#Day 5: Other kwamis

[love4ng1e]

༄ Some of the stuff I've manifested for 2025.

1. Unlimited money in my bank account.

My card never declines regardless if I spend millions basically.

2. Name never gets mispronounced.

My actual name gets mispronounced way too often, and I got sick of correcting people, so now I don't have to anymore.

3. Ability to read people's minds.

I don't even know how that works. I just know what people are going to say before they say it and I'm always correct.

4. Knowing how to Ice skate.

I didn't know how to ice skate, and now I can, and I can damn well too.

5. A Kwami.

My Kwami is named Lilaa, and she listens to me yap and fits in my pockets. Kwamis are from Miraculous Ladybug if you are wondering.

6. Long natural nails that never break.

I used to have very long natural nails, but they got damaged because of acrylics, so I manifested those back plus that they never break or get damaged.

7. Everyone in my family being kind to one another.

Self-explanatory. Also that we never argue because I'm tired of arguments.

8. Always having yummy food in the fridge.

I grew up in an ingredient household, and I was always starving so I manifested that there is always food in my house.

9. Racist, sexist, and homophobic people not exist in my school or my erea.

Self-explanatory. Eventually, I will manifest that they don't exist in the whole world, but I like starting off small so I can see the progress.

10. Ability to see people's auras.

It's cool. Also, I can see who's having a bad day so I can comfort them, and they hit me with the "how'd you know?"

There's at least quadruple more this list, so let me know for part two.

༄ How I personally did it.

Step 1: Scripting.

I used Notion, but you don't have to. Google documents, a piece of paper, or the Notes app is perfect too.

I didn't do anything fancy. Kept it simple. Feel free to do it the way I did it if you want to.

Step 2: Choosing an affirmation.

Next, choose an affirmation that would represent your whole script. Can be anything.

Step 3: Repeat that affirmation.

I repeated my chosen affirmation whenever during the day, but especially before sleeping.

Step 4: Assume and persist.

The way I assumed was that during my sleep, I was taking the train. The train from my current reality to my desired reality.

The way I persisted was if I woke up and I "didn't" have my desires, then the train just had a malfunction, and I'll arrive shortly.

Smart? I know 😉. Feel free to assume and persist the way I do or any other way you want.

Step 5: Celebrate!!

That was about it. I got my desires. If I can do it, you automatically can too. Just because it's 2025 doesn't mean it's too late, so go manifest!!

Also, let me know if you guys like the new theme for 2025.

[lc-holy]

Thomas Astruc and Sébastien Thibaudeau were interviewed on Catboat's Twitch channel. A 5-hour interview in which they talk about their careers, the 5 seasons of miraculous and a little about the seasons to come. (There are no spoilers about season 6, only a few teasers).

The interview will probably be available with English subtitles.

In the meantime, here's a summary of what was said in the interview about season 6 and other Miraculous projects.

Thomas has always loved SAMG's work, and it was he who strongly suggested working with them on the series. But unfortunately, they will no longer be able to work with SAMG for future seasons of Miraculous. Episode production has changed and is no longer compatible with SAMG. However, he remains open to working with them on other projects.

Miraculous will be produced entirely in France from season 6 onwards.

The interviewer asked Thomas if an OVA project with Toei was still planned. But Thomas didn't want to answer the question.

Sébastien explains that they always plan the scenarios well in advance. For example, what happens in season 6 was already planned when season 3 was written. They've already written two pages of ideas for the Season 7 finale.

Thomas says they have ideas to go to a season 12 but it will all depend on the success of the series.

It's impossible for them to have one season too many, because their work is very emotionally demanding, and if they feel that what they're doing is no longer interesting, they stop.

Sébastien hopes that Season 6 will appeal to new viewers as well as those who have been following the series since the beginning.

Miraculous will never evolve into an adult series, it will remain a children's series. But they will always try to satisfy the fans who have been following the series for years.

They also wrote the series to appeal to parents who watch Miraculous with their children.

Sebastien teased us that there will be a song in season 6.

Thomas sincerely believes that season 6 is better than season 5, which was off to a bad start because he wondered how they were going to do better than season 5.

They had a lot of fun writing this new season, and the new writers who joined the series brought a lot of good ideas.

As season 6 begins a new arc, they consider it a season 1.

And with the new animation style, season 6 will bring a lot of new storytelling. It will be different. The stories won't be like the other seasons.

Some people will probably complain that it's different, that it's not like before. It's a question of adaptation.

Sebastien says we'll appreciate season 6 even more when season 7 comes out.

They don't know yet whether the theme song will change. Thomas would like to change, but he knows the fans love the theme song so they don't know yet.

Thomas hints that he didn't write the Shadybug and Claw noir universe to exploit it in a single special. But he remains very vague.

Thomas explains that there are many details in previous seasons that fans didn't understand, but which will make sense in later seasons.

There's a reason why Lila is a mythomaniac, and they'll tell it one day in the series. Thomas even says they've already told it in the series, but we haven't figured it out yet.

Thomas says that Chloe will remain an important character in the coming seasons, as she has always been in the series.

They have clarified that the new animation for the new seasons will have nothing in common with that of the Miraculous movie. Because the movie and the series are not linked.

They will soon be meeting to decide whether Miraculous will be made into a live-action series or not. It will be different from the series. Thomas mentions kwamis in particular, which are complicated to integrate into live action. Thomas has already written the concept. For the series to see the light of day, it will mainly be a question of budget.

[grilledcheese-savage]

Opposites Detract AU part 2

I left some things out but here’s a clearer picture of what the rest of the story would have been like.

Pls read the og post right here

https://www.tumblr.com/grilledcheese-savage/763805500110487552/new-au-idea-opposites-detract-i-came-up-with-this

For some reason it won’t let me link it normally

Ok so as you can see in the picture, Marinette is Multimouse… but is that all she is?

For the first “season” or less, she is a civilian. She is free to live her life normally without having to take any unnecessary risks. Until she runs into this old man (master fu) and helps him out. I always thought this would be during feast or a situation like that, where either he’s in turtle hero form and she acts as a shield for him, or helps him like the first episode as a civilian. Either way, Master fu remembers this. He tests her more than he did chat noir and la coccinelle because it turned out pretty poor last time. He has paranoia. But Marinette is a pure soul so he leads her to his shop and reveals the miraculous to her eventually, UNBEKNOWNST TO CHAT NOIR AND LA COCCINELLE. Because while he was hoping the next guardian would have been ladybug, he needed a person he could truely trust. And that turned out to be Marinette. She becomes the guardian for the same reasons in the original, it becomes to dangerous for him to continue and he loses his memory. But Marinette continues to work in his shop (a cover for guardian duties).

Lila and Adrien also “work” at his antique shop but neither of them know she’s the new guardian (yet) I’m not sure if they’d find out immediately after master fu has to quit, or Marinette keeps up the charade a little longer. I think it’s more fun to imagine her knowing more than she let on.

When she meets master fu at first and starts training under him, she doesn’t get to keep a miraculous. She works under a lot more conditions than the others do since her job keeping secrets is incredibly important and fu still struggles to trust her. Eventually she proves herself of course, but the pressure of being guardian is so much to handle.

Adrien was going to be a guardian at first since he gained more of Fu’s trust than Lila, but since he has the Kwami of destruction, just like that other guardian man that I can’t remember the name of, they all have some kind of bias against them. He couldn’t trust him not to take the miraculous of the ladybug and grant a wish, even if he kept that from him. He also just doesn’t get along with La coccinelle at all, so he couldn’t have someone with a bias be guardian (he’s hypocritical).

More about Adrien: As cat noir he doesn’t get to be his flirtatious persona he originally has, instead he takes on a more serious altruistic approach since he is pretty hated unanimously by the public. His persona becomes more of a lie, as he tries to undo all of the hatred that came from the destruction of Paris that first day. Think of goro akechi in persona 5; he learns to distain his constant visual presence, the fact on and off the job he is constantly being watched. There’s not a moment that either one of his selves is on tv. And because he’s being filmed there are quick moments the news capture of him being kind to the public and turning around with a resentful face on. He doesn’t totally get to enjoy his freedom as chat noir since the police always try to capture him. But they fail to, and there’s a still a small few of fans of theirs that defend them.

Basically he gets cancelled a lot. 😅

La coccinelle is allowed to pick a miraculous to help her ONE TIME by Master fu, and she picked Chloe Bougeious with the bee miraculous. Chloe accepted and caused a lot of mayhem. Which was fixed. But after that was when he met Marinette and started planning defense and strategy with her. So the next time they needed help, he sent Marinette as multimouse which pissed Lila off because it made her think master fu still didn’t believe she could handle it. When really it was a mix of both not trusting her, and the fact that Marinette was prepared for a lot longer then she was.

This makes lila have a one-sided beef with multimouse, even though she’s secretly her civilian crush Marinette. Love square? Ehh. What Lila doesn’t realize is behind the scenes Marinette doesn’t hold any ill-will for Coccinelle. In fact, she defends her to master fu and convinces him to give Lila more freedom more often. But of course, doesn’t know this. And the unspoken beef continues.

Now, for Kagami and Luka’s place in this story.

While Marinette is a civilian she meets Luka and they become friends very quickly. Same with Adrien and kagami. But at this point in time, Adrien doesn’t really have a crush on kagami, since the slippery slope of coincidences caused Adrien to have a crush on Marinette first. Kagami however seems to be the only one who sees this darkness brewing in Adrien (emo I know, but I digress) Kagami, does in fact, gain a crush on Adrien because she thinks he’s like her- lost in this world, without a lot of friends to help.

Luka and Marinette however, still get together but after Marinette becomes a guardian. They don’t last very long because of this, because her constant work between the bakery, the antique shop, guardianship etc. makes her late to everything they plan to do together. Luka ends things believing that Marinette only likes him as a friend and that’s why she puts work ahead of him everytime. This breaks Marinette’s heart, even though she understands, so she accidentally ends up saying in front of Adrien that she’s not dating anymore, and is focusing on her career. Marinette is oblivious to the fact that both lila and Adrien have a crush on her.

Marinette sees that Luka is responsible and puts his feelings aside for the greater good and chooses him to have the snake miraculous part time. When she is multimouse, she’s pretty awkward around him since things left off kind of sad, but since Superion doesn’t know that Marinette is multimouse, he just assumes she’s shy or doesn’t like him. This is obviously not true. In fact, Luka becomes the more “chat noir” type in this, teasing the group and very lightly flirting with her. BECAUSE IT WOULD BE FUNNY AND UNPREDICTABLE. I see him being very suave with his harp. Like every musician is lol.

Kagami and Adrien don’t work out either, because deep down, even if he is getting more resentful of being pushed around and molded into a person he doesn’t know, he still is naturally kind hearted and knows that his resentment won’t last….. hopefully. And Kagami only has that, and fencing in common with him, at least in this universe so they stay friends. Plus she meets Felix anyways.

Speaking of Felix. He.. generally stays the same? Here’s the difference, when he say them on the news on day he judged them. Then when he saw/ met more of chat noir, he started to believe that they were like him and saw the world the same way as he did and starts to commit similar atrocities in the show with the peacock miraculous in hopes that since they were the same, they’d leave him be.

Since chat noir is growing increasingly disdainful, he more or less does want to leave him alone, but the part of him that knows it’s his duty wins every time since he is , still, a little more responsible in this than the show.

Also a reminder, Adrien doesn’t start out like this, he’s still the show’s version at the beginning, he just changes with every situation they find themselves in. So when Felix eventually comes to meet him, he assumes Adrien is the same as always- a goody two shoes who does what he’s told. That couldn’t be further from the truth 😂

Adrien is similar to Felix but still mostly tries to act like his old self, since it’s easier and gets him places. But when Felix comes over and is cold, Adrien gets frustrated and his resentful, chat noir self comes to life. Felix was so stunned by the slip up that he just, shut up. And left. Very confused.

Anyways I have many different ways of imagining Felix seeing the more contemptuous Adrien. He becomes much more interested in him. He wants to learn more, because maybe he’s not alone.

Idk what do you guys think? Should Adrien be the guardian? What would Alya’s role be? Pls reblog more ideas and add on to the AU!

Thanks!

[maddascanbe-blog]

Huh, I expected to get my drawing of Teen Zoé done for the redesigns first. Oh well... Only Kwami-swaps of the Lifeswap AU!

Meet Amaranth and Cerastes!

For no reason at all I decided to give Swap-Zoé long hair and Swap-Chloé shorter hair. Which is the exact opposite of my normal redesigns for them.

André won the custody battle for Zoé, and put his best foot forward into raising her and Chloé. Zoé is similar to how she is in cannon, late season 5. But she still learned how to mirror people, convincing them to lower their guard around her. She is a politicians daughter after all, and having people on your side is most important when convincing people to follow you. Zoé ultimately wants to do good for Paris, and is good friends with Ivan and the other members of Kitty section due to their activist mindsets.

Zoé's biggest fear is the secret of her being not André's biological daughter coming to light. He told her when she was 13 because he worried her biological father might try and regain custody in order to extort André for money. He made it clear in no uncertain terms that she is Zoé Bourgeois, the youngest of the family, Chloé's sister, and his daughter.

While she is happy André won't give her up for anything, she finds a new resentment for Audrey. And lives in fear this will harm her father's reputation, change how her relationship with her sister works, and effect how her friends see her, should it ever come to light.

Chloé's know for years that Zoé was the result of Audrey's cheating, she knew that one of the contentions during the divorce was that Audrey was barely in Paris the entire first 2 years of Chloé's life. The math didn't math, so she pieced together the truth. This only added fuel to her burning hatred for Audrey, Zoé is her little sister.

As Amaranth, Zoé makes her voice Heard! There is no stopping her once she's set her mind to it. I based her outfit on a womens power suit, and those asymmetrically colored biker jackets.

Juleka meanwhile, grew up with Anarka. She remembered her brother from when they were little, and is a tad horrified at who he's grown up to be. With Luka gone, Juleka lost her spark and her voice. She almost never talks, and doesn't stand up for anything. She just goes through the motions most days. Anarka tried to bring that light back to her daughters eyes, but every step forward has two steps back taken by Juleka's bullies. Being a quiet kid, who's mom can't keep a job, wears hand me downs, and whose dad ran off didn't leave much to be desired when it came to options of being harrassed.

Finally Anarka broke and asked Jagged to let the twins reunite. She hoped this might be a chance for Juleka to find herself again. And while Luka had changed too much from her caring and strong twin, she did find Zoé, Marinette, Adrien, and the members of Kitty Section.

Do you remember Juleka helping Zoé dye her hair in Sole Crusher? Well this time it happens in reverse. After getting comfortable with the group, she approaches Zoé about getting her hair colored. Naturally, Zoé's gotta help her girly out.

After Luka is deemed no longer suitable to be a miraculous holder, Ladybug and Chat Noir decide to give Juleka a chance. Cerastes isn't flashy, or confident. She's stealthy, sharp, and attentive.

Juleka's spent years just adapting to new situations and learning to read people for the sake of surviving, and it comes in handy when it comes to figuring out Akuma's.

Unshockingly, Luka isn't happy to see his miraculous used by someone else, though it does take a while to get there since Cerastes doesn't even get properly seen for ages. She's very good at disappearing.

Anarka is so relieved that Juleka finally found her people, that she's even willing to stay in Paris to keep her close to her friends. She still struggles to keep a normal job, but anything to see her little girl smile again.

[internetgiraffekid1673]

AU Chloé Bourgeois from @princess-of-the-corner

I've been trying out new drawing tools, since I finally gave up on the random bare-bones program I downloaded back in high school, and a coworker recommended procreate. To familiarize myself with it, I decided to draw some of Cornerverse's alternate universe Chloes! Here are the drawings, with the AU explanations under the cut:

Honeybee (Hero Chat) and Lady Luck:

These are Corner's two main AUs. Hero Chat has the heroes set up a group chat back in season 3 to avoid miscommunications, and canon divergence ensues from there. Chloe and Kagami have both pulled a Catwalker there, but everybody does get a design update (I yoinked the pose, since this was the first one I drew and I didn't want to think too hard).

Lady Luck is a pretty standard fare Kwami Swap AU where Chloe gets the Ladybug, and most other characters' miraculous are also shuffled around, since Chloe is doing the picking. Corner's designs here!

Forged AU

After the events of Miracle Queen, Chloe gets a kwami from a different Miracle Box--Miirzan, the bear Kwami of Fire---and makes protecting the exposed heroes her personal mission, since nobody did it for her.

Chloe takes an interesting route for her hero costume in this AU. The first time she went out, she was actually just trying to use the glamour to not get recognized as a civilian, which meant she went with understated clothing that was functionally a palette swap of what she was wearing that day (pictured on the left). While she continues with this trend in the story, I also wanted to give her a proper hero costume, perhaps after she gains some more stability, so I made one myself ;) (pictured on the right).

Double Trouble

After Miracle Queen, Chloe and Ladybug talk and realize taking away an exposed heroe's only means of protection and benching them won't actually keep them safe. Instead, Ladybug permanently hands out the Miraculous, but shuffles them around so it looks like they picked a completely new team. At the same time, Chloe starts working as a double agent against MothBalls and Mayura (who think she's a double agent for them), and gets paired up with Lila. Some Sonic Adventure 2 fandub jokes go a long way to easing that particular relationship, and the future gets a whole lot brighter.

While the whole AU was built on Sonic fandub jokes, Chloe doesn't ACTUALLY say the "I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT" line. That honor goes to Alya in Hero Chat. But, I figured it was fitting just for the drawing. I ever so slightly adjusted Corner's horse!Chloe design to be an even more explicit Nightmare Moon reference.

Bee, Wasp, and Hornet:

In an effort to explain the massive personality retcons between season 1-3 Chloe, and season 4-5 Chloe, a theory was proposed that 4-5 Chloe (Joé/Hornet) is actually a sentimonster created by Hawkmoth and 1-3 Chloe (Bee) is somewhere else entirely. She comes back sometime in the middle of season 5 and is pissed as all hell about her replacement, but Zoe (Wasp) considers both of them her sisters and is determined to make things work.

While this AU is sometimes combined with Corner's Isekai!Chloe AU, sometimes she's just yeeted someplace out of the way so she can't be involved in the plot for a bit. Personally, I like the idea that she ended up camped out in the ReVerse and was only able to return after the Paris Special.

(I did lightly redesign Zoe here, just to cater more to how I picture her in my head. Joé's design is just canon!Chloe, but I got to put AU Chloe in whatever the hell I wanted, so I went whole hog on my thing about putting her in blue and giving her the curly hair Corner and I both headcanon as her natural hair texture).

Princess Bee:

After the Season 5 finale, the dust didn't quite settle as it did in canon. Chloe, now with hard evidence that neither of her parents cared about her, worked her butt off to get into law school with no assistance from them and cut ties completely, down to changing her last name. While there, she befriended the world's most generic dude John Doe, who later married the world's most generic chick Jane Doe and they settled down on a horse farm in Kansas. After some therapy, Chloe decided she wanted a kid, but in vitro would be too much of a hassle, and John agreed to help her out. This is the family photo.

Back in Paris, things got. Complicated. During the final fight, LB and CN ended out having to make a Wish to defeat Hawkmoth. The price was that neither Ladybug nor her allies were able to use the Miraculous ever again.

This meant that when Lila started her grand vengeance plan using the butterfly, she got straight up ghosted. So instead, she just hung on to the butterfly for ~20 years doing low scale cons (and becoming friends with Chester Fester, the best character ever), aimlessly drifting as she grapples with her undiagnosed clinical depression.

Zoe, after witnessing how Andre was willing to up and replace his bio daughter when a shinier new replacement showed up, decided she wanted no part of it and called her dad to help her sort things out. She basically ended out living alone in an apartment in France sponsored by Mr. Lee with him as her legal guardian on paperwork, and more or less avoided talking about the whole situation with the rest of the Miraculous Gang.

Somewhere around the 20 year mark, after everyone has grown up, had kids, and moved on with their lives, everything goes to shit. Andre, who hasn't updated his will in all that time, finally kicks the bucket, and Chloe is dragged kicking and screaming back to Paris (with her daughter Dawn in tow) to deal with the defunct hotel she just inherited.

At the same time, the Adrienette kids finally find the Miraculous stowed in their house, and decide to take them out for a joyride in a burst of teenage stupidity. They immediately end up on the news and Lila comes out of the woodwork to address some unresolved grudges. With the original Miraculous Team incapable of using their powers, and with no other options readily available, the next gen kids are now unfortunately Holders who have to stop her.

Oh, and of course Dawn miraculously (heh) ends up going to the same school as Adrienette's kids and she and Emma are gay as fuck for each other. Their parents are unaware of the connection to their past for a comedically long period of time.

Basically, the next gen kids are in a Magical Girl Anime, Chloe is unwillingly playing Homescapes with the hotel, and the OG Miracuclass are watching the mistakes of their past come back to haunt them :).

Everyone remember to go check out Corner's tumblr and their ao3, there is so much fun fuckery (not just ML fuckery either) going on over there! Thank ya and goodnight!

[kermdoeswriting]

Google Maps: Batman's Secret Worst Enemy

Part 1 (Ur Here) || Part 2 Coming soon

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One irrefutable, widely known fact about Marinette Dupain-Cheng is that she likes to have her friends around her at all times if she can. 

If Marinette wants to work on commissions, then there's at least 3 people in her room just hanging out while she finishes her work. If she wants to go look around the Louvre for inspiration, then she's usually flanked by 4 of her friends and they go find Andres' cart after. 

She’s very friend orientated.

It's just a fact. 

Being this way has honestly led to some interesting on the fly hangouts for the entire Miracle Court. Overall her need to have friends around constantly led to one of the funniest events that she would ever host, Miraculous Game Night.

It started originally as a pretty standard night of just hanging out and playing games. Friendship and team building pushed together into one!

Theoretically, it should have worked out.

Obviously, it didn’t end up doing that. 

From board games to video games, it was a genuine mess. Everyone in the Court was just too competitive to play any of the games properly, which led to stakes being upped and bets being placed pretty frequently. 

All of those bets and stakes snowballed from there into a bigger mess. The team itself were all too close to each other to NOT know any tells the other may have. 

Trauma bonding tended to have that effect on people.

Somehow, even with all of that to face, a normal person who never met them would probably think, 'It couldn't possibly be any worse than that, right?'

But Mari knows better.

She also knows she'd laugh at that person before shoving them out the door, laughter trailing behind them like she was a crazy maniac. 

Imagine a group of rich kids betting against each other while also being trauma-bonded, unable to lie to each other since they can read your every move and add in tiny concepts of ancient god-like beings attached to each of those rich kid players.

The problems just spiraled worse.

From a snowball to a snow avalanche. 

It ALSO didn't help that these gods helped their charges to cheat each round if they felt like it. And that there was nothing anyone could do to stop them from doing just that if the Kwamis felt like it.

To combat this, Marinette had come up with a small form of punishment she liked to call the "Off Brand Geoguesser" round.

If a player in between rounds was caught cheating in any way, they were subjected to sit down in front of her computer with Google Maps opened up to a random location of their kwamis choice. The offender would have to then (in under 5 minutes) figure out where they were on Google Maps with only 3 movements in either direction.

The only one to know the true location, beyond the kwami, was the Guardian aka Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She would only reveal the answer if the cheater lost or if they somehow managed to guess right.

On top of that, their miraculi were confiscated temporarily to prevent further cheating.

If the player didn't get the answer in time then they lost whatever game they had originally been playing automatically. Even if they originally had been winning the entire game.

It added better stakes, strangely enough, and the team always needed to play the round at least once or twice on a single game night day.

The night they found out Batman's identity wasn't actually any different.

Luka had been subjected to the Timeout chair after it was discovered he had been using second chance to cheat in their game of uno. With Sass having chosen the location, Luka had maybe 3 more minutes to spare.

Marinette had honestly never seen him guessing faster.

She held his miraculi in her hand loosely, watching over the group as she lazily leaned against her ladder. Mari loved when they all got together for these nights.

It was something small to look forward to in the middle of a literal emotional war with a magic terrorist. As depressing as that thought was to think about.

Luka used his last click and his laugh brought her back into the moment as it echoed in the room. He had most likely noticed something that would help him narrow down the location even further. 

Mari looked around his tall frame to see the Wayne Manor entrance, something she only even knew from research for their grade wide field trip next week, and can’t help but shake her head.

Of course he would somehow get lucky playing the punishment game.

She just watches as Alya immediately starts to argue with Luka, screeching about how unfair this was that he got a location so easy and that he had to have cheated a second time somehow. Adrien rolled his eyes beside her before taking a moment to smack her side with a pillow in an effort to protect Luka silently.

All that does is make the room explode into different sets of people fighting. Chloe and Nino jumped on top of Adrien to smother him with their own pillows from home from behind right after Alya was attacked.

Sabrina looked determined to fight with Chloe to defend Adrien, grinning as she continuously smacked the trio with her pillow. Luka was laughing so hard at the fighting that Mari watched as he had to catch himself from falling off her roller chair and breaking it.

His laughter earned him a pillow to the face.

Kagami and Felix were the only ones not involved in the slightest, taking their standing right next to Marinette the second it had even started.

“How long do you think they'll take this time? 5 minutes? 10?” 

Kagami snorted at Marinette's question, arms folded across her chest as she watched over their group of squabbling friends.

“I'd say 20.” Felix replied dryly for the both of them, eyes sparkling with amusement despite frowning at the group below them.  

It all goes wrong before Marinette can even open her mouth to reply to both of them. 

"Is that fuckin Bruce Wayne?" Escapes from someone's mouth in the room, effectively cutting off any fighting from continuing and making everyone look over to the computer to see. 

There, in all his rich kid glory, was Bruce Wayne. He was covered in all sorts of bruises, or at least seem to be since it was still pixelated, as he stood in front of Wayne Manor. He stood there, shining on screen in the most accurate looking Batman costume she had ever really seen.

Too accurate to be even considered a fake costume at all.

Marinette couldn't really look away from the screen at that revelation, feeling all of her life flashing before her eyes as her mind ruins through a million world ending scenarios at once.

The room stayed silent for a long while as Marinette started to mentally plan how to deal with this information before Chloe broke all her worries with a half caring shrug.

“Yeah this makes sense."

Alya jumped up shortly after to rebuttal that comment with a large "WHAT!?" and Adrien just nodded beside her in agreement, as if he had known it all along. The action just made Nino react and Alya looked burned thoroughly by his betrayal.

Bruce Wayne being Batman was very weird, but if Chloe wasn't too worried over it then Marinette wouldn't be either.

Having planning for if Batman came to deal with them over this wouldn't hurt though...

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Or basically,

The Miraculous team have off brand Geoguesser nights sometimes using google maps. It very obviously doesn't go well when Batman shows up.

With no mask. And also in front of Wayne Manor.

Rip Bozo lmao

[lukadrienmonth]

2025 calendar for Lukadrien June!

As a reminder, we're doing 15 prompts for the month! So that means, there's a prompt for every other day. A gentle reminder that you don't have to do every prompt or even do them on their assigned days. Go crazy and have fun with the prompts.

Rules:

This is a salt free event. This includes harsh criticisms of the show, characters, ships or fandoms involved. Any kind of hate will not be tolerated and will not be reblogged. Please be respectful.

Fics, art, playlists, edits, cosplay and other creative mediums are all welcome. Please make sure to tag us properly so we can reblog your hard work.

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We ask that there be no poly ships that include Lukadrien. There are other events that would cover ships such as those and we want to focus on just these two. Feel totally free to have other couples in your posts, but we ask the main focus be on Lukadrien.

As such, alternate personas of the boys are allowed, so feel free to add them in.

The tags for this event are #lukadrienmonth, #lukadrienjune2025, #lukadrienjune. We also ask that you tag the blog @lukadrienmonth

We will allow NSFW, but please have it under ‘Keep Reading’ line and properly tag it with #lukadreinmonthNSFW

If your submissions has a spoiler from a recent episode, please tag or make a note of it. While this mod stopped at S3, a lot of people are still watching the show through. I'll try to keep an eye on when the episodes are released to let you know what episode has been released, so you can tag accordingly.

And finally, have fun! As mentioned, you don’t have to post everyday or even use the prompts given for the day it’s assigned.

Prompts listed below cut.

Day 1-2: Kwami Swap

Day 3-4: Sunshine

Day 5-6: Childhood Friends

Day 7-8: Tutor

Day 9-10: Villain Couple

Day 11-12: Clothing Swap

Day 13-14: Guardian Adrien AU

Day 15-16: Safe

Day 17-18: Jealous

Day 19-20: Miracle

Day 21-22: Concert

Day 23-24: Grief

Day 25-26: Family

Day 27-28: Purpose

Day 29-30: Wedding/Honeymoon

That's right, Day 29-30 has 2 options! You can do either one or both, if it chooses you're fancy. I'm so excited to see what you guys come up with come June!

[ilikekidsshows]

Not to sure how to phrase this in a way that doesn't sound like Marinette salt, but I was curious about the morality of this option.

Since the show since s4 goes on and on about how unbearable every walking moment as Ladybug is now for Marinette to the point where she can do awful things to people and abuse her powers without ever being asked to finally learn from it and improve bc that's too stressful and horrible to Marinette

Well, at what point is it just the reasonable thing to do to propose Marinette giving up her Guardianship so she can go back to being a normal girl with a normal life?

It would be a loss, but let's not pretend like Marinette is gonna loose 90% of her life. She would loose A YEAR which was supposedly so torturous to her that she now thinks she's the embodiment of Truth and the Queen of Reality?

Just go to Suhan, tell him her job was defeating Hawkmoth and that's done now and she doesn't feel like she's suitable anymore to continue. She wants her normal life back, all she's asking for is that she gets to tell her parents first so they can properly go about this.

Overall, making it happen that the people in Marinette's life think she had some sort of accident (maybe even through being the victim of magic) that left her tragically without memories of the last year is doable. Anyone who claims otherwise is just making up excuses.

What would she even loose besides her status as the new anti-hero Queen of the Galaxy (that is 10 seconds and one disagreement away from her villain arc)? She will keep all her friends, her family will be in the know and take care of her, she will keep Adrien, she has a promising and bright future ahead of her anyway, and she only lost ONE year. Not a lifetime. One year.

The only 'loss' she would have is Cat Noir but season 4 and 5 made it very clear that he has no room in her life beyond being her battle care taker and pet to sacrifice. We saw it the entire time that he and his presence mean very little to her in her real life and she doesn't want him to be part of it. She has no interest in getting to know him either. We saw it in Kwamis Choice, this is not a real loss for Marinette. She'd get over it in a week at most.

So what exactly is stopping her from dipping out when apparently every breath she takes is torture now so she "gets" to take that out on everyone else to make sure SHE is fine before all else?

Just leave. You HAVE the option of leaving it all behind you! Tell Suhan and Alya to watch out for the new Butterfly wanting to drag Marinette back into it and call it a day. At that point Marinette would be of no use for Lila to target anyway if she actually wants to accomplish something with the wish. If Marinette isn't Ladybug anymore and has no memories of anything then Lila will never accomplish anything by going after her. Just LEAVE. At what point is that just the logical thing to propose when Marinette herself has no connection to shit and only makes it worse for the victims?

I don't mean this in the salty way, that's a genuine question. Marinette is not owed to reign the universe as Ladybug and have victims because she had a shit year. And very obviously this role is VERY BAD for her mental health since that's her never-ending excuse for making things worse for other people and not doing her actual job as Ladybug.

Yes she's 14 years old, but that's also it. She's a 14 year old in a position that's now clearly doing herself and the world more harm tham good because she's not cut out out right now to be a super hero guardian leader who has to take care of PEOPLE and VICTIMS before herself. There is no reason for her to continue staying in her position that'll only make things worse. Just leave. UNLIKE MOST OTHERS YOU HAVE THE OPTION.

---

The only thing I can think of is “people are counting on me!” but, like, girl, you're not irreplaceable. Anyone somewhat heroic could be Ladybug and would be more motivated to do it than Marinette “I knew Gabriel was Hawk Moth and intended to ignore it” Dupain-Cheng (although, I’m pretty sure that writers will retcon that dereliction of duty by the time season 6 airs). She only hangs on to her position because it's a pattern for her to just whine about how badly she has it while doing nothing to try to change things even when she's the one with all the power and control.

Marinette clearly doesn't want to be a superhero, she always has complaints about her job and "saving people" isn't exactly a passion of hers. She's far more enthusiastic about doing more mundane favors for people, which is why she actually wants to be and likes being class president. The difference between how Marinette treats her class presidency and how she treats her roled as Ladybug/Guardian couldn't make this clearer. Even pre-retool, Marinette never voiced any kind of enjoyment towards her role as Ladybug, and post-retool, she only brings up having superpowers and the Kwamis as a perk to Alya. Basically, the thing she gets out of being Ladybug is feeling special.

The reasons we can come up with for why Marinette has to keep going on as Ladybug while it's clearly ruining her mental health are all pretty self-centered. She thinks she's so much better at being Ladybug than anyone else that she's irreplaceable. She can't stand forgetting a year of her life because that's her life and her remembering it is more important than the people she's harming, including herself, by upholding the status quo the way she does. That's her title and she should get to keep it because it's hers. She's so important, valued, appreciated and celebrated as Ladybug that she couldn't possibly go back to being just plain Marinette, because she's so blind to how beloved she is and how much people celebrate her mere existence that she probably thinks she’d be left with nothing and no one.

[flightfoot]

recs for older/future ladynoir/time skip post show? like early to mid 20s where they're still ladybug and chat noir, i keep looking but can never really find anything except where chat noir goes off grid, but i think i'm just bad at it haha

Hm... yeah there are definitely some out there, though most of them are post-reveal. I dunno if that's what you're looking for, but I'll just see what I can find. I'm assuming, based on this description, that you're looking for something where Ladybug and Chat Noir are superheroes, and not a No Powers AU.

---

Boulangerella by @aidanchaser

Once upon a time, magic was wild. The two princes of the kingdom have been tasked with choosing their brides by the end of their 21st birthday celebrations. Crown Prince Adrien Agreste will have to choose between a woman who can protect his kingdom, a woman offering the power to wake his sleeping mother, and the woman he has loved and admired for the past year. Then there's also the seamstress that he is suddenly falling for. By the time he realizes he doesn't have the power to choose at all, it may be too late.

I love a good fairy tale AU, and this is no exception. Aidanchaser started writing it before Season 5 came out, so it's wrong about some things. Most notably, Felix's posthumous father was a good and decent person here, and one of the twin rings is Felix's Amok while the other one is Adrien's Amok, instead of both of them being Adrien's Amok.

This was a well-crafted tale, with kwamis operating as Fae: they can give power, but only if the wielder gives something up to pay for it. For temporary usage of their power, it can be something small and innocuous, such as giving Plagg cheese in exchange for his help. More expansive uses of their power requires greater sacrifices however, even sacrificing more nebulous things such as memories or hope.

The kingdom's currently being terrorized by this unknown villain, Hawk Moth, as in the show. Ladybug and Chat Noir emerge to battle him, but for some reason (*cough, cough*), King Gabriel isn't fond of the superheroes and wants them captured.

Gabriel isn't the only threat out there, Lila's skulking around, hinting that she knows how to wake up Emilie from her mysterious illness, if only Adrien marries her. And she's not about to take no for an answer.

If you've been wanting a fairy tale/fantasy Miraculous AU, I recommend giving Boulangerella a shot!

---

Through Yellow Eyes by @echo-has-queries

"Nooroo bleeds and Paris drowns in his blood." The day of the Blight, Paris bore witness to a horror too grand to comprehend. Only Chloé Bourgeois bore witness to a miracle. Marinette, Alya and the rest of Paris will need more than faith in Gimmi to survive. As the city's sanity hangs by a thread, bodies, minds, and souls are traded with the unknown in order to hold on to the things they each treasure most. Written for the AU Roulette Challenge 2024 with the prompt: Cosmic Horror AU

If you like Cosmic Horror (Lovecraftian I think? Though this isn't really my wheelhouse), then this is the story for you! I love seeing how Paris copes with the madness seeping through its streets, somehow going about daily life despite it all.

Kwamis here are more inhuman, more separated from humanity. There's no cute little miniature form to help bridge the gap. While humans can still meld with kwami, it's not all quite as firmly in the human's control as it normally is, and the side effects are worse. It doesn't help that the kwamis can't fully understand squishy little humans' wants, needs, or morality.

Like, as Ladybug, Marinette can't remember her human name, and her human concerns are somewhat muted. While as Marinette, she can't remember certain aspects of her time as Ladybug, and only regains those memories when she transforms again. She also has to be careful about restoring everything, as she can't just give Tikki a cookie and call it a day. Instead, she herself needs to eat enough to compensate for the lost energy, which can be a substantial portion of the goods in her parents' bakery.

As for Adrien... well, this is still going off of Sentimonster Adrien, though the ritual to create him went differently... and went wrong. But he is still Adrien.

Chloe's interesting as well, she's this sort of priest, this missionary for the kwamis, but her methods are... well, not the best. She still has a bunch of her canonical hangups, even though she IS somewhat helpful.

I love Alya in here, she's just desperately trying to figure out what's going on so that she can try to fix it, especially since Nino's one of the people who's been driven mad by the Blight. She does find some answers, and even ends up being partially responsible for Ladybug's creation and Chat's and Ladybug's subsequent fight against the worst effects of the Blight, but the risks, danger, and side effects she suffers are still significant. Though some of those side effects can be used to her advantage.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this AU and thought it was an interesting take on the subject, I highly recommend checking it out!

---

Mamma Mia! by @ladynoirfanao3

When Marinette discovers she is pregnant, she is distressed to realize any of the three men she slept with in the recent past could be the father; Chat Noir, Ladybug’s partner and ex with whom she had gone through a tearful breakup - the mysterious Cat Walker, Ladybug’s rebound - or Adrien Agreste, Marinette’s current boyfriend. Bit of a twist on the base concept of Mamma Mia, where she doesn't realize all three potential fathers are, in fact, the same man.

So this is a fun little fic. I loved seeing Adrien and Marinette independently wrestle with the situation - Adrien, with maybe being the father of his former girlfriend's children (but maybe not), and Marinette, with needing to tell her former and current boyfriends that they might or might not be the father, and having to deal with a potential change in their relationship because of that.

Oh yeah, this fic is rated M, but the sexual content is relatively mild. The foreplay is detailed, but the actual sex is just implied.

---

Fate, Destiny... A Hamster by @mostmagical

After finally moving into his very first apartment per Ladybug’s suggestion, Adrien discovers something no movie or TV show could have ever prepared him for: someone else's hamster.

Marinette was so excited to have her first pet. If only it would stop escaping!

At least now there’s an excuse to talk to the new neighbor.

(Adrienette Never Met AU)

Funnily enough, this is based on a true story. Specifically, the author’s own experience of having her hamster run out and be found by a neighbor.

Anyway, this is adorable! Marinette and Adrien become smitten with each other extremely quickly, with Marinette’s hamster keeping giving them reasons to talk. Very effective wing-hamster, that one XD. 

---

I (Wish I) Knew You by @buggachat

University has been hard on Marinette. Making new friends and maintaining her grades is a lot easier said than done when she has to disappear at odd times to fight akumas. She's struggling, and with Alya away with family and Adrien painfully out of reach, she's never felt lonelier.

If only she could talk to someone who really understood her struggles... but it's not like Chat Noir would know anything about loneliness. Right?

Nice aged-up Ladynoir fic here! Marinette’s struggling with losing friends and lovers because of her flakiness due to her superhero activities, until at last she breaks down. Thankfully, Chat Noir’s there at least - and it soon turns out he’s got problems of his own that he’s been hiding.

There’s some fluff and angst, it’s mostly just the two of them navigating life, dealing with their feelings and talking things out.

---

Tell Me Why You Love Me by @linnieluna

“Anyway, that piece of paper contains the name of this texting app. It’s completely anonymous, so you can download it, make your account with no attachments to your personal life, and communicate with me outside our suits. I included my username on the paper, too, so you can add me once you’re done."

Her partner skimmed through the words on the paper and nodded his head. “Brilliant as always, M’lady. I’m surprised we didn’t figure this out sooner within our superhero careers.”

“Yeah, it would’ve been nice to have this before, but hey, better late than never. Make sure not to have your phone screen on the messages if you’re going to leave it somewhere. We don’t want anyone reading our texts. Also, this is for emergencies only. No jokes or puns. I can only deal with you for so long.”

“I don’t know if I can agree to that last one,” he said.

Now 22 and working full-time, Marinette and Adrien seem to be getting busier and busier, which means fewer opportunities to keep track of akumas and show up on time. With the idea of using a messaging app to communicate with each other without revealing their identities, their lives immediately grew to be easier... until it wasn't.

This starts off as a mostly slice-of-life fluff fic, but about halfway through things turn dramatic when Monarch learns some things he really shouldn’t and takes action. I had a lot of fun with it as it was coming out, it’s worth a read.

---

Wedding Belle by Ilioneththird

Monarch is gone but the Butterfly has taken his place. When an old schoolmate of Marinette’s from her Francois Dupont days gets upset that a couple who have been engaged for a long time still aren’t making any wedding plans, the Butterfly akumatizes her into Wedding Belle, a supervillain with the power to force couples to get married. Guess which other longstanding couples and “just friends” she will target 😉

---

Love is Blind by @jennagrinsoverml

Tired of all of his potential girlfriends being blinded by his face, his fame and his name, Adrien takes a chance to compete on Love Is Blind: France, where he hopes that dating without seeing each other—or learning each other’s names—will finally help him to be lucky in love. What will he do when he realizes that his Lady is one of the contestants, however? And will he be able to win her heart where he’s never succeeded before? Meanwhile, Marinette is looking to meet the right guy after years of pining away for someone who has only ever seen her as a friend. She’s not entirely sure if she can fall in love with someone without seeing them, but the things that have always mattered to her most are the kinds of things that can’t be seen. What will she do when she realizes her heart is being pulled in two directions? And will she be ready to make a decision in time?

---

Remember That Time When by @mostlovedgirl-writes

Twenty-two-year-old Marinette Agreste was looking forward to the anniversary trip she would be taking with her husband Adrien that weekend. Those plans are derailed when she wakes up in her old bedroom... and she’s seventeen again.

[baenyth]

Bethany's Bizarre Miraculous Fic Prompt: Hawkmoth Gets Owned By Various Fictional Detectives

Basically I want to see Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth/Poopmoth/Monarch fail more since he kinda sorta won last season. And it's also crossovers where different fictional detectives (or just people on the Kira case square,) out Hawkmoth as Gabriel Agreste once and for all and hopefully do similar stuff such as outing Lila as a liar, dragging down other corrupt adults like Tomoe and Audrey, etc. and also just various funny moments with these characters interacting with the Miracucast. Here's some ideas I have from characters I know or are just interested in:

Lieutenant Columbo. I already made a post detailing it.

L from Death Note. I haven't watched Death Note, but if the memeposts are to be believed, he would outthink Gabriel Agreste at every turn. Probably ask him to show what's behind his ascot.

Shuichi Saihara from Danganronpa V3. Aside from him deducing Gabriel as Hawkmoth with the help from his friends, imagine the shenanigans. Gonta being ecstatic for the bug-themed heroes and how nicely they treat the purified butterflies. Kokichi takes down Lila by being Kokichi. Tenko is aware of the plot and tries to get Marigami together and make them kiss, alongside getting an Julerose kiss. Kiibo and Markov bond. So do Kaito and Rose. Kirumi somehow becomes mayor of Paris.

The Scooby Gang. In general I like the concept of silly guys managing to defeat Hawkmoth. They would accidentally find the secret elevator to Emile's pod and manage to use Ladybug and Chat Noir as bait for a trap and at the end, (since I like to imagine they're meddling adults at this point,) Gabriel Agreste grumbles that "at least it wasn't those meddling kids Ladybug and Chat Noir." They also take down the rest of Paris's elite because that's who the villains of Scooby Doo are.

The Duwang Gang. I think Kwamis and Miraculous heroes can see stands, but I'm unsure about akumatized people. Maybe. It turns out Crazy Diamond can heal people wounded by the Peacock but they pull the plug on Emile for the health of everyone. Rohan Kishibe uses Heaven's Door on the Miracukids and gets into accidental meta commentary upon discovering the full love square. He also uses Heaven's Door on Luka and it's sheet music. Maybe let Yukako join in too because of how much of a romancefest this show is and also because I like her and she had such a big presence in Great Days. Gabriel Agreste ends up with a similar fate to Yoshikage Kira, being surrounded by our heroes and helpless to do anything.

Sam and Max. I don't know much about them other that they're 1. funny guys, and 2. might just end up hitting Gabriel Agreste with their car.

Steve from Blue's Clues. Aside from the inherent humor of an educational kids show host taking down a terrorist supervillain, it also implies Blue knows who Hawkmoth is. Steve sits on the thinking chair to deduce Hawkmoth's identity and where he's hiding.

Courage the Cowardly Dog. Maybe Muriel and Eustace are dead and he was sent to live with Mylene and her dad. I feel like they'd get along well. Or maybe they're still alive and just visiting Paris and Muriel and Eustace are staying with Mylene and her dad. Either way I think this should take place around season 5 because the alliance ring works well with Courage's themes of paranoia over something supernatural putting your family at risk.

Agent P. Maybe Hawkmoth gets so desperate he gets Doctor Doofenshmirtz to build a wife-revive inator only for Emile to end up in another coma after accidentally pressing the self-destruct button on said inator. No one recognizes Agent P without his hat because this is Miraculous and people are dumb. Perry gets to beat the stuffing and tar out of Hawkmoth. Doof betrays him when he learns about how shitty of a dad he is. The miraculous heroes are allowed into OWCA on account of the animal theming.

The Smiling Friends. It starts off with a mission involving all of the main four helping Marinette smile and spirals down from there.

Not Batman. I've had enough Miraculous-Batman crossovers for one eternity.

[quickspinner]

Around the World and Back to You

This is my extremely late Secret Admirer fic for @belledaynight!

The prompt I went with was reunion as adults after crime fighting days are done, and I really had to think how I could make this different from when I've written these in the past, and I ended up following canon farther down the timeline than I normally would. For those avoiding later seasons, in season 5 Luka left Paris, and ended up training as a Guardian. So, I put some thought into how that would affect a reunion later on, and here's what I've got.

Ugh, what a day it had been, but then, was there any other kind for Marinette Dupain-Cheng?

She cheated and took the elevator, which she did at least half the time despite her resolve to use the stairs as much as possible. It was hard when she had had a long day, and her hands were full of stuff she had picked up on the way home because there was no such thing as “just popping in for one thing” in Marinette’s world. She decided, as she stepped through the doors,  that stairs-vs-elevator was just not something she needed to torture herself over. It wasn’t like she didn’t get plenty of exercise.

At least it would be a quiet night, for once. Marinette wrestled her way into the apartment and sighed, leaning against the door to close it. The lights were on, but that was normal, since she always left them on for—

“Don’t freak out.”

“WAAAAH!” Marinette screeched, her things tumbling from her arms as she whirled around, realized she was facing the door, and whirled again, flailing for a moment before finding a defensive stance. 

When she finally comprehended what she was looking at, she felt momentarily dizzy with confusion as past and present collided behind her eyes. It had been more than ten years since she had stepped over the raised lip of the Liberty’s cabin door before being startled in exactly the same way—and by the same boy. Man. Which was it?

Reality slowly resolved itself as she stared at Luka Couffaine, sitting cross-legged on her couch and regarding her calmly, hands on his knees. His shoulders were broader and his face was leaner, more adult than it had been and with an even darker tan, but it was unmistakably him. It didn’t help her confusion that he still wore blue streaks in his hair and a ratty tshirt, and his knees still peeked through the holes of his jeans. A hoodie lay over the arm of the couch beside him. 

His chuckle was the same, too, and his words proved he was thinking of that moment just as she was. “Sorry. Ma-Ma-Marinette.” He grinned, and unfolded himself to stand up and hold out his arms. “I’ve missed you.”

“L-Luka,” Marinette breathed, and then grinned herself, rushing into his arms for the hug he offered. He squeezed her tight, chuckling again as he rested his cheek on the top of her head. He was taller than he had been, and though still lanky, she could feel the firm muscle of his back beneath her hands. “What are you doing here?” she demanded, pulling back to look up at his face. “I haven’t seen you in ages! How long are you back in Paris for?” 

Luka let her slide out of his embrace and brought one hand to the back of his head, tugging lightly on his hair as he gathered himself to answer her question.

“Well, all of that’s kind of related, actually,” he told her. 

“How did you find me?” Marinette demanded, and Luka hooked a thumb back over his shoulder, and Marinette followed the motion to the staff leaning against the wall. The sight of it made her gut grow cold, and she swallowed, eyes flicking back to Luka. He tilted his head slightly, and she knew he had noticed her reaction, but his eyes slid away and he let it pass without comment. He coughed lightly, and looked at the floor. 

“Technically, I found the kwamis,” he said, giving her another lopsided grin. He tugged his hair again before lowering his hands deliberately. His self-consciousness made Marinette feel the same. “I’m sorry I didn’t call first. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to say.” 

“That’s okay.” Marinette shook her head, and found mustering a smile harder than it should have been, but she managed it. “I’m just glad to see you. Um, give me a minute to change, and…?” And what? She didn’t know, but Luka waved a hand, absolving her of the need to come up with something.

“Go ahead. Do whatever you need to do. I’m not going anywhere.” 

For how long? Marinette wanted to ask, but instead she just gathered up her things she had dropped, and moved past Luka to her bedroom.

“Um,” Luka said, and Marinette half-turned. “I could order dinner? I know I’m interrupting your plans, so…” 

“I didn’t really have a plan,” Marinette admitted. He raised an eyebrow, and she amended, “Not for dinner, anyway. There’s some menus in the kitchen drawer.”

“Color code still the same?” he asked, clearly fighting another smile, and Marinette blushed. 

“Yes,” she said, and went into her bedroom before he could say anything else. She locked the door, and the click made her feel a little better, even though the Luka she had known would never have followed her without knocking. 

That was a long time ago, though, and the Guardians as a whole had well-known issues with boundaries. She wondered if Luka knew that this was one of those obscure kwami holidays where they all gathered in the Miracle Box overnight - or longer. The kwamis often had a loose grasp of time. Had Luka come tonight on purpose, so they wouldn’t be interrupted?

She wasn’t sure how to feel about that. 

Marinette decided to go ahead and take a shower to give herself a little extra time before she had to face Luka again. She almost wished she hadn’t decided to change. Her work clothes lent her a professionalism she never would have thought she needed in front of Luka, but…

He was a Guardian now, and so was she, though she had never really felt like one. She was a Guardian and a holder, which was technically forbidden, and somehow visits from the Guardians had never gone well for her.

It had been a shock when Luka had returned to Paris as Su Han’s pupil, but Marinette understood why he had done it. She always had. He was trying to help in the only way he could think of, and he had helped, while she needed him. After that, though…he’d kind of disappeared. She got postcards from him for a while, but they were always short and not very Luka-like, and eventually they stopped all together. She had moved a few times, and had no way to send Luka her new address, so she wasn’t sure if the cards just didn’t get forwarded anymore or if Luka had stopped sending them. He could have sent them to the bakery, though, knowing they would get to her eventually, and…he hadn’t.

She reached for a clean pair of jeans without even thinking about it. Normally she would have worn something fuzzy and comfortable after she got home, and with the old Luka, she wouldn’t have hesitated. But this wasn’t the old Luka, this was Guardian Luka, even if he didn’t dress like it, and after all they were adults now, adults who hadn’t seen each other in years. Instinctively she knew they were not on pajama terms. She grabbed a soft shirt she had made that was comfortable but decorative, ruffled at the bottom and embroidered around the collar. Hangout clothes, but not too casual. 

Luka was just opening the door for the delivery when Marinette emerged, and for a moment there was natural occupation and conversation as they got dinner set up. It felt comfortable, in those moments, and they smiled at each other across Marinette’s small table as they sat down.

Silence fell between them once they started eating though. Luka was glancing at her from under his hair periodically. He had always understood her, and it had always been a relief before, but now she felt afraid of his insights.

“So,” she said, with an attempt at brightness. “How’s the Guardian life?” 

“It’s…interesting,” he answered, stirring the noodles on his plate. “The travel is nice. I’ve been a lot of really cool places, met some really cool people.” Another one of those darting glances, and then a tentative grin. “The rules kinda suck, though.” 

Marinette snorted, and covered her mouth full of food with her hand as she tried not to choke. Luka covered his own mouth to smother a laugh, and in a moment they were giggling together. 

“You don’t have to tell me that,” Marinette gasped, when she was able. 

“I know.” Luka’s grin was full force and sincere, now, and he was looking directly at her. “That’s why I can tell you. It feels good to be able to admit it.” 

Marinette felt a pang of sympathy. “It must be hard for you, having to keep so many secrets.” 

Luka nodded, gaze dropping to his plate. “Definitely not one of my favorite parts of the job. And as cool as the travel is, I miss home. I miss having a home. I mean, there’s the temple, but it’s…” He shook his head. 

“Not your style?” Marinette suggested, and Luka nodded.

“Exactly. I mean, Tibet is gorgeous, and there’s a lot about it I love, but it’s not home.” He reached out a hand tentatively across the table. “And I miss my friends.” 

Marinette couldn’t not meet him halfway after that, and she put her hand in his and squeezed. “I’m glad they haven’t changed you too much,” she blurted, without meaning to, and then winced. “I mean—” 

“No, that’s fair.” Luka gave her hand one more squeeze before releasing it. “They definitely tried.” He shook his head, like he was shaking off memories that she could only guess at. 

Before she could decide whether or not to ask, Luka smiled at her. “We can talk about all that later,” he said. “I want to hear about you. Tell me everything you’ve been up to.” 

Marinette hesitated. “What do you want to know?”

Luka leaned forward a little, still smiling. “What are you most excited to tell me?”

That was an easy question, and Marinette laughed. Once she committed to a topic, the rest was easy. Luka was such a good listener, and he always seemed genuinely interested in what she had to say. He asked thoughtful questions, gave her time to right herself when she got tangled up in what she was trying to say, and his eyes stayed fixed on her. Not in an uncomfortable way like the bewildered stare she got from most people, but in a way that made her feel like she held all of his attention in that moment. 

It felt…really good to be listened to, and she felt herself relaxing into something more like their old comfortable camaraderie. Luka was still Luka, after all, she thought, as she made them both hot chocolate after dinner.

“So,” Marinette said, sitting down on the couch beside him. She handed him his mug and folded her legs up beside her, not caring anymore that it made her lean towards him a little bit. “Are you going to tell me why you’re here?” 

Luka sighed, and sipped the chocolate before setting the mug down on her coffee table. “I don’t think you’re going to like it.” Before Marinette could do more than freeze in fear, he added quickly, “I’m not here to take the Miracle Box.” He smiled as she relaxed. “You are Ladybug. I can’t imagine anybody else for the job. You’ve protected the Miracle Box and you’ve used the kwami’s powers for good.” He chuckled. “The Guardians are a little sour about it, actually, because you’re so…unconventional. To them, at least.” 

Marinette groaned, letting her head fall back, and Luka laughed, putting a hand on her shoulder. She lifted her head and smiled at him, touched by the old gesture.“So what are you here for, then?” 

Luka withdrew his hand. “I’m here for Nooroo,” he replied simply, watching her.

Marinette tensed up again. “What do you mean?” she asked - demanded, really, though she didn’t mean to be so sharp with Luka.

Luka raised his hands placatingly. “I know that he’s been through a lot. That’s why we’ve let him be for the last ten years.” It gave her a little chill to hear him say we. As unconventional as Luka might be, he was still a Guardian, and Marinette was sure he held whatever promises he had made to the order sacred. “The Order has…well, I guess you could say it’s a ‘get back on the horse’ philosophy. When a kwami’s been treated badly, they don’t like to leave them alone for too long. Healing is one thing, wallowing is another, as one of them put it.” He hesitated, and then admitted, “Honestly, they wanted to do it sooner, and I’ve actually talked them into holding off a couple of times. I wanted to make sure that we find him the right holder, after everything he’s been through. I know how much you must care about him, just like you care about everyone you protect, and I didn’t want to let you down by rushing into something that might not be right.”

Marinette felt heat flush her face, and couldn’t hold his gaze. Luka put a hand on her back. “I think I’ve found someone that will work for him. I want you to meet her first.”

“Her?” Marinette said automatically, looking up. Luka nodded, and then sighed dramatically, raising his hands helplessly.

“It’s my lot in life to be surrounded by powerful women,” he said mournfully, and then grinned. “Not that I’m complaining.” 

Marinette laughed, and they both relaxed a little. 

“She’s an adult,” Luka assured her, “and she has a very nurturing nature, but she’s suffered in the past when people have taken advantage of that. Even so, she still believes in people. I think she and Nooroo can help each other.”

Marinette’s lips thinned as she thought about it. “What about Nooroo’s choice? It doesn’t count to the Order, does it?”

“It counts to me,” Luka said firmly, and there was an authority in his voice that made Marinette blink in surprise. He folded his arms. “That’s one of the things I fight most with the Order about. I won’t force a kwami to take on a holder. Ever. They have few enough choices already, and I’m still not convinced the entire existence of the Miraculous isn’t unethical.” He sighed. “But I can’t change everything at once. The fact is the Order needs me and my connections and understanding of the modern world, so I have some leverage to do things my own way, but it only goes so far. Freeing the kwamis would be such a radical change in their thinking that I don’t think they can even conceive of it.” He gave a lopsided grin. “Yet.” 

Marinette felt a smile spreading across her face. “They really haven’t managed to change you, have they?”

“I hope not,” Luka shrugged. “Not so much that I’d be okay with the eternal subjugation of another thinking being.” He sighed. “I can’t deny the kwamis do a lot of good in the world in the right hands. I still don’t think it’s right.” 

Impulsively, Marinette leaned forward and hugged him. “I’m glad you’re still you,” she managed to get out, and after a frozen moment of surprise, Luka’s arm’s snaked around her waist and pulled her close. He was strong, she realized, and of course he would be, having taken up martial arts training as part of being a guardian. She just…hadn’t realized she would like it so much. 

Embarrassed, she pulled away, smoothing her hair back to have something to do with her hands and maybe to erase the feel of Luka’s muscles under her palms. Her gaze crossed his and they both quickly looked away. Time had clearly dulled her memory of how intense his eyes could be when he was passionate about something. It was almost enough to make her believe he could change the Order. 

“I do want to talk to Nooroo first,” Luka continued, settling back on the couch and picking up his mug again. “I know a new holder will probably be frightening for him, and I’d like to explain and let him meet her too before I spring all of this on her.”

“Is—she’s in Paris?” Marinette frowned. “How long have you been in town?” 

“A few weeks,” he admitted. “And to be totally honest, I’ve been in Paris, or near Paris, off and on for a while now. I wanted to find a holder in or close to Paris. You’re Nooroo’s guardian, after all, and I know you’d want to be able to keep an eye on his new holder, so I tried hard to find someone here.” He glanced at her, nervous again. “I didn’t know whether you’d be happy or upset that I was back, so I put off coming to see you until I knew for sure that I had found the person I wanted.” 

Marinette looked down into her own mug, not sure herself whether she was happy or upset to hear that. He’d been so close, and he hadn’t come to see her until now.

“This way you don’t have to work with me any longer than necessary,” he added quietly. 

Marinette looked down into her mug, breathing in the scented steam. “Why do you think I don’t want to see you?” she asked, keeping her tone as even as possible.

Luka let out a little half-chuckle, half-sigh through his nose, a familiar sound that brought the past vividly back to her again. “I thought you’d be upset that I stayed away for so long. That you might have convinced yourself that I didn’t care about you anymore, and it would make you uncomfortable.” 

Marinette bit her lip, trying to decide if she wanted to ask the next question. Not for the first time, Luka answered it without her having to ask.

“I wrote you at first because I missed you, but it never felt…natural. There were so many things it wasn’t safe to talk about in a postcard, and I had a hard time getting around that to put my real thoughts down. It was never the most natural thing for me, writing. I couldn’t really send you a song.” He sipped his tea. “I didn’t make music for a while after I left Paris, actually. The whole thing with Bob Roth…it just soured the melody for me, I guess.” 

“You don’t play anymore?” Marinette ventured, unable to imagine a Luka without music, and he smiled at her.

“I do, now. I learned a few new instruments while I was traveling, and eventually I started playing guitar again.”

Marinette let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding, and smiled back. “I’m glad.” Remembering his own words years ago, she added, “It’s your nature.”

Luka gave a slight nod, and then continued. “Anyway, I felt like I was never able to get things right, and you couldn’t write me back, so…eventually I just stopped. I thought maybe it was better for both of us if I just let you go.” 

“I understand,” said Marinette, trying to be cheerful, though there was a lump in her throat. “Besides, you had so much to do, and you were going so many places and seeing so many people, plus your training was so important, it would have been hard to—”

“I didn’t say it worked,” Luka interrupted, a wry amusement in his tone. “I meant it when I said I missed you.”

Marinette closed her mouth abruptly, blinking. Luka reached out and put a hand on her forearm. “I’m really glad to see you again, Marinette. I know you don’t have a lot of reason to trust Guardians, but I promise you, I’m not here to do any harm or criticize you at all. I still think you’re an exceptional holder and absolutely worthy to protect the Miracle Box. I’m still your friend, if you want me.” 

“I do,” she blurted quickly, and blushed. “I mean—”

Luka smiled, and stood up, taking his mug over to her sink. “I should go. I know you must be tired and have a thousand things to do. I just wanted to see you and explain while the kwamis are busy. If you don’t mind, I’ll come by again tomorrow to talk to Nooroo?”

“Uh, sure.” Marinette scrambled to her feet, trailing after him towards the door. He paused to pick up his staff, and then turned to face her. 

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.” He put his hand on her shoulder, and his smile was both affectionate and a little sad. “Thanks for hearing me out.” 

He turned to scoop up his hoodie and went to grab his staff. As he moved towards the door, Marinette took a step forward on impulse. “Luka.” 

Luka paused, looking back. 

“I’m really glad you’re here,” she said softly. “I missed you too.” 

Luka's smile lightened, and his shoulders lowered a fraction. “Goodnight, Marinette,” he said, and she gave him a little wave as he let himself out.

“Sass, my friend.” Luka lit up, and Marinette had never seen Sass so openly happy. She couldn’t help but smile as the kwami cuddled up to Luka’s cheek, and Luka cupped a hand around him in the best hug he could give.

She turned away to give them a moment of privacy, and caught Nooroo hovering behind her. He started slightly, but Marinette smiled at him. 

“It’s okay. He’s my friend.” She held out her hand. “And I won’t let anything happen to you, anyway.”

Nooroo drifted forward, and landed in her palm, and Marinette shielded him with her other hand before turning so that Nooroo could see Luka. Luka acted like he hadn’t noticed them at all, but Marinette was pretty sure it was an act. He was giving Nooroo space to get used to him. Seeing Sass’ unbridled joy at being with Luka again might help the traumatized little butterfly god relax. 

Eventually Nooroo began peeking around Marinette’s fingers to get a better look, and only then did Luka look their way and smile. 

“Marinette,” he said warmly, and Marinette felt herself blush. She’d noticed last night that his voice was deeper than it used to be, but hearing it like that, warm and velvety around her name, made her feel suddenly all shivery. Nooroo glanced up at her and her hands jerked with the urge to toss the little empath away from her. Nooroo hurriedly looked away, but she thought he was smirking. 

Sass was definitely smirking as he flitted away back to his nest. 

Well, at least it seemed like Nooroo was feeling more comfortable.

She was glad when Luka suggested they all sit down. Nooroo perched on her knee as Luka explained the situation to him, and Marinette’s heart broke as Nooroo began to shrink into himself at the prospect of a new holder. 

“Nobody is going to force you to do anything,” Luka finished firmly. “You know that I mean that, don’t you?” After some hesitation, Nooroo nodded slowly. 

“Do you want to see her?” Luka suggested. Marinette and Nooroo both looked at him. “You could look for her,” Luka suggested, and Nooroo jolted slightly, hopping to Marinette’s other knee. 

“I would need…someone to transform with,” Nooroo said, looking at Luka with wide, frightened eyes.

“It doesn’t have to be me,” Luka told him reassuringly. “Do you trust Marinette, if she’s willing?” He looked up at Marinette for the first time since the conversation began. “If you transform with him, you’ll be able to sense the person I’m talking about. You can feel her out—literally.” 

He grinned, and Marinette couldn’t help rolling her eyes. Luka looked back at Nooroo. 

“If you don’t want to, I know Marinette won’t make you, and neither will I. I think you know, though, that she wouldn’t do anything to hurt you.” Luka gave Marinette a warm smile.

Not on purpose, Marinette thought. She’d actually had a lot of talks with Nooroo over the years, whenever she tripped over her feelings and created a mess that she didn’t intend. Unsurprisingly, he had a better grasp of human feelings than the other kwamis, and how those feelings could spur people on to do things they might not normally do. She wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t want to take this chance.

She was startled from her thoughts when Nooroo rose from her knee. Her gaze followed him as he crossed the room and disappeared in the closet. He returned with his Miraculous, and slowly, he brought it to Marinette.

Marinette took a deep breath as she accepted it, and looked at Luka. “What do I look for?”

Luka shook his head. “I can’t really tell you. It looks different to everyone. She’s…balanced, though. Steady.” He shrugged. “Just try. Look for someone…” He smiled. “Extraordinary.”

Marinette rolled her eyes with a self-conscious smile, and called for the transformation. 

It was…not what she had expected. 

“What do you see?” Luka asked softly.

“Colors,” Marinette whispered. “Patterns, I think—” She took a shuddering breath. “But it’s so dark…it’s fear, and anger, and—” She felt tears pricking her eyes. “So much pain.”

“No, it isn’t,” Luka urged. “That’s just a part of it. Nooroo’s attuned to it now after Hawkmoth’s abuse. You can look past it. You can see it as just a part of the whole. Emotions aren’t good or bad unless we perceive them that way.” He hesitated, and then said firmly, “Look at me.” 

It wasn’t so much a physical looking, as a focusing of her attention. She wrenched her mind from the dark, angry, confused colors that threatened to overcome her, and focused on the presence there beside her. 

He was…cool, and shining. His patterns didn’t clash, they flowed. Some of the dark colors were there, but they moved tranquilly along with the rest, neither consuming them nor being overcome, just…there. She saw his kindness, and his deep love for his family, the cold tide of his anger, the warm glow of his patience, and—

She gasped and looked away. It felt wrong to be able to see him this way. 

“I’m not afraid,” Luka murmured, and she knew he lied. She could see the fear tangled around the other feelings, but it was natural enough to be afraid of being so exposed, even with the people you trusted most. And he did trust her—she could see the steady pulse of it, threaded through that other thing she didn’t want to name. That was what he meant, when he said he wasn’t afraid. It was terrifying to be so exposed, but he trusted her not to use what she saw to hurt him.

Was this what it was like to be Luka? To hear what people said, but also sense what they meant that they couldn’t say? Except she needed magic for it, and Luka did it naturally. She’d never asked him whether he literally heard people’s “inner melody” or if music was just the only way he knew how to process what all his intuitive observations were telling him. Merged with Nooroo like this, she saw things in patterns and color and light - would it sound like a symphony to him?

Focus. She tore her awareness away from Luka, though her heart pounded at what she saw there. Later. She would think about that later. She reached out again eagerly, afraid to dwell on what she could see in Luka’s heart.

Without Luka as her focus, the negativity threatened to overwhelm her again, but she took slow breaths and did her best to focus on the things Luka had shown her — steadiness, peace, gentleness, love, empathy. Gradually, the pinpoints of light became clearer, the colors less muddy, and Marinette felt herself smile as the sparks of hope, loyalty, love of all kinds, generosity, and emotions she couldn’t even name began to show through…

There was one that drew her in and warmed her; it was diffuse, unfocused. Not meant for a single person but a general feeling of generosity and goodwill that reached out from a shadowed center. People were complex, after all, and it was unrealistic to expect them to be all light. There was pain, anger, regret - but they felt more neutral somehow. She remembered what Luka said about emotions not inherently being bad or good; love could be twisted, rage could be righteous. She realized she had felt this same neutrality in Luka’s aura, and understood that this person was like him in this way, able to accept her feelings without assigning judgement to them. Balanced. 

This had to be who he meant.

“I found her,” she whispered. 

She felt rather than saw Luka’s smile, a little swell of pride and affection that once again made her afraid to look at him too closely. She studied the new person instead.

“She hurts,” Marinette whispered, empathy coloring her own emotions. 

“Yes,” Luka agreed. “She hurts, but she doesn’t suffer.” 

It was true, Marinette thought, as she watched the feelings shift and swirl. The pain was a part of the person, but not the whole. Not all-consuming, as Hawkmoth’s was. It was focused - this person had given it purpose, but without Hawkmoth’s obsession. Without thinking, Marinette lifted her hand, and a white butterfly landed on it, wings placidly opening and closing as it waited. This person could do so much - could help so many. She was a worthy champion.

Marinette felt Luka’s touch on her wrist, and remembered herself. This woman was worthy to be a champion, of course, but that wasn’t why she was here, and there was no one right now that needed saving. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The butterfly flitted away, apparently unbothered by the unnecessary summons. 

Marinette gathered awareness back to herself, and, because she couldn’t quite help it, she looked at Luka again. He radiated approval and pride and—she couldn’t deny it—love. It hardly felt possible to her that he could still love her so much, and yet so quietly. 

She shouldn’t be seeing this. She closed her eyes and whispered the words, and when she opened them again there was only her living room, and Luka’s gentle smile. Nooroo hovered in front of her, frowning thoughtfully, and Marinette brought her hands under him so that he could perch on them. Luka picked up the bowl of grapes Marinette had set out, and offered it to Nooroo.

Nooroo took a grape slowly in both paws, and nibbled it, his large eyes narrowed slightly. Marinette didn’t think he was glaring at them, though, his look seemed turned inward.  

“What do you think, Nooroo?” Luka asked quietly, setting the bowl down and sinking to sit cross-legged on the floor.

Marinette knelt to sit with him, with Nooroo still in her hands. He seemed to come back to himself. 

“I don’t know,” the kwami said, slowly, and Marinette felt a little spark of hope. That wasn’t a rejection. He was thinking about it, at least.

“I understand. How would you feel about meeting her in person?” 

Marinette and Nooroo both looked at Luka. 

“She owns a cafe across town,” Luka continued. “Marinette and I can go have a date there, and you can watch her for a while.” He winked at Marinette, grinning, and Marinette spluttered. Nooroo looked at her curiously, and Luka gave one of his little huffing laughs as he stood up.

“I’ll meet you there on Sunday, then,” Luka smiled, and stood up. “I’ll text you the address. Goodnight, Nooroo. Marinette.” 

“Good night, Luka,” Marinette said, her heart still beating hard. She twisted to watch him as he stepped past her to let himself out. 

“He is a good Guardian,” Nooroo murmured softly, once the door had clicked shut.

Marinette smiled, still looking at the door. “Because he cares.” 

“He cares about you.” 

Marinette looked at the little kwami in surprise, and Nooroo merely gazed up at her. 

“You know he does,” Nooroo pointed out. “You saw it.”

Marinette’s shoulders curled in a little in embarrassment. “I feel like that wasn’t something I should have seen.”

“He knew you would see it,” Nooroo said thoughtfully. “He told you to look. He is very brave. Not many people can hold their feelings like that so openly. Humans like to hide from feelings.”

“Your new holder—” Nooroo winced. “Potential holder,” Marinette amended. “She is like that.”

“Mm. So it seems, but…” Nooroo’s expression was turned inward again, and Marintte’s smile faded as she recognized his brooding mood.. “Excuse me, Guardian.” He lifted from her hands and zipped away too quickly for Marinette to even see where he went. He didn’t want to be followed, she thought.

Marinette sighed, and fell back to flop on the floor, letting her mind turn to more mundane matters.

So technically, she had a date with Luka. He was joking, of course, it was just a cover so they could meet up plausibly, but…she remembered those feelings she had seen when she was transformed.

She put both hands over her face and screamed quietly into them.

Paris had no shortage of bistros and cafes, and as Marinette walked into this one, she couldn’t help feeling that it fit the stereotype. Round tables outside with decorative umbrellas, and small tables with wire chairs inside, plus a corner done up as a sitting area with comfortable chairs and a couch. Nothing to suggest that the next hero of Paris worked here.

Marinette picked up her menu automatically as she was seated, but she wasn’t really looking at it. Instead, she looked around, taking in the atmosphere and trying to notice details, but she found herself a bit distracted. She hadn’t seen Luka since he’d proposed this “date,” though they had talked over text a few times. A few days to sit with what she’d seen in him hadn’t resolved her confusion, and neither had his texts, which seemed so…normal. Updates on places he had stopped by, old friends he had seen, a picture of a music shop that looked like it must have been around for decades - if not centuries. Marinette wasn’t sure what to think. 

“Are you doing all right?” 

Marinette started a little, and then looked up into the face of the woman standing next to her. She held a round tray clutched to her chest, and her smile was shy but sincere. She had beautiful dark hair tied up in an elaborate braided bun, and dark, soft eyes. She wore a name tag that said Eve. Marinette found herself smiling back. 

“I’m fine. I’m just waiting for my f—for my, um,” she had a hard time getting the word date out of her mouth. You’d think after so much lying I’d be better at it.

“You’re meeting someone special?” the woman asked, and Marinette nodded. That was the truth, at least, so it was easier to admit it. 

“I guess he’s running a little late,” she said, flipping her phone over to check the time. “I can order something, if—” 

“Oh, no, no,” Eve waved a hand frantically. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to rush you. You just looked, so, er…” She smiled, hunching her shoulders a little. “Unsettled? I don’t mean to be rude. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

“Oh,” Marinette blinked, and then smiled. “Thanks for checking on me, um, Eve.”

“It’s my job,” Eve said cheerfully, and gestured vaguely to the cafe. “My grandmother left me this place, and I always try to keep it as welcoming as it was when she was in charge.”  

“Oh, wow.” Marinette was genuinely impressed. “My parents own a bakery, and I know how much work it is to run your own business. I’m Marinette, by the way.” She held out her hand and Eve gave it a little shake, sliding into the seat across from Marinette. “Have you always wanted to run the cafe?” 

Eve winced. “Not really, to be honest. But this place has kept me going through some really hard things, so I’ve come to love it. I’m studying psychology after hours.” 

“It’s hard, working and studying at the same time,” Marinette sighed. She knew that all too well.

Eve hummed agreement. Marinette checked her phone again. It seemed unlike Luka to be late like this—but she’d certainly left him hanging often enough. She couldn’t blame him.

“Worried?” Eve asked gently.

“A little,” Marinette admitted. “I don’t think he’d stand me up, but I’m a little surprised he’s not here yet. I hope nothing happened.” 

“Is it your first date?” 

“Yes. I mean no. I mean—” Marinette slapped her hands onto her face. “The first date was a long time ago, and it…things didn’t go so well back then.”

“But you’re different people now,” Eve said, tapping the table in front of them lightly as if she were patting Marinette’s shoulder. “He must think there’s another chance for you if he’s willing to go out with you again.”

Marinettte made a noise that was meant to be positive, but it came out more as a whimper. 

“Don’t quit before you try,” Eve said firmly. “That’s my motto. Or mantra. Something like that.” She grinned, a little sheepishly. “It’s how I give myself the courage to do things that scare me. Don’t assume failure before you take the chance.”

Marinette smiled. “That’s a good philosophy.” 

Eve smiled back, then tapped the table lightly again before standing up. “Good luck, Marinette.”

“Thanks, Eve,” Marinette waved, and sat back a little. She glanced down at the purse in her lap, and saw Nooroo’s wide eyes peeking up at her. “She seems really nice,” Marinette whispered. Nooroo fidgeted and then disappeared into her purse again. Tikki gave her a flipper-flick that was the kwami’s best imitation of a thumbs up, and then slid down into the purse as well.

“Sorry I kept you waiting.”

The familiarity of the voice nor the gentle touch on her shoulder didn’t stop Marinette from jumping, and a little scream escaped her mouth. 

Luka sighed, and then smiled. “Sorry. I always seem to do that to you.” 

“Stop sneaking up on me!” Marinette snapped, more harshly than she meant to. Luka only cocked an eyebrow at her. 

“You’re facing the door and I walked up in plain sight.” Teasingly, he added, “Stop thinking so hard.” He tapped her forehead gently, then pulled out the chair Eve had vacated and sat down. He lowered his voice. “Did you meet her?” 

Over his head, Marinette saw Eve mime a little cheer for her. “I did,” she admitted, and couldn’t help smiling at Eve. 

“I figured you would, if I left you here for a bit,” Luka chuckled. “She’s got good intuition, that one.”

Marinette frowned at him. “You let me sit here on purpose?” 

“Yeah,” he admitted, with a little shrug. “She’ll mostly leave us alone while we’re together, but I thought she’d probably come talk to you if I hung back for a bit. Sorry if I made you nervous.” He put his hand out across the table, and Marinette slowly put hers in his, since they were supposed to be on a date. 

“I guess I can’t blame you for a little payback.”

“It’s not like that,” Luka said immediately. “Not at all.” He leaned forward a little. 

“I understand a lot better than I did before,” he said softly. “The secrets, and the burden that comes with them. And you were so young, and going through so much…I’m so sorry.”

This time Marinette’s frown was more from confusion than displeasure. “Sorry for what?” she asked.

Luka laughed softly. “I don’t even know, really. I’m just sorry. For everything you went through. For any time I made your life harder. I tried not to push, but I’m sorry my feelings were a burden to you back then.”

“You didn’t make my life harder, Luka. You had every right to be upset that your girlfriend kept running off. I appreciated so much that you believed in me - you knew I had to have a reason, even if you were a little off about what it was.” She squeezed his hand. “I know how conflicted you felt. I saw you struggle with Hawkmoth. If I hadn’t hurt you, he never would have been able to get to you like that.” Luka said nothing, and Marinette leaned forward a bit, tugging on his hand to make him look at her. “You were just a kid, too, Luka, and you did so much for me.. I don’t blame you for anything that happened back then.”

Luka brought his other hand up to cradle hers between both of his. “I don’t blame you, either. You were doing the best you could. I’m happy you gave me a chance. I don’t regret any of the time we spent together. I didn’t, even before I really understood.”

“Really?” Marinette whispered, and Luka nodded, eyes holding hers. Marinette sighed. “I wish I could be as zen about this kind of thing as you are.”

Luka squeezed. “I’ve always loved your passion. Your big feelings are part of who you are. I wouldn’t change that for the world.”

“I would,” Marinette groaned immediately. She held up her thumb and forefinger together. “Maybe just a little. Just enough that I wouldn’t be so insensitive to other people when I get caught up in my big feelings.”

Luka laughed. “That’s just part of growing up. We’re all self-centered little shits as teenagers. You’re not unique in that.” He held a hand up before she could argue. “No, me too. It just looked a little bit different for me. We’re all searching so hard for identity at that age, and mine was being the chill guy who never got upset and everybody could count on. It took me a while to realize that selflessness could also be selfishness when it’s for the wrong reasons. I hope I’m a little more balanced these days.” Quickly, he added, “What’s Nooroo think?” and Marinette knew he didn’t want to talk about that anymore.

“He’s still being pretty shy,” she said, peeking into her purse. “Hey,” she said softly, trying to look like she was still holding a conversation with Luka instead of talking to her bag. “Do you want to come out for a bit? You can spend some time with her as long as you stay hidden. I’ve got your miraculous so you’re still safe.”

Nooroo hesitated, looking at Tikki, but then he peeked out of the purse and, when he was sure no one was looking, floated out and under the table. The next time Eve passed them, Marinette saw a little blue flash disappear into her apron pocket.

“Well,” Luka said, sitting back in his chair. “I guess we have some time to kill while he gets to know her. Can I order you something?” 

“When are you leaving?” Marinette blurted, and Luka blinked at her. “Not that I want you to leave,” she clarified quickly. “It’s just, I know you probably have to leave, eventually, and I’m really liking seeing you again and I just—I just want to know when it’s going to end, so you know, I don’t get too caught up and forget that that’s going to happen, because—”

“What if I didn’t leave?” Luka interrupted, folding his arms on the table and leaning on them to look at her. 

“W-what?” was all Marinette could manage. 

“What if I plan to stay in Paris for a long time?” The way he was looking at her was doing things to Marinette’s stomach, and she wasn’t sure whether she liked it or not. She tried to pull herself together, to focus.

“What, um, what would that look like?” she asked, unconsciously leaning back a little. He was just so intense, all of a sudden. Her heartbeat was suddenly throbbing as if she were sprinting up stairs instead of sitting in a peaceful cafe.

“Well, if that thing we’ve been discussing happens,” he glanced around, that quick, instinctive glance that Marinette had also acquired, the one that came with secrets you couldn’t share and had to protect. “I’d need to be around to help train the new—person. At least, that was what I was thinking. And I’ve honestly been getting a little tired of the globetrotting. I’d like to have some stability, for a while, and Paris is still home. You could help me out if I needed to get anywhere in a hurry.”

She could, that was true. If the Guardians objected to Luka holding a miraculous himself, she could always accompany him as Pegabug. 

“I might have to run off for a month or two here and there, that way,” Luka admitted, and he’d dropped his gaze now to where he was tracing the tile of the tabletop with a finger. Marinette had a sudden flash of memory where Luka had taught her box breathing, breathing in time with tracing a square like that. Was he nervous?

“I don’t have to, though,” he continued. “You could easily train a new person - you trained all of us, after all.” He grinned. “So if it makes you uncomfortable to know I’m in town, or to have a Guardian involved directly in training the new holder—” 

“No,” Marinette gasped, and then put a hand over her mouth. “Sorry. I mean, of course I wouldn’t be upset about having you around. You’d be an amazing teacher for a new—person. You’re…really thinking about staying?” For me? She clamped her lips on the words. That was ridiculous. Why was she even thinking that? How much teenage ego she must still have, to think he would still be mooning after her when they hadn’t talked in years…shit he was talking.

“--or maybe working some place like this,” he was saying as he glanced around the cafe. 

Eve caught his look and came over, clearly thinking he wanted to order. She chatted easily to Luka while beaming at Marinette, clearly cheering her on. Marinette was glad for the break to process, although she did manage to order something, asking weakly for whatever Eve recommended. Eve’s smile dimmed a little bit as she caught on to Marinette’s unease. 

“Let me know if you need anything else,” Eve said, a little too earnestly, and Marinette understood Eve was offering her an out if she needed it.

“You’re freaking out,” Luka said, leaning back in his chair as Eve walked away. She both hated the distance and was grateful for space to breathe.

“I’m—no, I just—uh—” Marinette bit her lip, twisting her purse strap in her fingers. “I don’t know.”

Luka nodded. “Paris is a big city. You don’t have to see me any more than you want to. Or at all, if you want. I’m not here to push into your life.” 

“Pff, of course not,” Marinette laughed, hoping it didn’t come off as hysterical as she felt. “Why should it be all about me?”

Luka hesitated, and pressed his lips together for a moment before answering. “It’s at least partly about you,” he said quietly. “I miss you. I meant it when I said I don’t regret any of our time together, but I do have some regrets about how things went down, and the way I let us drift apart afterwards.”

“That wasn’t all you,” Marinette protested weakly, and he waved it away. 

“It really doesn’t matter now. I just want to try again. See what our friendship is like now that we don’t have to hide so much from each other.”

“You make it sound so mutual,” Marinette muttered, twisting her fingers together. “It was all me and you know it.”

“Back then,” he agreed. “I have secrets of my own now, though. Like I said, I understand better now. I know how valuable it is to have someone you can be real with.” 

Marinette peeked up from under her lashes. Her stomach felt all weird and squirmy. She wasn’t sure if she could be friends with Luka again. Not…not just friends. Even best friends. She was already so drawn to him after only a few days. 

She wondered what he would say if she told him. Was he really just wanting a friend to confide in and share secrets with? Or could he want something more? She felt that he did, but she didn’t know if the past was coloring her perception. 

Color. Her mind flicked back to the night in her apartment, when she had seen his heart in a swell of colored light. He loved her, didn’t he? But was that enough, after everything? 

He was looking at her so earnestly, a slight crease between his brows, and she felt suddenly self-conscious. She’d always been an open book to him…and he’d always treated what he read there so delicately. 

She licked her lips unconsciously as she considered just…telling him how she felt. How bad would it be if he said no—or not yet? 

A light touch on her knee made her look down, and Nooroo was perched there, looking up at her with such a conflicted expression that she immediately moved to curl a hand around him protectively. 

“He wants to go,” she whispered to Luka, shepherding the little kwami into her purse gently. Nooroo dove deep, and Marinette thought she heard Tikki’s soft reassurance. She sighed, heart aching. 

“Then let’s go,” Luka said immediately, flagging Eve down. Marinette had to work to smile at her as Luka handed her a credit card, and didn’t even have the presence of mind to protest Luka paying for everything. 

Eve brought his card back and handed Marinette a box with a wink, nodding at the piece of cake on her plate that she’d barely touched. “It’ll be okay,” she whispered, setting a hand on Marinette’s shoulder as she walked by. 

Luka raised his eyebrows at Marinette, and she hurriedly focused on scraping her cake into the box, trying not to knock anything over in the process. 

Luka put his hand on the small of her back as they hustled out of the cafe, trying not to look like they were hustling. Once outside, they nipped into an alley, and Marinette peered into her purse.

“Nooroo?” she whispered. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” came the reply, but faintly, and he didn’t peep out at her. “I just…I need to think.”

“Of course,” Luka said softly. “Take your time. Let’s get you home.” He looked at Marinette, and she nodded.

It was too crowded to talk much on the subway. Luka stood close to her, not touching, but hovering as if he wanted to. “Are you okay?” he asked, as they both shifted for passengers to disembark, and she nodded. 

“Just worried about him,” she confessed, and then hesitated. Luka touched her hand, and she grabbed onto his fingers, squeezing tightly. Luka wiggled his fingers until he could wrap them around hers, and she took a deep breath. Not a good time. 

When they finally emerged from the metro in Marinette’s neighborhood, she was practically vibrating with anxiety, and Luka clearly sensed it, as he tugged her gently over into a small strip of grass and trees between the buildings. The trees were small and meticulously pruned, but Marinette felt better as she put her hand against the trunk of one, and breathed, her other hand still clinging tightly to Luka.

“You look a little overwhelmed,” he said, shifting to cradle her hand in both of his. 

Marinette laughed shakily. “Story of my life, right? When have I not been overwhelmed?”

Luka nodded, looking at the ground before meeting her eyes again. “What can I do?”

“I don’t know,” Marinette sighed, turning to put her back against the tree trunk. “Tell me I’m not an irredeemable screwup?” 

An incredulous laugh burst out of Luka for a moment, but he choked it back, though the effort twisted his smile. “You are absolutely not an irredeemable screw up,” he said, not quite as earnest as he wanted to be because he was still trying not to laugh.

Marinette rolled her eyes, and Luka dropped her hand, turning away from her to smother his laughter.

“Sorry,” he said finally, still smiling as he turned back to her. “Let me try again.” 

He took both her hands in his, and leaned his head down a little to look at her. He opened his mouth, and then closed it and swallowed, any remaining humor fading abruptly away. Marinette’s own smile wavered as he focused on her again.

“Marinette, I’ve seen a lot of places, and I’ve met a lot of incredible people. Good people, with good hearts and incredible spiritual strength.” He took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “None of them compared to you,” he said finally. “You’re still the most extraordinary girl I ever met. You were on my mind with every potential holder I ever met or trained. You are not a screw up, no matter how inadequate you feel.”

Marinette smiled up at him. “They were so lucky to have you to teach them. I wish I could—” she paused, and bit her lip, feeling a stab of guilt for the disloyalty to Master Fu. He had done his best, she supposed, but… “I wish I could have had someone like you to teach me.”

Luka nodded, tugging her hands lightly, and she let him pull her into an embrace. She sighed, settling against him, enjoying the way he engulfed her. It made her feel warm and safe. She really did envy those holders that had had Luka’s patience and gentle nature to guide them through their first mistakes as holders. She supposed she was lucky he had been there to help her through her first mistakes in love.

They definitely weren’t her last. 

Was it too late?

What if it wasn’t?

Luka’s hand smoothed down her back, and she leaned into him a little more. He smelled nice, and she realized he wore cologne.. She half-remembered him smelling of sunscreen and cheap detergent once upon a time, but now he smelled like green tea and spice. She wondered if it was something he found traveling. 

Abruptly she realized she’d been clinging to him for an awkwardly long time for a friendly hug, and she nearly jerked back. Luka didn’t try to stop her, but caught her hands again to steady her when the momentum threw her off balance. 

“Sorry,” she said quickly, flustered. “You’re all grown up and I’m still just as clumsy and ridiculous and—insecure as ever. Sorry.” 

Luka shook his head. “You’re perfect just the way you are, Marinette.” His thumbs slid over the backs of her hands, and her insides suddenly felt like jelly. “I—” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. 

Marinette tilted her head, watching him. She wasn’t sure what that expression meant. “What?” she asked softly.

“Nothing.” He shook his head. “I don’t want to make it complicated for us to work together. It’s just…I’ve never minded your clumsiness, and I love the way you burst out with the way you feel. Too many people stuff their feelings down because they feel too vulnerable to let them out, but yours are always brave and bold.” He smiled. “Even when you make a mistake and hurt someone, you always do whatever you have to do to make it right.  So don’t ever feel like you have to apologize for being yourself.”

You can be yourself with me. Just yourself.

 “After all these years, you don’t even know me anymore,” she teased, trying to lighten a mood that suddenly felt too intense, but Luka’s eyes stayed focused on her, and her heart was beating so hard she felt like she could barely breathe.

“I think there’s a lot I don’t know about you,” he corrected with a chuckle. “But I’m pretty sure I still know you. I don’t think you can change that much.”

“You think I haven’t changed,” Marinette pouted, and something crossed his face that made her blush. 

“I definitely didn’t say that,” he told her, tugging her hands down lightly so she took a step towards him. For a wild moment she thought he was going to kiss her, and she had just enough time to wish he would before he dropped her hands and took a step around her. “Can I walk you home?”

“Uh, sure,” Marinette said, taking a quick step to catch up with him. “Where are you staying, anyway?” 

Luka grinned. “The Grand Palais.” 

Marinette gave him a look. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope. I have Jagged’s credit card. I usually try not to use it, but…” he shrugged. “I figure Jagged doesn’t mind me using it to wine and dine his favorite designer. Probably would be offended if I didn’t.” He offered Marinette his arm, and she laughed as she slid her hand through his elbow.

“I saw his comeback tour,” she admitted.  

“He can only stay out of the spotlight for so long,” Luka sighed, rolling his eyes. “It’s his way of helping, though. He’s not really cut out for the Guardian life, but his money has helped us out of some really tight places, and he has a lot of connections. Plus people are used to him asking for weird shit, so that’s a useful cover.” 

“You took it really well, when you found out about him.” 

Luka winced and put a hand over his face for a moment, before letting it slide down and wipe away whatever he was thinking. 

“I don’t like thinking about how I found out,” he admitted. “That whole…mess. Don’t apologize,” he warned, lifting a finger. “I’m not talking about you, I’m talking about me.” He sighed. “I thought I was past all of that. It wasn’t pleasant to find out how wrong I was. It was…humbling.” Luka shook his head. “It was hard to be mad at him, after that. I felt like I didn’t have any right to criticize after, y’know, tossing him halfway across Paris.” He groaned, putting his face in his hand again. “I can’t stand thinking about all that teenage angst.”

Marinette giggled. “I so know what you mean.”

Luka grinned. “I know you do. Marino.”

“Aaarrrgggghhh you jerk I can’t believe you brought that up,” Marinette moaned, trying to pull away, but Luka held onto her and she had to smile when he laughed so whole-heartedly. 

I want him to stay, she thought suddenly. I really, really want him to stay. 

Her hand fluttered to her chest, fingertips brushing her pounding heart, before she forced herself to put her hand back down again at her side. She couldn’t quite make it relax and her fingers curled together. 

He was waiting for her, like he always did. She knew it now with miraculous clarity. He wanted to stay, and he wanted her to want him to stay, and he was waiting for her to say he could. 

It didn’t have to be a big thing, right? She could say it, somehow, and he would know what she meant even if she didn’t say it say it, and then they would have time, and they could figure out things as they went. 

She felt a light touch on her hip, and looked down to see Nooroo peeping up out of her bag, his little flipper nudging her. She stroked his forehead with one finger, a gesture he seemed to like. He gave her a tiny little nod, and slipped back into her purse.

What was that, she wondered. Was he saying—-was he okay with this arrangement? He wanted to try the new holder? Or…was he sensing her hesitation, and encouraging her. 

Freaking empaths, they were so confusing. Just because they could practically read minds—

“I think it went well,” Luka murmured, and Marinette jumped slightly. “He didn’t reject the whole idea.” 

“Mm,” Marinette agreed, not knowing what to say. 

“He can take his time,” Luka went on. “There’s a vintage record shop I’ve been looking at. The owner’s looking to sell, and it would make a pretty good cover while I’m here.” 

Here was her opening, and Marinette couldn’t make a sound. She didn’t say anything, and she felt Luka’s silent sigh, and wanted to bang her head against a wall.

Suddenly they were standing in front of Marinette’s apartment building, and Luka began to pull away.

Say something. DO something.

She tightened her hand on his arm and tugged a little, and Luka reversed his momentum, walking through the door with her. She still clung to him in the elevator, still trying to make her brain or her voice or something work, before he decided she didn’t want him. 

She did want him. She did . Why couldn’t she just say it.

Luka stopped them in front of her apartment door, and his arm slid out of her grasp as he faced her.

He was going to say goodbye, and he was going to leave , and—

Say something say something DO SOMETHING

Marinette hardly knew what she was doing as she stepped forward and took his face in her hands, raising up on her toes as high as she could, and kissed him—or tried to. She still wasn’t quite tall enough, so her kiss hit his chin more than his lips, but only for a moment, as he eagerly bent down to meet her, a desperate little noise coming from his throat as he wrapped his arms around her and their lips met more fully. 

It was everything she had ever imagined, soft and intense and electric all at once. Luka’s hands splayed on her back, pulling her closer, and she gasped a little. She felt him freeze and slid her hands behind his neck to pull him back in. 

When her eyes opened again she felt rather proud of the dazed way he looked at her, the glow in his tanned cheeks, and the slightly slack-jawed expression. She couldn’t help a giggle. His eyes focused back on her, and she shivered. She thought he was going to say something, but he leaned in and kissed her again. Marinette freed one hand, flailing for the handle of her door. He followed her willingly, mouth still hot on hers, as she got it open and pulled him inside. Luka kicked the door shut behind them and leaned back against it, pulling Marinette into him. She pressed against him shamelessly, letting her purse slide to the floor. If there was a little squeak as it hit the floor and faint giggles around the apartment, Luka and Marinette were far too busy to notice. 

“Wow,” he murmured, and cleared his throat, letting his head tip back as Marinette felt his chest up shamelessly. “I admit I was maybe hoping for that to happen, but I thought it would take a lot longer.” 

Marinette giggled. “We’re not kids anymore,” she reminded him.

“Oh I know.” Luka’s hands drifted a little lower on her back. “I’m definitely not complaining.”

“You don’t think it’s maybe a little fast?” she asked, mostly teasing but genuinely curious. The doubt she had stomped on wanted to creep up again, but Luka’s words crushed it to dust. 

“Not with you,” he said, so earnestly that her breath caught and her eyes stung. “I’m all in for wherever you want to go from here. If we end up having a passionate affair for a few months before we decide we’re better as friends—” Marinette felt a rush of heat all down her body at the words. “—I’m going to enjoy every second of it. If it goes the way I’d like it to and we end up with something longer term, something…permanent, then I don’t want to miss a second when I could have been with you.” He leaned down and kissed her again, soft and slow. 

It took her a moment to open her eyes when he pulled away. “Don’t the Guardians have rules about this kind of thing?” Marinette asked, already half-knowing the answer.

Luka didn’t disappoint her. He rolled his eyes. “Fuck the Guardians.”

Marinette laughed. “Maybe just the one,” she purred, tapping Luka on the nose, and taking great pleasure in watching him flush. The deep rose tint to his tan was very attractive, she decided, and rose up on her toes to kiss him again.

Fiction Master Post 

[celestiall0tus]

Bloody Bug Kwami Factory Reset - New Concepts, Powers, and More

Alright, with the reset chapter 68 of Bloody Bug, there has been a major change with the kwamis. I will still detail it in the story, however I will also put it here as a reference to fall back onto for those that like this stuff when it comes to my AUs (looks over at the Holder Powers master list). Alright, let's crack into this.

The Reset:

For those that haven't caught up, or haven't read it but are just here, the kwamis were reset to their original states when they were created by the Mage. It was discovered the Order had put limitations on the kwamis because they believed them too dangerous to leave as is and changed them. However, with the help of Tikki, Adrien, and Kagami, the kwamis have been returned to that state. With this comes some other big changes.

What was Lost:

The protections and limitations the Order of Guardians had created are gone. This means the following:

There is no safeguard to protect a holder's identity

There are no safeguards to keep a holder from using their powers as many times as they want, much like Shadybug and Claw Noir. However, unlike them, the holder isn't damaged, but like in Paradise AU, they lose lifeforce. It grows from seconds, to minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and finally years. This can be offset by the tier system that remains in place.

Kwamis are no longer subservient to humanity. They cannot be ordered to do anything, cannot be commanded so easily, and can straight up refuse to comply.

Kwamis can choose their own holders, for better or worse. In some cases, a kwami can override a person's consent and take them as their holder regardless, leading to its own consequences. They aren't bound to the holder either and may leave whenever they please.

The kwamis now embody their original concepts or the full range of their concepts. As such, many of their personalities and other aspects will be far different from canon.

Bad things don't happen when kwamis use their powers without holders.

What was Gained:

With the kwamis returned and fully embodying their concepts, the tiers of holders have been expanded with their new abilities. However, as it was stated, the higher up they are in these tiers, the less human the holders become and the harder it is for them to exist without kwamis, and for the kwamis to let them go. This was seen a little with Mayura and how inhuman she was, but will be driven home soon.

Kwamis have gained the ability to shapeshift, be it into their animals or humans. How they look as either is purely cosmetic to them. Their memories and experiences have been returned, including the ones that had belong to Velze. They are once again able to speak freely of him.

Now, the tiers reworked with the changes:

Tier 1: Baseline Holder. These are the very basic, very human of the holders. They still don't retain any special abilities and can only use their one power about once before they start drawing on their own lifeforce.

Tier 2: Enlightened Holder. These are the holders capable of 2-4 kwami unifications. They also gain another power, another use of their powers (2 max), and have a couple of passive abilities related to their kwami's animal.

Tier 3: Awakened Holder. These are the holders capable of amalgamation unifications/Velze unifications/5 kwami unifications. They also gain a couple of passives related to their kwami's concept along with another power, plus two more charges (making it up to 4 charges total). This is when holders have their strength, speed, and agility boosted in and out of transformations.

Tier 4: Mythic Holder. These are the holders that are capable of fusing with kwamis, allowing them access to primal forms. They gain a pair of passives related to both animal and concept. And gain another boost to strength, speed, and agility in and out of transformations.

Tier 5: Ascended Holders. These are the holders that are more kwami than human. They experience a small fraction of human needs such as hunger and sleep (Ie they get hungry about once a day, and need only sleep for 4 hours max). Their powers and charges are maxed out at 6 and they no longer need to speak to use their powers. They are deadly to holders lower than them with their attributes maxed out, in and out of transformations, making them closer to demigods. Paled in comparison to only one tier.

Tier 6: Mantle. The final and deadliest of tiers. No elixir exists to elevate a holder to this state. A holder must have a perfect bond with a kwami, then ingest the kwami. If they survive the process, they become the kwami, giving them access to all powers, near unlimited uses, disease immunity, can transform at will, and shapeshifting. However, the holder becomes their kwami's personality, relationships, and more (ie Duusu's Mantle becoming more emotional and sensitive, Tikki and Plagg's Mantles taking on their more romantic bond, etc). In addition, if there are other Mantles, they are able to fuse with other kwamis or Mantles. The only death for a Mantle is another Mantle, old age, or overusing powers.

Now the biggest of them...

Holders, their powers and weapons:

Let's get this started. You'll get the activation phrase, powers (listed by tiers), tools/weapon, and whatever else I may forget to mention. I will also only be doing the holders that have made it to this point. Sorry to Badb, Porcelet, Fennec, and Bomb Bee.

We start with the leading lady herself, Bloody Bug. Let's crack into this:

Concept: Creation

Tool/Weapon: Yo-yo

Transformation phrase: Tikki, spots on

Power phrases: Create (Object Creation), Form (Matter Creation), Walk (Construct Creation)

Tier 1: Power allows her to create objects.

Tier 2: Passives gained are walking on walls and ceilings (like spiderman) and hovering (which she does with her "skates"). Power gained is Construct Creation.

Tier 3: Passives gained are passive creative aura and Recreation. Power gained is Matter Creation.

Tier 4: Passives gained are Advantage Creation and Flight.

Next, the leading guy, Chat Noir.

Concept: Destruction

Tool/Weapon: Staff

Transformation phrase: Plagg, Claws Out

Power phrases: Cataclysm (Object Destruction), Ruin (Irreversible Destruction), Erase (Erasure)

Tier 1: Power allows him to destroy objects.

Tier 2: Passives gained are night vision and scale vertical surfaces. Power gained is Erasure.

Tier 3: Passives gained are passive destructive aura and destabilization. Power gained is Irreversible Destruction.

Tier 4: Passives gained are Decay and Claw Damage.

Chloe Bourgeois as Gallic Chick

Concept: Ambition

Tool/Weapon: Feather Pen

Transformation phrase: Orikko, Sunrise

Power phrases: Sublimation (Power Choice), Read (Attack Predication)

Tier 1: Power allows her access to any power to achieve her goals not governed by another kwami.

Tier 2: Passives gained are rooster crow that can be heard for miles and rooster spurs. Power gained is Attack Prediction.

Mylene Haprele as Hydra

Concept: Nature

Tool/Weapon: Sword and Shield

Transformation phrase: Longg, Ascension

Power phrases: Nature (Nature Manipulation), Water (Water Manipulation)

Tier 1: Power is nature manipulation.

Tier 2: Passives gained are breathe underwater and frightening roar. Power gained is water manipulation.

Max Kante as Apollo

Concept: Augmentation

Tool/Weapon: Grimoire

Transformation phrase: Mullo, Get Squeaky

Power phrases: Strengthen (Physical Augmentation), Boost (Power Augmentation)

Tier 1: Power allows him to enhance the physical capabilities of a single target.

Tier 2: Passives gained are enhanced hearing and able to scale surfaces quickly. Power gained is Power Augmentation.

Le Chien Kim as Minotaur

Concept: Willpower

Tool/Weapon: Warhammer

Transformation phrase: Stompp, Charge Ahead

Power phrases: Superior (Superiority), Unyielding (Power Invulnerability)

Tier 1: Power is Power Invulnerability.

Tier 2: Passives gained he has a higher pain tolerance (allowing him to take more hits) and can do a bull charge that cannot be interrupted. Power gained allows him to become greater than his opponent.

Marc Anciel as Ouroboros.

Concept: Clairvoyance

Tool/Weapon: Crystal Ball

Transformation phrase: Sass, Scales Slither

Power phrases: Foresee (Prophecy), Overlap (Astral Vision)

Tier 1: Power is Prophecy.

Tier 2: Passives gained are infrared vision at night and can glide. Power gained is Astral Vision.

Rose Lavillant as Pom Pom

Concept: Protection

Tool/Weapon: Throwing Knives

Transformation phrase: Barkk, Let's Play

Power phrases: Safeguard (Defense Augmentation), Break (Defense Weakening)

Tier 1: Power is Defense Augmentation.

Tier 2: Passives gained are enhanced smell and enhanced hearing. Power gained allows her to weaken defenses.

Ivan Bruel as Crimson Tiger

Concept: Power

Tool/Weapon: Gauntlets

Transformation phrase: Roarr, Stripes On

Power phrases: Clout (Super Punch), Copy (Power Mimicry)

Tier 1: Power is Clout.

Tier 2: Passives gained are night vision and claw damage. Power gained is Power Mimicry.

Kagami Tsurugi as Serow

Concept: Devotion

Tool/Weapon: Prayer Beads

Transformation phrase: Ziggy, Bleat it

Power phrases: Obey (Command)

Tier 1: Power is Command

Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Ao

Concept: Philosophy

Tool/Weapon: Shield

Transformation phrase: Wayzz, shell on

Power phrases: Judgement (Character Judgement Mastery)

Tier 1: Power is Character Judgement Mastery.

Nino Lahiffe with the Bee, and I like @nocturnal-notes suggestion of Killer Bee, so we going with that.

Concept: Life

Tool/Weapon: Spinning Top

Transformation phrase: Pollen, Buzz On

Power phrases: Sting (Heal)

Tier 1: Power is Healing.

Zoe Lee as Rascal

Concept: Deception

Tool/Weapon: Flute

Transformation phrase: Trixx, Let's Pounce

Power phrases: Mirage (Illusions), Trick (Subliminal Messaging)

Tier 1: Power is Illusions

Tier 2: Passives gained are enhanced hearing and night vision. Power gained is Subliminal Messaging.

Felix Graham de Vanily as Llameri

Concept: Space

Tool/Weapon: TBA

Transformation phrase: Kaalki, full gallop

Power phrases: Voyage (Teleportation), Defy (Gravity Defiance)

Tier 1: Power is teleportation

Tier 2: Passives gained are enhanced hearing and night vision. Power gained is Gravity Defiance.

Now for the Villains, starting with Luka Couffaine with the Peacock (Name TBA)

Concept: Emotion

Tool/Weapon: Fan

Transformation phrase: Duusu, Spread my Feathers

Tier 1: Power allows him to induce/create emotions in others.

Tier 2: Passives gained are a spectral tail to distract opponents and powerful kicks. Power gained is Emotion Constructs.

Tier 3: Passives gained are emotion reading and behavior manipulation. Power gained is Emotion Augmentation.

Tier 4: Passives gained are emotion locking and glide.

Tier 5: Powers gained are Emotional Healing, Emotion Separation, Emotion Restoration

Last (for now) LIla Rossi as Chrysalis.

Concept: Transformation

Tool/Weapon: Cane

Transformation phrase: Nooroo, wings rise

Tier 1: Power allows her to transform objects.

Tier 2: Passives gained are able to create a chrysalis as a shield and walking along surfaces (like Bloody Bug). Power gained is form manipulation.

Tier 3: Passives gained are energy conversion and reshape. Power gained is Restoration.

Tier 4: Passives gained are remolding and flight.

Tier 5: Powers gained are Amalgamation, Overhaul, Petrification

Alright, that should be everything. There are two holders to be added, but they'll be added once I have their designs done and posted. Anyway, enjoy this for the time being.

[pisoprano]

pisoprano's Loveybug AU Week Fics

In case you missed something, here are the links to my Loveybug AU fics, all in one place for your convenience. (see also the series page on Ao3)

Marinette contemplates moving to Mexico. Tikki has other ideas. A Loveybug origin story.

Loveybug introduces herself to Chat Noir and they tackle their first akuma together.

Loveybug is the best idea Marinette has ever had! She can now love Chat Noir all she wants! Wait, where did he go?

Marinette doesn't know what happened to Chat Noir, just that Catwalker had replaced him immediately after she became Loveybug. She wants to hate Catwalker for replacing her partner, but when the green-haired hero shows up on her balcony, acting like a friend might be the only way she can get answers.

Adrien and Loveybug hold hands.

Catwalker asks Loveybug about what happened to her predecessor.

Adrien realizes he has some feelings for Loveybug. Loveybug realizes that Adrien still misses Ladybug.

Catwalker and Loveybug swap miraculouses, only for a familiar face to show up. (currently unfinished)

Marinette loses the ability to become Loveybug.

Catwalker and Loveybug go into the final battle. MAJOR SPOILERS for Miraculous Season 5 finale.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Grim realization but one could argue that while unintentional, there is an underlying theme across the ML series that the reason things steadily get more and more dire for the heroes is because they don't adapt.

Hear me out.

S1 Hawk Moth just grabs Akuna & throws them at people, some aren't even useful for fighting!

S2 Hawk Moth empowers himself via Catalyst & engineers pandemonium to make an army!

S3 Hawk Moth orchestrates specific Akumatization, creates fusion Akuma & presumably has been observing Ladybug's trek to collect Miraculous to at least narrow down the Guardians general vicinity.

Even just with the three seasons I watched, Gabriel cotninues to experiment with the powers, expanding on them and adjusting his methods to become ever more personal and dangeorus.

In contrast, the heroes keep defaulting back to the status quo of Ladybug & Chat fight the Akuma of the day & never adjust from Fu's mandates even when said ideas shift from useful to harmful.

Like, one Fu had lost his home base, I'm sorry he needed to be splitting up the Kwami between himself, Marinette & Adrien at the very least, or accept some other permanent heroes after Heroes' Day.

The characters acting on the assumption that a given Akuma will just be another day another Akuma situation and not really pressing against this emerging status quo could be a key reason things get worse.

I mean. Yeah.

And then ofc Season 4 has both uping Gabe's actions by using both Butterfly and Peacock, which LB and CN do nothing to counter. But then we head into Season 5 with Gabe having all the Miraculous and able to do so much more while LB and CN are forced to their original status quo of just them regardless of if they want it or not.

[coffeebanana]

Hi! ♡ Top 5 miraculous AUs?

aaaaaah this is hard! i'm not a huge AU person in ml actually (although i devour AUs in other fandoms...). i think just because... i love the OG identity shenanigans so much omg. but. i can do this! in no particular order...

kwami swap AUs i mean, this is a classic ml AU! and there's so many ways to play with it!!

loveybug AU this AU is SO COOL because of like. how much has been done with it. and because it's another layer of identity shenanigans. AND ALSO i adore how collaborative it has been since the start... like aaaah that's the magic of fandom that right there!!

adrien never went to school AU this can be really fun on so many levels! having adrinette meet in different ways, established or all-but established ladynoir... YUM

roommates AU OKAY IT'S PROBABLY A BIT OF A STRETCH TO CALL THIS AN AU BUT. I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT (also it CAN be an AU but i feel like. it has to start off that way for it to be a true AU. cause otherwise its just canon-divergent and yeaaaaah sure that's an "AU" as per ao3 tags but. is it? is it really?)

sapphic love square AU i read this fic that did such a good job of it. and i need more. i should probably try to write it one day too but--glances at WIPs in a panic--ANYWAYS NEXT QUESTION!

thanks for the ask!! 🩷💜

[aalissy]

Red String

Anndddd here's the final chapter for today. I hope you like it! It was really fun to mess around writing this AU bc I don't think I've written anything like it before haha. Lemme know what you think <3

AO3

There were days when Marinette positively hated the red string wrapped tightly around her finger. Those were the days when she was forcefully awoken by the slight tugging of her string at 5 in the morning from whatever it was that her soulmate was doing. 

How anyone awake that early could be her soulmate was beyond her. She much preferred her sleep, thank you very much. And, one day, when she met them, she was going to give them a very stern talking to. One about the importance of sleep and the health benefits it provides.

Even still, some days, when Marinette did wake up at an ungodly hour, she would spend that early morning simply staring at it. Watching it twitch and jerk ever so slightly. Knowing that somewhere, some one out there was her soulmate. And, one of these days she was finally going to meet them.

When she made it to high school, she couldn’t help but feel a slight tug of jealousy at how easily Alya and Nino had found each other. Their strings finally met up when Alya first came to the school.

But, most of the time, she was truly happy for her friends. Hopeful that someday she would share the same fortune as them. 

Oftentimes, she and Alya would theorize about just who her soulmate was. Some of the theories were crazy, like her soulmate being someone who had to work early in the morning. Whoever that was, sounded much too old to be Marinette’s soulmate, thank you very much. 

Other times, the theories were more plausible, like her soulmate being from a different timezone. That theory did cause a subtle twinge in her heart. The thought of her soulmate living in a different country made it feel like they would never meet each other.

Today, however, as Alya, Nino, and Marinette slid into their seats at the cafeteria, a different theory arose. One that was certainly inspired by the new superheroes that arrived in Paris. 

Marinette barely managed to hide the small smirk that tugged at her lips as Alya placed her tray down on their table. “I’m just saying, what if your soulmate is Ladybug or Chat Noir? I know those two just have to be up early saving the day.”

It was difficult to bite back her laugh at that. If Alya only knew that she was saying that Marinette could potentially be Marinette’s soulmate. How funny would that be?

Instead of giggling, though, she just shook her head. “It can’t be that, Alya. My string was tugging early in the morning before Ladybug and Chat Noir even existed. I’m certain it’s not one of them.”

Never mind the fact that her string disappeared entirely when she was transformed. It hadn’t been something Marinette had noticed during the first akuma attack, but when she had arrived home, she certainly freaked out at the lack of string tied around her finger. 

She had been sure she had broken something and had detransformed quickly, breathing out a quiet sigh of relief when the red string came back. When she questioned Tikki about it, the small kwami had explained that it was to protect her safety. That holders weren’t meant to be distracted by the tugging and pulling of their strings.

But Marinette couldn’t exactly tell Alya that. 

“Well, there goes that theory then.” Her friend leaned on her fist, blowing out a harsh breath. “I was really hoping you’d be able to score me an interview with one of them.”

She rolled her eyes at Alya affectionately. She had given the girl plenty of interviews as Ladybug. 

“Haven’t you gotten enough interviews from them yet?” Marinette couldn’t help but point out. “I thought you’d be sick of them by now.”

Alya gasped, a hand on her chest in mock offense. “One can never have enough interviews! You take that back!”

Before she could get out much more than a giggle, however, the akuma alarm began to blare around the school. She stood up with a jolt, her chair clattering to the floor. Shooting a quick look at Alya and Nino, Marinette took off ignoring their shouts. 

She dodged and weaved in between her panicked classmates, trying to find somewhere quiet to transform in. Marinette finally found a secluded spot behind the gymnasium, hidden from prying eyes. With a swift motion, she transformed into Ladybug, her red and black suit materializing around her. As she swung into action, the familiar weight of responsibility settled on her shoulders. 

This latest akuma was a disgruntled artist, set on bringing paintings to life. When Chat Noir arrived, the two partners quickly got to work, defeating the latest villain. 

Bumping their fists together in a job well done, Ladybug heard her earrings beep and waved goodbye, wrapping her yo-yo around a rooftop as she tugged herself away. Stopping at an abandoned alley near the school, Ladybug detransformed back into Marinette. 

With a quiet yawn, she fed Tikki a macaroon, stretching her arms above her head. She was positively exhausted. How was she meant to head back to class now? All she wanted to do was go back to bed.

Letting herself rest for just a few more minutes, Marinette fiddled briefly with the red string around her finger. A smile crept across her lips as she watched it slowly begin to twitch and move, grateful that it was back in its proper spot. Looking down at the piece of red fabric, she twirled it around her finger as she made her way out of the alleyway.

So focused on playing with the string, she didn’t notice the person she was heading towards until she had unfortunately crashed into him. She stumbled, almost falling to the floor when a firm grip grabbed her elbow, steadying her. 

Wincing, Marinette rubbed her head as she looked up into a pair of wide, emerald green eyes apologetically. He was cute too! Ruffled blonde hair and peach pink lips. Now she felt even more terrible. “I am so, so sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going. So sorry again.”

Turning to leave, she stopped when she felt a harsh tug pull at her string. That was odd. She had never felt something like that before. Frowning down at her string, she jumped when it tugged forcefully once more. What was going on?

“It’s you,” the man breathed behind her. “Oh my god, it’s you.”

Those words had Marinette freezing in place. Slowly turning around, she followed her string with her eyes, feeling her heart begin to race uncontrollably as she noticed it wrapped around the ring finger of the man in front of her. Oh my god, it was him!  

All this time she had spent looking for him and only now did she finally find him. A joyful giddy laugh escaped Marinette’s lips and this time she tugged on the string, watching gleefully as the string also jumped on his finger. She found him! 

Wrapping her arms around his neck in a tight hug, she whispered, “We have got to talk about your sleep schedule, Mister! You need more sleep.”

A laugh rumbled from deep within his chest and the sound filled her with happiness. Marinette had finally found him! And, from now on, she was never going to let him go again.