#adrien said i literally don’t need anything.

[ilikekidsshows]

I just noticed that some (most?) senti defender mostly think people who hate the senti BS hate the plot because Adrien isn't ...human? Because I saw them comparing Adrien with Nobody, Grimwalker (I think, from Owl House?) and I saw them even quoting Mew Two about the circumstances of one birth doesn't matter and it just so wild for me because they seems to be missing the most important point about a sentimonster which is the fucking remote control!

ADrien being a magical being is the least of the problem here, the one hit kill isn't even close to being as being problematic as the fact that SENTIMONSTER IS A BEING WITH REMOTE CONTROL AND ANYONE WHO HAVE IT CAN FREELY CONTROL THEM AS THEY WISH! Them renamed it to Sentihuman doesn't even erase the fact that they still aren't human and still a magical being with a fucking remote control!!

"But it's good for angst for bodily autonomy!" I saw some people said it. And here I thought angst supposed to have a happy ending to balance it, but what kind of happy ending that a sentimonster can have, who's life is so ephemeral? Who's agency can be overwritten by anyone anytime? Unless Adrien can be like a Pinokio then sure... But at this point I don't think Adrien as sentimonster even matter in Marinette's eyes, until she feels the need to control him for whatever bulshit excuses and justification that she can muster that is. Ephemeral exist as a case of point after all.

---

The argument that people against the “Sentipeople” concept just don’t like nonhuman characters has been around since the start. It’s a purposeful way of misreading the very first argument for why it was a bad idea: “it would dehumanize Adrien.” The people in support of such a storyline decided that “dehumanize” means literally making him not human, and that was inherently bad, when, all along, “dehumanize” means “deprive of human qualities, personality and dignity” (Merriam-Webster). It’s not the act of making a fictional character not human, it’s the act of depicting a human being as someone undeserving of similar dignity and consideration as what are considered as normal people. Dehumanization can be, for example, ignoring the struggles and traumas of real people, in favor of focusing on a more favored group of people. Miraculous, by turning Adrien into a Sentimonster, turns the focus from his reactions to how he’s being victimized by his parents to why his parents decided to have a Sentimonster kid. And we find out they were unable to have a child, so tragic :’(

This approach to “Sentipeople” was foreseen, by several people, but the fandom supportive of the idea ignored all these explanations and just focused on the word “dehumanize”, because it was the easiest to misinterpret to serve their narrative, which was that the people opposed to the concept are the ones not treating Adrien as human, because they’re the ones saying turning an abuse victim into a literal monster makes him less sympathetic! The writers never said that so there’s no way that could be a real thing that could happen! The idea of “SentiAdrien has very ableist, abuse-enabling connotations” being a statement of fact is inconceivable.

Never mind how the canon has made it blatantly clear that the “Sentipeople” concept will never, ever be tackled from the perspective of our most prominent example of one. The arc with Adrien’s supervillain dad finally gets wrapped up and he doesn’t just sit it out, he’s left oblivious of anything that happened. It’s obvious Adrien being a Sentimonster isn’t actually relevant to Adrien. It was there because the writers desperately wanted more attention and to give Emilie a “sympathetic” reason to use Miraculous with the superpower of creating beings lesser to humans that exist to serve a single purpose and then die, the human equivalent of tissue paper. The most fucked up superpower ever to create the most nightmarish scenario to be born into, and it’s used to excuse why Adrien’s obviously abusive upbringing wasn’t actually his parents’ fault; Adrien was just born different and had to be kept away from normal people for his own good because he’s just so susceptible as a Sentimonster.

The fandom is once again doing the heavy lifting for this show’s writers by creating these imaginary versions of the show where a Sentipeople story totally gets told from Adrien’s perspective and respects Adrien’s agency and humanity, when the canon gives us the opposite. Similarly, the canon is still calling them “Sentimonsters” with the fandom insisting terms like “Sentipeople” and “Sentihumans” be used instead, or else it’s the fans disrespecting Adrien’s humanity.

The fandom just loves to blame critical fans for the show’s failings. The show treats Adrien like the Pearls in Steven Universe, but, if we point it out, we’re the ones stripping away Adrien’s humanity and reducing him into an object to be owned. The show writers did it first, we’re just pointing it out.

Other people are scared Marinette will go through Adrien's phone in the future of the show (again). I'm scared Adrien will give Marinette his Amok as a token of his love, giving her half of his literal being, possibly without knowing he's doing so, and Marinette will have to accept or she'll hurt his feelings by refusing to accept the symbol of his feelings for her, and the fandom will cheer over how romantic it is.

[m3nt4llyr4v3d]

I don’t understand the hate towards Chloe or her fans

Like, in most other fandoms, if you like the bitchy character, you just like the bitchy character, and that’s that

In the Miraculous fandom, somehow liking Chloe is a full-on moral failing. Somehow you’re simultaneously an abuser, a bully, a racist, and you (Yes, you!) have probably doxed someone in the fandom and personally sent death threats to the writers!

It’s funny, because every single person who has anything even neutral to say about her gets lumped into that category. If you like her character at all or think she’s a fun personality? Chloe stan. Think she deserved redemption? Chloe stan. Think her writing is bad? Chloe stan. Think her damnation arc was underutilized? Chloe stan. Think that, perhaps, the adult figures in her life influenced her? Chloe stan. Insist that the show literally shows the audience the reasons she’d be acting like that and it’s a little silly to pretend she’s an evil force of nature who’s evil to be evil when she’s just some bratty teenager? Chloe stan. Think that Zoe is boring? Chloe stan. Think that even the writers literally do nothing with Zoe? Chloe stan. Wanted to see the sisters bond or even interact at all? Chloe stan. Thinks it’s really really REALLY strange that her own father would send her off with her awful mother? Chloe stan. Point out that abused kids seeing themselves in Chloe might find these scenes upsetting? Chloe stan. Think that maybe she needs psychological help because this behavior has gotten out of hand and her family is terrible? Chloe stan. Saying that it’s weird to push all the blame on her when she literally the entire reason she’s like this is due to awful parenting from her adult father, and manipulation from two fully grown adults right before her departure? Chloe stan.

Somehow she’s just evil to be evil. She and Lila are just demons, no one else though :). The adults around them who do arguably worse stuff? Nah, they’re sooooo sympathetic, look at Andre be sad about his dreams and look at Gabriel breaking down in the end! Neglectful fathers? Nah, what are you talking about? It’s all Chloe’s fault, and Adrien said Gabriel was a hero at the end! (what the fuck)

The fandom’s attitude towards anyone who has anything positive or neutral to say about that character or how it’s handled is fucking wired, especially when they’re being hypocrites by absolving all of the literal adult characters of everything they did, especially her own father

[wackus-bonkus-maximus]

TRICK OR TREAT!! 🎃👻🍬

whiskers my dear beloved i ALMOLST wrote you a l&c fanfic but i will need you to finish the books before i show it to you.

have some mirror image instead!

“Hey,” she said, squeezing his fingers gently in hers. “What’s the matter? You can tell me anything, you know. Or— or not!” Her cheeks reddened slightly, but she held his gaze. “You don’t have to talk about anything you don’t want to.” And you don’t want to, the voice told him. The less people know about our kind, the better. It’s not about that! Adrien thought back, annoyed. It’s about not being able to get Kagami out of my head. Literally! The voice paused, long enough that Adrien thought it had gone. Then, carefully, it asked, Kagami? Yes, Kagami, Adrien sent back, irritated. Ever since you turned up, I’ll get random… flashes of her. For no reason. The voice was quiet again, though Adrien could sense its presence lingering in the back of his mind, accompanied by a sense of chagrin equivalent to a wince. Well that’s…strange. Hesitating, Adrien ventured, “Is it coming from you?” “What?” Marinette asked. No! the voice answered with the force of a yell. Of course not. That’s ridiculous. Marinette’s brows drew closer together. “Is what coming from me?” “The…” Adrien looked at her again, found his palm suddenly clammy, and withdrew his hand from hers. “That smell. Your perfume, it… it smells good.” She smiled at him, then reached out again, brushing her fingertips over the backs of his knuckles. “It’s the one you gave me.” “Really?” Adrien leaned closer, the heat from the skin of her neck shimmering over his as she tilted her head for him. This close, the scent was stronger—strong enough to banish any stray thought that wasn’t about her. “I like it.” “I hoped you would,” Marinette said, grinning another pink-cheeked grin. If you carry on like that a moment longer, said the voice, I’m going to be sick.

[sugarviv]

My take on the Paris Special’s alternate universe (pt. 1 of many concepts explained)

Keep in mind that I am not a writer- more an idea person. I don’t imagine anything I come up with will be even close to canon. With that said, let’s start with the Backstory:

The origin story begins not with the universe we see, but instead with a world where everything is normal… Except

Gabriel allows Colt to use the Peacock Miraculous so that Amile can have a child. Instead of responding is complete disgust however, Colt takes an interest and decides to try and research about the miraculous…

Somehow, he manages to learn what he needs to, and summons Gimmi to make the ultimate wish… To be given supreme power over anyone and everyone. After all, the price that would take would only serve to keep himself in power

Things play out as we see they do in that universe at that point: Gabriel steals the Moth and Peacock miraculouses (miraculi?🤔), Colt kills Emile for using the power of the peacock again, mostly due to a proud anger he’s had since the first time she had Adrien, and Gabriel goes into hiding to start the resistance.

The difference now is that Colt knows of Gabriel’s identity… that’s exactly why he decides to give his only son the Cat Miraculous. So he can be forced to watch this universe’s Adrien unknowingly destroy himself (along with knowingly destroying Paris ☝️😌)

Now… here’s a few quick design ideas for other characters.

Felix and Kagami, both being Sentibeings, work for the Supreme as Morals Officers (not sure how else to call them). They’re both constantly on the clock, patrolling the city, keeping the citizens in line, and overall trying to dissuade any kind of rebellion.

They act in sort of a Good cop/Bad cop routine, and are so overworked and under so much pressure that they have no time to be themselves or even know themselves.

Although Chloe’s father is still the mayor, Laws work differently under the Supreme’s rule. Andre was made to send Chloe to live elsewhere if he wanted to be given a position of political power, which lead to Chloe living with her friend Sabrina.

Chloe is a typical mean girl, lashing out at others and being petty, but this is all due to insecurity and (pretty trope-y) stuff.. She did grow up with her father though, and through her emotionally (and literally) absent mother, got to grow up with Adrien and even star as a model for many of Gabriel’s more youthful and feminine designs. She considers Adrien to be almost like a brother to her, even though she doesn’t see him much after his mother died.

I,,, honestly don’t have much for Luka 🧍 He’s mostly just potential right now- Potential to become a part of the resistance AND potential to be used by the Supreme and harness a miraculous. Luka is a good bit more cynical compared to his show counterpart, and struggles with serious abandonment issues after not only his dad abandoning him as a baby, but his twin sister Juleka seemingly vanishing as well (she became a miraculous holder- I’ll design her eventually if y’all want 😊)

[yuttikkele]

I still refuse to believe Kagami is a sentimonster until it is OUTRIGHT said because

I don’t want every strict parent’s kid to be a sentimonster. You don’t have to be a sentimonster to obey your parents every command. Kagami has shown that she obeys her mom not because she was ordered to, but because she genuinely thinks she needs to be perfect and do everything her mom says.

How was Kagami made? When was she made? When did Gabriel Agreste have time to lend the broken peacock miraculous to the Tsurugis??? If Kagami and Adrien were literally “made for each other,” then why did they never meet before 9th grade? Kagami never mentions a dead relative or any remorse for something like that. I feel like they might’ve been adding in those “kagami’s a sentimonster” crumbs because they were on a “strict parent kids are sentimonsters” spree, which is stupid because there’s nothing backing it up and they were just doing it for the “hype” as if it doesn’t mean anything.

It makes no sense, and I don’t like it. Kagami literally doesn’t need to be a sentimonster for the plot. I even argue it’s worse for the plot if Kagami is a sentimonster. Felix and Adrien make sense. From the very beginning, Adrien could never disobey his father even a little bit, even for the silliest things. It also explains why Felix was so adamant to get the rings. Kagami followed her mother’s rules herself, as mentioned above, because she thought that was the right thing to do. She changes her mind, though, and realizes that emotions don’t make her weak. Her being a sentimonster devalues this, and makes it just seem like she was like this because she was made to be, when in reality, she was just misguided, like we all can be. Also, sentimonster x sentimonster is a little… eh right now in my mind until further notice. We don’t know the ins and outs of the peacock miraculous and sentimonsters (specifically if all sentimonsters are sorta related to each other or if they’re only related to each other if they’re made to be), but we’ve seen Felix look at other sentimonsters as family, so I mean, yknow, eh? It just sorta depends on how the peacock miraculous works, but this isn’t even a problem if Kagami isn’t a sentimonster!

[kasienda]

Adrino Mixtape - Kwamis

Thanks to @bbutterflies for organizing Adrino week! I'm loving all the adrino artwork and stories!! Feeling absolutely spoiled and well fed!

Read on Ao3

Day 4 - Kwamis

One of the perks of holding his miraculous full was Wayzz became a constant companion. He had always wanted to spend more time with Wayzz, but he was terrified of being responsible for him because Nino had no idea how to take care of a kwami. But the first few days had been awesome. Turned out that as long as Nino had some leafy greens on hand, Wayzz was a chill little dude. 

If he didn’t, the kwami turned into a literal snapping turtle. Nino had only been bitten once, but since then Nino had convinced his maman that he was going through a new health-minded phase where he wanted salads with every meal, which he probably didn’t, but he also didn’t mind. 

In any case, it was worth it. Because Wayzz was a really good listener and he always had a bit of advice to offer.

Nino was learning he had a surprising amount to share. 

“Adrien’s been really distant lately,” Nino confided. 

Wayzz nodded sagely. “He has lost a lot.” 

Nino could argue with that. Gabriel had died just two months prior. Nino didn’t claim to know what they felt like. And if Adrien was distant with everyone, maybe Nino could just shrug it off. 

“Yeah, maybe. But he’s still all smiles around Marinette, and yeah, she’s his girlfriend or whatever, but with me, he’s like, polite . Painfully so. I feel like he’s mad at me, or at least putting up a wall.”

Not to mention, it felt like the distance had started sooner, weeks before Gabriel had died. 

“Have you ever asked him about it?” Wayzz asked. 

Nino shook his head. “Like you said, he’s been through a lot. I don’t want to add anything to his stress.” 

“But maybe you could support him more if you healed whatever the issue was between you.” 

Nino’s head snapped up. “So you agree that something is up! He’s mad at me?! What did I do?” 

Wayzz waved his little arms like windmills. “I didn’t say that! I just meant that if you clear the air, maybe you’ll feel close again.”

Nino slumped. “How do I even start that conversation?” 

Wayzz’s mouth pressed closed into a thin line. 

Nino groaned. If he had stumped even Wayzz he was doomed. 

“Don’t lose heart, Master Nino! I’m not the most proficient at human interactions, but you know who is?”

Nino lifted his head.

“Chat Noir.” 

“What.” Chat Noir was not who Nino would label the expert in interpersonal relationships. He was definitely good in a fight. Amazing, really! If he bothered to show up, anyway. He could be really pouty and salty when he didn’t get his way, he really was never enthusiastic about working with the larger team, and Nino still had never forgiven him for flirting with Rena Rouge her first day on the job. 

“I’m serious! If you need advice about Adrien, you should talk to Chat Noir,” Wayzz insisted. “Have I ever led you astray?” 

And that was thing, Nino trusted Wayzz. 

He groaned again. “I’m pretty sure Chat Noir doesn’t like me.” 

Wayzz grinned. “Are you willing to fix things between you and Chat Noir in order to fix things between you and Adrien?” 

Nino sighed. Wayzz had him there. He still didn’t see how talking to Chat Noir would help, but he would do anything for Adrien. 

…

Ladybug had been frustratingly reluctant to swap patrol partners with him. “It’s just for one day,” he insisted. 

“Fine,” she had eventually relented, “but you had better be nice!” 

“Promise.” 

Carapace approached the scheduled patrol fifteen minutes early. Chat Noir still beat him there. He stood waiting on the edge of the rooftop. 

“Carapace,” Chat Noir greeted cooly, barely glancing at him. “Did you want to take point? Or shall I?” 

Nino took a breath and pushed it back out in a puff, trying to shove down his nerves. “Actually, I was hoping that we could talk?”

Chat’s eyebrows rose under his mask. “What can I do for you?” 

And just like Adrien, Chat Noir was polite to a fault. Nino didn’t know why that put him more on edge than hostility would have. 

“I need advice.” 

Chat shot him a baffled expression. “You want advice from me ? About what?” 

“I need personal advice about my best friend.” 

Chat froze, as stiff as Gabriel Agreste’s statue. “W-why do you think I can help you with that?”

Nino dropped all pretense of being calm. “Look! I know it’s far-fetched. I don’t exactly know how you specifically can help, but my kwami insisted that you were the one to talk to.” 

Did Nino imagine it, or did Chat relax at that? 

“And I know– I know that I’m not your favorite person in the world, but whatever I can do to make it up to you, I will because he’s worth it!”

Chat seemed genuinely surprised. “I– You don’t have anything to make up for. I’ve never disliked you.” 

Carapace snorted at that.

“It’s true. I always thought you didn’t like me.”

Carapace winced. That hadn’t always been true. He remembered standing back to back with Chat Noir on Heroes Day. It felt like they were brothers. 

He’s not sure when that changed. 

Chat Noir sat down on the edge of the building. Carapace followed suit. 

“So umm… What's up with your friend?” Chat asked.  

“That’s just it! I don’t know! But I think he’s mad at me. He’s just been acting– well, like you.” 

Chat’s feline eyes blinked at him. “What do you mean?” 

“Like, he’s been stupidly polite.” 

“You think your friend is mad at you because he’s polite?” 

Nino shook his head. Chat Noir didn’t understand. “It means he’s not being real. He used to laugh and vent. He used to tell me things.” His shoulders slumped. “Maybe I’m imagining things–” 

“You’re not imagining things.” 

Chat Noir sounded so sure, and it was nice to have his fears confirmed even if Chat Noir really had no way of knowing for sure. 

“You think?” Nino asked. 

Chat nodded. 

“He’s gone through so much recently, so maybe he’s just putting up a front. But he shouldn’t have to. Not with me. I miss him.” 

“I’m sorry,” Chat said. 

Nino shook his head again. “It’s not your fault.”

“He’s really lucky to have a friend like you so worried about him.” 

“I feel like he’d be luckier if he had a friend that knew how to support him.”

“Do you know when things shifted between you?” 

Carapace frowned in thought. When Felix had impersonated Adrien the first time, Nino had known it wasn’t Adrien without any doubt. He and Adrien had been solid then. Things had shifted sometime after that. The week Adrien had been supposed to go on his world tour with Lila, Adrien had seemed off. But he had never gone on that trip, and Nino had forgotten all about it. “I don’t know exactly. A few weeks before all the miraculouses were stolen?” 

Chat nodded. “That seems about right,” he mumbled. 

Carapace frowned. “What do you mean?” 

“Nothing! Maybe all you need to do is talk to him? Tell him how you’ve been feeling? I’m sure he misses you, too and want things to be better.”

That was it? That was Chat Noir’s magic advice? 

But maybe that was unfair. Maybe there wasn’t a magic solution. 

“Hey Carapace?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Can you thank Wayzz for me?” 

“For what?” 

“He’ll know.” 

After the actual patrol, Nino went back home, dropped his transformation, and collapsed into bed. 

“How did it go?” Wayzz asked brightly, already munching on a piece of kale.

Nino shrugged. He hadn’t really solved anything. Not that he could complain. Chat Noir actually seemed like a pretty decent guy, and maybe the conversation had been worth it for that reason alone. 

Maybe that was what he needed to do with Adrien as well.

"He said to thank you," Nino said. "He said you would know what it was for."

Wayzz grinned. "Good. I'm glad it went well."

Nino shook his head. That's not what he had said, but whatever.

He pulled up Adrien’s text thread, but before he could type anything his phone buzzed with a message from Adrien. 

Adrien:

Can you come over? I think we need to talk.

Nino:

Mec! It’s like you can read my mind.

[halfling-myth-lady]

Welp, I went ahead and made a second chapter of my miraculous rewrite lol.

It doesn’t focus on Juleka, but it does give us some of another plot line in this au.Aka the Nathaniel Marc and Alix plot line.and a bit of Alya too lol

——

Chapter two:spying on a manipulator.

Warning:the story is told in achronological order.technically at the time THIS ficlet would be released it would be around early season 3.

Note:things are really different from canon.i just wanted to say that and also note that my Marc uses they/them.

Nathaniel looked down into the courtyard,being greeted by the faces of many whom he didn’t bother remembering, even if he still did recognize a select few. There was that girl from art class, one of the theatre kids, that boy who cried when Adrien politely declined his date… and them.

Hidden under the stairs was someone called Marc. Nathaniel didn’t know their surname, but he did finally manage to catch a peek at the bluenette after searching for a while.

They seemed to be writing something in a black notebook, occasionally using their bright green eyes to scan in case someone was looking.

Nathaniel weighed his options.

He could either confront Marc now, follow them somewhere else and confront them there, or they could stall for time and learn more about them before confronting them. The third option would probably lead into one of the first two eventually, though.

The first was more direct and would ensure that they couldn’t do anything to him, but then they could still run into the crowd.

The second one was…stalking, sure, but if Nathaniel could just slip that ring off them…

Along with that, he bet no one outside of his class or immediate family really cared or remembered about his existence(and even that was up for debate) so he doubted Marc did.

Well, stalking it is then.

“Uh…Nate?why are you staring at the stairs?”Nathaniel shot up to see the of none other than Alya Cesaire, the local detective of the class.

“Ah-uh-Alya-!I uh…”

She looked in the direction Nathaniel was staring at a while ago.

“Are you…spying on Marc?”Alya questioned.

“Oh-well, erm, maybe?”Nathaniel was never really in the best standing with Alya, the whole “having a crush on her best friend” and “no, you may not interview me for your investigations I literally just got out of being in a crusty old man’s control” things never really seemed to stand well with her.

She sighed.

“What do you know about them?”she asked.

“Erm, I know their name..?”

The detective rolled her eyes.

“I’m surprised you don’t know much about them, considering they’re Marinette’s cousin and all.” Alya said”though you tend to be a bit of a loner so it doesn’t surprise me you don’t know much about this kind of stuff”

“And you do?”

“It’s my thing, Nathaniel”

“Anyways, they’ve also never been akumatized, which is quite a feat considering the schools track record with akumas”she added”they tend to keep to themselves a lot, so maybe that’s why”

So they’re a loner…huh…

“You should try talking to them, might help you make some friends”Alya said”maybe even take your attention away from Marinette and onto another red wearing bluenette, other than maybe Ladybug, too”

Nathaniel blushed.

“Sh-shut up and go away, I don’t need you help”

“Even if I did give you vital info?”she pried.

“Just leave”

“Hm, as you say, your majesty”

She finally went away as Nathaniel glanced at the manipulator once again.

He might not know much about this person, but what happened yesterday… Nathaniel wanted to-no, Nathaniel was going to learn exactly what happened.

…even if it meant stalking someone.

[yolowritter]

A Case of Ladybug Luck Chapter 4

Hello there everyone, and welcome back to Hell! Holy Nooroo it's been so long since I posted abt this AU. Mostly because I'm busy actually writing it and 300k words are apparently nowhere near enough to finish what I started a year ago! Anyway, I'm just going to do a speedrun of posting these early chapters because I want to get to the good stuff already! Believe me, it's worth! So, from now on I won't have a note at the beggining of this, just the snippet and chapter link, kay? Cool! Asks are open btw if anyone wants to chat about ACOLL! Enjoy my suffering!

Nathalie was curled up on the couch, definitely asleep. She looked pale, the same way Marinette would pale when she was worried about him. Like she’d literally been worried sick. His father was sitting in an armchair beside her, reading a book. Gabriel didn’t notice his approach. One of them had wheeled out a TV from the guest rooms down the hall, and it was tuned in on…the news? TVI, it looked like, and they were on an add break. Adrien took a deep breath to steady himself, to throw the image of his seething father almost breaking the dinner table with his fist, right out of his mind.

Gabriel glanced at the screen, stared at the advertisement, something about a new hair product, and went back to his book. It had a full black cover, Adrien noted as he approached. Gabriel heard his footsteps, used a bookmark to not lose the page he was on, and shut the book, placing it next to him on the chair. For a moment, Adrien saw the title. “The Illusion of Living.” Wow. Macabre, much?

“G-good morning father.”, Adrien tried as a greeting. This…was weird. He wasn’t used to seeing his father relax…or at all, to be honest. He looked uninterested, indifferent. Gabriel glanced at the TV, saw the news hadn’t come on yet, and turned to face his son.

“Ah, Adrien. Did you sleep well?”, he asked, seeming genuinely curious. Oddly, Adrien noticed his father wasn’t wearing his tie clip. The empty white spot where it should be drew his eye, but Adrien reigned himself in and nodded an affirmative.

“Yes. But…father, I don’t mean to disrespect you but…don’t I have a photoshoot today? Two hours ago?”, he asked, hesitant.

Gabriel’s expression shifted from his calm. Like a porcelain mask, the façade cracked, and for a single second Adrien thought he saw guilt and sadness in his father’s eyes. He looked so…forlorn. Defeated, even. Guilty.

He nodded, seeing that his father wasn’t going to say anything else. Adrien glanced at Nathalie, concerned. His father’s assistant, always a stern but constant presence…looked so frail. She looked like mom- like she desperately needed the rest. Gabriel sighed when he caught him staring.

“Nathalie is fine, son. She’s just tired. We had an…interesting morning.” A morning that nearly cost Gabriel his sanity, and some pocket change to top things off. Some 50.000 thousand euros to ensure the silence of the hospital staff and discharge him as soon as he was stable. He was fine, really. The problem wasn’t physical. Dizziness overcame him, suddenly. Emilie had said the same thing, once.

Adrien nodded again, not knowing what else to do. “I…Am I free for the day, then?”, he asked his father.

Gabriel didn’t even pretend to consider it. “Yes, free for the week. I’ve cancelled all your lessons and photoshoots. You’re…welcome to stay home, if you’d like. I’ve delegated my own duties for today, so if you require anything…please come talk to me.”, he said, sounding like the words struggled to leave his mouth.

“Adrien, remember. You are my son. I am your father. It’s my responsibility to make sure you are well. I will be there when you need me.”, Gabriel tried, testing the words. They sounded…right, this time. An odd sense of numbness washed over him again, and he turned back to the television. “You should go to your room, sleep some more. It’s been a long week for you, I’m sure.”, he added as an afterthought, his tone monotonous and dry. Almost robotic.

“…Right. I- I’ll go and lay down, then. Good morning, father.”

Gabriel blinked, as if the time was news to him. Right, the night was over. It was a new day, now. He didn’t feel like it. He barely felt like anything at all. “Of course, son. Now go.”, he insisted, eyes glued to the final, fading advertisement, before the screen switched to Nadja Chamack. Adrien obeyed and began to ascend the stairs again, and Gabriel unmuted the broadcast.

“Welcome back, Paris. As I said before, there have been no further news on the case. Poor weather conditions lasted all throughout the night, and police have had no luck finding any trace of…”

Adrien stopped in his tracks, midway up the staircase. He breathed deeply. “Father…did something happen?”, he asked hesitantly. Something had to have happened. This…couldn’t all be because of Lila, could it?

Gabriel’s eyes seemed to glance back at him, even though his head didn’t move an inch.

“We’re standing by for news on any new developments, and are hoping for the best. Please wait for more information.”

“Not to me. I’m fine.”, he said coldly, the air of indifference returning to his tone.

Adrien hoped it wouldn’t be followed by another outburst. He hung his head, and obeyed his father’s order, going back to his room. Maybe he could mess around with his piano? Last they’d met, Luka had given him some inspiration for a song. Hadn’t he said something about…masks? Adrien would have to text him, see if he remembered.

Plagg was there when Adrien opened the door, hovering over his unlocked phone. He looked…sad. Making a face of realization the same way Adrien would do when he could guess that more photoshoots would be added to his schedule. Like an inevitability had just come true. The kwami spun to face him when he came in, but Plagg’s face betrayed nothing of what Adrien had just seen.

“Hey kit! Morning! Wow, good thing your pops let us sleep in today huh? Say, I’m full of energy! How about we go for a run, huh? Get your muscles going?”, Plagg said, looking frantic and desperately pretending to be happy and excited. Adrien knew a thing or two about playing pretend.

Plagg never lied to him. Not unless something was very wrong, not after the Sandman incident. He’d promised. Plagg hadn’t lied to him since. Adrien let the worry he felt for Plagg show on his face. Words weren’t needed between them sometimes, and he didn’t think he should say what he could show. Plagg tried to keep his smile up. Adrien saw him strain himself, the widening of his eyes to look restless, the same expression he’d make when he got bored of flying around his room.

Adrien stared at him. Plagg stared back, a pleading look to please pretend he was oblivious, go along with it. After a moment, the Kwami faltered, and his mask broke.

“K-kid.”, he tried to speak, voice cracking as if his throat had been hit by a Cataclysm. “Do me a favor.”, Plagg begged him. Adrien had already opened his mouth to agree when his phone rang. “Don’t answer that. Please.”, Plagg insisted.

Adrien checked the caller ID. It was Nino. He shot Plagg a look. The cell rang again. Adrien ignored it to swipe down on the screen and check his notifications. 37 missed calls from Nino. 2096 unread messages. Half of those from Alya. What the fuck? The ringing seemed to get louder. Plagg’s whiskers dropped, his face fell.

Adrien reached out a hand to pet him, to offer comfort for whatever was wrong, but Plagg retracted. “Kit…I’m so sorry.”, he offered meekly, and flew up to his spot, curling up in a ball. Adrien thought he heard him sobbing. He picked up the phone, worried and confused. Why was his father acting like that? Why was Plagg acting like that?

Nino’s voice sounded horrible. Like he’d been crying. “A-Adrien?”, he asked, stuttering in near disbelief. “Thank fuck, are you okay? No, sorry, stupid question. How are you…holding up, dude?”

Okay, now Adrien knew something was very, very wrong. He tried to mask his fears with confusion. “Nino? What happened? I just woke up, are you okay?”, Adrien asked with genuine concern, trying not to panic. He’d kept himself together while fighting supervillains, he could get through one conversation without letting his worries eat him up.

Nino sobbed on the other end. Went silent. Adrien heard Alya’s voice, just barely, as if they’d moved the phone away from them.

“Nino…do we tell him?”, she asked, sounding frightened.

Nino failed to hold back a sob. “Babe…we have to.”

Nino moved the phone closer. “Uh…dude. You might want to check the news…”, he said awkwardly. Adrien was downright panicked now. He didn’t respond to Nino, he rushed back downstairs to his father, to the broadcast. What was happening? Why were his friends walking on eggshells around him? Had he done something? Did Lila do something?

“Please hold on, we’ve just received a statement from Officer Raincomprix. Stand by for-”

Gabriel had the book in his lap, reading calmly. Miss Chamack’s voice didn’t seem to bother him. She paused mid-sentence, and moved off screen.   

She came back into frame, looking like she was about to cry. Her professionalism was in shambles, Adrien saw the way her face twitched with silent tears, holding back the urge to sob.

“I- I regret to inform everyone that we’ve received official word from the Parisian Police Department. Marinette Dupain Cheng has been confirmed dead. It was ruled a suicide.”

[miraculouslybroadway]

Tales of Multibug & Vipercat:

Chloe’s Internship (But Really, Chloe’s Character Arc)

At first, she did not like it when Ladybug said she didn’t get the bee miraculous anymore.

Then, slowly, she began realizing why she didn’t get the miraculous anymore. She was no better than Lila, who she despised. Sure she never lied to make herself look better, but she lied to get what she wanted and to hurt others. It didn’t matter how good she was as Queen Bee (well, it mattered a little), if she wasn’t as good as Chloe how good was she?

So that’s when she found Marinette and apologized. Actually, she apologized to all of them. The ones who didn’t follow Lie-la anyways. She even tried apologizing to Sabrina, but Sabrina wouldn’t listen. 

She was the one who came up with the idea for the Superhero PR department. It regulated anything public about the heroes, issued public statements from Multibug and Vipercat, and as the icing on the cake, could override any social media or blog posts (or even whole blogs) and erase them from the internet. 

So yes, maybe she did enjoy getting to click the button to take down the LadyBlog. 

But beyond that there was a whole world of legal things she was learning, and it was actually really interesting. She advocated for herself to get an internship, and even went through an interview process. (That was when Marinette realized she was serious about making a change.)

At first it was hard balancing that with school (who knew actually applying yourself meant working harder), but she got the hang of it. Surprisingly it was Alix who helped her the most. Because Chloe struggled the most in history (and Alix literally lived in a museum), Alix offered to be her tutor.

All it had taken was one gay joke from Kim for Chloe to realize that she didn’t like Alix like that. Actually, she didn’t like anyone like that. She liked the attention, but even with Adrien she never felt like that before. 

Alix was the one who supported her through this discovery, and when she was ready Alix was the one who sat next to her when she told their friends. They were all gathered in Marinette’s room hanging out when she decided it was time. 

She had to go to work soon, but she took a breath and spit it out. 

Marinette was thrilled. She immediately tackled Chloe in a hug. 

“Chill out Nette, it’s not that big.” She scoffed (but was secretly relieved). “Luka get your girlfriend.”

Once Marinette was settled again she smiled and exclaimed, “Chloe it is a big deal! You trust us enough to share with this with us!”

Rose was beaming. “Yeah Chlo! And of course we’re happy! You’re our friend and we love you!!!” Beside her bubbly girlfriend, Juleka nodded in agreement.

That was the first time Chloe felt unconditional love.

The second time was when Marinette invited her over one evening for “no reason.”

“I’m dyeing my hair.” She announced proudly when Chloe entered her room.

Beside her was Juleka, holding an armful of tools. Kagami was there too, and so was Marc and they were painting each others nails.

She raised an eyebrow. “Nette, I could’ve called a stylist.” 

Marinette beamed. “Juleka needs practice, she’s trying to get her certificate, and I volunteered to be a practice model.”

“Same!” Marc added from off to the side.

“Don’t look at me I am leaving with my hair the same color as it was when I arrived. I don’t feel like getting on my mom’s nerves right now, I’m in a good mood.” Kagami blew on her wet nail polish.

“Well…Juleka if you need practice I want some blue in my hair. Or black. Or something.”

From behind her bangs Juleka was beaming.

So that they in between putting foils in each others hair that little group had a lot of fun. By the next morning Marinette was doting pink hair at her tips fading out of her already brilliant blue. Marc’s hair had a rainbow peekaboo (Juleka was very proud of her work). True to her word, Kagami’s hair was the same color, but her nails sported an assortment of glitters, chrome powder, and various reds. As for Chloe, her hair…well it was certainly different. Her natural blonde faded into blue, fading into black. She now sported bangs with some pretty well done added layers. 

It was a bit of a surprise when she first woke up and hasn’t processed that she had gone through with it, but once she realized she had it was worth it. Juleka had really done a great job.

She got picked up by her driver, but as she headed to work she couldn’t help but smile to herself. Chloe knew she was a work in progress, but she knew she had found the right people to help her on the way.

[purrincess-chat]

Hi I'd love it if you could make an analysis on Adrien and Marinette this season. I've been seeing too many people say that their characters have been ruined and so and so. Your takes and opinions are really fresh and actually smart, so I'd love to hear what you have to say.

I would absolutely love to talk about them. The notion that their characters have been ruined comes directly from a butthurt place of salt, and it just demonstrates to me that people are not watching this show with their eyes open. I know we are missing a lot of context for this season, but so far from what I’ve seen of the later episodes, their characters are maturing and developing in ways we’ve been begging for since s2. And to understand that, we’re going to look back at the last couple seasons up until now.

CAUTION: I will be discussing all of the currently aired episodes, so if you have not watched anything past Elation or Transmission and don’t want to be spoiled for later episodes, go ahead and keep scrolling. I will not be discussing leaks, so you are safe from those. Let’s dig in, shall we?

Firstly, I think we need to address something I’ve seen people claiming in their tantrums about how Adrien and Marinette are “ruined,” and that’s this idea that Adrien’s feelings came out of nowhere/they weren't actually friends before now. They didn’t and they were. They’ve actually been hinting at his budding feelings for her for a while, we just didn’t know for sure that was happening until now. Hell, one of the biggest clowns on his character since s1 was literally “sHe’S jUsT a fRiEnD” when he’s literally making heart eyes at her and talking about how great she is, but I want to focus specifically on the moments that take place after Puppeteer 2 because Adrien himself cited that episode as the point when he noticed his feelings for her changing. And him saying that wasn’t a retcon or random. They actually started dropping mad hints after that episode, we just weren’t 100% aware that his feelings officially changed. I made another post a couple months ago with several instances that hinted at Adrien’s changing feelings, but let’s talk about those a little more.

I’m going chronologically, so not necessarily in broadcast order, but if we look at the production codes, Puppeteer 2 was episode 21 of s3. The next episode after that? Chat Blanc. Everyone clowned on Adrien for “only liking Marinette because she’s Ladybug,” but looking back on it, his sudden feelings aren’t so sudden after all. We’ll talk more about Chat Blanc later because as we know, this timeline got erased, and Marinette is the only one that kind of knows about it. Which brings us to Ladybug, and possibly one of Adrien’s darkest moments as far as things he consciously said and did. Up until this point, Adrien had always been kind of soft and mild-mannered, not wanting to stir up trouble to a fault, but the end of this episode is the first time we see him righteously pissed as Adrien. Another tidbit to point out from earlier in s3 that relates to this moment is from Oni-chan when Adrien tells Lila that he won’t support her or be her friend if she hurts the people he loves. Jump back to Ladybug when Adrien holds that friendship over her head again to restore Marinette’s reputation. Adrien isn’t the type of character to be shady or underhanded, but he is the type of character to fiercely protect the people he cares about, and in this instance, that person is Marinette. That moment was a huge indicator about how Adrien feels about Marinette and how much he values her/their relationship.

Next, we have the first instance where Adrien truly stops and ogles over Marinette in Heart Hunter. We’ve joked in the past that he gives her soft looks all the time, but this is the first time that he full-stopped and admitted out loud that he thinks she’s attractive. And he does it twice in that episode. Not to mention how badly he wanted her to run away with them, and how disappointed he was when she left. Additionally, we have him being conflicted over his feelings for Kagami over the next several episodes. He hesitates and isn’t sure how he feels. We all thought it was because he still loved Ladybug, which he did, but now we can see there was also unconscious feelings for Marinette swirling around in the mix. (RIP Adrigami) Marinette was always an obstacle in their relationship both as Ladybug and as herself, even unknowingly. It’s actually Marinette’s lucky charm keychain that pushes Kagami to break up with Adrien in Lies after all of his erratic and wishy-washy behavior toward her, signaling that Marinette would always be between them.

Season 4 brought forth several small hints, the cutest one being Mr. Pigeon 72. Adrien gets distracted several times by Marinette in this episode, which isn’t necessarily weird when he thinks he sees her during his dive, but the moment in the end when he bumps his head on the car because he can’t take his eyes off her? Boy was falling hard. One thing I find really interesting is that Adrien falls for Marinette at her most unhinged. He tells Kagami in Protection that he just always thought Marinette acting weird was part of her charm and found it cute (think back to how softly he smiles at her in Optigami when she’s freaking out over the elevator or how enamored he is with her acting crazy in Psychomedian). Seeing the context of these moments in retrospect when Adrien talks about how he felt during them just confirms that their relationship was always deeper than it seemed. His side of the story as it relates to their relationship has always been missing, and maybe that's what people mean when they say their relationship was underdeveloped? We always saw things through Marinette's lens, and of course, she freaks out and overthinks and doesn't think Adrien will reciprocate her feelings. It's refreshing to see his perspective and understand what he was thinking and feeling during some of those key moments, and it gives us more insight to the nature of their relationship this whole time.

Next we have Ephemeral, which I know this timeline also got erased, but I’ve always seen the ‘what if’ reveal episodes as a way of checking in on how the love square is doing development wise. In Chat Blanc, Adrien’s feelings for Marinette were still budding, and while it did make it easier when he learned her identity, I think his reaction in Ephemeral was much more telling about their relationship. People have said that Adrinette were “barely even friends” before s5, but I think Ephemeral proves that’s not true. (I mean, watching canon with your eyes open prior to that also proves that’s not true, but I digress). The moment Marinette reveals herself to Adrien in Ephemeral, he tells her how happy he is to find out that one of his best friends in the whole world is also his partner and the girl he loves. By Ephemeral, Adrien sees Marinette as one of his best friends, and that point continues in Risk when he confides in her about his homelife. He tells her that he doesn’t want to tell everyone else his true feelings because “they wouldn’t understand,” but he opens up to Marinette because they are close enough that he deemed she would listen. And people say that one moment was when his feelings changed, but that moment was just when all of the other hints came to a head for him. He didn’t fall in love with her in that one moment, he’d been falling for her slowly all throughout s4, and he was even still falling into s5 and didn’t realize he was in love until Determination.

Risk was just the moment that pushed him over the edge because he realized she was someone he could confide in, someone who would listen to him and understand his feelings without projecting another narrative onto him. And we’ve seen Marinette working on that throughout s5. She’s stepping back and letting him be who he wants to be and encouraging him to make his own choices. Adrien literally says in Transmission that the Adrien everyone else knows is a marketing image. Gabriel states in Pretension that he crafts the perfect images to sell to people, pretty much implying that he is in direct control over how the world sees Adrien and the person everyone thinks he is. Marinette is the only person that sees beneath the surface of that and wants to help him do something about it. And people think that’s “ruining” their characters? By letting them grow closer and fight for and support each other? By letting Adrien figure things out and work toward his own autonomy? Yall want him to stay lonely and miserable under his dad’s control forever? Weird take, but okay. Like it or not, his relationship with Marinette has been building up since the beginning, and we’ve seen them make big strides each season. Nothing about what’s happening in s5 is random, nor was it thrown in casually. The signs were there the whole time, sorry yall missed them.

Secondly, I want to look at LadyNoir, the big source of everyone’s grief, but in the same way the Adrinette hints were all there throughout s4, the LadyNoir hints leading them to where they are were abundant as well in s4. Looking back in the context we have now, LadyNoir and Adrinette had an inverse relationship in s4. The more Adrien fell for Marinette, the more his feelings for Ladybug faded, and their conflict last season had a lot to do with it. Ladybug pulled away from him a lot last season, and I don’t think it was entirely intentional or conscious. She was dealing with a lot and scrambling to juggle her new responsibility with Shadowmoth on the loose, Su Han bitching in her ear, Alya knowing her secret. And unfortunately, the more she pulled away, the more hurt Chat Noir got, so he pulled away more, which in turn made her start relying on other heroes more, which created even more distance, you get the idea. I think there are two key episodes that point to 1. Why Chat Noir stopped loving Ladybug and 2. Why LadyNoir could not have worked romantically. (actually there are 3 episodes about why LadyNoir can’t work romantically, but we will get to those in a minute)

The first episode deals with the reason Chat Noir moved on from Ladybug, and that’s Glaciator 2.0. Prior to this, Ladybug had been softer in her rejection of him, but still firm with the public that there was nothing romantic going on between them. She does care about his feelings, and if we recall the first Glaciator episode, she tells him that she doesn’t want to toy with his emotions or lead him on. She is sensitive to the way he feels, but she also stands her ground that she’s not interested. In Glaciator 2, we have the two of them already being a little at odds with each other from the growing distance between them in s4, and we also have Ladybug at her most stressed. So she snaps. And I think that episode did stick with him and play a huge role in why he moved on. She makes it abundantly clear in that episode that she doesn’t love him, has never loved him, and will never love him. She set very clear boundaries with him in that episode, and we’ve seen those boundaries stick with the way Adrien treats Marinette in s5. He’s not pushy, he’s patient, he lets her lead their interactions. That episode affected him. That episode alone is why it's not surprising that he moved on. She'd been telling him for 3 seasons she wasn't into him like that. He finally listened.

The other episode that points to the big problem with romantic LadyNoir is Kuro Neko. People don’t want to hear this, but LadyNoir does not function effectively when Ladybug in particular is distracted by love. We saw this in Desperada, we saw this again in Kuro Neko. She gets too distracted, and things don’t work. We see teasings of this in Determination when Ladybug gets distracted by Chat Noir, and they almost lose until he snaps her out of it. Granted, she was also still down about losing everything, but the point still stands that she does not do well when she’s in love with her partner. Contrast that with the way they effortlessly work together at the beginning of Perfection. They’re holding a whole ass other conversation while fighting bad guys as if they were doing anything else. Their mojo is back, and they’re getting along better than ever as friends. Romance was always a point of contention for them, and now they don't have to worry about it. They can just do their job.

Now, I know a lot of people are also of the mindset that they should just reveal their identities already, but we have two examples of why that’s a bad idea as well. Chat Blanc and Ephemeral prove that they will work well together post-reveal, BUT the main obstacle in their way is Hawkmoth. It’s too dangerous for them to reveal their identities while he is still around because as we’ve seen, they get reckless and careless and Gabriel sniffs them out. They lose. (yes, I count Chat Blanc as a loss). So long as Gabriel is still around and pulling the strings, they cannot tell each other their identities. They’ve said that on numerous occasions. It’s not a matter of compatibility because we know they’re made for each other, that much has always been clear. It’s a matter of practicality and dangerousness. It’s not safe for them to reveal right now, and I think the writers wanted to push them through the development they’re getting first, which brings me to my next point.

This season is about healing trauma, particularly Marinette’s, but also increasingly so Adrien’s. And the only way they could go about healing the particular trauma these two are dealing with is the way they’re doing it. Adrinette was the side that offered the most opportunity for that development by becoming canon, and I don't care if that pisses people off when I say that. "But best friends to lovers is better-" okay, but you're ignoring a lot of important context that I’ve talked about. Mixing their jobs as heroes with their romantic feelings is actively detrimental to their job. Ladybug loses focus, Chat behaves recklessly, Hawmoth literally learned their identities and took advantage of that. The world got destroyed, the universe nearly got rewritten. But yeah go off about how much better things would be if the heroes got together, especially in the season where stakes are at an all-time high and them focusing on the mission is absolutely crucial.

They needed development as civilians, but that doesn't make them less deserving of love, nor does it “ruin” their characters. That's the biggest crock of shit I've ever heard. Marinette needed to overcome her hesitation and anxiety around Adrien. Because what good would it do them to date as heroes because she ran away from her problems with another boy only to turn around and find out that the boy she was running from is the same boy she ran to? Do people think that reveal would go well with her still not having healed from that? A huge point at the beginning of the season was that she was running away from her problems and throwing herself at someone else instead of dealing with her trauma. Marinette needed to turn around and face her feelings for Adrien. She needed to face the mistakes she made as a result of loving Adrien specifically and heal from that. And ya know what? Allowing Adrinette to date fixed Ladrien without them even having to appear next to each other. It allows Ladybug and Chat Noir to focus on their mission without their feelings getting in the way. It allows both of them the opportunity to be happy and get shit done. And ya know what, since they're healing trauma, they're gonna be ecstatic when the reveal eventually happens. We loved each other the whole time? You're actually my best friend in and out of the suit? You're gonna be at my wedding next to me marrying me? We're gonna grow old together? All sides are benefitting this season, and yes, being platonic is a benefit for some sides. Just because it wasn't what some people wanted doesn't change that. I swear some people just wanted to treat the sides as separate forever and only ever have good things happen for their favorite. I saw it all the time when people would pout about one side getting development in episodes in prior seasons. Personally, I am in it for the whole picture because I know it will be more beautiful in the end if every side gets worked on. I'm here for the love square, not just Adrinette, but it seems like some people forgot we’re all on the same ship.

Additionally, it’s not really a big secret that they’re winding down the Agreste plot. This season will resolve that storyline, so they needed to bring the Agreste plot to the frontline, and it wouldn’t have worked with LadyNoir. Marinette needed to see first-hand how bad Adrien’s situation is. We still don’t have all of the pieces, but later episodes show how desperately they’re fighting to be together and to free Adrien from his father’s control. They could not have put her that close to the situation with LadyNoir because they can’t reveal for reasons I’ve already mentioned, and as such, Chat Noir can’t tell her about his home life. LadyNoir being together would have been self-contained. It wouldn’t have propelled the other sides forward in the way they needed to. Marinette would still assume that disasters happen when she pursues Adrien. She’d likely still blame herself for being blinded by love for losing all of the Miraculous. She’d likely still distance herself from him, which would remove Adrien’s confidant about his home situation. The story they’re telling wouldn’t work. And that’s the other thing, we don’t know all of the details about the story they’re telling yet. (I mean, unless you’ve read leaks, but we’re not talking about those rn). Obviously, Adrinette being canon was important to the story, and I am personally just not seeing it as a detriment because I’ve seen all of the positives that have come from it in later episodes. Their characters are growing and maturing. They’re supporting each other. They’re fighting for each other. Is that not what we’ve always loved about the love square? The way they complement each other? How deeply they love each other and how much they sacrifice for each other?

The only conclusion I can come to about anyone saying their characters have been ruined is that they haven’t watched anything past Transmission. And not only that, they’re making a ton of bad faith assumptions about Transmission and the next episode after it in order to justify their outcry. But as someone who has watched every episode officially released right now, their development this season is solid. On all sides. There is a huge difference between not particularly liking something and something being bad. People would do well to learn the difference.

[buzbu]

I’m watching ‘Ladybug and Chat Noir: Awakening’ (you can watch a really bad quality bootleg recording on most pirating sites right now), these are my reactions while I’m watching . A lot of the points won’t make sense unless you’ve seen it too I’m sorry 😭

If you don’t want to watch the movie but want a vague idea of the plot, here u go

⚠️NEW MIRACULOUS MOVIE SPOILERS⚠️

- master fu is soo dramatic

- THIS IS A MUSICAL???

- whoever the singer is for marinette sounds so noticeably different to her it is throwing me off

- the character designs are so cute

- brand placement: 1

- Adrien is brooding so hard with his headphones. I bet he’s listening to something emo

- omg gabriel agreste backstory right away

- Luka cameo

- whyd they make plagg a fart monster

- there are more than 4 background character designs this is crazy

- whyd they make gabe kinda fine

- gabes first musical number as hawkmoth is so insanely Dr Facilier

- they made him such a good villain omfg I’m actually rooting for him he’s got the whole ‘a villain who would sacrifice the world to save her’ thing going for him

- oooo they have the mime villain from season 1 (?), and they are actually showing how op his power is. He could create literally anything and he just made a wall and a gun, he couldve done so much more. They did him justice they made him kinda fine too very Danny Bailey from Schmigadoon

- chat noir calling himself a sidekick is my villain origin story

- didn’t know how much I needed an action montage with a rock cover of the miraculous ladybug song until now

- a slither of adrienette in the montage

- brand placement: 2

- I’m an hour in and chat noir hasnt called ladybug milady ONCE

- oh my god they have the play fighting trope where they end up pinning eachother against a wall this is so them

- I don’t think the songs are very movie like, the words are pronounced like radio songs so you can’t really understand what they’re saying a lot of the time without captions (I don’t have captions 💔)

- the romance feels a lil rushed. Because they spent the first half hour almost exclusively on marinette and setting up her character/insecurities/etc and all the romantic development was in a montage. Now there’s a love song and theyre in love and it feels very underdeveloped to be at this stage already

- this song is cute though I can’t make out the majority of the words but in-love ladynoir content has my heart

- no marichat so far . Waiting patiently

- they haven’t set the love square up to its full potential 💔💔

- ok nevermind they kind of have, ladybug rejected chat noir for adrien, she asked adrien out and he rejected her for ladybug. But there has been no ladybug + adrien interactions or chat noir + marinette interactions yet

- omg gabriel adrien angst omg gabe is so much less of a dislikable character, they actually gave him some depth . Adrien is full on yelling at Gabriel and gabe actually looks like he cares about his son

- this bootleg is terrible quality but even with the bad quality the quality is so obviously good

- I’ve gotten used to the marinette singing voice and now I just love it

- this movie is so dramatic with the love songs and songs about insecurities, I feel like it’s that movie ladybug made fun of in the show

- GABE AKUMATISED HIMSELF AND ITS SO COOL THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN THAT WEIRD IPAD VILLAIN HE WAS IN THE SHOW

- adrien just said ‘the less interested you are, the more they run after you 😒’ because ladybug called him for help after she rejected him😭😭😭😭 bro rlly said all girls are the same

- idk if this bootleg is just clipped together but it keeps randomly turning french with no subtitles and it’s confusing me so much. I don’t know french, why must they be in paris

- these boss fights are so well animated

- chat noir is so bitter god damn

- ladynoir angst but it’s actually high stakes im loving this

- LADYBUG SAVE YOUR CAT WHAT ARE YOU DOING

- SHE LET HIM FALL WHAT

- gabe just turned the water they fell in into lava this is crazy

- they just turned french again I have no idea what they’re saying

- MARINETTE / HAWKMOTH SHOWDOWN

- nevermind

- I’m sorry marinette would pick this dialogue to shreds it’s so corny

- GOT THE TINIEST SLITHER OF MARICHAT I AM HAPPY

- YES YES YES GABRIEL FORCED TO FACE THE FACT THAT ADRIEN IS CHAT NOIR

- HES SELF REFLECTING!!! REALISING EVERYTHING HE DID WAS INSANE AND HURT ADRIEN WHEN HE TOLD HIMSELF HE WAS HELPING HIM. THIS IS WHAT THE SEASON 5 FINALE SHOULDVE BEEN

- THIS IS PERFECT

- this is what ppl wanted for the show . adrien being resentful at first, Gabriel hit in the face with his own guilt and mistakes, having a genuine moment of self reflection, adrien forgiving him and gabe changing instead of getting his wish and being remembered as a hero, plus all of paris finding out hawkmoth was Gabriel, etc. I love this

- brand placement: 3

- omg there’s a masquerade ball everyone looks so good

- so marinette knows that adrien is chat noir but he doesn’t know shes ladybug yet ? That better change in the next 2 minutes

- HE KNOWS!

- marinette is so pretty I’m actually so happy with this

- OHHHH NATALIE VILLAIN ARC ????

- oh theyre talking in french again I have no idea what this ending means

FINAL THOUGHTS!

obvs it isn’t canon but I love this adaptation. The superpowers are portrayed as powerful as they actually are, there’s more drama and angst which I needed, the timeline is VERY different to the show. Marinette stands up for herself to chloe the same day that ladybug and chat noir reveal their identities, so it’s like the origins episode of season 1 mixed with one of the various identity reveals from season 4. Also she’s not friends with any of her class other than alya, adrien and nino, so it’s also kind of pre-origins vibes. Idk, it was really good and I can’t wait to watch it in better quality, with captions, and without ads playing every half hour

Also I’m forever thankful that there was no lila rossi storyline

[cipherwrites]

Sugar & Spice, Chapter 1: Luck & Misfortune

Next Chapter ->

Marinette Dupain-Cheng is a normal girl with a normal life! She’s clumsy, a romantic at heart, and she has a true passion for fashion design. The 16-year-old is moving into her second year of Lycee, but as this new school year begins, so too does chaos from an ancient magic unveiled, a responsibility to protect her city, and quite literally falling head-over-heels in love with the boy just one year elder that’s been kind to her…

That’s right. Both of them.

A few things you should know about this fic before we get into it:

-A personal pet peeve of mine is putting kids in dangerous situations! Even when it comes to magic, I would much prefer that adults held that kinda power. However, since a good deal of the series revolves around school drama, I’ve decided to put our main cast in Lycee and make them all young adults.

-According to my research (which could be wrong or outdated so please don’t judge me I am not from france), age of adulthood is 18 and full legal capacity comes at 16. I also found reference that the age of consent is 15, but that won’t really come into play in this fic.

-I will try to refer to French things as well as I can, such as “Lycee” instead of “High School.” For those that don’t know, Lycee is the three-year education system that comes after College (which isn’t University).

-Our main cast is in their second year of Lycee! Lycees are typically ages 15-18, so our main cast is ages 16-17 when the series begins. Specifically, Marinette and Adrien are 16, and Adrien will of course turn 17 during ‘Bubbler’

-I will be making new Miraculous lore! I will be both ignoring old lore and building off existing lore at intervals I deem appropriate.

-I’ll be changing a few Miraculous abilities, including giving them all a significant nerf/upgrade that comes from another fic series I wrote.

-I will also be changing character designs slightly, including costumes, but I have no talent in art so when I describe them simply use your imagination.

-I’ll be writing this like it’s a proper reboot, so I’ll be alluding to things that we all already know and pretend Hawkmoth’s identity is a secret until “Season 2”

-Felix and Adrien are sentimonsters. They are the only “human” sentimonsters that will be in this fic series. I have nothing against Sentimonster Kagami, but it’s just not for me in this story.

-On that note, this series will have Lukadrigaminette (gosh that’s hard to type)! Again, nothing against Feligami, but the story I’m building needs him to be a lonely boy for now.

With all of that said, please enjoy!

===

In the millennia before humans could even fathom recording their history, a powerful Mage made contact with an ephemeral being. The being was lonely, for it was everything that ever was and would ever be. It was all, yet it was nothing. A cosmic confusion that it could never understand. Its attempts to help humanity only brought fear and terror, and the being grew to loathe humans. However, the Mage pleaded with the eternal being that humanity just needed a new perspective. The cosmic nothing came to see reason, and split itself into two halves: Creation and Destruction. The embodiments of these concepts came to be bound by jewels the Mage forged, and he went onward to bind the aspects of humanity, the very concepts of the universe themselves, into these many jewels. In due time, these nineteen pieces of jewelry would be known as the Miraculous.

The first two Miraculous remained more powerful than the others: the Ladybug of Creation and the Black Cat of Destruction. The Ladybug could create anything and restore order and balance. The Black Cat could destroy anything and bring disorder to the world around it. The legend says that uniting these two will allow them to reconverge into the original Cosmic Nothing, and they will do as they always have: consider the wish of their wielder, and grant it in the only way they know how: destroy the very universe, and recreate it in a way where the wish is granted. The Cosmic Nothing cannot comprehend the horrors of its own actions, and so it was declared that these Miraculous could never be united…

---

“I want that wish, Nooroo.” a malicious man says in the shadows, three long months after a woman’s disappearance. The boy is kept calm and complacent by means he could never understand, but the man has no such freedom of ignorance. “I must have those Miraculous!”

“But Master, I was separated long ago!” the tiny purple kwami exclaims, “I don’t know where the Miraculous are anymore. No one does!”

“I found you though, my little Nooroo.” the man grins. “Your Miraculous…remind me of its powers again.”

“The Miraculous of the Butterfly allows you to swath someone in need in comforting shadow and give them the power to achieve victory with their inner potential.” Nooroo recites.

“Throughout history, the Miraculous have been used by those that have gone down in history as heroes. When it comes to luring in heroes, what could be better than creating villains?” the man suggests with glee.

“But…but you can’t! Master, the Miraculous cannot be used for evil purposes!” Nooroo warns in fear.

“I must have that cosmic wish!” the man orders, pointing at the helpless kwami. “Your Miraculous is in my control! I am your master, and you must obey me.”

“Yes…master.” Nooroo obeys sadly.

“Nooroo,” the man affixes the brooch to his attire, “Dark Wings Rise!” He orders, transforming through the power of the Miraculous. “From now on, I shall be known as…Hawkmoth.” he laughs maliciously.

---

“Marinette!” a voice calls, and Marinette Dupain-Cheng gasps awake to the sound of her alarm going off. “Your alarm’s been going off for fifteen minutes! You’re going to be late!”

“Oh, no, no, no!” the sixteen-year-old Marinette Dupain-Cheng panics. “Coming, Maman!” she calls down, swiftly changing clothes and getting everything together.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng is a petite girl with black hair that she dyes into a light shade of blue. She wears her hair in a pair of pigtails and a nice mix of colors in her homemade clothes, primarily her favorite color pink. However, the main thing people notice about Marinette is the bandages. Marinette is immensely clumsy, so she often wears a large number of bandages to cover the bruises and cuts she gets from merely existing day after day. Rushing to get her school bag together, she packs a box of bandaids with cute designs, because chances are she’s gonna have a new mark on her face by the end of the day.

As Marinette rushes out of her room, she takes one last look to make sure she isn’t forgetting anything, scanning her room in half a second. Marinette’s room is chaotic in some portions but also ridiculously organized in others. Marinette has several crafts projects beyond her personal clothing designs, plenty of empty binders and books for when she inevitably takes an extracurricular, and walls that have been bare of photos for four long years…well, that ends today! She’s gonna make friends, take pictures, and fill this room with life again!

Marinette barrels into her Family’s kitchen, practically running into the table to try and hurriedly stuff her face.

“Remember to chew, dear,” Sabine says calmly to her daughter. “And please sit down.”

Marinette mumbles a bit between her bites as she sits at the table, swallowing a handful of food at once. “Sorry, Maman.” she sighs. “I’m a little nervous, I gotta admit…Chloe’s probably gonna be in most of my classes again.”

“Four years in a row of this, is that even possible?” Sabine asks.

“You know me, the picture of luck!” Marinette chuckles nervously.

“Oh, don’t say that!” Sabine scolds, frowning at her daughter’s self-deprecation. “It’s the start of a new school year! Everything will be fine.”

As Marinette considers her Mother’s words, it’s as though on cue she drops the spoon in her hand, hitting another object and hitting many others like a Rube Goldberg machine of chaos and misfortune. Marinette just groans, tempted to just fall to the ground and let the earth take her. Before Marinette can spiral any further into her doubts, her Dad walks in, humming to himself as he places a Boulangerie Patisserie box full of macarons down in front of his beloved daughter. Marinette sees the treats in the box she has requested her Dad make for her new class, and her eyes light up in renewed triumph.

“Papa, these are so awesome!” Marinette hugs her Dad.

“Glad you like them,” Tom smiles warmly.

“My class will love them, Papa. You’re the best!” Marinette hugs him, and after Tom catches the dropped box and hands it to her, she kisses her parents on the cheek before rushing out. “See you tonight!” she calls back, aiming to get to school quickly.

Marinette rushes out of her home clutching the box of sweets as she slings her backpack onto her back. She manages to avoid tripping over herself as she reaches the intersection, but as she breathes a sigh of relief, her eyes widen as she sees a little old man crossing the street slowly, struggling with his cane…as a car is fast approaching! Everyone around her is on their phones- only she can see him! Gasping in fear, she rushes forward, using every ounce of strength in her tiny body to tackle the old man on the other side of the street! The two of them groan, and Marinette feels her heart fall as she sees her box dropped in front of her, the macarons spilling out and in pieces. Marinette just hangs her head as the old man gets up.

“Oh, my! Young lady, thank you…young lady?” he seems concerned, but she pulls herself together.

“Oh! No, it’s fine, it’s…” She watches helplessly as someone on their phone walks by, stepping on one of the dropped macarons. She just hangs her head, her gaze blurring with frustrated tears before she wipes them away. “It’s fine!” she wipes the tears away. “I’m no stranger to disaster. There are even a few left! I might be able to dust some dirt off of these ones…”

The old man picks up one of the broken pieces from the ground, dusting it off and trying it.

“Well, they still taste delicious to me.” the old man smiles kindly, and Marinette smiles.

“Thank you, sir.” Marinette shuts the box and suddenly, she hears the school bell in the distance! “Oh, no, I’m gonna be late! Ah, have a nice day sir! Be careful of traffic!” she shouts as she rushes off.

---

As the old man walks into an alleyway, he takes a deep breath and slumps against a wall.

“Reality,” he mutters, dispelling the illusion of the speeding car that has since pulled into an alleyway and the illusion around himself. “Trixx, Orikko, divide.” He says, the two kwamis emerging from the Miraculous.

“Master, this was incredibly dangerous!” the fox kwami warns.

“I have to agree! You shouldn’t be wielding a Miraculous at your age, much less unifying them!” the rooster agrees.

“It’s just for today.” the old man explains as he feeds the kwamis some macaron crumbs he picked up. “I need to be sure the people are worthy. I need the Fox to set up the situations, and the Rooster to give me the power of empathic reading. That way, I’ll be able to tell if those I choose are right.”

“Was she right, Master?” the Fox asks.

“I believe so, Trixx.” the old man smiles and slips on some glasses. “Now, for the final part before moving forward. Kaalki, Full Gallop!”

---

Barreling through the doors of Mme. Bustier’s classroom at top speed is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, barely able to catch herself as she stumbles into the room with what many classmates would refer to as “three left feet” with how fast and bumbling she is. Marinette can see many familiar faces and a few new ones. 

Mme. Bustier was the primary teacher this year…again. Caline Bustier is a decent teacher, and through her own skills and the positive enforcement of her students and their families, she went from a Junior Secondary teacher to a Senior Secondary teacher in just a few years!

Maybe she advanced a bit too quickly, that quiet, rude corner of Marinette’s mind said.

I just need some faith. She wouldn’t have gotten the position if she didn’t deserve it! The rest of Marinette reasoned.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” a shrill voice says her name like it’s an accusation, interrupting her train of thought. Marinette takes a deep breath, having only just sat down.

Here we go again…

“That’s my seat.” Chloe Bourgeois herself, self-appointed Queen Bee of the school, almost universally despised, and daughter of Mayor Andre Bourgeois.

“Chloe, it’s the first day of school! Seats are being assigned right now, and you came in after me for once!” Marinette complains.

“Not anymore!” Sabrina proclaims. “New year, new seats!”

“You refuse to know your place, so I have to put you in your place.” Chloe grins, looming over the sitting and diminutive form of Marinette. “Why don’t you go sit by the new girl?” she gestures to the Creole girl a row away reading a comic book, whose attention has been caught by the situation. “Adrien’s arriving today, and since he’s going to sit there, I’m going to sit here.”

“Adrien…Agreste?” Marinette blinks. “But- the Agrestes are shut-ins!”

“Not anymore!” Chloe smirks. “Oh, does the little fashion wannabe actually wanna meet an Agreste?”

“I- you- but-” Marinette stammers as Chloe grins cruelly over her.

“Maybe if you finally put yourself in your proper place, I’ll consider letting you meet him. The only place you belong is-” Chloe begins, but suddenly, they’re interrupted.

“Hey! Who elected you Queen of Seats?” the Creole girl accuses, having stood up and coming up with her comic book rolled up.

“Oh, look, Sabrina! We’ve got a little do-gooder in our class this year.” Chloe chortles. “What, another superhero nerd? What are you gonna do, shoot beams at me with your glasses?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Alya scowls and leads Marinette by the hand, “Come on, you can sit with me and away from those two.”

As she leads Marinette, the shorter girl gasps as she trips, once more spilling her macarons until only one remains in the box.

“Sorry! Sorry. I’m sorry…” Marinette whimpers.

“Hey, it’s okay, girl!” Marinette’s new seat neighbor gathers the dropped sweets and tosses them into the trash. “No biggie.”

“I wish I could handle Chloe the way you do…” Marinette mutters.

“You mean the way Majestia does it,” the girl explains, rolling out the comic again. “She says that ‘all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing’.” She then points at Chloe. “Well, that girl over there is evil, and we are the good people. We can’t let her get away with it,” she explains like it’s a simple fact.

Chloe isn’t evil…she’s not perfect, but she’s not EVIL. I hope.

“Well, that’s easier said than done,” Marinette says instead. “She likes to make my life miserable…”

“That’s cause you let her, girl! Get some confidence!” the girl grins, and Marinette can’t help but smile at the sentiment.

“I’m Marinette,” Marinette says, handing Alya the last macaron.

“Alya.” the girl smiles, taking and eating it with a smile on her face.

“Alright, class, let’s get started!” Mme. Bustier smiles.

“Where is he…?” Marinette can barely hear Chloe mutter.

---

Adrien has just helped an old man from tripping and falling into the street, turning back with a sight to see the two people he knew would drag him away from the steps of Francoise Dupont Lycee. Nathalie Sanceour, archaeologist-turned-assistant, and Placide I.T., a gorilla-like American bodyguard that hardly understands a word of French, much less speak it.

“I just want to go to school like anyone else. What’s so wrong with that?” Adrien protests.

“Let’s go home, Adrien,” Nathalie says, and the Bodyguard opens the door of the car.

“... please don’t tell my Father about this,” Adrien mutters as he steps into the car.

---

The Butterfly Miraculous allows one to tap into truly empathic abilities, allowing one to read emotions and surface thoughts for many miles while in a meditative state. There is negativity all across the so-called “City of Love,” but it is one emotion picked up on. Anger, Sadness, Resentment, and Regret all together at once! A shy boy hiding his anger, pent up with rage with a want to express his love, but how could he ever?

“This is perfect.” Hawkmoth grins. He holds his cane up, and the head opens. A butterfly lands on it, and the head closes. Dark energy pulses through the head of the cane, corrupting the harmless butterfly into something more potent. “Burn a hole into his heart, my horrible akuma!” the head of the cane opens, and the cracking purple-black butterfly emerges, fluttering out of the window with a target in mind. “Fly now, and akumatize him!”

When the akuma closes in, he can feel the anger spike. Scorned by the Principal, who should be protecting these youths. The akuma finds its way into the object with the most emotional attachment: a crumpled-up piece of paper, a failed confession.

“Stoneheart, I am Hawkmoth.” Hawkmoth declares, his influence driven into the boy’s mind like a knife. Proclaiming his new name, so that he has no chance to deny that Stoneheart is his identity. “The world hurts, doesn’t it? I can give you the power to shut out all pain. However, in return, there is something you need to do for me…”

“Whatever it is, you’ve got a deal, Hawkmoth.” the weak-willed young man agrees, and the horrible shadow covers him, mutating him into something so much more.

“Make some noise, Stoneheart.” Hawkmoth orders. “Grab Paris’ attention.”

---

Marinette and Alya were in the library, when the ground suddenly shook. Marinette fell to the ground- not actually her fault, this time!- and plastered across every news screen was that of a monstrous golem-like creature tearing through the school.

“KIM!” the monster roars in anger, and Marinette can see the monster’s fist tighten around something in his hand.

Something…breaks.

“Ivan?” Marinette mutters, blinking in surprise.

“Hello? This is the police?” Damocles exclaims, talking on his phone as he rushes through the library, trying to hide. “Get me the army!”

“Whoa, a real-life supervillain!” Alya rushes to her bag, swiping through her phone. “GPS, synced. Battery, charged. I am so ready for this!” she starts to rush out the door…towards the danger?!

“Hey! Where are you going?!” Marinette exclaims.

“Supervillains mean Superheroes, and Paris hasn’t had either in years!” Alya grins. “There’s no way I’m missing this!”

Marinette sees the news on another student’s phone and just how…destructive this monster Ivan has become is. She winces, and she thinks hard.

My new friend has a death wish! I have to help her!

What can I even do? I’d just get in the way…or worse, my clumsiness could get her hurt!

I can’t just do NOTHING, can I?

There’s another boom from outside.

I should…leave this to the Police.

---

Adrien, ever-bored, waits patiently as he answers each of Nathalie’s questions easily. Suddenly, the door to Adrien’s room opens.

“Give us a moment, would you, Nathalie?” Gabriel Agreste himself requests, and Nathalie steps out. He then turns to Adrien, holding his hands behind his back. “You are not going to school. I already told you.”

“But, Father-” Adrien protests.

“Quiet.” Gabriel orders, and Adrien promptly shuts up. “Everything you need is right here where I can keep an eye on you. I will not have you outside in that dangerous world.”

It’s not dangerous, Adrien thinks to himself. Why can’t I just go to school like everyone else…?

Gabriel walks to the door, opening it for Nathalie. “Continue,” he orders, and Adrien walks to the door as he walks away, and Nathalie looks into the room.

“We can leave it there for today if you-” Nathalie begins, and Adrien promptly shuts the door in her face.

Adrien groans, laying on his bed. He hears thumping and…explosions? He rushes to the TV and turns it on, seeing a monster literally absorbing gunfire into its body, growing bigger!

---

“As incredible as it seems,” Nadja Chamack reports, “it’s been confirmed that Paris is indeed being attacked by a supervillain! The Police have been struggling to keep the situation under control.”

“First day back at school…and a supervillain attacks.” Marinette faceplants into her chaise. “This is a new low.”

Marinette looks up at the monitor, her eyes squinting as she sees a small box she doesn’t recognize next to it. “Huh…?”

---

Adrien stares at the screen in disbelief, then notices something on one of his darker shelves he hasn’t noticed until now…something that definitely wasn’t there before.

“What’s this doing here?” Adrien picks up the box with the intricate design and opens it up, and a bright glow emanates from within!

---

“AAGH!” Marinette falls back, seeing the creature that emerged from the box. “Help! Giant bug- mouse- bug-mouse!”

“Everything’s okay, don’t be scared!” the creature tries to comfort her.

“AAGH IT TALKS!” Marinette panics.

---

“I’m Plagg, nice to meetchya.” the creature grins in front of Adrien before promptly starting to destroy his room, looking at anything shiny and possibly edible.

“Hey, hold on-!” Adrien protests.

---

Marinette slams a jar over the creature.

“Okay, if that makes you feel safer, Marinette…” the creature says.

“What are you and how do you know my name?!” Marinette exclaims.

“I am a kwami, and my name is Tikki. Now, just let me explain-” she begins.

---

“-I grant powers,” Plagg explains simply from the grip of Adrien’s hands. “Yours is the power of destruction, got it?”

“Not even a little,” Adrien says honestly, prompting Plagg to roll his eyes.

“Good enough for me!” he phases out from the hands, causing Adrien to shudder as both his hands feel like they’ve fallen asleep. “You got anything to eat? I’m starving.”

“This can’t be real,” Adrien says, shaking his hands. “I’d assume someone was pranking me, but I’m the only one in this house with a sense of humor…”

“No one must know I exist!” Plagg suddenly gets in Adrien’s face.

---

“I’m your friend, please trust me! You’re the only one who can stop Stoneheart!” Tikki pleads, having phased out of the jar to stop Marinette from getting her parents.

“This has to be a mistake! The only superpower I could have is how abysmal I am at literally everything I do…I know!” Marinette looks up at the kwami. “Alya would know! That’s my friend! Well, I think she is…and I think she would…she loves superheroes, and knows way more than me about being a hero! You should totally go see her, instead!”

“Marinette, you were chosen!” Tikki insists.

---

“I’m a pretty crummy choice,” Adrien admits. “I’m stuck here! I’m not even allowed to go to school! What good is a superhero stuck in his own house?”

“No good at all.” Plagg grins mischievously. “That’s why that’s all going to change soon. If you’re willing to use my power to break the chains that keep you here.” Plagg lounges on the open box, gesturing to the black ring tantalizingly. 

---

“Okay, break the object, capture the thing! What’s the…charm thing again?” Marinette asks.

“I can’t say it, but part of the transformation involves knowledge. You’ll know it when you transform!” Tikki explains. “It will create an object that will help you deal with one threat! Once the threat is neutralized, you can release the energy of the object back into the universe, restoring the balance and fixing any damage the threat has done!”

“This is going…very fast, Tikki, I…I can’t do this!” Marinette whimpers.

“Trust yourself, Marinette! You have the potential inside of you!” Tikki smiles. “The transformation phrase is ‘Spots On’.”

“Spots on?” Marinette questions, and her eyes widen as Tikki is drawn into the earrings, and the transformation curls across her body!

Her eyes become a deeper blue and segmented like compound eyes, her hair becomes longer, the ribbons curling off her back. A shoulder-length cape with a Ladybug pattern around her neck is worn, and beautiful reds and blacks make up the Ladybug pattern of her attire, including a yoyo at her waist! There is a pitch-black pattern on her suit that makes a pair of gloves, with the black going along the underside of her forearms, and her boots have a similar pattern.

---

“Plagg, Claws Out!” Adrien declares, more ready for this than anything else in his life.

“No, wait! I haven't finished explaining-!” Plagg shrieks as he’s pulled into the ring, and Adrien transforms.

Adrien’s heroic form is fashionable leather, catlike eyes, and his hair has become wild and longer. A tail-like belt and a golden bell completes the look, and his clawed gloves are a wonderful touch, and he grins with a toothy, somewhat fanged grin. At his waist sports a collapsible staff that can become as compact as a palm-sized disc.

“This is gonna be so cool!” Adrien laughs excitedly.

---

Marinette looks down at her hands, gazing at her transformed visage.

I feel…weird. Out of my element.

“Tikki, can I get my old clothes back? Tikki…? You there…?” Marinette mutters to herself, and she feels the earth shake again, and she looks at the monitor worriedly.

“The monster, which calls itself ‘Stoneheart’, is heading toward the Montparnasse tower! The monster seems to be unstoppable!” Nadja reports.

Marinette sees Alya rushing toward the scene from the news feed, and her eyes widen in fear for the safety of her only friend.

I have to help her, no matter how weird this magic stuff feels!

“Marinette!” Sabine calls from downstairs, and Marinette’s eyes widen in fear. Tikki was very clear about keeping her identity a secret. “Marinette, sweetie, are you home? Are you okay?!”

Marinette knows that if she responds, she’d have to confront her Mere, and they’d want her to hide with her and Papa. Climbing up to her balcony quickly and silently, she feels guilt spike into her as she hears her Mere worried about the lack of her daughter in the house.

Okay, I have powers or something! And a magic yoyo.

Marinette feels the magic of the suit gives her the instincts to use the yoyo to swing. Her reflexes have been improved, but her hand-eye coordination is still pretty bad. The powers seem to enhance her existing abilities, not replace them.

The wind in my face, this new strength, I feel better than ever!

I still feel a bit weird.

…no, not weird. I feel powerful.

---

Adrien can’t help but laugh and whoop as he launches himself throughout the city he’s never had a chance to see! Every building, a new opportunity at vaulting himself onward! Adrien was already pretty skilled and physically fit, but the Miraculous has increased all of that tenfold (well, maybe not tenfold, but it still feels great!)!

He’s walking across a gap between two buildings using his staff at a tightrope- his model poise and the Black Cat’s instincts making it practically impossible for him to fall- when he hears a shriek from above. Looking up, he sees a blur of red slam into him, yoyo strings tying them together as they hang upside-down.

“Well, hey there.” Adrien smiles, happy that he was able to find his apparent partner so easily. “Nice of you to drop in!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” the blue-eyed bug girl proclaims nervously. “I didn’t mean to- this wasn’t on purpose!” she stammers slightly, and in a few moments, the two of them are able to free themselves and reclaim their weapons.

“So, you’re the partner my kwami told me about?” Adrien asks, and the girl nervously nods. “Well, you can call me…” Adrien taps his chin, grinning. He’d been thinking about this all the while he was vaulting across Paris. Something short and sweet, rolls off the tongue, but makes sense and tells people everything they need to know about him. “Chat Noir. Yeah, Chat Noir!” the new hero grins. “And you?”

“I’m Ma- er, uh-” the girl scrambles with her yoyo wildly, and winds up tossing it up and it hits her on the head before she catches it. “...Madly clumsy. I am so clumsy.”

“No sweat, Clumsybug!” Chat Noir sidles up to her, putting his arm around his maybe-sidekick’s shoulder. “I’m still learning the ropes, too!”

The ground shakes again- another indicator of the Stoneheart fight! Chat Noir grins and starts sprinting towards the fight, seeing where the dust is kicked up!

“H-hey! Where are you going?!” Clumsybug exclaims.

“To save Paris!” Chat laughs heartily as he takes his staff, vaulting upward once more!

---

The students of Lycee Francoise Dupont have the unique privilege of using the Parc des Princes as their school’s P.E. grounds. The students are packing up early, unaware the mysterious quakes are anything more than just that…until the monstrous and massive form of Stoneheart bursts through the entrance and walls!

“KIM!” Stoneheart roars, looming over the student. “Who’s the wuss now?” he is about to slam his fist down upon Kim, who’s tripped over, but suddenly a black blur gets Kim out of the way before brandishing his staff as though it were a blade, pointing it at Stoneheart!

“Hey, maybe you should pick on someone your own size!” the wielder of the Black Cat proclaims.

“Just as expected,” Hawkmoth smirks, looking through his Akuma’s eyes. “The Miraculous of the Ladybug and the Black Cat have been activated! Here they come to save the day, only to be destroyed by my machinations.”

---

“Where are you, partner?” Chat mutters as he is thrown back by an even bigger Stoneheart- every hit of his staff makes the villain grow! Chat tries to throw one of the football nets at Stoneheart, hoping to tangle him and render him immobile, but instead, Stoneheart just throws it away- and is about to hit a girl recording everything! Chat Noir is able to save her, but she pays no mind to him, looking up at Clumsybug, who seems to be frozen with fear from atop the stadium’s bowl.

“What are you waiting for, Super Redbug? The world is watching you!” the recorder eggs on.

---

I can’t do this. I’m not a superhero! Look at the size of that thing! How can I fight that?

Marinette can hear Alya, and she sees Chat Noir fighting alone, against all odds.

He’s fighting. I could try and be like him.

What if I get in his way? What if I tie us together again? What if I-

What if nothing, I can’t just stand by and do nothing!

Marinette resolves herself, leaping down and brandishing her yoyo.

Never again.

She throws her yoyo forward, doing the best thing she can- let it go wild! It ties around Stoneheart’s torso, and she yanks, pulling herself towards him! She lands on his head and kicks off, snapping her fingers to make the yoyo’s strings loosen, allowing her to pull it back to her side, pulling the string together like a mechanical tape measure’s retraction.

“Animal cruelty, Stoneheart? How shameful.” Marinette quips, trying to emulate Chat Noir’s boldness. “Sorry it took so long, Chat Noir.”

“It’s cool, Wonderbug.” Chat Noir says, coming to her side. “Let’s kick his rocky rear!”

“We can’t just rush in brazenly when our attacks will only make him bigger and stronger!” Marinette reasons. “We have to do something different…”

“Alright, I’ll bite. Different how?” Chat Noir asks.

“I…don’t know.” Marinette hangs her head.

“Well, I do. What do you say we test out our powers?” Chat Noir smiles, and Marinette nods a little bit.

“Cataclysm!” Chat Noir holds his hand forward, but…nothing happens. “Huh, what the heck?”

“Tikki said they use our weapons. Like, mine is the Lucky Charm-” Marinette says, holding her yoyo in her hand, and the yoyo glows and thrums with power! She shrieks a little as the light pours out of it, conjuring a spandex suit that resembles her own. “Ugh…” she falls back from the disorientation. “I should probably throw that away from me whenever I do that from now on…”

“Oh! So it’d be like this…?” Chat Noir compacts his staff into a palm-sized disc, palming it into his ring hand. “Cataclysm!” he declares again, and this time, the dark power thrums through his hand and the disc! “Alright! Apparently, I destroy whatever I though. What’s yours do?”

“It’s supposed to help us win, somehow. We only have 5 minutes now until we turn back…” Marinette mumbles.

“Ah…probably should have listened to my kwami.” Chat Noir chuckles. “Any other tips?” he asks, leaning against a goal that starts to disintegrate.

“...our powers are only single use,” Marinette says softly, and Chat Noir looks back at the destroyed goal.

“...oops.” Chat Noir says, embarrassed.

They hear a roar from Stoneheart, who is starting to charge towards them!

“His right hand is always closed…it must be where that whatchamacallit is hiding, the…the akuma!” Marinette reasons.

“So, uh, what’s the plan?” Chat Noir asks nervously, seeing the monstrous villain charging.

“The plan, it’s…it’s…” Marinette looks around wildly, soon locating precisely what she needs. “I’ve got it!” she swiftly ties a nearby hose to the suit, then ties Chat Noir with her yoyo. “Okay, uh, don’t resist, I need you to trust me.”

“Oh god, she’s crazy.” Chat Noir says as she picks him up! “How are you so strong?!” he exclaims,

“Why are you so light?!” Marinette exclaims, genuinely thinking she was gonna have a harder time with his plan (and honestly a little concerned with how little he weighs). Regardless, she throws him like a shotput.

The plan goes pretty well. Chat Noir is captured, then so is Ladybug, then the Lucky Charm’s use goes well and they’re able to destroy the object!

“Wow…that was awesome.” Chat Noir declares, laughing as he lies in the grass, looking at the sky. “She’s awesome.”

“What’s going on? Why am I here?” Ivan exclaims, worried, and Marinette’s heart bleeds. He doesn’t even remember what happened to him.

“Well, you did it Super…Clumsy…Bug Lady.” Chat Noir laughs, still clearly unsure of what to call her. “You were great!”

“We got there in the end, didn’t we?” Marinette smiles and holds up her fist. “Partner.”

The look of elation on Chat Noir’s face was perhaps the purest joy Marinette had ever seen.

“Pound it!” Chat Noir says as they fist bump, and Marinette laughs.

“What was that?” she smiles.

“What? It’s fun!” he grins goofily, and notices his beeping ring. “Ah, we should probably get going.”

“Right! Identities gotta be secret.” Marinette nods.

“Farewell, M’lady bug!” Chat Noir winks with one last nickname and vaults away on his staff. “Let’s do this again soon, okay?”

Not too soon, I hope… Marinette thinks to herself as the adrenaline starts to wear off. She walks over to look at the paper the object was in, and she reads it, and she frowns as she realizes what Kim has done.

What he always does, with those twisted attempts at jokes.

“There’s no shame in telling someone you love them,” Marinette says to Ivan, and he looks away, ashamed as the paramedics come in to try and get the scope of the situation.

“Uncanny, amazing, spectacular!” Alya suddenly interrupts. “Are you gonna be protecting Paris from now on? How did you get your powers? Did you get stung by a radioactive Ladybug? Oh, I've got a ton of questions to ask you, uh, miss... uhh…” She trails off, as though trying to decide which of Chat Noir’s many names could be her moniker.

And honestly, while it was a bit plain and simple, Marinette liked his last one the most.

“Ladybug. You can call me Ladybug.” She smiles wide.

“Ladybug! Super awesome!” Alya exclaims, recording the scene as ‘Ladybug’ swings away.

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

The enemy of my enemy is ALSO my enemy, Part 4

First< Previous< Masterlist > Next

Jason did not know how to feel about standing in the middle of a teen girl’s room.

Of course, he technically could go back ‘home’ to Lazarus Holdings, but he wasn’t particularly eager to. Bucky and Melisande would not be pleased with him when he came back. Which was understandable, considering he had left them to do his paperwork… but, consider: he does not like consequences.

Besides, who knows, maybe they’ll have patched up the way out and he wouldn’t be able to get back. As much as he hated his current predicament, he hated the idea of allowing Hawkmoth to make more paperwork for him even more.

So, stand in the middle of a teen girl’s room he did.

Or not. He looked around awkwardly before taking a seat on the wood floor as best he could when he was literally intangible. He was really just floating in midair. Star Wars’ users of The Force be warned, he’s coming for your meditation shtick.

Marinette sighed and leaned back in her desk chair, rubbing her eyes. Now that she was no longer transformed, he could see the absolute exhaustion that clung to her like a curse. The bags under her eyes were the size of tote bags, and the raccoon look did not suit such a young face.

“He’s gotta be in the rich district,” she mumbled, more to herself than anything. “Being Hawkmoth requires him to spend all day waiting for people to have strong negative emotions. Can’t do that if you have a real job.”

“Gasp. A rich guy is an asshole. How surprising,” deadpanned Jason.

Adrien sent him a glare. “My dad’s rich and he’s fine.”

“Nono. He has a point,” Marinette said. “Fuck that guy.”

Adrien gave her a mildly offended glance. Marinette hardly paid him any mind. Mostly because she had leaned back too far in her chair and was now in a heap on the ground. She seemed less than happy about this development, but apparently wasn’t bothered enough to do anything about it.

It was quiet for a moment.

Jason cut his gaze between Marinette, who was stretching out on her rug, and Adrien, who was spinning in his chair. “Do you guys seriously not do anything while you’re waiting for akumas?”

Adrien cracked a grin that could only be seen for half a second before he was facing the other way again. “We do our schoolwork.”

“And our day jobs,” Marinette added.

He squinted at them. “You have school? And jobs?”

“Legally required to go to school,” said Marinette, who seemed about as annoyed with this fact as every other person that was forced to go to school. “And yeah, we both work for his dad. He’s a model, I won a design contest a while back and now I have the pleasure of working under his label.”

Neither of them seemed thrilled about this fact.

Jason didn’t particularly like the implications of that. It could be that they just hated their jobs, like the majority of people, but he couldn’t imagine that these kids needed to have jobs – Adrien was, apparently, rich, and from the room they were in Jason figured it was safe to bet that Marinette wasn’t struggling either. So, if they disliked it, why not quit?

But… then again… from the way Marinette had instantly dismissed the idea of Adrien’s father being a good person… and the way Adrien had opted to be here despite not having anything to do… well, it wasn’t looking good.

He sighed and brought a hand up to rub the space between his brows, trying to physically get rid of the tension. “So… you don’t do anything for fun?” He asked, deciding to shelve that for a later date because he had another, different concerning thing he wanted to concentrate on.

“Gotta always be ready,” Marinette shrugged unconcernedly.

Adrien ran a hand through his hair, shaking a couple of strands free of their gel prison. “It sucks when you have to stop in the middle of something fun.”

Damn. These kids are messed up.

He leaned back on his hands, his lips pursing in a frown. “Alright, well, you can always go back to it after, can’t you?”

“Too tired at that point,” Adrien sighed.

Jason mulled this over for all of three seconds before shaking his head. “Well, that’s a terrible thing to do to yourself. Just because your lives are hectic doesn’t mean that you have to ruin your little free time.”

“After we’re done we should be fine,” Adrien waved him off.

Jason gave a wry smile. “I’m proof of the fact that a ‘later’ is not guaranteed.”

It was quiet for a few moments as the other two processed this.

And then, surprisingly, it was Marinette that clapped her hands together and pushed herself to her feet. “Alright, what’re we doing?”

Jason really hadn’t thought that he’d get this far.

But… well, a quick glance around the room gave him an idea.

~

Marinette sent him a dirty look. “Y’know, it’s convenient for you to choose a pillow fort when you can’t even touch things.”

Jason spread his hands in a ‘what can you do’ gesture.

A pillow sailed through his head.

~

Eventually, they managed to make a fort out of blankets and pillows (and also a couple of chairs and the bed and a broom for structure), and the three crawled inside.

Marinette smiled and flicked on a set of fairy lights, casting their little safe haven in a pale pink glow.

“That’s definitely a fire hazard,” Adrien said, eyeing them with a hint of nervousness, but then he seemed to brush off the idea like it was nothing. “Alright. Now what?”

“Now,” a high-pitched, unfamiliar voice chimed, and Jason was lucky that he wasn’t corporeal because if he was he would have sent their fort toppling over in his haste to get away from the thing that had surprised him. And he meant thing. His head whipped over to where two tiny beings were floating in the entrance to the fort. Between them, they carried a large platter of… “You can’t do a pillow fort without sweets!”

Neither of the miraculous holders looked perturbed by the sudden appearance of the two beings. In fact, Marinette cracked a half smile.

“Did you guys steal those cookies from downstairs?”

“They were a bad batch!” The black one defended himself, puffing his cheeks out in a strange kind of pout.

Marinette grinned. “I hope you know that you’re not making me want to eat those more, Plagg.”

“Good. More for us, then!” ‘Plagg’ said.

This earned a tiny eyeroll from the other two.

Jason fought the urge to rub a hand over his eyes. That was showing just a little too much emotion for him. He did, however, gesture to them with his hands in a kind of ‘what the fuck?!’ way.

Marinette snorted. “What, did you think we just randomly ended up with powers?”

“... I want you to look at me for a couple seconds,” Jason said. “And wonder why I might think that.”

There was a beat.

Marinette had the decency to blush a little, tugging her hair in front of her face in an attempt to hide her shame.

Jason sighed and looked back at the pair of floating beings – who weren’t floating anymore, in the few moments he had taken to speak to Marinette they had set the tray on the pillow and then taken a seat on the rim of the plate – which seemed to be scrutinizing him over their baked goods.

After a couple of seconds the tiny red one smiled at him and offered a cookie.

He gave a polite little smile in return and shook his head. “Can’t eat.” He stuck his arm through the nearby blanket to prove his point.

And then, to his surprise, the black one huffed and nodded. “Oh, I remember that. Torture that was.”

His eyebrows knit together.

“What? Did you think that us all-powerful beings just wanted to put ourselves at the mercy of any human that got our miraculous? I mean, all the stuff with Hawkmoth just shows how terrible of an idea it is.”

Jason blinked dumbly. His eyes flicked to the ‘magical earrings and ring’ that Marinette and Adrien sported, and then back down at the two kwamis who were eating oh-so-cheerfully.

“So… you basically gave up what could have been all of your free will in return for being tangible.”

The pair of beings nodded in unison, not even an ounce of hesitation nor regret hiding within their expressions.

He considered this. He had only been intangible for a few hours, and already he could tell that he would likely go insane if things stayed this way. After years of sitting around doing mind-numbing paperwork, wasn’t it understandable that all he wanted was to feel the grass beneath his feet again? To be able to eat a pastry? To want to curl up under a blanket? To touch another human being?

He bit his lip. “Do you think…?” He began awkwardly, unsure of how to broach the subject.

Luckily or unluckily, recognition sparkled in the pair of beings’ eyes. They looked at each other.

The red one looked back at him. “I don’t know...”

“Tikki,” Plagg hissed.

‘Tikki’ made a face. “He’s not a god like us, it might not even work.”

“We should try at least! He’s a kid, for fucks sake!”

“Exactly. He’s a kid. He shouldn’t be making decisions like this when he doesn’t even have a fully developed frontal lobe!”

“Well, that’s never going to happen!” Plagg pointed out. “So, if he wants it, he wants it!”

“We are not letting a kid give up his free will.”

“He’s a human, still, or at least partially, right? Something about being kinda dead or whatever? Maybe he can wield it himself!”

“Maybe he can’t!”

Plagg scoffed. “Then we can give him to one of the kids.”

“That’s –!”

Marinette raised a hand hesitantly. “Would he still be able to find Hawkmoth for us if he does this?”

Jason’s mouth dropped open in offense. He hadn’t expected one of the other humans to be against it, especially not for a reason like that, but perhaps it made sense that they might not be on his side. After all, how could they ever understand what it was like to watch everyone else around you enjoy the simple pleasures of life while knowing you could never do the same?

She gritted her teeth. “I’m not saying never, I’m saying that – if it might limit you – maybe it should come after you help us.”

I don’t trust you to not bail immediately, and we still need you, he translated. He suddenly remembered that he very much despised pretty much everyone in this room. Why do they always have to make his death so damn awful? Wasn’t death supposed to be peaceful? Because, if so, he’d been cheated.

And, yes, he understood her reasoning. He was a bat, of course he could understand caution. He would probably do the same in her case. But… it hurt a little being on the other side of it.

At least he had someone on his side, because Plagg was quick to shake his head and come to Jason’s defense:

“Tikki and I still have our powers. He should be fine.”

“Oh,” Marinette said, looking away thoughtfully. She didn’t seem to know what to say now.

Adrien shrugged his shoulders. “I think that, if it’s what he wants to do, we should let him.”

It was silent as the two women considered it. For a moment, Tikki and Marinette seemed to have a conversation with just a couple of vague facial expressions and hand gestures.

And then they both sighed.

Marinette even groaned a little.

Plagg grinned victoriously and turned to him. “What kind of jewelry piece did you want it to be?”

Jason thought it over for a few moments. He didn’t want it to be easy to steal…

“A tongue piercing,” he decided. Not only would it be difficult for someone to wrench his mouth open to even get to it, they would then have to find a way to tear it out as well.

Also, he liked the aesthetic. Sue him.

Tikki nodded once and a flash of black flickered through the air in front of his face. He tried to catch it on instinct, but it sailed through him, and he grimaced a little at the feeling of metal literally slipping through his hand.

Adrien managed to catch it and grinned victoriously as he held up a small, black stud.

Marinette’s mouth dropped open.

“Why does the stuff you make not have the weird ladybug design on it?” She asked, distracted from her mild annoyance by this clear injustice.

“Because you would use your abilities for evil if I let you,” Tikki sighed. “The only thing stopping you is the fact that you care about your aesthetics too much.”

Marinette crossed her arms over her chest in a huff and looked away, glaring at a nearby plush cat as if it had personally offended her.

Jason noted, idly, that she didn’t actually argue to the contrary. At least she’s aware of it.

Plagg jabbed its little paw at Marinette, giving Adrien an almost accusatory look. “Look! Why can’t you be evil like her?!”

Adrien rolled his eyes.

Jason cracked a grin, snickering behind his hand. He could already tell that the group of four seemed to balance each other perfectly. The two girls were more hesitant and calculated, while the boys were more impulsive. The older pair had a kind of wisdom that could only come with existing for centuries, while the two humans brought in new perspectives by virtue of being mortal. Plagg and Marinette were more distinctly chaotic, Tikki and Adrien worked to keep them in line in their own ways. And they all had the kind of familiarity with each other that only came after spending a lot of time together.

He couldn’t help but wonder if there was somewhere he could fit into that.

He grimaced to himself. That was the kind of mindset that had gotten him killed. He didn’t need to fit in somewhere – he wasn’t supposed to, he was just a kid no one wanted. If nothing else, he should at least try and learn the lesson he had literally died to learn.

Jason cleared his throat awkwardly. “So, how do we do this thing?”

Tikki smiled, but it was one tinged with nerves. She pointed at the stud in Adrien’s hand. “You’ll need to transfer a piece of yourself into the jewelry.”

“... how the fuck –?”

There was a knocking sound and the group of five jumped. Everyone except for Jason looked to the trapdoor instantly, and he followed their gaze to find it just barely rattling.

Tikki and Plagg darted out of sight.

Jason cursed and looked around, thinking.

And then he looked down at himself. He hadn’t changed his outfit since he had started working, had opted for a simple business suit because he didn’t want to stay in the clothes he had died in (and, besides, a suit just fit for someone that did paperwork as much as he did). But a suit didn’t make sense for someone that looked his age, and even then the suit was made more strange by the fact that it was in tatters from his climb to the overworld.

He took a deep breath before forcing his clothes to shift into pajamas.

Great. One problem solved. Now for his wings.

He leaned back against the wall of the blanket fort, forcing his wings to phase through, and fought back a grimace.

Awesome. This was working. He looked normal now. He was not suffering. This did not feel strange. If you keep telling yourself things they come true.

Both of the humans were looking at him with wide eyes.

But they quickly brought themselves back to neutral expressions as the trapdoor swung open, revealing someone that looked quite like Marinette, if much older. She wore an apron and a kind smile.

Her eyes widened just slightly when she saw Jason. “Who’s this?” she asked.

“Jason,” he said, giving a small, polite incline of his head.

He ignored the pair of humans jerking just slightly at the mention of his actual name. Clearly, they hadn’t expected that. Robin was technically a name, but he didn’t want to use it in case the woman managed to recognize it somehow. Which left him to come up with a different name, and he had never been good at that. At least he could tell them it was a fake name he came up with on the spot. After all, did he really look like a Jason? Surely, that was too generic a name to find on someone who had two wings sprouting from his back.

For a second, he swore the woman’s soul narrowed her eyes at him. That it glanced around, looking for something. But then the expression was gone, leaving her with the exact same cheerfulness that was on her real face.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Jason,” she said lightly. “If you want anything to eat, tell me, m’kay?”

Jason nodded once in understanding. “Nice to meet you, too, Miss. I’ll do that.”

Her smile stretched a little wider. And then she turned her attention away, resting her hands on her hips and giving the two other kids a mildly scolding look. “So it was you that took that batch. Honestly, how you even get your hands on them without me noticing…”

Marinette grinned. “Hey, at least we only take the scuffed batches.”

The woman shook her head with a fond smile and then reached out to pinch Adrien’s cheek. “Fine. As long as he gets some, I don’t mind.”

Adrien smiled nervously. “It’s not a cheat day, ma’am, I can’t –.”

“You’re too thin. Eat just one, okay?” The woman said.

Adrien’s shoulders slumped and he nodded, picking up a cookie with a hint of reluctance and taking a tiny bite.

The woman seemed sated, at least, giving him a gentle pat on the cheek.

She looked back at Jason and, for a moment, her smile stretched a little wider. “I’m assuming you’re the one that suggested the pillow fort?”

He nodded carefully. “I’ll make sure it gets cleaned up –.”

“Nono, keep it as long as you three want. It’s nice to see them doing ‘younger’ stuff,” she said lightly.

Marinette and Adrien both blushed.

Jason was definitely going to tease them later.

But, for now, he smiled a much more real smile and mumbled a quiet “Gotcha.”

Unlike with Adrien, she didn’t try and touch him. She just gave a lighthearted little laugh and started heading down. Thank god. He wasn’t sure how he would have explained away the fact that her hand would move right through him.

It was silent for a minute. If anyone asked, they would just blame it on making sure she didn’t come back.

And then the silence was broken by a phone ringing.

Adrien groaned. “Akuma.”

“Oh come the fuck on,” Jason said.

“Tell me about it,” Marinette sighed.

And then the pair transformed, and Jason brought back his tattered suit, and the three of them all headed out.

~

The akuma was, apparently, an easy one. Mr. Pigeon. The 69th one, according to a very amused Adrien.

And now Jason understood why they had thought he was one of those ‘akuma’ things at first. If all of them looked like that, then he too would assume anything that was not strictly normal would be an akuma.

Besides that, the only thing of any real note was that Hawkmoth didn’t show up. Which really wasn’t of note, seeing as he apparently only did that once in a blue moon. But it was still disappointing.

So, defeated (in that their plan didn’t work, the akuma was dealt with within the hour), they all headed home, exhaustion making their shoulders slump and their steps heavy.

At least, if this went right, Jason could lean back in the comfortable pillows and fall asleep for the first time in years.

He placed his hands over the tiny, unassuming stud on the ground.

“You need to imagine giving yourself up,” Plagg said, hovering by his shoulder. “A lot of magic is about intent.”

If Jason were human, he would have swallowed thickly, but instead he just gave a sharp nod and started concentrating.

“It should come to you…” Tikki said, her tone more careful, as if he were something fragile that could break if this went wrong.

It was very quiet.

He imagined giving up a part of himself. Allowing himself to become tangible at the cost of some of his free will. Limiting himself for freedom.

Nothing happened. He was still floating. The world beneath him still shied away from his touch, his molecules missing everything else despite his best attempts.

He tried not to be too disappointed. They had mentioned it might not work, it was the first thing Tikki had said. He wasn’t like them, he was something other.

He still found himself fighting back tears.

[nerdyenby]

ML Emotion spoilers

• So someone on YouTube labeled emotion as ep 13 so I watched it without realizing it was out of order, didn’t actually spoil anything (that I noticed) as I previously watched through perfection

• is this the first episode without chat noir??

• Felix, how does it feel to be the most interesting character ever written

• legit, he’s fascinating

• also loving the confirmation that he truly does care about Adrien

• with how much he struggled understand others’ emotions this episode I hereby declare Felix Fathom ~neurodivergent~ (gut instinct is autistic but I may or may not be on the spectrum so I’ll leave specifics to others :))

• Kagami is literally confirmed to be a senti, between Felix’s reaction to her ring and saying he’ll set them “both” free, we knew but don’t look at me

• Felix talking to Red Moon, calling her his sister and begging for forgiveness, broke my heart

• I’m thinking there might be a reason peacock holders shouldn’t amokize (I hate that verb) themselves, without checks and balances in place it’s far too easy to lose oneself entirely in an emotion, especially if said someone is a senti themself

• anyway, there not being a lucky charm had such good shock factor, I’ll never get over it

• also marinette was just an absolute icon this episode, she has never been more comfortable and confident in herself and then she tore into Felix - not for herself but for Paris

• also I am never getting over Andre roasting Adrien for being white “vanilla like his skin” my lord

• back to actual plot, I need Amelie’s words to be what pushes Nathalie to ditch Gabe and obtain legal custody of Adrien and tell him everything and build a proper, loving, and healthy family together

• also I am convinced Felix’s “not all of them” at the end is about Marinette, I saw some saying it was about her, Adrien, and Kagami, but he never really had any doubts about the others. Marinette is a good old fashioned human but she earned his respect in her fierce dedication to what is right and her unabashed love for his cousin

• also Adrigaminette is canon you can’t change my mind, Mari looked at Kagami the same way she looked at Adrien in that group hug and they all got sweetheart’s icecream together, Andre got his head on straight and said poly rights, amen

• last but not least Felix and Kagami have such a fun and interesting dynamic right off the bat and I’m surprised at how well it works, excited to see more of them :)

[nahblubunny]

Chloe bullied and blamed the anger on her mother leaving, when in reality she just saw the opportunity of making life fricken miserable for poor Marinette for who knows what reason, maybe because she was half Chinese have French? Could be because she was a bakers daughter who saw her creativity since she was a kid? Could be for no actual reason other than pushing her pain and anguish on someone who seemed to have their life together despite being (in Chloe’s eyes) dirt broke. Her reasoning isn’t acceptable in any case, she was seen under a different light at the beginning of the series and kind of showed she had a brain/remorse/a soul, but that was quickly demolished over the years as the show began to gain a backstory. Chloe being a piece of crab toward ONLY Marinette for the longest time, still getting her ways with others every now and then, strikes quite odd to me.

First of all, Sabrina was basically a call dog to Chloe’s every waking moment and had a slight joy in helping bullying Marinette(who knows how those two ever became friends, Chloe and Sabrina I mean) and they probably started rumours about Marinette to make it worse for her.

And B, throughout the show, no matter HOW NICE AND CARING AND THOUGHTFUL AND GENEROUS Marinette flipping DUPAIN-CHENG was to her school, her friends, or to basically ANYONE BEFORE AND AFTER THE LADYBUG MIRACULOUS, they still NEVER took her side when she’s been accused of theft, accused of jealousy, or worse of the fricken bunch, accused of DOWN RIGHT BULLING A NEW GIRL WHO ‘Had eyes on Adrien’ or even THE CITY BULLY HERSELF!!! The teachers don’t listen because they’re afraid of the darn Mayor who should be busy with literally anything other than firing a bunch of much needed teachers just because they said no to his precious princess who really should have been in a top end school and not a public one.

There’s a lot of other flaws I’d probably but most likely not point out at a later unknown date, but onto Felíx, because Chloe’s story is just too much.

Felíx has had to have been controlled since his birth, and only had freedom when visiting his cousin/brother Adrien, away from his abusive father, whom is another package I don’t want to deal with. Felíx most likely felt that he ONLY had to follow commands and just be the perfect little sentient being for his father’s image, which is why he wanted to switch places with Adrien so many times. Felíx seeing how Adrien had a bit more freedom than him most likely made him realise that he didn’t have to follow every order the amuk his father possessed, even though it was slowing ending the man. Felíx just wanted to be a real boy, because from a young age he realised that he wasn’t completely human. He didn’t ask to be part senti, if he could wish, he’d become a real person without the need of control, along with Adrien and Kagami, but would his page had been the same if he was born fully human?

Felíx started to see humans as monsters and the sentient beings a real too(because they were even if it was for a short time) because of how his father (and most likely grandparents) had treated him. Amillie had always loved and cherished both Felíx and Adrien because she knew deep down that they were more human than sentient.

Whatever my point was it’s lost, so I’ll conclude on this, Chloe was born from a narcissistic woman and pushover of a father whom also cheated his way to the top and therefor was a lost cause after the ‘Sentient Adrien’ theory popped up, and Felíx is a creation whom wanted to feel like he belonged and only wished to have born mainly human.

Nope still lost. Nvm I’m tired.

that time TA tweeted "you can behave like the worst garbage, all you need is a micro-good deed for all of a sudden, many will forgive everything." as an insult to people who saw good in Chloé and liked her as a character despite him saying over and over again that she's bad and a bully and yet he wants us to believe Felix is one of the "genuinely good guys" after all that he did in his debut ep and S4-5 like. eugh.

Well, you see, the difference between the two is that while Chloe betrayed Ladybug and stole all of her Miraculous, Felix betrayed Ladybug and... stole all of her Miraculous...

Okay, while Chloe used her Miraculous to endanger innocent lives the second she got it, Felix used his Miraculous to... endanger innocent lives the second he got it...

Give me a minute here. Ah, got it! While Chloe views anyone who isn't like her as expendable, Felix views anyone who isn't like him as... expendable...

Yeah, I got nothing that really justifies this.