#and while she now knows Marinette is Ladybug the realisation that they're the same person hasn't hit her yet

[seas-of-silver]

For the ask game: "Stop with these ridiculous lies Dupain-Cheng, I saw you detransform!"

‘Stop with these ridiculous lies, Dupain-Cheng, I saw you detransform!’

Chloé smirked when the girl finally stopped avoiding her.

‘I saw your kwami and I know you’re Ladybug, and there’s nothing-’

Her heart jumped to her throat when Dupain-Cheng whirled around and pinned her to the wall with a hand covering her mouth, no doubt smudging her designer lipstick. She would’ve complained about the outrageous offence if it wasn’t for the intense glare that struck her like lightning.

‘Can you just stop yelling that for one second?’ Dupain-Cheng hissed quietly, her voice filled with a ferocity Chloé couldn’t help but comply with. The baker girl scanned the space around her before saying, ‘Come with me.’

Chloé scoffed. ‘As if. You-’

‘Now.’

The order sent a zing up Chloé’s spine. The person in front of her wasn’t some inferior unimportant insect of a school girl, but a general, a fearless leader born by trials of fire and hardened by fighting on the frontline of countless battlefields. Chloé followed silently.

They walked out of the school and into a secluded alley where Dupain-Cheng became Ladybug before her very eyes, wrapped an arm around her and zipped her way across the city. They landed somewhere entirely unfamiliar to Chloé, some weird disgusting abandoned warehouse or something, and Chloé only had enough time to register Ladybug sending some sort of message on her Bug Phone before her back slammed into something metal.

‘Ow! What the hell, Dupain-Cheng?’ Chloe cried out, feeling the magical yo-yo wrapping around her, securing her to a metal post.

‘Do not call me that when I’m suited up, you know the rules, Chloé,’ Ladybug commanded, catching the end of her yo-yo in her free hand. Her glare hardened. ‘Though, you don’t really care for the rules, do you?’

Chloé seethed at the slight.

‘How dare you! I did care!’ Chloé bit back, pulling at the unrelenting restraints. ‘When I found Pollen, I kept her safe and tried to learn from her so I could help you! And when Hawk Moth came after me, I fought back!’

‘You sold out our entire team to Hawk Moth!’ Ladybug retorted.

‘YOU ABANDONED ME!’ Chloé screamed, hot tears streaming down her face. ‘You knew Hawk Moth was targeting me relentlessly! Day and night for weeks on end! I couldn’t let my guard down for even one second, otherwise I would be under his spell! It was like he knew me, Ladybug - like actually knew me! He targeted every weak spot he could find; it was only a matter of time before I would break! I’m only human, Ladybug!’

‘Oh? And what about after Miracle Queen?’ Ladybug asked evenly, not much more than a red blob through her tears. ‘You weren’t being attacked then.’

‘I was hurt. I was angry. How could I not be?’ Her voice warbled as she sobbed. ‘I followed you, believed in you, and you left me high and dry. I had akumas tracking my every move and attempting to possess me - I even had one latch onto me, but instead of submitting, I threw it off!’

Chloé could’ve sworn Ladybug looked shocked at that. She hoped she was.

‘I thought that after everything I did for you, that I would have proved myself worthy to you, that you could believe in me too,’ she continued, ‘but no. You dismissed me at every turn and kept telling me I would never be Queen Bee again. The least you could do was tell me why! But you didn’t! My own parents were akumatised, and you wouldn’t even let me save them! How could I be loyal to you any longer when you couldn’t even let me do that much?’

‘M’lady! I got your emergency message- uh… why is Chloé tied up and why are you both crying?’

Chloé tried to blink her tears away, to see if the newly-arrived Chat Noir was telling the truth.

‘I’m fine,’ Ladybug obviously lied, her face suspiciously wet, ‘but we have a problem. Chloé knows who I am now.’

‘What?’ Chat Noir asked, shocked. ‘How?’

‘Remember when I had to go recharge mid-fight earlier today?’ Ladybug asked and Chat Noir nodded. ‘Chloé, for some godforsaken reason-’

‘Oi!’

‘-had decided to hide in the very alley I was recharging in,’ Ladybug continued, as if she hadn’t heard Chloé. ‘I thought the alley was clear, but apparently not. Once the battle was over, Chloé hounded me about knowing my identity, and when I denied it or ignored her, she got louder to try and draw my attention, and I was concerned she was going to grab other people’s attention too, so I brought her here.’

‘Okay, but why the yo-yo?’ Chat Noir asked, and Ladybug scoffed.

‘Have you forgotten that she betrayed us and our team to Hawk Moth?’ she asked hotly. ‘Or that she’s been behind many of the recent akumatisations and attacks recently?’

‘No, I just thought it was a bit of overkill,’ that stupid cat said placatingly, which only riled Ladybug up further.

‘Overkill?’ she echoed venomously. ‘Our biggest betrayer now knows my identity! I’m compromised and she’s a massive liability! She’s been my own personal tormentor for years, and now she holds the key to our demise if she hands that information over to the magical terrorist she’s now buddy-buddies with!’

‘She bullied you too?’ Chat Noir asked, surprised, before shaking his head at Chloé with disapproval. ‘Oh, Chloé.’

Chloé hated how Chat Noir said that, especially because of how his disappointment hit her. Somehow, it felt almost as effective as Adrien talking to her like that.

‘As I said, I would never have joined Hawk Moth if you had just trusted me,’ Chloé retorted angrily.

‘Trusted you? Trusted you?’ Ladybug’s eyes were flaming with fury, her voice and posture ablaze with rage - Chloé would’ve taken cover if she could’ve. ‘Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to trust you? You, who had tormented me for years. You, who has orchestrated the traumas that have and will haunt me for the rest of my life. You, who has blatantly, unashamedly and relentlessly targeted me, my friends and my family just for your own personal satisfaction. Hell! I can’t even ask out the guy I like because of what you did to me with the last guy I liked! And you wanted me to trust you more than I already did?’

Well, when she worded it like that, Chloé found it hard to find a rebuttal.

‘You should be grateful that I even gave you the chance to be Queen Bee,’ Ladybug spat, ‘let alone trusted you enough for you to hold that title more than once. Did you know your biggest champions were Chat Noir and Adrien?’

Chat Noir looked a little abashed at the sudden mention of him, and confused by the mention of Adrien.

‘Whenever my belief that you were changing for the better was starting to wane, those two held strong in their belief in you, and helped me believe in you, too,’ Ladybug continued. ‘I even convinced the Guardian before me that you deserved another chance. It was near impossible for me to trust you, but I was getting there, slowly but surely. I’ll admit I made mistakes, some cost me and the team dearly, but even when I fail, I will continue to fight because it’s the right thing to do, and I would rather die than let Shadow Moth win.’

Chat Noir nodded solemnly in agreement, which made Chloé wonder if she was missing some understanding about the gravity of this magical war, or if these two were just wayyyy too intense about being superheroes.

‘Surely it’s not that dire, seriou-‘

‘Chlo, Shadow Moth winning means he could wipe out our current reality and rewrite it entirely,’ Chat Noir said, no trace of his trademark humour to be found (effectively cutting off her objection to him using Adrien’s nickname for her). ‘Life as we know it could cease to exist - we could cease to exist…permanently.’

Chloé gulped nervously. Were the stakes always that high?

‘This is not a game, it never has been,’ Ladybug said darkly. ‘So the question is: now that you know who I am, what do we do with you?’

[just-an-ari]

hi please rant to me about chloé's dead redemption arc I've been her fan since 2015 and I'm so 😠 😡 😤

I feel the need to preface this rant by saying "THIS IS NOT WHAT YALL ARE GONNA EXPECT" because while I want Chloe's redemption, I don't mind that they haven't done it yet (I will be utterly devastated if they don't give her one though).

I think the way her destroyed redemption arc was handled was horribly. They continued to build her character higher and higher and they brought her crashing back down for all the wrong reasons, and I don't understand Astruc's hate for Chloe. I don't mind that she didn't yet get one though because progression isn't linear and sometimes it really does take one person to turn your life around, or make it come crashing down. If there's one thing we learned from knowing Chloe as a character, it's that she needs attention (and has abandonment issues). She's not a bad person, just poorly taken care of by her parental figures and poorly treated by the producers. HOWEVER- it paved the way for Zoe to be introduced. (And Astruc is no longer making big decisions on the show so I'm hoping that influences things.) I know some don't like that Zoe was introduced as part of the cast, but Queen Bee having stayed as a prominent superhero of Paris would've altered the course of both of the following seasons pretty drastically in terms of guardianship of the miracle box (and so on so forth...) Zoe and Chloe are also two sides of the same coin. The big difference there was that Zoe understood that she shouldn't treat others that way because she was being treated horribly before hand, while Chloe was neglected and giving everything- making her entitled. What I'd like to imagine though, is that, Zoe telling Chloe that she loves her even if the whole world hates her? (ep. Queen Banana) that's some foreshadowing (not to mention that Chloe looked absolutely gobsmacked that those words were directed at her). In the same episode, Marinette is also optimistic- which- while doesn't do anyone much good in season five... may do some good in season 6. Chloe's end of the season (5) breakdown when she realises that she has nobody left on her side (to control, or to have as a friend) is devastating and might just make her reevaluate herself and change for the better (maybe even with Zoe's help) and mature. Chloe, in her short period of redemption did exceptionally well, which is why I don't doubt she'll do so much better after maturing. Because that's exactly what happened. Marinette/Ladybug dangled false hope in front of her (she's trying her best though) and pushed her into becoming a better version of herself without the self-reflection needed. She didn't mature in that time period. Also- they are just 14??? Some might not even yet be 14 because they might be born later on in the year. Chloe could have her redemption a lot further from now that it would make sense because they're still just children who are being manipulated by an adult (s?)- an ADULT(S) WHO KNOW how to manipulate her because she was friend's WITH HIS SON and know exactly what goes on in her life. All this to say, I love Chloe and I want her to be happy, but if they botch it or her sibling relationship, I will reign hell on this studio <3

[paganinpurple]

Okay, so there's a little interest so I'll share:

There's some kind of time travel akuma that sends Chat through a portal to future (3/4 years, so when they'd be 17/18).

He de-transforms and discovers that about a third of the population of Paris has also been thrown forward, almost simultaneously.

The only people in same position as him, that he knows personally, are Marinette and his father.

And as it turns out later, Ladybug.

Future Ladybug goes onto the news and vows to find a way to fix this but tells the public she needs time to harness some of her and future Chat's new abilities.

Future Paris has some kind of a "weirdness alert" fund these days and so adapts by allowing doubles to live with their older selves, with a stipend to help people afford to house someone extra.

Adrien and Marinette discover their future selves are dating !!

There's also no more akumas and Adrien's future father is...a lot more chill these days.

In fact, Classic Gabriel hates him and can't understand his attitude on giving Adrien so much freedom. Future Gabe uses some legal loophole to ensure he is technically Adrien's legal guardian during the time travel nonsense so regular Gabe can't go full on controlling on him while he's in the future.

Adrien is amazed. His father is so zen now. He's a freaking Buddhist because his mom used to be and apparently it helps him feel close to her?

She's still missing.

Future Gabe tried to convince his younger self to loosen up on his son. He explains how Gabe will lose him if he doesn't relax somewhat.

Gabe struggles to accept it right away but slowly starts to see sense because future him knows how to approach the debate (he knows how he thinks).

It's low key manipulative but it seems to be the only way to get through to him.

The dating reveal freaks Mari out and she doesn't know how to act around the Adriens. Older Adrien even flirts with her for a bit of light-hearted innocent banter! She gets all giggly and blushy around him soon enough, but can't look Classic Adrien in the eye for a while out of embarrassment.

Adrien is embarrassed too, but ultimately decides he doesn't mind. He finally admits to himself that Marinette is super cute and he's glad his future self has someone that amazing.

He's confused as well though. What about Ladybug??

Each of their older selves convince them separately to go on a patrol. Enough people were thrown forward that there's no identity issue.

They are then forced to watch older LadyNoir flirt.

Their confusion is immediate. Aren't they...dating other people??

The flirting is full of lines like, "I'm taken you know" and so on but is just a little too heavy to be written off as harmless banter.

Gabe soon realises he's been manipulated into not fighting for control of Adrien's life. He's furious.

Meanwhile, LadyNoir (x2!) hear something dangerous sounding and go off to investigate.

Turns out there's an akuma attack. It's been unheard of for years now. Which means Hawkmoth has come back in time too.

Future LadyNoir have kick ass new weapons and abilities and a few years more experience. Between that and having an extra team of LadyNoir, the akuma is gone in about 2 minutes.

Future Ladybug then explains that they have their own villian these days and insist they should all go home and rest in case she takes advantage and attacks while they're worn down and confused.

Future Gabriel storms into his isolation chamber design space (which used to be his lair) to confront his younger self.

Unsurprisingly, they have a huge argument. Future Gabe asks how he'd feel if Adrien got hurt because of him.

Gabriel scoffs. Hurt his son? Is this guy crazy? He does everything he can to make sure Adrien is safe and out of the way before he attacks the city each time.

Future Gabe leaves with a parting word about how it already happened once for him.

Gabriel is having sudden feelings and he doesn't like them. So he tries for denial instead.

Meanwhile the Chats go home.

Future Adrien is really angry. Apparently he thinks past Hawkmoth is the biggest asshole who ever lived.

Then he gets sad and starts talking to himself out loud —about how he wishes change had happened overnight because the wait for a good dad is gonna be hell on his younger self. He also vagues about how the slow burn hurts too much a second time round.

Classic Adrien is CONCERNED, but Future Adrien refuses to explain or say anything more about it so he has no idea what to say in response.

The younger kids definitely walk in on their older selves making out at least once.

It is HUMILIATING.

They refuse to make eye contact with each other for several hours and splitter whenever they need to talk or be in the same vicinity.

There's an eventual reveal where they accidentally catch Future LadyNoir kissing on a rooftop somewhere and their suspension of disbelief just nopes right out of there and it's suddenly so blindingly obvious.

Right after the reveal there's another akuma and it's taken down quickly. It was much more dangerous than usual though. Someone could have gotten very hurt.

Future Marinette suggests they all go to Master Fu's now where Future LadyNoir have been spending some time, working on a reversal spell to try to send them back.

It would effect everyone sent forward at once and this is great because Hawkmoth needs to go back to his own time before he tries teaming up with the villains here in the future.

As they wait for the spell to be ready to try, Adrien keeps staring at Marinette.

She's freaking out. Why is he staring? Is he surprised she's Ladybug? Disappointed? Happy? Hates her for keeping it from him? FALLING IN LOVE WITH HER? She doesn't know and he's just as confused on how she feels about him, but HE LOVES HER DAMMIT!!

They both silently contemplate how in love their counterparts seem and everything gets progressively more confused and piney as the spell needs a little longer to finish.

When they're ready to try the spell, something goes wrong and Marinette is nearly badly hurt.

Both Marinettes seem affected and are in a lot of temporary pain and very confused.

It seems to be affecting them via their earrings so Master Fu works out that the effects are negated by close proximity to the ring and it's wearer.

Future Adrien takes his Marinette back to his and says Classic Adrien should take Classic Marinette home and look after her there.

Future Tom and Sabine seem to know about their identities but admit they've only know for past year.

They insist Adrien stays the night so Marinette doesn't suffer till the spell effects wear off.

Marinette is embarrassed but kinda zombied from the accident so she doesn't argue about this, or complain about the obvious teasing that has Adrien beetroot-red in the face.

It quickly turns out that him sleeping on her chaise means he is too far from her in her bed to alleviate her pain.

Bed sharing! (So original lol)

They talk to try to alleviate nerves about being in such an intimate setting. They don't say much but a lot is implied in the words between them.

Eventually, kissing happens and there's a sort of unspoken agreement that they're a couple now.

Classic Gabriel sees the Future kids come home and is advised by Future Adrien that the two girls were hurt so Classic Adrien has gone to take care of Classic Marinette because he saw it happen and was super worried about her.

Gabe assumes it was the akuma that hurt them and then realises that Adrien must have been close by if he saw it and could have been hurt too.

He's having more feelings and he's fighting them less.

The pain from spell wears off overnight.

They all go back to find out why the spell backfired and Fu advises it was due to Future LadyNoir and Classic LadyNoir having a "different emotional synchronisation" from one another.

After tests he determines they are much more suited today.

It's obviously implied that means the two of them are some kind of thing now and theres lots of eyebrow wiggling as their older selves tease them.

As it turns out, starting a new spell will require a week to reconstitute the ingredients.

It means the younger kids get to explore being together for a little while before they get forced home for questions.

Finally, the big Future villain makes an appearance.

It's Mayura and she's strong and has powers similar to Hawkmoth.

She also creates an army of "worshippers" she can hypnotize for short periods of time into treating her like a God.

It's hard to beat them without hurting the civilians.

News cameras centre in on the two pairs of heroes standing on a rooftop strategizing.

Future Gabe approaches Classic Gabe to ask if he's seen the news.

He also "casually" asks if he knows where the two Adrien's are.

Future LadyNoir decide to bring in the whole team to fight and Classic LadyNoir meet Rena, Carapace and Queen B.

They're getting all excited over this cool new team when suddenly Hawkmoth shows up too.

Turns out there are no longer any akuma coz he joined the winning team. He now creates champions to help and uses his staff/sword for occasional close combat.

They are SHOOKETH.

But...the team seem okay with him. They even joke with him and all call him "dad" because he's clearly so much older than them.

Then the battle really begins and things get intense.

Chat gets caught out by Mayura when alone right after using his Cataclysm.

Her fan is razor sharp and she suddenly has it pointing right at his throat.

He can see all of his teammates nearby but no one has noticed because they are being overpowered and struggling.

Even Hawkmoth has moved in close to fight next to his Champion as the hoard of worshippers overwhelms them.

Mayura goes for the kill but is blocked by a staff/sword.

It's Hawkmoth. A second Hawkmoth.

He starts talking to Mayura as she attacks him, asking why she turned her back on her beliefs.

He talks as if he seems to know her and apparently, based on the things he's saying to her, she's a pacifist Buddhist?

Chat suddenly gets it.

Why the akuma upset older Adrien so much. Why his mom and Mayura both being Buddhists is a big deal. How Hawkmoth would know that.

Who Hawkmoth must be.

He's hurt and confused and can't move as his dad and his mother fight.

Hawkmoth spends the whole fight trying to convince her this isn't her and trying to get her to snap put of it.

It becomes apparent he's not getting through to her. He creates a champion to hold her off while he snaps Chat out of it to escape.

Future Hawkmoth appears and chastises him. He should have gotten details on the who, what, why and where before charging in head first.

Hawkmoth is sarcastic AF about coming to the aid and how no one has even said thank you yet.

Future Hawkmoth explains that Adrien's mum's Miraclous was corrupted when Gabriel tried leeching it's power back when he first found it.

He had been trying to use it as a locator to find her after she had been on a mission as the secret Peacock hero and gotten hurt.

Duusu had protected her and gotten lost in the process. Gabe found him without his wife.

The spell had done something though and she woke up and came home.

Adrien had been at school and so hadn't seen her.

Gabriel had been emotional and distracted and allowed her to take her Miraclous back despite not liking it.

It had corrupted her instantly and removed her ability to care. He'd tried to take it back so she'd gone on the offensive.

Until they get the Miraculous away from her, they can't reason with her or remind her of who she should be.

...And that's all I wrote. If anyone wanted to use any of this feel free, but I wouldn't mind a little credit note and a tag so I can have a look.

Would anyone be interested in most of a time travel bullet point fic I wrote way back before season 2 came out?

I had planned to keep the idea on the back burner until I finished up some other stuff, but too much changed in canon and I lost my motivation for it.

Still, I came up with a lot of stuff and don't want to just delete it completely so I wondered...would anyone wanna see it?