#Marinette: I mean he was being kind of a perv and given some of the stuff I've heard Juleka suggest for fun he got off lucky

[tumblingxelian]

Chloeka Snippet:

Juleka had been in some degree of proximity to Chloe for several years. She had been the target of Chloe's romantic intentions for nearly a month and a half. & the beneficiary of her familiarly of the modelling world for about a week.

In all that time Juleka had never once seen Chloe wear a skirt; maybe a dress or gown in the background of formal events. But a skirt? Never.

Add in that it was a rather short skirt, and that Chloe was twirling in front of her and Juleka's mental 'Chloe folders' were growing rapidly.

"You like it?" Chloe asked, all too aware she'd managed to get Juleka staring, "I thought I'd try something a little different, add a little spice," she intoned, an attempt at a husky purr not quite landing because it was too catlike.

'Which frankly does not help!' a part of Juleka's mind screamed as another imposed monstrous Jaguar like alterations to Chloe's frame. 'Not helping at all.'

Fortunately, she had gotten used to Chloe's sheer energy and growing up with a brother who could sense your emotions left Juleka with a fairly good poker face.

Her long tails thrummed on the desk, as she made sure to meet Chloe's gaze, well aware that tended to make the blonde blush before answering.

"It looks good-"

"I'll say!" Kim cheered from across the isle.

Juleka leaned back to peak around Chloe to where the boy was none to subtly ogling Chloe's long legs, bedecked as they were in white stockings that cut off less than in inch before the hot pink skirt.

Chloe barely registered him, instead her hungry blue eyes looked over Juleka's reaction, and it was probably obvious from the rictus, barely restrained snarl that Juleka did not 'like' Kim staring.

"Chloe," Sabrina called, "There's a message from a Mr Helistat?"

Perking up, the blonde straightened her golden blazer and blew Juleka a kiss, "That'll be about your next shoot, wish me luck darling~" With that, Chloe pranced off, skirt swaying. Even hitching up a little as she leaned over her and Sabrina's desk, speaking into the phone.

Juleka heard Kim's seat scrape on the floor as he stood up to get a better view.

As if on instinct, Juleka found herself silently half turning in her seat. Never taking her eyes entirely off Chloe who greedily drank in the eyes she knew were on her. But even as Juleka watched, she slyly shoved Kim's chair out from under him.

Fortunately Max had his head in mobile and didn't notice.

Meaning when Chloe finished her call and took her seat, Kim tried to take his only for it to fly out from under him. Sending the athlete flopping to the floor and drawing all eyes to him at the shouting.

Juleka floated a hand over her mouth, one of the rings Chloe had given her for the shoot gleaming in the light as she murmured, "Oh, who did that?"

Her & Chloe's eyes met and the blonde was beaming and blushing and looked read to burst out laughing.

"Not funny Juleka, I could have broken my coccyx!"

The withering and all to insincere 'tragic' never quite left her lips, as Rose helpfully intervened.

"It can't have been Juleka, I was sitting here the whole time and so was Max and neither of us saw anything." She squeezed Juleka's hand and Juleka squeezed back.

Familiar warmness just a little too distant and not all encompassing enough to do more than make her senses tingle. As if her very essence was trying to lance out of her and leech some of that light but couldn't quite reach it. same.

"Mhm, maybe you shoved your chair back too far when you stood up?" Juleka offered with a shrug.

Kim pouted, evidently not convinced, but that was when Caline called out, "Anyone injured?"

Kim rubbed his rear but shook his head.

"Then we can assume it was an accident and maybe a good lesson on where to keep ones eyes focused."

"Yes Madame," They offered by wrote and all eyes turned to the front.

[arlakos]

Miraculous Rant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[angelofthequeers]

Not a Good Look: Chapter 3

@thequeenofpotatoeunicornss @lady-charinette tagged as requested :)

Chapter 2 | Chapter 4 | AO3 link

Disclaimer: I don’t own ML.

“Should I use my power now?” Aspik says when he and Multimouse are by his bedroom door, ready to slip out into the house and gather intel on this possible deal between Gabriel and Lila. “Here’s probably the safest place to reset to, and I can always refuel and give us another save point after five minutes once we get to another safe space.”

“Smart!” Multimouse blurts out. With cheeks as red as Ladybug’s suit, she adds, “Sorry! Just…yeah, that’s a good idea, Ad – Aspik. It’s probably not a good idea to wait till we’re caught before setting the save point.”

“Second Chance!” Aspik swipes his fingers over his bangle, setting the snake head back and revealing five teal bars. Then he holds up a finger, rests his other hand on the doorknob, turns it, and pushes it open. Thankfully, the hallway outside is empty, so Aspik gestures for Multimouse to slip out with him.

“I can’t believe I get to do a superhero mission with you!” Multimouse is practically vibrating as she walks. “I mean, it was really cool doing it with Ladybug, but…she’s Ladybug, you know?”

Aspik’s about to respond but they round the corner at that moment and stumble across the maid, Marie Durand. Marie takes one look at them and lets out a piercing scream, and Aspik yelps and fumbles for his bangle as the sound of footsteps from downstairs reaches his ears.

“Second Chance!”

Once more in his bedroom, he heads out with Multimouse again, though this time, his senses are more finely tuned so that they can avoid Marie and anyone else who might be around.

“For the record, it’s awesome doing a superhero mission with you too, Mar – Multimouse,” he whispers. Multimouse jumps.

“O-Oh! I really said that?”

Aspik grins at her and she turns beet red. “Yep. As much as I loved working with Ladybug, I feel like there’s a little less pressure with you. I’m not trying to impress you.” His eyes widen when Multimouse reels back as though she’d been slapped. “Um, not that I don’t – I mean – Second Chance!”

God, why can’t he have Second Chance as a superpower in his everyday life? He’d sell his soul to be able to get out of awkward situations like he just had; and this time, when telling Multimouse how he likes working with her, he makes extra sure to leave out the part about not trying to impress her. He hadn’t meant it like that! He just meant – well, it’s so much easier to relax with Marinette! She puts everyone at ease!

Unfortunately, his confession of enjoying working with her also makes her squeak and trip over her own feet, crashing to the floor so loudly that Marie is summoned to investigate. Just like the last time she’d caught them, she screams, and Aspik is forced to hurriedly use his Second Chance again to avoid being caught.

Okay. Avoid any topic that involves heaping praise on Multimouse. As much as she deserves it, now is not the time for her to be flustered. Really, that one was all on him.

Fourth time: Aspik got so distracted by Multimouse’s twin buns and wondering how to get Marinette to wear them normally that he completely forgot about Marie. Oops.

Fifth time: Multimouse slipped past him as they crept down the grand staircase and her smell of strawberries and vanilla invaded his nose and knocked him off his feet, sending him crashing head over heels and bringing Multimouse down with him. Nathalie had been decidedly unimpressed, but he’d reset before she could snarl out whatever she was going to say.

Sixth time: minor love crisis over how hard it would be to just go out with Ladybug and Kagami and Marinette all at the same time. A close encounter of the Marie kind once more.

Seventh time: Just a dizzy spell. Definitely not distracted by wondering what Multimouse’s lips would taste like and if she’d taste any different when detransformed. Thank god no one else remembers what happens but him.

Eighth time: At least made it past Marie before remembering Ladybug holding Marinette close and devolving into a primate with his single brain cell dedicated to fantasies involving both girls that he’ll never divulge even under pain of death. Caught by Nathalie again.

Ninth time: Got distracted by the way Multimouse’s jump rope tail moved as she turned the corner and then couldn’t look away from her butt. Here lies Adrien Agreste, struck down by the heavens for perving on the butt of one of his best friends. (The superhero suits definitely do their wielders some favours, though).

Tenth time: finally made it all the way to the atelier, quicker this time so Nathalie wouldn’t catch them. Scarred for life when Multimouse divided to make the door opening look like a breeze and Nathalie had been hugging Gabriel from behind and burying her nose in the crook of his neck with one hand splayed across his stomach. Gabriel Agreste in any kind of sexual context? Eww, eww, gross.

Eleventh time: quickest reset yet when he told Multimouse what he’d seen last reset and she’d let out a shrill scream at the thought. Lesson learned: don’t let Multimouse imagine Gabriel Agreste in any kind of situation like that. Good thing Aspik had taken the Snake instead of her.

Twelfth time: took a more moderate pace; not too quick that they’ll catch Gabriel and Nathalie banging or whatever it is they were doing, but not so slow that she’ll catch them downstairs again. Unfortunately, this is the most skewed timing yet.

“– not with Ms Rossi. And Tsurugi-san swears that he isn’t –”

Aspik and Multimouse freeze, but it’s too late to duck back around the corner or into another room hide from Nathalie, who’s frozen at the sight of them. For a moment, both sides stare at each other, mentally daring the other to make the first move, and Aspik might have been faster to react if the previous two cycles hadn’t left him flustered, so it’s Nathalie who breaks the silent game of chicken with a snarl of determination.

“Duusu –”

“Second Chance!”

The world around Aspik dissolves and reforms to place him back in his bedroom. He shakes his head and grabs Multimouse by the wrist when she reaches for the doorknob.

“We should wait ten minutes or so. The timing’s always wrong,” he says, deliberately not mentioning all their failed times when he’d been distracted by her, so Multimouse nods and steps away. They fall silent, waiting until Aspik’s sure that it’ll be a good time to sneak down…but there’s something that’s eating at him from the last cycle. Something about Nathalie’s reaction. Every time, she’s snarled at them and looked like she was going on the attack, but Aspik had always reset before she’d been able to speak. That time, though she’d gotten a word out. What had she said? Duusu?

“Duusu? What does the Peacock kwami have to do with this?” Multimouse says. Oh. He’d said that last bit out loud. But wait, how does Multimouse know who the Peacock kwami is?

“Uh, how do you –?”

“Ladybug told me!” Multimouse blurts out. “But how do you know?”

A terrible thought occurs to Aspik, making his stomach twist and coil like a snake that’s tangled itself in a knot. He swallows around the lump in his throat and rasps, “Nathalie. She said it before I reset.”

Multimouse’s eyes bulge, and she shoots a look at the door and then back at Aspik. “You should detransform,” she murmurs. “We need to come up with a plan now that we could be up against Mayura, so you may as well let Sass refuel.”

“Right. Um, scales rest.” Although Adrien’s got no idea what’s going on with Multimouse, he can’t help but instantly follow her instructions as though Ladybug herself had given them. He directs Sass to Plagg’s Camembert fridge and then sinks down on the end of his bed, watching Multimouse wear a hole in the floor with her pacing and fidgeting and mumbling. She’s so like Ladybug in this moment, just like when his lady is coming up with a convoluted plan…but that’s not fair to Marinette. It’s not fair to compare her to Ladybug just because he loves both girls and it would solve all his problems if they were the same girl.

“No, no, that won’t work,” Multimouse mumbles, toying with a lock of dark hair that frames her face. A momentary gap in the hair reveals the black stud in her ear, the only feature from her civilian self to carry through to her transformation, although Adrien hadn’t been aware that accessories could carry over. Maybe it’s just him.

But…wait. Except…

“That’s very sweet of you!” Multimouse turned her head to show her bare earlobes. “But I’m not Ladybug! I’m Multimouse!”

Then how does Multimouse have earrings now? Unless…no way. There’s no way. Adrien freezes as the fabric of his mind starts to unravel. She’d tricked him! Maribug tricked him! His lady’s been right here in front of him the whole time, and he’d been right to suspect her of being Ladybug, he’d been right, but she’d thrown him off like the devious girl she is! How? The Rat can only divide its wielder. It doesn’t have any powers of deception.

But…the Fox does. And it’s perfectly possible to unify Miraculouses; Dragonbug and Snake Noir had proved that in the battle against Miracle Queen and her henchmen. And theoretically, if there was a Multimouse that had unified with the Fox and hidden away, in the perfect position to create an illusion of Marinette and Ladybug next to each other to throw off Chat Noir…

“Adrien?” Multimouse says when Adrien exhales and runs a hand through his hair. How is he even supposed to process this? He’s loved Ladybug for so long that it’s become as much a part of him as breathing, and Marinette’s crept up on him so slowly with each day that’s passed…but they’re the same person! He’s fallen for the same person twice over! “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah. Just…deep in thought about implications and stuff.”

Multimouse blanches. “Oh. I didn’t even think…if Nathalie is Mayura, and the Butterfly and Peacock were lost together…oh, Adrien, I’m so sorry.”

Oh. His father could be Hawkmoth. It’s not the first time Marinette’s suspected it – after all, there had been that time that Ladybug had had her suspicions, just before his father had been akumatised �� but Adrien’s brain hadn’t even connected the dots from Nathalie’s attempt to summon Duusu until now. And that thought is enough to twist a new snake in his gut, except that this one is one of bubbling nausea.

“But he was akumatised,” Adrien rasps, raising a hand in case he needs to clap it to his mouth to hide a gag. “Can the Butterfly akumatise themselves? Did he do it to throw you – uh, Ladybug and Chat Noir off his scent? If Hawkmoth’s my fa – if he’s, you know, then he must’ve panicked when I lost the book and thought that you were on his tail.”

Multimouse shrugs rather helplessly. “I wish I knew what to tell you. But I hardly know anything about the Butterfly.”

Yeah. But she knows plenty about all the others. “No, I get it,” Adrien croaks. “You wouldn’t know. What do we do?”

“We need a plan,” Multimouse says. “We should find Ladybug and Chat Noir and tell them –”

“We don’t have time for that,” Adrien immediately counters. Multimouse blinks and shuts her mouth with an audible clack, and Adrien vows to apologise later for being so harsh now, but there’s no way he can just sit back and let Gabriel keep the Butterfly for a moment longer than necessary. “I am – I could be the son of Hawkmoth. If anyone else gets akumatised after this…that’s on me. I could’ve stopped him.”

“Adrien, no.” Multimouse crosses over to sit next to him and she rests a gloved hand on his bare one. Adrien’s not sure whether the warm tingles that dance across his skin come from Ladybug or Marinette, but does it really matter when they’re the same person? “The only way you could be guilty in this is if you were willingly helping him. And I know you. I know you’d never help that scum. I’ve seen how you interact with him, remember?”

Adrien ducks his head to hide his warming cheeks. Marinette’s always had such faith in him, whether he’s Adrien or Chat Noir, and even though he can’t figure out exactly what he’s done to deserve such staunch faith from the most incredible person in the world, he’s not going to complain about it.

“But I’ll be guilty of letting him get away with it if we don’t do something now,” he says, praying that there’s no sign of his inner turmoil visible to Multimouse. “If you divide, you should be able to get the Miraculous, right?”

“Yeah but…” Multimouse bites her lip. “We should have more of a plan than that. What if something goes wrong? This is more of Ladybug and Chat Noir’s thing.”

“And like you said, they wouldn’t be able to even get near this place without everyone knowing,” Adrien says. Technically, they’re Ladybug and Chat Noir, but he’s not lying when he says that they could never get near Gabriel as their true superhero identities. “But Multimouse and Aspik? I can keep resetting and tell you where we went wrong. And you can sneak the Miraculous away.”

“I suppose…” Multimouse says. “And we could also get Mayura’s if we knew where it was kept.”

“I think it could be in the vault in my father’s office. That’s where I got the book from, so it’d make sense for him to keep it in there.”

“But we still need proof. We could grab the Miraculouses and give them to Ladybug and Chat Noir, yeah, but it’d be our word against his. I don’t want him to have any chance of getting out of this.”

“Why do we need all these convoluted plans?” Adrien throws his hands up and jumps to his feet, making Multimouse jerk away. “We just need to go in there and get the Miraculouses! This isn’t an akuma battle!”

“I’m sorry, Adrien.” Multimouse wilts. “I just want to make sure that we cover every possible angle. I mean, if your father is Hawkmoth, it’s not going to be easy for you. There’s going to be fallout, from the police and the legal system and the news and everyone. Considering how much your father controls your life, things are gonna change completely for you. And if he somehow manages to slip out with an innocent verdict because there wasn’t enough evidence…”

Oh. He hadn’t even considered what would happen to himself, but of course Marinette’s concern would be him and his welfare. “No, I’m sorry,” he says, once more wondering what the hell he did to deserve someone as amazing as Marinette. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you when you’re just trying to make sure that everything goes smoothly. I’m just…dealing with a lot, but I shouldn’t be taking it out on you.”

Multimouse smiles. “Apology accepted. I know that learning your father could be Hawkmoth can’t be easy. But I do think we should do this later. Maybe at night when he’s asleep and we can just grab the Miraculous? You said that Nathalie’s out there, and we don’t want to risk Mayura jumping in and making things messy. And we can’t go to the police and get their help to take him down. Even if we had proof, we can’t trust anyone but Ladybug and Chat Noir, and Ladybug said that she trusts us.”

“You really are brilliant,” Adrien breathes. Multimouse’s face stains scarlet in response,

“Yank – um, thank you!”

“But how do we get proof? Unless we stalk him and wait for him to transform, I don’t see how – oh, and we need proof that he’s made a deal with Lila!”

Multimouse is quiet for a long moment. “Do you think…Lila knows?” she says in a hushed voice. “Or at least suspects? I mean, it makes sense for your father to make a deal with her, but…”

Adrien swallows around the lump that suddenly forms in his throat. If Gabriel really is Hawkmoth and he has made a deal with Lila, a lot of things will start to make sense, such as why Gabriel would so heartily endorse a dangerous liar. And if they have made a deal, was it in place as far back as when Kagami was akumatised? Is that why Lila had tried to get Ladybug killed?

“I hope that Lila doesn’t know,” he finally says. “For my own sanity. If there’s a whole plot around using me like – like a piece of meat, like I’m something that can just be exchanged like money…”

Multimouse’s eyes soften. “Let’s go,” she says. “We can fill in the others and then take your mind off it. I’ll tell Ladybug everything when she comes by to get the Miraculouses.”

Adrien just nods numbly, his chest like a lead weight as he struggles to draw in precious oxygen. What else can he do? It’s not like he’s a stranger to being treated like an object – like all he’s good for is smiling and showing himself off for the good of Gabriel – but the thought of being passed around like a shiny object, being used to seal a deal and purchase loyalty in a potential terrorist plot…well, it’s enough to make his stomach try and yeet itself up his throat.

He’s so lost in his daze that he only just notices Multimouse leading him towards bright blue, before his surroundings turn soft pink. There’s a buzzing sound that could be talking but his one remaining brain cell is currently trying to process just how entangled he is in this whole Hawkmoth-Lila plot, how little agency he even has anymore, that it’s all he can do to not break down completely on the spot.

But when his fuzzy vision clears and he’s met with the sympathetic faces of Marinette and Alya and Nino and Kagami, any remaining power he might have over his body dissipates and his legs give out beneath him, depositing him on Marinette’s cool wooden floor. There’s a flash of black and pink and the soft scent of strawberries and vanilla, mingling with the sharp smells of earth mixed with sports deodorant, of warm cinnamon spice, of fresh men’s deodorant. It all anchors him, stops him from floating away, fills his lungs in place of the air that he can’t breathe, and he finally allows himself to break, surrounded by the safety net of the people with whom he’d trust with his life.