeleiev!” and a few shuffling and clanging (she swears if this was some weird video, she’d even hear a cat screeching) right after and Marinette promptly loses it.

“What was that?” she says in between laughs as her blond seatmate continues to laugh and wheeze like a dying seal (Disclaimer: No animals were harmed in the making of this scenario because Marinette loves animals and will cry if anything happens to animals and nobody likes that).

Adrien smiles like a cat that caught the canary (“Hah! You just punned! I’m so proud!” “No, I did NOT! Shut up!”) and leans back on his seat with his arms over his head. “That, my dear, is what I call, ‘Chaos Coercion’.”

With a small tilt to the side of her head, Marinette wrinkles her eyebrows and stares imploringly at Adrien. “‘Coercion’?”

Sensing her confusion, Adrien smiles and shakes his head. “Yeah, it doesn’t sound as bad as you think it is. What I did was just gently nudging or ‘coercing’ the chaotic particles in the air to be more active, which in turn makes them combine and form a ‘Chaotic Aura’ that increases the chance of creating a situation filled with Chaos,” the blond finishes with a wave of his hands, like he just finished creating a magic trick. “You’d also be surprised to find out that Plagg kind of explained that whole process to me nicely!”

Seeing excitement sparkle in her friend’s eyes, Marinette couldn’t help but be infected by his eagerness. “You mean, Plagg taught you this?” she asks with a hint of incredulity in her voice (she could almost hear the Kwami yell with indignation at her words).

“Yeah, unbelievable, right?” Adrien snickers and rests his head on Marinette’s shoulder. “Controlling the Chaotic Particles in the air was a bit hard since they are ‘chaotic’. That’s why I had to ‘coerce’ them. Hence, the name, Chaos Coercion.”

With a shake of her head, Marinette smiles at Adrien’s naming sense and wonders when she’ll be able to unlock her own “Miracles”.

By the Kwamis’ explanation, Miracles are when the magical entities of a Miraculous become so potent and in-tune with the user—usually even more so because of them being a Héshi—that they develop a sense of being able to use magic outside of their transformation.

The magical entities released then tie themselves to the user’s soul—traveling from the roots of their hair to their fingertips, which in turn makes the user more innate in handling the magical particles in the air.

The binding to one’s soul is a very tedious and delicate process because the magical entities of the Miraculous are quite fragile and requires a sense of equilibrium in the user’s mind and soul. More often than not, the strings of magical entities snap and causes a polarity between the body and soul, leading to broken connections of the user; such as a broken mind (insanity), broken body (organ failures, illnesses, and the likes), and broken bonds (disconnection of a Soulmate Bond—causes extreme pain, more so than an incurable illness—and numbness of emotions and social anxiety), just to name a few.

That’s why, when her friends were able to properly create their own Miracles and were classified as Héshi’s, the Kwamis were astounded since it was not often to see multiple Héshi’s born in the same era, let alone be able to successfully create their own Miracles after training for at least two and a half years.

She looks at Adrien animatedly talking to Max behind him about some quantum physics thing (it wasn’t her thing so she really can’t follow the thought process of their conversation), a smile playing by her lips as she lies back down her seat and closes her eyes—deciding to take a nap, given with the handful of minutes they have before arriving at their destination.

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Marinette wakes up with a start as she feels a gentle nudge on her shoulder.

“Wake up, Bugaboo, we’re here,” she hears Adrien say as he tugs at her arm.

Rubbing her eyes and yawning, she lets his hand guide her to wherever as her eyelids still seem to want to keep themselves closed.

“Here, where?” she asks, feeling a bit more confused with her brain muddled with sleep that she almost tripped. Good thing Adrien was there to catch her.

“At Gotham Art Museum.”

The blond’s voice sounded like it was laced with amusement (specifically directed at her) and Marinette might’ve just smacked him if it weren’t for the familiar smell of hot coffee—now placed on her hands by someone she couldn’t see yet with how she still won’t open her eyes.

“Here’s your daily dose of ‘cup of joe’, Bean… They do say that in America, right?” Alix—at least she thinks it was Alix, she was just basing it off of her voice anyway—asks as Marinette hears an almost silent slurping sound. A telltale sign of how the skater must also have a coffee of her own.

“You know, I still don’t get why you call me ‘Bean’. But yeah, they do call cups of coffee a ‘cup of joe’s.” She nods and sips on the heavenly drink while Adrien lets them down the steps and finally navigates them out of the bus.

“It’s ‘cuz you’re my coffee buddy,” the girl replies, making Marinette open just a smidge of her eyes to take a peek at her. “Plus, you know, coffee comes from beans and it’s also short for jelly bean. ‘Cuz you’re small and fruity.”

“...You calling me gay?” The ravenette gasps with a mock scandalized tone in her voice while placing a hand on her chest. It seems that hanging out with Chloé has made her excellent in copying the blonde’s dramatic motions.

With her still-quite-blurry line of sight, Marinette could see Alix sporting a deadpan look on her face—the one that says, “I’m done with y’all” and “I don’t get paid enough for this sh■■”—as she breaks out into giggles.

“Pfft, I mean, I am… kind of… gay—a bi, to be exact—so don’t look at me like that, Alix.”

The pinkette looks at her incredulously and shakes her head. “You know, Bean, sometimes you’re a little sh■■. It’s a good thing that I still love you.”

Just as she was about to retort to Alix’s jab, another scandalized gasp cuts her off.

“Alix!” Kim joins in and places his hands over Marinette's ears. Although it was quite loose that she could still hear them. “Don’t speak like that while in presence of the babie! You’re tainting her!”

“How dare you!” Marinette points a finger at the jock in faux anger—her laughs betraying her and breaking her character. “I am not a ‘babie’!”

“I beg to differ.” Chloé walks to her side while checking out her yellow-and-white striped fingernails.

With a face that holds a betrayed expression as much as she can, Marinette wails, “No!” and turns to Adrien. “Tell them, Adrien! Tell them I’m not a babie!”

The blond looks at his feet, then, back at her, his eyes looking glassy and teary. “I’m sorry, Marinette. I’m sorry,” he chokes back a sob while shaking his head. “But I can’t risk getting my face scratched with Chloé’s newly manicured nails. I can’t. I just can’t lie for you.”

“I—” she tries to cut the blond off but he still continues with his dramatic play.

“Marinette, please. We both hate lying—”

“But!”

“—so stop lying to yourself.”

Her friends all burst into laughter while she is left puffing her cheeks and pouting (“You, looking like a chipmunk right now, just helps us prove our point you know.”).

“You guys are mean,” the ravenette grumbles and sips at her coffee, imaginary mushrooms growing on her as she draws a circle on the ground using her feet.

Adrian places a hand on her shoulder, patting and consoling her. “Sometimes, the truth hurts. You just gotta live with it,” he says as though he’s an elder giving her a speech about morality.

“And”—Max turns to her, holding a tablet in his hands as his glasses shine a scary glint while he pushes them up his nose bridge— “according to the school survey, 75 percent of the school population agrees to you being small and adorable.”

“So? There’s still 25 percent that disagrees!” Marinette harrumphs while further emptying the cup full of caffeine on her hands.

“Those 25 percent are the ones that wrote how they want to kidnap you and put you into their pockets instead of ticking the yes or no questions,” the bespectacled boy says with an eyebrow raised. “That is just a much more extreme way of saying that they also agree.”

A bewildered expression paints her face as she wonders when the fu■■ did that happened and how come she didn’t know about the school survey?

Chloé must’ve seen her confused face as she links their arms together while laying her head against the ravenette’s shoulder. “That and you just don’t swear or say any curse word, at all. And you give everyone a chance no matter how mean they’ve been to you. I’ve rarely even heard you say anything bad about anyone… Except, of course, those who are belittling to others but that’s beside the point.”

She feels the blonde’s cheeks tug into a smile against her shoulder and Marinette could understand her implication. How she had given Chloé another chance even though they’ve mutually hurt each other so much in the past. But still, not really helping, Chloé.

“The point is”—Kim links his arms to her other side and copies Chloé’s actions— “everybody loves you. Even if you sometimes don’t love yourself.”

Looking down at her feet, Marinette feels her heart grow full with how much love her friends were showing her. She feels gratitude and love—so much love—surge into her whole being that she could almost cry.

“All right, enough with the sappy-ness,” Alix destroys the moment and butts in while waving her hands like that inflatable dancing guy. “We’re here for vaca—I mean, educational purposes, so we should start being edu… cationed…?”

The girl’s words were met with unenthusiastic head shakes and sighs. Except maybe for Kim who was encouraging her with thumbs ups and rambunctious laughter.

“Stop being an idiot, Kim.” Chloé rolls her eyes at the jock’s loud guffaws while snuggling further into Marinette’s shoulder.

As the two bickers while Marinette is in between—which she strangely found comforting even though they were basically screaming in her ear, the ravenette finishes her coffee and finally looks around the place.

Like always, Gotham morning sports a “gothic” and grungy look—the air feeling a bit feisty with a bite of chill and carrying a hint of a sewage smell (which was gross), sunlight barely seeping out of the grey clouds painting over the sun, and dark silhouettes of buildings that stand over meters high.

It was dark, a striking disparity against her classmates’ colorful wardrobe, yet there was something about the contrast that makes the monochromatic landscape of Gotham interesting.

Sure, it paints quite a large target on their backs but the visage still showcases a pretty picture.

With an awed sigh, Marinette’s mind runs miles per second as various of images, designs, and inspiration draw itself into her brain. Her hands quickly snatch her bag from Adrien’s grasp, replacing it with the now-empty paper cup, and pulls out her sketchbook and pencil.

Lines and curves begin to draw onto the previously-blank expanse of white. Her thought processes portraying themselves against the canvas in her hands.

“Those look pretty. Is it going to be a new line?” Chloé asks as she peers over her paper.

The designs weren’t done yet—heck, her drawings were still just simple outlines and notes on the side—but Marinette could see the possibility of it being another collection.

As soon as she heard that they were going to organize a graduation trip, Marinette had hurriedly finished everything on her website and immediately closed her commissions after so that she won’t have work knocking on her door every five seconds while she’s on a different country. She’s pretty much free from tasks that involve using her time and energy to sew.

And it is exactly because of that freeness that she could see herself working on a new collection. A Gotham-inspired collection.

Since she’s already here and is taking inspiration from her surroundings, why not use that chance to create a new line?

Marinette hums in thought at the prospect, immediately jotting down the idea at the side of her sketchbook.

“Ooh, this one looks cool!” Kim taps a finger against a drawing of a dress shirt she’d done earlier. The shirt’s designs were akin to the cracks on the sidewalk she saw this morning.

The design wasn’t anything special, there was just something about the web-like fractures on the pavement that reminded her of the interconnected relationship of existence and extinction. How time is weaved exactly like that of a spider’s web, connected and… confusing.

She wasn’t really sure what she was thinking this morning; it was like she was being philosophical and brooding at the same time. She figured it was just because of the weird air around Gotham that she’s been feeling ever since they arrived yesterday.

“It does look like it’ll appeal more to men.” Marinette nods while noting it down again. “Maybe I’ll focus more on menswear this time,” she adds before pausing. “If I do end up making a new collection, that is.”

Kim smiles and whoops loud enough to make up for the quiet streets of the city. “You’ll let me be the one to model that shirt, right, Arine D?” The jock winks at her while a wide grin spreads in his face.

Four years ago, when Lila did something to the website she and Alya created, Marinette had decided to just make another one because how else will she be able to showcase her designs? So, with the help of Max, the ravenette created a much more secure and stable account.

She decided to create a pseudonym, another name for herself to keep her identity anonymous since, by Child Labor Laws, having a job at 14 isn’t really that appealing in the eyes of the judge.

Her new name for her brand was “Arine Designs”— "Arine D.” or “A. Designs” for short.

The moniker came from her name, Marinette. It hits so close yet so far at the same time because, if you think about Marinette Dupain-Cheng, does the designer, Arine D really come first into your mind?

Plus, she had gained quite a copious amount of clientèle coming from the recognition and affirmation she had gained from the work she did for Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale (although, she did tell them about her wanting to stay out of the spotlight so she would very much like it if they keep her identity a secret), no one would think that little ol’ Marinette would be someone who has such a far reach on the market.

Smiling, she nods at Kim’s request and writes his name down next to the drawing of the shirt.

It wasn’t like she was thinking of getting someone else to model her clothes anyway because she had always had her friends model her designs for her, except they wear masks to also keep their identities hidden (to keep them away from spotlight and being mauled by mobs on the streets because being a model means you’ll immediately be upped to a celebrity status).

Just as she was about to say something to the jock, a loud bang disrupts the otherwise quiet city of Gotham. The bang was quickly followed by loud crashes, booms, and shrill screams. All of it coming from inside the building they were just about to head into.

“What the f■■■?” She looks over to Nino who was standing particularly close to Adrien and she couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment.

What the eff indeed.

…Although she refuses to copy the curse.

“Everyone, get back to the bus!” Mme. Mendeleiev huddles them and they shuffle back inside the said vehicle, the driver frantically beckoning them in.

“What happened? I heard… explosions? Is ever’one okay?” the middle-aged man asks with a pale face, his voice sounding a bit scratchy and sporting a funny accent.

With labored breaths and hearts pumping sporadically inside their ribcages, everybody nods at the question.

“Yes,” Mme. Menedeleiev answers with a heavily accented English, “the sounds came from inside the building so nobody got hurt.”

The man sighs in relief before instructing them, “Must be ‘nother rogue tryna wreck the place. Let’s just get down and hide behind the seats for now, Batman an’ his crew will handle it.”

They follow the man’s orders and duck behind the leathered seats. Accompanied by a particularly enthusiastic “Batman?!” from someone, followed by a hissed “Not now, Alya,” from Mme. Bustier.

Taking his phone out of his pocket, Marinette watches the driver tap the device a few times before looking over to them.

“Take out yer phones and check the news. ‘Parently, Kite Man’s bein’ stupid again.”

“…‘Kite Man’?” Marinette whispers, scandalized, before doing what the man said. Seriously, it sounded suspiciously familiar to Hawkmoth’s abomination of Akuma names.

Jotting down the words on her phone, a masked face immediately pops right after. A face with a ridiculous-looking, yellow goggles that clash with a grass green mask and… what in tarnation is that costume?

The man—or, apparently, “Kite Man”—smiles (she has to admit, though, that was such a sunshiny smile) and waves to the camera like a little child.

“‘Ello, Gotham! Kite Man speaking!”

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Hope this, um... okay I'm pretty sure this doesn't suffice the months that I've been away. Simply because, yeah, this chapter is just umm a little gate to some info about things. Next chapter,,, you're going to meet someone special, I promise... I think :/

Oh, and um, if you want to, you can follow me on Twitter (the username's unrchblvoice)

I, uh, have been posting a lot there? Like,,, just some updates on what I am doing currently, or something like that (even tho I have like zero followers there lol,,, there's just something about letting everything out in the open even if there's no one listening that feels very freeing...)

And for some reason, now, I'm more active there than before???? cuz like before I used to never use Twitter so like,,, Shocking, I know.

SO, yeah, if you want to see what's wrong with me currently, go check it out :)

Love y'all lots <3

P.S. Writing contractions with proper punctuation is not fun, I tell you. NOT. FUN.

P.P.S. I thought Condiment King and Calendar Man was already bad, who knew there could be worse—Kite Man. /j

Go become a Patron if you want to have early access to different updates! :)

TAGLIST:

@mochegato | @kris-pines04 | @myazael | @our-preciousss | @dropdeadj | @pawsitivelymiraculous | @fantasyislive | @i-wanna-go-to-outerspace | @gingerdaile | @whydoexamsexist | @rebecarojas07 | @fertileleaf | @mewwitch | @beautiful-disasters-sunshine | @naimena | @ertyzeta | @mystery-5-5 | @wannajointhecrabcult | @startouchedqueen1318 | @animegirlweeb | @clumsy-owl-4178 | @theg0ddesspersephone | @tomanyfamdomsonmymind | @queenmj | @azrael13 | @marinettepotterandplagg | @iz-bell-saiah | @lilithseraphina | @misslenamooney | @alyssadeliv | @waywardpeachgardenshark | @consumeconstantly | @notmycupoftea26 | @nokia75 | @synnesstra | @ivymala07 | @iamablinkmarvelarmy | @caseoftheblues | @2confused-2doanything | @sassakitty | @certified-queer-disaster | @prudencerika | @ilovefluffbutsmutisalsogreat | @miraculousl4dybug | @justanotherfanficlovinbitch | @maggiecc | @nerdofallgeeks | @enternalempires | @ultimatetornshipper | @ihavehomeworkbutistillhere | @maybe-nonsense | @dawnwave16 | @mymainaccount93 | @blackstarlight-co | @jayjayspixiepop | @prettylittlebutterflie | @timetravelassasin

The taglist is pretty hard to write ngl,,, so umm do tell me if you've changed your username or something because I had to click every single @s in the taglist on the last chapter every time there was a name that I couldn't find when I tried tagging so,,, I was very stressed lol

also,,, umm there are more than 50 people in the taglist but I could still tag people???? like how?????? I thought the maximum capacity of tags only reaches up to 50??? (Update: I checked it again and I can't add anymore people so it's closed now :))

... so yeah apparently I can tag more people! good for you lot :) (although there are some tags that still don't work for some reason????)