#cryptid!marinette

[starlightartemis]

reread my random maribat docs and I love that this is content exactly catered to me. im brilliant. I need to finish at least some of this stuff so that the brain worms at the corner of my skull don't start nibbling like crazy

[littleinkling64]

legitimately I would love to see more of Mari in fics where she's not so much physically beating up rogues in Gotham as much as waging psychological warfare, for example:

any time a building is destroyed or people are killed, Mari promptly un-destroys and un-kills them.

the terrifying part only comes if they try to talk to her and she proceeds to answer them similar to the contents of the tumblr mushroom post, e.g.:

Rogue of the week: but I--I just--

Marinette, turning her head at angles it was never meant to be turned at: do you think you can leave a mark in a way that matters? do you think your acts will be remembered any more than a bad dream is in the morning light? do you think your deeds will amount to more than a grain of sand on the beach of human history?

Rogue of the week, to any cop within grabbing distance: ᵖˡᵉᵃˢᵉ ᵃʳʳᵉˢᵗ ᵐᵉ ⁿᵒʷ ᵃⁿᵈ ᵍᵉᵗ ᵐᵉ ᵃʷᵃʸ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵗʰⁱˢ ʷᵒᵐᵃⁿ

I guess what I'm really saying is more cryptid/vaguely eldritch horror mari. the fact that she can bring people back with the miraculous cure is supremely scary if you actually think about it and I just think someone should take advantage of it, because Robins are terror in their own right, but mari?

she knows things that shouldn't be known.

[mochegato]

Devil of the Narrows

Marinette burst through the door, pulling a bubbling Adrien behind her.  “So smart.  So sexy.  That dress…” he paused to picture it and got lost for a few seconds.  “My heart can’t handle it.”

“Go on,” Marinette purred, “tell me more.”

Out of the fog filled abyss, a deep voice floated toward them.  “I would very much appreciate if you didn’t.”

Marinette let out a small scream and jumped away from the ledge just a bit further than Adrien who jumped then immediately lowered into a defensive position and glared at the edge, prepared for whatever came over the side.  When nothing happened for a few long seconds, they looked at each other apprehensively and back to the edge, not wanting to take their eyes off the threat for too long.

Finally, Adrien bobbed his head toward the door back to the building and safety, but Marinette scrunched her nose and removed her shoe, wielding it like a bat as she inched toward the edge of the building.  Adrien groaned quietly, dropping his head back in annoyance, but followed her grudgingly.  If she was going to try to threaten someone with a shoe, the least she could do was have a stiletto on, at the very least a platform shoe, something with a bit of weight or a sharp heel, not a flat.

When they got to the ledge, he held up three fingers, slowly lowering them one at a time until they were all dropped and they poked their heads over the edge, freezing at the sight.  Whatever they were expecting to see on the other side of the ledge, a man, clearly one of the vigilantes, sitting back against a rather macabre looking gargoyle and eating a burger was not it.

Alya would never forgive Marinette for not knowing which of the vigilantes it was.  He was obviously one of the bats, because there was a rather large red bat splayed across his broad, armored chest.  She just couldn’t tell which one it was. There were like twenty of them.  It was hard to keep track.

What she could tell was he was easily as large as her papa, which meant he would absolutely tower over her if he stood and could knock her out with one punch if he decided to get violent.  He was probably an amazing vigilante.  She couldn’t imagine anyone seeing him and wanting to continue whatever felonious activity they were committing rather than running away as quickly and cowardly as possible.

“What the f…” Adrien muttered.

“Who are you?  What are you doing up here?” Marinette called out before she could stop herself.

“How did you get up here?” Adrien added, more rhetorically than actually expecting an answer.

He gave them a flat look and held up a grappling gun in one hand and his burger in the other.  “Saving the day makes you hungry.”  He motioned toward her with his burger.  “Is that a shoe?  What were you planning on doing?  Cobbling me to death?”

Marinette slowly turned to her arm, seemingly as surprised as them to see it still upraised and ready to throw.  She looked away as she lowered her arm, refusing to make eye contact with anyone as she lowered it and put it back on her foot.  “I used what I had.  It’s not like we were expecting to have to defend ourselves while on top of a skyscraper,” she grumbled.  “We were expecting it to be creepy but deserted like it usually is.  We were not expecting any cryptids skulking on top of buildings.”

He ran his tongue over his canine and clicked it as he studied her.  “Didn't mean to disturb your make out session.  But please... do not ignore me and continue.  In fact, feel free to go somewhere else for that.  I’d prefer you not besmirch my favorite spot and desecrate my friend to your depraved behavior.”

“We were not coming up to make out!” Marinette exclaimed, her voice rising in pitch and volume.

“Besmirch?” Adrien asked.

The man gave her an exceptionally unimpressed look and kept eye contact as he took another bite.  “We weren't!” she insisted in utter affront.  “We were coming up to discuss the best approach to him asking out his crush, if you must know.”

He raised an eyebrow and looked between the two of them.  “I did not.”

"Interesting that you thought he did," Adrien noted, his mouth quirked up in an amused smirk.

Marinette gave him a wide-eyed, pointed look.  “Shut.  Up,” she hissed.

“But, just do it.”  The vigilante leaned forward, bringing his face into a sliver of light cast by the roof lights.  “You’re probably overthinking it.  It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture or choreographed.  The result is almost definitely going to be the same whether you do something over the top or simple and simple is almost always from the heart, which is usually appreciated.”

“Yes!” Marinette exclaimed.  She motioned toward the vigilante.  “See?  I tol…”  She turned back to him instantly, trying to make sure she was seeing what she thought she saw.  “Are you… are you wearing a scarf as a mask?”

He leaned back into the shadows.  “…Yeah.  Gotta protect the identity, sweetheart.”

She continued to stare at him incredulously for a few more moments.  “Who are you supposed to be?  Daredevil?”

He scrunched his nose and bobbed back in surprise.  “Who?”

Adrien leaned over the ledge and quirked his head to the side to check him out from a better angle.  “Charlie Cox was hotter.”

She quirked her head to the side in exact imitation of Adrien to study the vigilante.  After a moment she shook her head and glanced back at Adrien.  “That is objectively false… but very funny.”

The vigilante leaned forward again; face scrunched in annoyance.  “Who the f…”  He jumped up instantly when the skyline was rocked with an explosion.  “Get home,” he ordered firmly as he pulled out his grappling hook.  “And ask them out.  Life is short,” he added just before he jumped into the void.

><><><><><><><><>< 

The aftermath of the explosion kept the entire team busy for the next few days; chasing down leads, tracking henchmen, finally capturing the Penguin, returning him to Arkham again, and keeping a heavy watch on other criminals trying to take advantage of the distraction.  So it was a while before he was able to return to his spot, but as soon as he settled in, full meal in hand, a voice floated over to him.

“Daredevil!  You're back.”

He let out a long sigh and shook his head as though his lips weren’t already quirking up in amusement.  “This is my spot.”

There were a few moments of silence during which he was able to take his first bite before he looked up to meet her arched eyebrow.  “I've been coming up here every night for the past few weeks.  You’ve only been here once. This is not your spot.”

“I've been coming up here since I was 13,” he scoffed, cheeks puffed out from his bites of hotdog.  “This is my spot.”

“That seems like you abandoned it,” she shrugged.  “I found it, nurtured it.  So now it's my spot.”

He narrowed his eyes and pointed his hotdog at her.  “I was on a mission.  And I didn't abandon it.”  He motioned behind himself.  “It was being watched over until I returned.”

She hummed and examined him closely, eyes skimming him over from mask to boot before returning to meet his eyes with an accepting nod.  “Glad it turned out well...I guess.  It was a good thing, right?  Your mission helped not the jerks?”

He snorted a laugh, almost spitting out half his hotdog.  “Yes.  The mission was to stop some very bad guys.”  He leaned toward her with a smirk.  “And we succeeded.”

She smiled back but then let her gaze drift to the skyline, allowing them to sit with each other in silence, only the wind whispering between them for a while before she returned her attention to him.  When he’d finished with his first hotdog, a self-satisfied grin spread across his lips.  “You just going to keep staring at me?  I mean if you do, I understand.”

Instead of scoffing or stuttering like he had expected, she cocked her head to the side.  “I don’t understand,” she stated, motioning toward him.

He looked down at his armor and especially the bat emblem on his chest and nodded in understanding.  “Not everyone understands becoming a vigilante.”

“Oh no, that I understand,” she waved him off like the assumption was ridiculous.  “I mean,” she motioned toward him again, or more specifically, motioned toward his head, “it doesn’t make sense.  It’s contradictory vibes.  You have,” she motioned toward his suit.  “And then you have,” she motioned more pointedly toward his head.

“Like,” she indicated his suit, “high tech,” she indicated his scarf, “low tech.”  She pointed to his suit, “impeccably made,” his scarf, “I think the person was drunk,” his suit, “thoroughly thought out,” his scarf, “I honestly think you might have just grabbed that as you ran past some tourist.”

He opened and closed his mouth a few times until he finally huffed out a breath through his nose.  “I have a mask, you know.”

“You do?  Where is it?  Can I see it?” she demanded more than asked.  She was almost jumping in excitement as she looked all around him to try to catch a glimpse of it, only settling when he held it up for her to see.

“But as you can see, it doesn’t allow for things like eating or drinking.”  He looked at her from the side.  “Doesn’t really facilitate conversations either.”

She couldn’t stop the eyeroll she gave him.  “You’d hardly come up here if you wanted conversation.”

“Maybe I came up to converse with you.”  His smile was just on the right side of teasing, infectiously so.

Marinette shook her head with a brilliant grin.  “You said you’ve been coming here for years and a week ago was the only time you’ve seen me.”

“I’m an optimist,” he shrugged.

“You’re certainly something,” she chuckled as she looked away to collect herself.  When she looked back at him, her gaze was curious.  “I know why I come up here.  I work here and the roof is the only place to get away from people.  But why do you come here?  Why this spot, I mean.”

His grin shone even in the dim evening.  “Best gargoyle in the city right here,” he crowed, patting the gargoyle behind him.  “He kept me company many a night when I was a teen.  One of the best conversationalists I’ve ever met.”

She looked at him, amused by how proud he was of his gargoyle friend.  “So you did come up here for a conversation after all.  Should I leave so you two can get to it?”

He snickered and took a bite of his second hotdog.  “He is a marvelous conversation partner and listener,” he acknowledged.  “It might be hard for you to compete.”

“Not to ruin a friendship, but technically, that's a grotesque,” she corrected.  Her eyes were narrowed, but her voice teasing.   His eyes shot to her, lips pinched and brow scrunched in disapproval.  "Gargoyles have waterspouts.  That's where they got their name," she elucidated, adding in a gurgling sound to solidify her point.  "No waterspout means it's a grotesque.  Just a statue meant to look creepy."

He turned to look at the grotesque like it had personally betrayed him before returning attention to her.  “Expert huh?  That what you do?  Architecture?”  His voice was slightly grousey but still polite.

“No,” she acknowledged, “not an architect.”

He harumphed and finished the rest of his second hotdog in one bite.  “Not an expert then.  I’ll keep my faith in my friend.”

“Kind of an expert,” she shrugged as she tried to cover her snort at his boyish pout.  “From Paris so I know a thing or two about gargoyles and grotesques.”

He took a large bite of fries, chewing it noisily while shooting her a heatless glare.  “What do you do then?” he asked when he’d finally swallowed.  “You said you work here, yeah?”

“Graphic design.  I just started at an office on the 40th floor a few months ago,” she answered with a smile.

“Ahh, a tortured artist,” he nodded knowingly.

She gasped dramatically.  “I'm not tortured.”

“Pixie Pop, you chose to live in Gotham,” he pointed out, his voice and look both equally flat.  “You're tortured.”

“You run around in a poorly tied scarf and an attitude,” she groused.  “You're tortured.”

“Never said I wasn't,” he shrugged completely unbothered as he took a long drink of his soda.

They stayed in a comfortable silence for a while, the wind whistling quietly between them until Marinette finally broke the silence.  “You lied.  He’s a terrible conversationalist.  Hasn’t contributed at all.”

His snicker at her comment quickly become a full blown laugh, head thrown back, eyes closed and all making him miss her amused, contented smile at his reaction.  When he finally looked back at her, the portion of his face that was visible was bright.  “With all your criticisms of my mask, I almost expected you to say fashion designer.”

Her smile strained slightly and her eyes slid from his to the horizon.  “Once upon a time, another lifetime ago,” she answered flippantly.

He watched her, wanting desperately to get the story that was hiding there, but held himself back.  He was just going to have to keep visiting her until he felt like they knew each other well enough to ask her.  But until then, he needed a distraction.  “How's it going with blondie?  He man up and ask his crush out?”

All the light returned to her face.  Her lips eased into an excited smile.  “He did!  They're going on a date tonight!  You should have seen it.  He was freaking out after she said yes.  It's adorable.  But he took your advice, well, our advice because I told him the same thing, but he actually listened when you said it, to just ask her out and not overthink it.  Overthinking is my job.  His job is to look cute.  He keeps forgetting that.”

“Does he ever get upset you’re trying to take his job?” he asked before his brain caught up with his mouth.

“Huh?”

“Nothing,” he answered quickly, now wishing he still had one of his hotdogs he could shove in his mouth.

She scrunched her nose and shook her head.  “I couldn’t do his job, any of the jobs he’s done.  I love kids but I don’t think I could handle an entire classroom of them, and I definitely wouldn’t have been a good model.”

“Ohhh.  He was actually a…” he stopped mid-word and his hand flew to his ear.  “Copy.  I’ll get on it.  I’m only a few blocks away.”  He stood and shot her a two-finger salute, “Have a good night, Pixie Pop.”

She nodded.  “Be safe, Daredevil.”

He glared back at her over his shoulder, lips pursed into a thin line and maintained eye contact as he put his full face mask on with a harumph.  “You too, Pixie Pop.”

><><><><><><><><>< 

It didn’t take her long to do the exact opposite.  Less than two hours, in fact.  But it wasn’t her fault.  It was just Gotham.  It was bound to happen eventually.  And for Marinette, the inevitable happened on her walk home from work that night.

And, okay, maybe it was her fault a little bit, because she should have known better than to walk home so late at night, especially all alone.  But the time with Red Hood had pushed back her work until she had to stay late to get to where she needed to be on the project.  But in her defense, most muggers could see she didn’t have any money and left her alone.  This one clearly wasn’t as bright as the others.

“We’re going to do this quick and easy, right, darling,” the man jeered.  His knife glinted in the streetlight.

It wasn’t nearly as scary as he thought it was and she didn’t have any money on her anyway, so this was really a wasted effort on all sides.  “It would have been quicker if you hadn’t started,” she droned.  “Do I look like I have money?”

Her skin crawled at the leering, lingering looks he was giving her.  “I can take it out in other ways.”

She wrinkled her nose and stepped back.  “Ew.  No.”

“It wasn’t a question.”  There was a menacing curve to his lips as he slowly stalked toward her.

“And yet you got your answer,” a deep, chilling voice crept from the shadows.

The man whipped around; knife poised to attack right up until he saw who stepped out.  As soon as the light hit Red Hood’s mask, the mugger held his hands up and backed away slowly.  “Hey man, nothing happened.  No need to…”

He tried to dart away mid-word but ended up running head first into Nightwing’s chest.  “There’s definitely a need to,” Nightwing responded smugly.  He grabbed the mugger by the jacket and tied him up quickly, stepping purposefully between Red Hood and the mugger.  “I’ll take him in,” he said pointedly, mistaking Hood’s anger for his general hatred toward anyone who preyed on women rather than fury over the mugger having threatened this particular woman.

“You make sure the civilian gets home safe.”  He didn’t bother to wait for Hood’s acknowledgement before he nodded toward Marinette and shoved the mugger toward the other end of the street.  “Have a good night, ma’am.”

“Thank you!” she called after him, but she kept her eyes on Red Hood as she spoke.  She continued to watch him as he examined her intently, his eyes running over her, lifting her arms to verify she wasn’t hiding anything.  “I’m okay,” she promised quietly.

After a few more moments of examination, he finally released her arms and motioned for her to lead, only moving when she started walking.  She snuck a peek at him from the corner of her eye until she couldn’t take the silence anymore.  It wasn’t a comfortable silence.  He was walking far too stiffly.  “Thank you, Daredevil.”

She could hear him let out a long, tortured breath before shaking his head.  But her comment had the desired effect.  His whole body relaxed and eased into a lighter gait.  “Not daredevil.”  He might have been trying for stern but didn’t make it.

“Debatable,” she shrugged, shooting him an easy smile.

He stopped walking to turn towards her and cross his arms over his chest, almost obscuring his red bat.  “It is not.  And you can thank me by calling me by my name.”

“Oh, please don’t give me your real name,” she sighed in mock exasperation.

“I meant ‘Red Hood’.”

“Red Hood…” she repeated slowly like she was feeling how the name sounded on her tongue.

“Red Hood,” he confirmed.

She quirked her head back and forth a few times examining his upper body.  “You call that a hood?  Shouldn’t it be like Red Mask or Red Scarf?”

“No, not like…” he flustered.  “Like Robin Hood.”

A dangerously excited smile spread on her lips.  “Please tell me you also have one of those hats, the,” she motioned vaguely around her head, “bycocket hats he supposedly wore.  He wouldn’t have, by the way.  That was just a Hollywood costume designer’s idea.”

He snorted and started walking again, almost chuckling as she fell into step beside him but only coming up to his shoulder.  “Sorry to break your heart but no.”

She pouted and slumped down.  “That’s unfortunate.”

“But,” he leaned toward her and she could feel the smile hidden beneath his mask, “my best friend did.”

She gasped and perked back up, eyes wide in excitement.  “No!”

“Yep.”

She was almost bouncing.  “Show me!”

He chuckled and shook his head.  “Let’s get you home and you can look it up yourself.  His name is Arsenal, but at the time he was called Speedy.”  They walked next to each other quietly for a full block, Marinette happily swinging her arms and shooting him covert looks every few seconds, Hood, unable to see her in his periphery due to the mask, looking over at her almost as frequently, before Marinette looked a bit too hard and ended up tripping.  Hood snorted at the show of clumsiness but instantly reached out to keep her from falling, not letting go until he could verify her shoes were firmly on the ground.  “So, what happened back there?��

She looked up at him, confusion clear on her face.  He was a vigilante in Gotham, surely an attempted mugging wasn’t an unfamiliar sight.  And his tone was far too teasing for it to be a straightforward question.  “Hmm?”

He nodded toward her feet.  “The guy came at you and yet both of your shoes are firmly on your feet.  What?  Are sneakers not as good weapons as flats?”

She barked out a laugh so loud the sound echoed off the buildings around them.  “You’ve seen Gotham streets.”  She gave a dramatic shiver.  “Rather be mugged than take off my shoes.”

Hood chuckled and shook his head.  “Fair.”

They continued walking again, the comfortable silence descending upon them for a few more steps until her racing heart demanded she speak.  “You know, usually, I get a date before someone walks me home.”

“Usually, you aren’t getting walked home by a vigilante,” he pointed out smugly but all his confidence dropped when Marinette snorted.  “What was that for?”

“Happens more often than you would think,” she snarked back.  His steps faltered slightly, and he whipped his questioning eyes to her.  “Heroes though,” she added as though lost in thought and turning to face him, though she gazed into space as she spoke, “not vigilantes, and back in Paris when Paris had heroes. They at least knew my name though.”

He scoffed.  “I know your name.”  She could feel his grin under his mask.  “Pixie Pop.”

She groaned and swung ahead of him.  “That’s what you’re sticking with, huh?”

“Unless you can give me something better,” he shrugged.

“Marinette.  My name is Marinette,” she replied.

“Marinette,” he repeated, almost reverently.  “Nice to meet you, Marinette.”

She had to stop walking before her knees gave out on her.  She somehow managed to turn to face him, eyes wide at that one word and the devotion he was able to convey even through the voice changer.  It took quite a few moments before she was able to recover enough to note where she was.  “Oh, this is me.”

She walked up the first few steps to her apartment building, knees still shaking slightly, but suddenly turned back toward Red Hood before he could step up, leaving them on the same level, which she took advantage of to lean forward and kiss him on the cheek of his mask.  “I can’t believe I miss the scarf,” she grumbled playfully as she looked up at him through her lashes.  “Thank you for walking me home.”

He nodded a bit dazed.  “Right, of course,” he agreed breathlessly.  He cleared his throat lightly and shook out his shoulders, continuing on with a lot more confidence.  “Wouldn’t be much of a vigilante if I let the fair citizens of Gotham get hurt.”

She hummed and rolled her eyes.  “Just business, huh?”

She was clearly being playful, but she was now leaning away from him like she was unsure, and he couldn’t have that.  He leaned into her space to whisper, “Maybe a bit more.”

She grinned.  “See you tomorrow at the grotesque?”

“I will never call him that…” he groused playfully for just a moment before brushing a strand of hair behind her shoulder, fingers brushing along her shoulder and upper arm before falling back by his side. “But yes.  It’s a date.  I’ll bring something to eat.”

“I’ll bring dessert and some wine,” she rasped, only able to form the words after swallowing thickly.

“Can’t wait,” he nodded and forced himself to take a step back.  “Have a good night, Marinette.”  He kept looking at her for another few moments before taking another step back and grappling away.

“Have a good night, Red Hood,” she whispered into the empty night.  She then twirled around with a squeal.  She had a dessert to overthink.  She was definitely going to have to have a group conversation to plan the perfect dessert and wine combination for a date with a vigilante.

Inspired by this image. Not even sure where the person got it from

[gollageek]

Danny Fenton: Jake, be honest with me. Did you eat my burrito?

Jake Long: No, after the ecto pizza, I'm really careful not to eat any food you bring into the base.

Danny: Hm, well Ben was with me all morning checking to see if the void seal was holding, and Jenny doesn't eat food.

Jake: Have you tried Randy or Zak?

Danny: Randy's off trying to find that legendary sword, and Zak is with his family testing infected cryptids.

Jake: Marinette or maybe Rex?

Danny: Ladybug and Chat are on a peace mission overseas since Tuesday with the Xiaolin Monks, and Rex has been jumping worlds, chasing down infected Aku nanoids all week.

Danny: I'd blame Jimmy, Timmy, Tak, Manny or Spongebob, but they've also had ecto sickness like you did.

Jake: Do you think it was Kim?

Danny:... No! She wouldn't!

Kim Possible: * Walks into the room, glares at Danny, sticks the whole burrito in her mouth, swallows and leaves.*

Jake: WHAT did you DO?

Danny: I DONT KNOW!!!

Jake and Danny:

[confidentmaribug]

MLB really missed out on the humor factor of portraying ladybug and chat noir as celebrities. Marinette knows what’s happening like all the time and keeps knowing too much and everyone is baffled by it. Imagine Superman saving you and he knows a weirdly personal amount of information. Conspiracies that ladybug and chat noir are all knowing cryptids start to be spread.

[msweebyness]

DuPont School for Monstrous Youths- The Sad Stuff

Ya girl was in an angsty mood, so here's some stuff to hit you in the feels! @artzychic27 @imsparky2002

Voodoo dolls have a long history of being enslaved by humans. Entire families would fall under the control of dark hoodoo mystics, and that was the case for Marinette's family. Tom and Sabine managed to get their daughter out when she was eight or so (with help from Bustier and Mendeliev), but they remain in captivity, which haunts Marinette.

Because Ondine's father was saltwater and her mother freshwater, they're essentially shunned not only by their family (barring her maternal grandparents), but by most of their species as a whole. They live in their isolated lagoon because they weren't welcome anywhere else. Most other aquatic monsters immediately recognize Ondine as being mixed (she has lighter toned skin and upward slanted gills, traits of freshwater monsters, but sharp teeth and fins on her arms and legs, which are saltwater features.) and treat her like garbage.

Dragons are actually incredibly rare as of the last few centuries due to the rise of hunting them for their scales and horns. The Tsurugi clan are actually one of the few remaining prominent families, but even their numbers have severely dwindled. Kagami's mother was blinded and her father killed in an attack when she was very young.

Max's creator/father, Markov, mysteriously vanished without a trace around four years ago. Max has scoured every inch of their home and lab trying to find some sort of lead, but has found nothing. He continues to search because he knows his father wouldn't have just abandoned him.

When Ivan was ten years old, his village in the mountains was attacked by a cryptid hunting brigade. His mother managed to get him and Sasha to safety, but his father was killed in the attack trying to give his family time to get away. He still wakes up crying every once in a while.

Simon's parents and the majority of his family deemed him 'worthless' because he was such a 'runt' for their kind. He was essentially disowned and cast out for being an 'embarrassment'. Thankfully, his aunt was having none of that.

Jean possesses a very rare and deadly ability for phantoms, which is to sing a cursed note that can stop the heart and shatter the mind, resulting in instant, painful death. Many see them as a threat because of this, and it's the reason his father took him away from his mother. She wanted to use them as a weapon against humans.

Nathaniel's dad died when a band of humans set fire to the chapel the Kurtzbergs had called home, wanting to rid it of 'demons'. He was smashed to rubble trying to get his son to safety.

Anthony has been persecuted his entire life for being a daemon, and supposedly 'evil'. He has scars from holy water being thrown at him, people have set fire to his family's home, and he constantly gets told to "GO BACK TO HELL!"

Yeah, Ismael’s mom never wanted a kitten and threw both him and his dad out when Fazli refused to “get rid of” their child.

Aurore’s planet was consumed by a civil war which was why her family had to flee to Earth. Her family was a prestigious clan with HUGE targets on their backs, and had to go to a planet basically off the records for their own safety.

Leave your thoughts in the comments and reblogs!

[artzychic27]

Got any headcanons for the kids from the Monster School?

Nathaniel CAN’T swim. The moment he sets foot in the water, he sinks to the bottom. So, he’s not exactly the life of the party at pool parties

Nino absolutely hates fire. “Fire bad!”

Lacey’s fire can turn different colors when she comes into contact with certain chemicals

Only Denise can tell when Simon is winking

Chloé and Zoé get to school by sandstorm, and it gets EVERYWHERE

Marinette is always getting caught in her sewing machine. She sometimes confuses her skin for the fabric she’s sewing with

Alya and Jean sweat ectoplasm

Nathaniel is the only one unaffected by Alix’s gorgon powers since he’s already made of stone

Adrien is always the first one to find his friends body parts and reattaches them so many times, that he can reassemble Nino and Rose without looking

Marc is easily distracted by bright lights. Seriously, keep him away from bug zappers

Cosette actually likes the color red

Kim has nineteen younger brothers and one sister. And his sister is the only one who listens to him

If he feels the need to retaliate, he will scoot across your carpet

Ismael HATES cucumbers. They’re just… There.

Ivan and Denise are related

Mylène likes to braid flowers into her friends hair… Or fur

Aurore has actually met aliens that look like the ones in 50s sci-fi movies, and they are so sweet

Mireille sometimes gets sucked into drains. Don’t worry, she figures her way out… Eventually

While Max prefers his steam powered tech, he’s willing to learn about modern day appliances

Reshma, obviously, gives the best hugs. Oh, and she likes to hang out on the ceiling

Ondine is actually best friends with a kraken, and the rumors are false, because he’s a sweetheart. Kim’s totally not jealous

Sabrina knows all of the secret passageways around school to get to classes quickly. And if there’s not enough time, Alix gives her a ride on her skates

Nose rings are sort of a status symbol in Minotaur culture, and Cosette wears bejeweled rings proudly

Kim and Ismael are actually good friends

Rose knows the skeleton in the mad science lab

Luka and Juleka commission Nathaniel to sketch their portraits in place of selfies

They also don’t like the taste of human blood, so they drink a substitute; you can hardly tell the difference

Lacey is her friends’ go-to when they get too cold, and the same goes for Ivan when his friends get too hot

Denise, Ivan, and Marc are all Cryptid Kids and just wanna clear up a few things

Marc: No, I did not cause that bridge in Virginia to collapse! And those people were obviously color blind, because my eyes are green, not red. And as for me chasing them? I was warning them about their broken taillight.

Denise: Huh? Oh, yeah, that was me in the photo. Yeah, I was just walking through the woods, minding my own business, and this guy just whips out his camera, and I’m like, “Uh, hi?” Then he just takes off. Uh, rude.

Ivan: Some fancy guys found my footprints in the snow. For your information, my shoes were killing me, so I took them off, creating the footprints.

Ismael cannot be let near catnip. He gets all whacked out and starts running around like a lunatic. It takes forever to catch him

Ismael: *Laughing and running around while his friends try to catch him*

Aurore: Ismael! Get your butt back here!

Reshma: *Shoots webs at him, but he just keeps dodging* How can he be so good at this while high?!

Kim barely gets a wink of sleep becuase his siblings keep him up at night

Simon is of some nobility. His family’s got a castle in Ireland he visits every summer. He also visits Greece to meet up with some distant relatives

Nathaniel can often be found on the school roof with the other gargoyles when he doesn’t have classes. They either tease him about Marc, give him some good relationship advice, or they spend their time scoping out anyone who looks suspicious

Ondine sometimes falls asleep in the pool

Jean’s quite fond of Elvis

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

What a drag!

Summary: Mari taking out the trash. The trash in question is Gabriel Agreste.

Marinette had never expected a dead body to be so heavy.

She hissed the few curses she knew between pants as she dragged it through back alley after back alley. All she needed to do was carry him to the pier and throw him off it.

There were two major problems with her plan, though:

She was an 11-year-old trying to drag the corpse of a fully grown man around, and the pier was still several blocks away.

Sweat dripped down her nose, catching in the fabric of her polka-dotted mask. The mask was decidedly not making it easier to breathe, but she didn’t have much of an option. Even if her hair had been dyed blue recently, making her easy to identify, that was something she could change if need be. If someone saw her face, though, she would be doomed.

Her shoulders ached as she lugged the trash bag filled to bursting with Gabriel Agreste down another alley. 'Luckily', his weight forced her to shuffle, which kicked away all of the abandoned shards of glass and needles on the ground before they could rip the trash bag and make things a million times harder.

Not that that ended up mattering in the end, though.

Her back hit something hard, but she knew that she shouldn’t have reached a wall yet.

Slowly, as if she thought that she might be able to bore the local cryptid into leaving, she tipped her head back to see who – or what – she had run into.

Her eyes met the white lenses of a bat mask.

He looked unimpressed. Not that this was strange, from what Marinette had heard the man was known for always being unimpressed with anything and everything.

“Taking out the trash?” he said. His voice had been altered by a voice changer, making it artificially deep, and this only made him seem more like he was going to beat her into a bloody pulp.

She glanced down at the trash bag. A few of Gabriel’s fingers had broken through the plastic, sticking out at an awkward angle. There was a very visible imprint of the man’s face pressed against the side.

Yeah, no, there was no way that Batman didn’t know.

For just half a second, she considered swinging the bag around and hitting Batman with it, but she didn’t think she would be able to do it faster than he could move out of the way. Even if she could manage it, it was more likely that the bag, which was already on its last legs, would snap, and Gabriel’s corpse would end up splatting on the ground, right out in the open where everyone could see.

So, she sent her brightest smile, making sure it was wide enough for the skin around her eyes to crinkle at the edges.

“Yep!” She turned to face him, still smiling. She thrust the bag into Batman’s hands. “Mind helping me out a little?”

And, in that moment where the man was shocked by the sheer audacity of her play, his lips parted in slight surprise... she booked it.

Of course, Batman wasn’t one that was easily outsmarted, especially by children, and a grappling hook was quick to loop itself around her waist and drag her right back to the man.

She shrieked as a hand grabbed her by the back of the shirt, twisting around desperately to try and scratch and kick and bite at Batman, but her blows glanced right off of the kevlar of his armor, and she knew it was useless. Tears built in the corners of her eyes. Frustrated, maybe, or just plain scared. She was doing nothing outside of tiring herself out. But she couldn’t bring herself to stop. Because stopping meant losing, and losing meant losing everything.

But she couldn’t do anything, and it became difficult to even keep her head up. The night's ‘shenanigans’ caught up to her all at once, and she was so tired.

She was allowed to fall the last foot to the ground. She just barely stopped herself from face-planting on the asphalt, her arms trembling where they held her up.

“Fuck you,” she hissed. She swallowed back bile. She didn’t know that many swears, but god would she make sure to use all of the ones she did know. “You show up now? Asshole.”

His face remained impassive.

“Asshole,” she repeated, finally willing herself to shift to a more normal sitting position, if only so she would be able to send Batman her harshest glare. “I know you can’t be everywhere, or whatever, it’s fine. I did this because I know you can’t save everyone. But why show your ugly mask now?”

Maybe if she’d waited one more day, then maybe she wouldn’t have had to sneak into the high school division of Gotham Academy for a five-finger discount on some acid. Maybe Gabriel could have been dealt with by the police, and she wouldn’t have to risk everything for her friend.

She would do it all again, in a heartbeat, don’t get her wrong. She’d known the risks when she’d offered Adrien’s dad that cupcake with a particularly unique filling.

But it was hard to come to terms with the fact that it might not have been necessary at all.

Her vision blurred with tears. “Fuck you,” she said, softly, with feeling.

He looked at her for just a few moments more.

And then he sighed, quietly, resignedly. “Go home.”

Her head jerked up to look at him, her eyes wide. “What?”

“Go. Home.” Batman gave her a smile. It was wobbly, as if his mouth muscles were unused to moving, but definitely there. “I will monitor you to make sure this doesn’t become a thing for you, of course… but I’ll deal with this one for you.”

She looked at him for just a moment more, wondering if it was a trick.

But he seemed genuine.

Slowly, shakily, she rose to her feet.

She took a few cautious steps back, almost daring him to take it back, still watching him.

[wickedcriminal]

10 CHARACTERS / 10 FANDOMS / 10 TAGS

tagged by @wingsofescape!!

Edward Elric - Fullmetal Alchemist

Link - The Legend of Zelda

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third- How to Train Your Dragon BOOKS 📕

Toothless - How to Train Your Dragon MOVIES 🎬

Four - Linked Universe

Percy Jackson - Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Toph- Avatar the Last Airbender

Marinette Dupain-Cheng - Miraculous Ladybug

Papyrus - Undertale

12th Doctor - Doctor Who

No pressure tags!!

@anhttydbookfan @orangeblobby @jusiri @2-late-2-the-party @godmodebeginswithlesbians @pineapple-cheese-bread @cryptids-and-muses @amamillalatortilla @melonsap @imbeccablee

[princess-of-the-corner]

Here's what I have so far for the Gryphonverse timeline (note: no set year)-

~12 Years Ago- Monsters Inc.

10 Years Ago- Lilo & Stitch (film events); Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

9 Years Ago- Fall of Radiant Garden; Kairi appears on Kauai

5 Summers Ago- Ben 10 (original series events)

2 Years Ago- The Secret Scientists, led by Zak Saturday, battle V.V. Argost with armies of cryptids, resulting in Argost's death

Year A February-March- Emilie Agreste succumbs to her Peacock-inflicted illness, and Gabriel places her near-dead body in stasis, letting everyone believe she disappeared and is presumed dead

Year A Summer- Ben and Lilo meet when rescuing Experiments from traffickers, and start dating; Phoenix Wright passes the bar exam and makes his courtroom debut in defending Larry Butz for murder; Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Year A Late August- The Heartless invade Kauai consume the Keyhole, smothering it and nearby islands in darkness; Sora, Riku and Kairi are lost in the Disnix Dimension while most of Lilo's friends and family are seemingly killed; Chloé helps Adrien forge papers to enroll him into public collège

Year A September- Lilo transfers to Bellwood High, and she and her friends discover evidence of a secret invasion of Earth; Marinette and Adrien are given Miraculouses to combat Gabriel's dawning campaign as Hawk Moth; Mia Fey is murdered, Phoenix takes Maya Fey on as his assistant, and Phoenix and Mia's spirit bring Redd White to justice

Year A December- Miles Edgeworth is framed for Robert Hammond's murder, and Phoenix both clears him of the charge and exposes Manfred von Karma as the one who murdered Miles' father; Ladybug mistakenly gets into a fight with Santa Claus

Year B January- Marinette meets Master Fu and begins training under him; Gabriel concocts an alibi to throw off suspicion to him being Hawk Moth

Year B June- Miraculous Ladybug- Shanghai Special; On Anne's birthday, she, Sasha and Marcy are transported to Amphibia by the Calamity Box; Luz enters the Boiling Isles and becomes Eda's protégé; Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters

Year B August- Luz blows up the Portal Door to keep Belos from using it, destroying her way home

Year B September- Amphibia Season 1 Finale-Season 2 Premiere; Jalil Kubdel leaves for college at Gressenheller University in London

Year B November- King Andrias betrays the heroes in Amphibia, Anne awakens her Calamity powers, Marcy is gravely wounded, and Anne and the Plantars are sent to Earth where they stay with Anne's parents

Year B December- Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse

Year C January- Anne and the Plantars return to Amphibia and join the Wartwood Resistance; through Mr. X's contacts, the Plumbers learn from the Boonchuys about the coming invasion

Year C February- Anne, Sasha, and the Plantars thwart the Frogvasion and rescue Marcy, and have their Calamity powers returned to them so they can jump between Earth and Amphibia whenever they want

Year C Spring- Ladybug and Chat Noir discover Shadow Moth's identity and vice versa, and reveal the villain's identity to the city; Team Miraculous defeats Shadow Moth and reclaims both of his Miraculouses

Year C September- The Miracuclass starts their first year of lycée, while Pain and Tears insert themselves into Marinette's classroom

Year C December- Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright; around the same time, Furio Tigre frames Maggey Byrde for murder and impersonates Phoenix to botch her defense

Year D February- Ace Attorney Case 3-5: Bridge to the Turnabout; Professor Layton and the Unwound Future; Team Miraculous jumps over to London to help Professor Layton stop Clive's giant attack robot

There's still a lot that I don't have covered yet, including lining up other entire series

That's a lot but hell yeah

[abyssal-ali]

Stars Around My Scars

Part 1

Pairing: Jasonette

Rating: T

Word Count: ~5.7 k

I don't believe there are any warnings, but if you think I should add one, let me know!

Some things may make more sense if you read my (extended) Author's Note here.

Cardigan AU Masterlist here.

Everyone say thank you to my wonderful betas @sarcasticbambi and @boldlyanxious <3<3<3

Any errors are mine, and please don't hesitate to point them out (but please be nice, I'm really proud of this AU).

Requested by @mochegato from my discord poll. I hope you like it! (I promise the fluff and comfort is coming <3 )

You drew Stars Around my Scars

Marinette rushed from her last class to her locker.

The teeming crowds of students milled around the suddenly full hallways, pulling her closer to her goal. Her boyfriend often left little notes or clues to gifts, and it always brightened her day to find a loving surprise. How he knew her locker code, she didn't know, but brushed it off (she'd certainly acquired dubious skills for stupider reasons than giving her SO a gift).

There was nothing there today, but when she slammed it shut she turned and walked into her boyfriend.

“Hey, Pixie. Ready to go?”

She groaned. “Nooo. I have to work on my Lit essay.”

“I can help; whatever you need.”

He grabbed her hand and dragged her to the quiet library, seemingly empty except for the rows of books and the librarian, Ms. Blue. She nodded familiarly at them and went back to her computer as they disappeared deeper into the library's abyss. Finally, they stopped at a table and Marinette dumped her things on its surface.

“Okay, let's do this.”

About an hour after they began working on their homework, Jason got up to find a book for references. A few minutes later, Marinette noticed he still hadn't returned, so she decided to stretch her legs and go look for him. After scouring several rows, she finally heard a thump behind her. The trail of thumps led her to a corner of the library, where Jason was waiting with a smug grin.

“You did miss me.”

“Of course.” She rolled her eyes. “I have to keep a very close eye on you when we're in a library or bookstore. I couldn't wait too long or I mayn't have seen you ever again. Like that time I lost you at the B&N.”

“Mayn't?”

She punched his (stupidly solid) arm. “It's an uncommon contraction that should be used more.”

“I'll tell the world to start, then. We should make a prank on Twitter.”

“Oui, good idea! No one will know it's us trolling them, and you can share your bizarre stories and explain your unusual skills.”

“What bizarre stories?” He followed her back to their table, setting up a new Twitter account on his way.

“Um, my ex-girlfriend possessed my other ex, for one. That time you met a civil, agreeable demon, for two...you are a mysterious person, Jason Todd.”

“Thank you, I try to be as cryptid-like as possible. What shall we name our crack account?”

“Um...our names combined make “Janette”; Janette can be the mod. For the handle, how about...Janette@pothamcrack. Yeah. And before you ask, Paris + Gotham equals Potham.”

“Great. Here, our first official tweet. Janette@pothamcrack says: 'Mayn't' is an underused contraction. Use it more, cowards'.”

“Perfect. Can you make everyone we know that's verified follow us so more people are subjected to our crack and insanity?”

•○•○•○•

Jason knocked on Marinette's door. There was a brief flurry of activity, then she opened it enough to stick her head out.

“Heyyy, Jay. You're early!”

“Is that such a bad thing?” he asked, faux-offended.

“No, of course not...come in. I just gotta...”

“Why is there blood on your sweatshirt? Are you hurt?”

Jason carefully circled her, gingerly trailing his hands over her body to check her reactions. When he reached her lower left ribs, she only winced once, very quickly, but he caught her reaction and yanked her Gotham Knights sweatshirt up a couple inches. Her hand grabbed his wrist tightly, preventing him from moving.

“Oh, sorry, Pix. I...should've asked first.” He felt quite remorseful, knowing she hated showing skin, though he didn't know the reason why. But if she was hurt and hiding it, and bleeding...“How badly are you hurt, Pix? Do you need me to take you to the clinic?”

Marinette looked down. “I'm fine, it's just a scratch,” she mumbled quietly. "I was just gonna change, you don't need to worry.”

Now Jason was really concerned. Why was she hiding it? If it really wasn't bad, she'd show him as proof, like that time he thought she chopped her fingers off (in hindsight he may have panicked a bit, but she was his girlfriend and he was terrified of something hurting her) and she immediately showed him the barely-visible nick on her finger.

He gently tilted her chin up to face him and started directly into her blue eyes.

“Marinette, I'm your boyfriend, and I'm worried about you. I understand if you don't want me to see, but can you tell me what happened, at least?”

She dropped her gaze again, though it could only reach his callused hand this time, and inhaled sharply, then winced again.

“I was lightly stabbed from an attempted mugging, but I'm fine! It's just a scratch! I'm sorry for worrying you. I was just gonna get a bandaid; it's not that deep.”

“Stabbed and mugged? Marinette Wendy Dupain-Cheng Stone, why didn't you tell me?!”

She jerked her chin out of his hold and glared at him. “Because I don't need to answer you. I'm an adult and I can take care of myself just fine, thank you. If you don't trust my judgement, then you obviously don't respect me and you can leave me to my first aid.”

“Woah, Pix. I-” Jason stopped and took a deep breath.

“Okay, clearly you have some things we should talk about, but first, you're right. I'm sorry. We can talk about this after you get first aid. I don't have to watch, but I'm staying until we talk this stuff out, Marinette."

Marinette headed to the bathroom where her closest first aid kit was and began unpacking it to search for the things she needed.

The door shut in Jason's face with a decisive click.

He sat across the hall, leaning against the wall and talking to Marinette. She didn't reply, but she didn't chase him out or tell him to shut up, either, so he took it as a win.

Finally, the door opened and Marinette stood in the doorway, just looking at him.

Jason slowly got to his feet and scanned her up and down, just in case she'd bled out in the bathroom and was now a zombie or some other supernatural revenant his brain cursed him with imagining.

She'd left her sweatshirt off and was just in a white tank top, bloodstained on the lower left side (thankfully less blood than his traumatised brain helpfully made him think of), and her jeans. His eyes landed on her arms, which she usually had covered by a sweater or hoodie (usually one of his).

Scars of various sizes and shapes littered her arms and what he could see of her chest. She'd told him that everyone was healed and brought back to life, but he'd thought it was completely healed, not left with scars.

A sudden flash of insight hit him and he blinked, then moved across to hug her gently. “I'm glad you're not seriously hurt. Are you in pain? Do you want me to get a pill?”

“One small slice does not constitute pain, Jason.” She was avoiding his eyes again, he noticed. He much preferred those pretty blues looking at him, not away from him in shame or pain or anger.

“I understand.”

Which hurts more, A or B? Forehand, or backhand?

“I'm so sorry you had to go through that. I didn't...when you told me about Hawkmoth and Multimouse, you obviously toned it down a lot.”

Marinette realised he had picked her up and they were now in her kitchen, where he perched her on the island and began making her a mug of tea. Oh, she realised. He's not just talking about the mugging.

Her lips quirked up a bit as she watched him move around her kitchen familiarly.

Jason handed her her favourite mug and leaned against the counter beside her.

“Are you okay, besides the 'light stabbing'?”

She glared at him over the rim of her mug, but it lacked heat. “Yeah, it was only an attempted mugging. The dude was following me so I ducked into an alley and when he 'caught' me, I let him get close enough to stab me and then I grabbed his wrist, kneed him, and put him in an armlock. The stab was simply a tactical sacrifice. Then a nice cop drove by as I was zip-tying him, so I let him take the guy into the station. His name was, um, Dick Grayson, I think? He had similar features to you...anyways, yeah, I'm fine, you worrywart. I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier, I just...I shouldn't have yelled, I'm sorry. You were just worried but it reminded me of some situations in Paris and I reacted disproportionately.”

“I forgive you, Pixie. Can you tell me what part of what I did and said reminded you, so I can work on that?”

“The...well, it wasn't really anything. I'm just always on guard because I had to fight for people to trust me so much, and my ex-partner was...always crossing lines and I was always explaining things I shouldn't have had to. You were just asking out of worry, but I immediately jumped to you trying to back me into a corner. It's not something you have to work on,” she snorted bitterly.

As she spoke, Jason picked up her free hand and began running his fingers over her arm soothingly. Marinette suddenly realised what he was doing and focused on the shapes. He was slowly tracing stars around every single mark and scar on her arms. Eventually, he reached her shoulder and left his arm comfortingly across them. She snuggled a little closer and they drank their tea in cosy silence.

○○○○○○○

To Kiss in Cars and Downtown Bars

Jason flipped through the security feeds from his office in the Iceberg Lounge. A familiar face at the back of the line to get in caught his eye. Why...

He changed out of his Red Hood gear into his usual outfit of jeans, a T-shirt, and his leather jacket (different from his RH jacket), then snuck out the door.

•○•○•○•

Marinette jumped as a large, warm hand was put over her mouth. She hadn't heard anyone coming, but they were awfully brave to attempt...whatever...in full view of the bouncers a few metres ahead. She made eye contact with one but he completely ignored her!

Now Marinette was more annoyed at the bouncer's incompetence than the person behind her!

“It's me.”

She whirled around. “Jay? What're you doing here?”

He plucked her ID from her hands (thanks to Fluff and Trixx, she had a passably legal ID) and examined it.

“Not bad. C'mon.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her behind the Lounge. A passcode later, they were in the dark hallway leading from the club's fire exit.

“Here.” He handed her a metal bracelet. “It tells people to back off, you're under the owner's protection. You also won't have to pay.” He pointed to his matching bracelet. “Maybe you'll tell me why you're trying to enter a club?”

She strolled over to the bar, him following closely as usual.

“I'm legal in Paris. Apparently, I have the worst luck. My old class is coming on an exchange in a couple months so they can tour some American universities and experience the American high school system. The problem is, they all think I'm dead - a strawberry daiquiri, please.”

“Mood. Can't you...avoid them? Hack the system and become part of the class going to Paris?”

She chugged half her drink, impressing him, and shook her head.

“Most people in Paris think I'm dead. Paris is bad for me...all the memories...and I was asked to be a translator if there are any issues and because I'm a helpful person who still hasn't learned to say no, I said yes! Although, I didn't know it was my class until the details were sent after I already agreed.”

“Oh...that is a problem. I'm also fluent in French, could I replace you or at least help you?”

“I'll talk to Mr. Patel, he's organising it, but that should be okay. We can continue Janette's crack—they're so idiotic sometimes, and yet they can be so brilliant others, I really don't understand it.”

“I can't wait to meet them. And um, maybe don't chug your drink without eating something?”

“Right. Want to dance?” She held out her hand. He took it and kissed the back, spinning her away from the counter.

“Sure.”

After a couple dances and a close call with a tipsy patron, they headed to a quiet corner, where Marinette dissected outfits and rated style with Jason, who knew a surprising amount about fashion. She supposed he'd heard more than one of her rants/lectures and picked stuff up.

Around midnight, Jason's phone buzzed and he sighed.

“Hey, Pix, I gotta go. Can I bring you home first?”

“Sure. Did you bring your bike?” She followed him outside, her hand still in his.

“Nah, I borrowed a friend's car because I had to transport stuff earlier.”

He led her to a sleek black car and opened the door for her. When he crossed the hood to get to his side, she leaned over and opened the driver's door for him and smiled sweetly.

The drive to Jagged's penthouse, where she was currently living until her parents finalised closing the bakery in Paris and joining her in Gotham, was quiet, broken by her soft humming of random song snippets.

“Thanks for the fun evening, Jay. I was so bummed about them coming, but you cheered me up.”

Marinette leaned over and kissed Jason's cheek before she got out of the car, but he wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her back for a longer, proper kiss.

“Night, Pix. Have sweet dreams, maybe of me?” He wiggled his eyebrows at her and she giggled and waved him off noncommittally. His ego would be too big if she told him she often dreamed of him.

•○•○•○•

Marinette sighed at Tikki and Wayzz for the fourth time.

“I know I should, I just don't want to. Why can't I live in denial a little longer? He treats me like a princess.”

“Marinette, this is the third time in three weeks that he left your date early with no explanation. This won't be healthier for you in the long run if you keep denying it,” the ladybug kwami advised.

“I'm just tired, Tikki. Aside from the dates and being even more selective about what he tells me about his family and life than I am, it's great! I didn't want a busy, dramatic year. Can I seriously not just leave it a little longer?”

“Guardian, there is a difference between being patient and understanding, and letting everything slide because you don't want to confront someone. There is a possibility he just doesn't know how or when to bring some of these things up, so just try talking to him,” said Wayzz. “If that does not resolve anything, then you can consider what to do after that.”

“And as for the 'no drama' you want, ignoring all of this is only adding to it,” Tikki interjected.

Marinette huffed a breath of hot air and crossed her arms petulantly, knowing the kwami were right. “Fine. I'll ask him to meet me later.”

○○○○○○○

Peter Losing Wendy

“I think we should break up.” She looked him in the eye as she stabbed him in the heart with those dreaded words.

“Why?”

He knew it was for the best, it would keep her safer, but he'd hoped...if she wanted it, he would let her go, taking his heart with him, as he ignored the urge to hold her and never release her.

“You can't explain those weird texts and calls and disappearances, and you've been late or left early with such plausible excuses...I can't...it looks like Adrien 2.0. And believe me, I don't want to think that, but ...call it PTSD or whatever, you're so hot and cold. You keep me at arms' length for so many things, and then you turn around and you're the warmest, most perfect boyfriend I could want. You've got this way of telling me everything, but it's nothing at all...all an illusion. I just, I can't do this again. It's not fair to either of us. Gotham has been better to me than Paris, and I'm going to fight with everything this time."

...And now she was taking his shattered heart with her.

“I asked you to come so we could talk about it, try and figure this out, but you cancelled last-minute, again, Jason. Once or twice I understood, but now it just feels like you're avoiding me, or at least avoiding opening up to me. I'm just...done. I can't ignore all of this anymore, and I'm tired.”

He couldn't do this to her. He'd seen how scarred she was after Multimouse. Now, as an ordinary civilian with loads of PTSD, he wouldn't risk hurting her anymore, repeating Parisian mistakes.

He swallowed. “I'm sorry, P-Marinette.” He turned to leave, blinking rapidly. “If you're in trouble, call me. I'll still come.”

As he turned to shut the door his eyes met hers.

Both pairs were overflowing.

“Goodbye, and good luck.”

The door closing behind him sounded like a sentencing being put into effect.

•○•○•○•

She didn't go to school for two days, choosing to curl into a ball and cry instead.

When she'd first enrolled as Marinette Stone - courtesy of Jagged and Penny helping her set up a new life in his hometown - everyone had been trying to get to know the other new transfer student, Jason.

She'd snubbed him, wanting her final school year to be drama free, and he'd laughed.

Thus began an academic rivalry, and everyone thought they were sworn enemies from the cold way she'd greet him in the halls. For his part, he was warmer to her than anyone else, which confused her, but she wrote him off as a masochist.

But thanks to meddling from Mrs. Perez, who paired them up on a very important assignment, they became sworn besties instead, which led to dating. They kept it quiet, finding that trolling the entire school was hilarious to them, as well as the disappointed look in Mrs. Perez's eyes when at the end of the assignment, they were still rivals and not in love (yes, Mrs. Perez was the biggest Marison shipper).

Jason picked up one of her design scribbles and looked at the hand-lettering she'd done when she was bored in class.

“Your name is Marinette Wendy Dupain-Cheng?”

“Yeah, so?”

“We're Peter and Wendy! My full name is Jason Peter Todd.”

“Didn't they end up not together?”

“... Right. Well… You're petite, so you can be Tinker Bell then.”

She hoped her face conveyed her scepticism. “Tinker Bell? A pixie?”

He ignored her and exclaimed, “Pixie it is!” happy to finally have a nickname she didn't hate or have bad connotations with.

Marinette cried even harder at the memory. They hadn't ended up together, after all.

○○○○○○○

I Knew You (Marked Me Like A Bloodstain)

The tell-tale swish of a grappling hook being deployed caught Jason's attention from where he sat on the roof's vent, swinging his legs as he surveyed his empire's capital, Crime Alley. He rolled backwards off the vent and faced the Dark Knight, tensing for an altercation, whether verbal or physical.

“What do you want, B,” he snapped, annoyed his depression session had been interrupted by the partial cause of the entire mess he was moping about right now.

Batman didn't move, signifying he wanted to talk right now, not fight.

“You haven't been around in either capacity lately, and you didn't respond when Nightwing texted you earlier, either. I just wanted to make sure you're doing okay.”

Angrily, Red Hood turned on Batman with a growl. “As you can see, I'm out, so I'm perfectly healthy. You don't need to check in on your wayward soldier personally. You only care that I'm fine so that you know if you can call me to help on missions and I'll come running back like a dog when you whistle. Just because I'm working with you more doesn't mean I'm one of your little clones who only exists to be useful to you; I have my own life and I don't have to answer to you about any of it.”

“Hood, where is this coming from?” Batman truly sounded bewildered. “I was only checking on you because I care about you. I care about your health and functioning because I care about you.”

“Well maybe you care too much, B. You're constantly calling me out on missions and that's about the only time you contact me, unless Agent A requests it. If you actually care about me as a person, if not your son, you'd ask to see me outside of the mask, but you haven't, which leads me to my previous conclusions. I'm taking a break from all of your messes. If you need my help, don't contact me, and clean it up yourself. I'll be back when I'm back—if I'm back. And don't snoop!”

Hood jumped off the roof and landed on a fire escape, using parkour moves to slide down railings, and assassin-training to evade Batman's close tail. Eventually, Batman gave up and Hood moved out of the shadows to mope back in his Bat-proof apartment.

•○•○•○•

Chasing Shadows (in Grocery Lines)

Red Hood angrily yanked the knots tight on the goons' restraints. He knew the Untitled were in Gotham, but why? Besides the obvious (to kill him), of course.

A flash of movement caught his eye, and he followed it carefully. He snuck up behind the faux-Catwoman and hissed, “Who are you and why are you here?”

“...Catwoman, of course. You know cats, curiosity kills us.”

Convincing.

She acted similarly to Selina, but she was... off. Wrong inflection, similar mannerisms but they were too forced, the suit wasn't pure black like Selina's (it was black with grey accents), no purr...

“No, you're not. Catwoman and I have a bi-monthly feline petting session where we complain about Batman, so I've spent enough time with the Sirens to know you're just… Uncanny Valley Catwoman.” He waved his hand at faux-Catwoman's entire existence.

She hissed and her ears and tail twitched.

Were...they real?

“Look, I don't want to fight you, but you're making it hard. Don't insult 'short' people. It's not our fault you're trees.”

“I'll stop saying things like that when you stop looking at me as if you want to climb me like one,” he retorted.*

Wait, faux-Catwoman, Bat-adjacent, flirting on a roof… NO! I'm not becoming Bruce!!

“I'm here because I think some of my trainer's enemies are after me,” faux-Catwoman blurted in an attempt to change the subject.

Ha, he could still see her cheeks and neck warming.

“Who?”

“They're a creepy old magic group called the Untitled. Ironic, I know. I don't know much about them besides the fact that they're incredibly evil, and they want my Miraculous.”

“Are you All-Caste too?” He didn't think they had anyone left besides himself, but if they were travelling while the Untitled attacked, maybe someone escaped...

“What?”

“Nevermind. I didn't know the Untitled had more enemies than my sect. I'm the last member; the Untitled wiped the rest of us out. I can tell you more about the Untitled once I finish my patrol, in 20-ish minutes?”

Faux-Catwoman nodded. “The gargoyle across from Drake Industries work for you?”

“Sure. What should I call you, by the way?”

“Onyx. Ciao!”

Twenty-three minutes later, Red Hood grappled up to his gargoyle, finding Onyx sitting beside it, casually swinging her feet as if she wasn't 40 stories up and untethered.

“So, you like Freddy too?”

“Freddy?”

“My thinking gargoyle. You're new in town.”

Onyx sighed heavily. “No, you're just the first person to notice I'm not Catwoman.”

Jason sensed she needed to talk more so he employed his most effective interrogation technique, silence, and she began talking a moment later.

“This is Paris all over again. Do you know about what happened in Paris?”

Jason nodded and pulled out a granola bar from his pocket, unwrapped it, and began eating as she continued.

“I was Ladybug. When I became Guardian of the Miraculous, I revoked my black cat's ring. He'd been corrupted since he wasn't a true black cat, and also from living in a house with the corrupted butterfly and broken peacock Miraculous. His dad was Hawkmoth, though he didn't know that, and he was my boyfriend as a civilian. Turns out he was cheating on me with my bully per his father's and my bully's manipulation.

“I used the Miraculous of Multiplication to become Bugmouse and Catmouse, and when I got the Miraculous from Hawkmoth, I put them away.

"My uncle helped me move here to start afresh… in Paris, everywhere I went, there were memories… And most weren't happy. When I came here, life was great… I didn't think I wanted another boyfriend but I did get one… And now I've broken up with him. He was perfect, and I was waiting for the imperfections, but... It turned into Paris II: Electric Boogaloo. He would disappear randomly, and it seemed like he was waiting till I was busy so I wouldn't notice. I followed him once because he'd left something behind, but it was like he knew I was tailing him and he lost me. He never introduced me to his family — he said they were semi-estranged, but I can't help wondering...

"So I grabbed a Miraculous and became Onyx; beating up bad guys is better than therapy, y'know? I just didn't expect to be traced by the Miraculous's signature by the Untitled.

“And now Gotham is becoming Paris,” she finished with a heavy sigh. “At least to me.”

After another silence, she gasped quietly. “I'm sorry for monologuing on you, you just felt… like a comrade, maybe? You give off safe vibes, anyways.”

The more she talked, the more she solidified his suspicion that Onyx was Marinette.

“I'm sorry you had to go through that, Onyx.” He didn't want to say anything else, partially out of guilt, and partially to stop himself from explaining everything and throwing himself on her mercy and begging her to take him back.

“So, the Untitled?” Onyx cleared her throat and straightened her shoulders, turning to see his (masked) face a bit better.

“Right. The Untitled are millennia-old evil sibling magicians who got their power from a well of evil. There are only eight members of the Untitled, but they are very old and powerful. They were enemies with the group who trained me, the All-Caste, and killed them all. They can't be killed by normal means, but I have the All-Blades, which can defeat them. Do you have anything that can harm them, do you know?” Hood asked.

“I suspect the ‘Cataclysm’ power and perhaps ‘Clout’ or ‘Uproar’, and though I'd prefer not to test it in battle and find I'm wrong, I don't know how else to confirm my hypothesis.”

“Then how about you stay in the background while I take on the Untitled with the All-Blades, and when there's an opening you try your hypothesis?”

“I can do that. When are we going?” He asked her.

“Sooner rather than later, I think. When can you-”

“Okay, give me ten minutes,” Onyx interrupted. “I'll get my Miraculous and meet you at the warehouse at the edge of Gotham, in the westernmost part of the Tricorner Yards. You can lure the Untitled there or something, right?”

“Yeah, I can do that. Ten minutes average or ten minutes on the dot?”

“On the dot. I have a very precise Miraculous.”

“...okay. See you in 10, Onyx.”

•○•○•○•

Ten minutes later, Onyx appeared in the shadows of the warehouse, where Jason was already in the middle of two Untitled, his glowing swords flickering in the dark and giving off an eerie vibe. The chill and sense of evil permeating the air didn't help, either.

Onyx's suit was now pure black, with thin stripes of red, magenta, and brown scattered around her suit.

“Cataclysm,” Onyx whispered and threw the ball of destruction at the Untitled on Jason's rear.

The Untitled were now alerted to her presence and she moved swiftly from shadow to shadow. One began to approach her, and she instinctively activated the tiger's power, ‘Clout’. The immense power from the magical punch knocked the being out, and Onyx turned her attention to the two Untitled who took the place of the previous duo already taken care of by Red Hood's swords.

“Uproar!” she cried, hoping the power-disrupting ability would work on the beings as she tossed the circlet like a frisbee at them. Onyx breathed deeply in relief when she realised her powers did work on the Untitled and turned to face the remaining two, back to back with Hood.

They attacked at the same time, swirling black shadows with surprising speed, but Onyx had prepared a second Cataclysm and yelled “Jump!” at Hood as the Untitled reached them.

The Untitled almost crashed into each other and tried to stop themselves before they could collide. It was too late, however. Onyx and Hood jumped to the first level above them (superpowers handily granting them extra height), and watched as the same cataclysm turned both ghouls into nothing.

Hood exhaled jaggedly and turned to her. “You have some nice moves and those were some sick abilities!”

She grinned, a little winded from using three Miraculous at once, and replied, “You weren't too bad yourself! Those swords sure are handy.”

“Yeah… Thank you for your help, Onyx. I couldn't have taken them all down at once without you.”

She waved it off and swung down to the floor again. “It was my pleasure, I assure you. I'm thrilled one less group of weird power-hungry monsters is after my head.”

“If you want to team up for a night of regular vigilantism, that'd be cool. Or are you leaving, now that you're safe again?”

“No, I'm here for another unforeseen amount of time,” she sighed, civilian life distracting her.

Hood didn't want to have her dwelling on their breakup quite yet so he decided to distract her. “Hey, how'd you learn that flippy move you did back there? It was really cool.”

Onyx cheered up a little. “Really? Thanks. My uncle taught me, actually... I'd taken gymnastics for a couple years so I had a good base and then he built off that. I have a similar build to his daughter, so he taught both of us. I think you'd get along great… He does prefer a sword, but he's still pretty handy with a gun.”

“Oh, maybe I've heard of him?”

“Uh...Slade Wilson?” Onyx asked hesitantly.

Deathstroke was Onyx's uncle?!

“Your uncle is Deathstroke?!” he blurted.

Onyx chuckled guiltily. “Heh. Not by blood, my nonna just has a ton of connections with really strange people, and she introduced us a few years ago. He kinda adopted me, so I just call him uncle. Y'know, we only see each other a couple times a year. He likes to surprise me when he visits and keeps my skills sharp, so he usually makes sneak attacks. I've got a good eye for attempted assassinations thanks to it!” she said cheerily, rambling in her nervousness but somehow concerning him more.

Hood was a little more scared of Onyx after he learned that information.

Yeah, Talia al Ghul had adopted him, but she was less likely to come after Marinette just because she was dating her son. Also, he knew her.

Slade was protective of his children, even if he did nothing else as their father, and he was unpredictable.

Hood shivered and headed home chilled, looking over his shoulder a couple more times than he usually did.

•○•○•○•

Jason wandered aimlessly down the aisles, collecting items he remembered he needed and tossing them in his basket. Bread, yeast for when he was feeling less sad and went back to making his own, milk, oats, soap, bandages and ointment, coffee, chicken, ice cream.

He headed to the only checkout lane open and put his purchases on the conveyor belt. The bored and tired-looking young adult started soullessly scanning them while Jason rolled his eyes at a gossip rag loudly proclaiming Wayne family "news" on its cover.

He reached for his wallet and spun back to face the shadows. Slim, black hair, shadowy…Marinette?

He looked closer and grimaced at Cass.

“What are you doing here?” he signed, annoyance clear in his body language.

“Saw you going by and you looked sad, so I followed you. No one else knows,” she replied.

He frowned harder. “I’m fine. Just tired. And I told B not to contact me. I’ll talk to whomever of you I want when I want to, and I don’t want to talk to any of you right now,” he signed emphatically. “Thanks for checking on me, but I don’t need it.”

He turned back to the slightly bewildered-looking cashier, who had only seen him making gestures at the shadows, and rolled his eyes harder. Stupid Bats, always making him look foolish.

He grimace-smiled politely and handed over the cash, grabbing his bags and leaving immediately, feeling even more foolish for thinking Cass had been Marinette.

Marinette wouldn’t be near him willingly for a while. Clearly he needed to do something about that.

He’d been feeling more foolish in the past couple days than in the past couple years combined.

Marinette had told him she was a temp hero, Multimouse, and stayed in contact with her friends, who had been temporary and official heroes. She clearly still cared about them and knew they were heroes, yet didn’t act any differently. He could’ve told her his secrets, she would’ve understood and kept them, but he didn’t want to hurt her with them.

Well, if she was still friends with official heroes, she’d obviously weighed the risks and decided it didn’t matter. He should have let her choose in their relationship, too.

Marinette had good judgement (the only strike he had against that evidence was her agreeing to date him in the first place, but then again he’d always been a good actor out of necessity) and he trusted it, although he hadn’t really shown that.

Tired of waffling between should he talk to her/should he leave her in peace and never show his face in front of her again, he finally decided.

○○○○○○○

THE END of Part One

Thank you for reading!

*this sentence is all thanks to @nitwitjustice, who gave permission for me to use his quip in my fic :)

[audiofictionuk]

New Fiction Podcasts - 6th September

Villain Mutants New Audio Drama! Villain Mutants is a science fiction audio drama series about a bunch of criminal mutants being captured and brainwashed by HEAL. They were named a number when recruited. The mutants were used as weapons to frighten any human criminals that dares to not follow the law. The first 10 criminal mutants have escaped and are in hiding. https://villainmutants.weebly.com/ https://anchor.fm/s/e39ebbd0/podcast/rss

400 Words A Horror New Audio Drama! 400 Words A Horror is a bi-weekly anthology horror-themed podcast by audio drama enthusiasts who want to get into the audio drama world as creators. We are a group of people who wants to do audio dramas but have no idea how. The showrunner Gem decided to make this podcast to learn the 'how'. Why 400 Words a Horror? The idea came to me while practicing with the Pratchett method called ‘400 words a day.’ My friends and I are here to have fun, spook up a little, experience, experiment, and learn the hardships of audio drama creation. So this space is a learning experience for my friends and I. Any feedback -as long as it is feedback- is more than appreciated. You can leave feedback through our socials. If you want to stay anonymous, our Tumblr ask box awaits you. https://shows.acast.com/400-words-a-horror https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/400-words-a-horror

The Theater of the Midnight Sun New Audio Drama! Fun and thought-provoking audio dramas of sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, & comedy - with dynamic soundscapes full of music & special effects. https://TheateroftheMidnightSun.podbean.com https://feed.podbean.com/TheateroftheMidnightSun/feed.xml

Can't Relax New Audio Drama! Over stressed? Overworked? The Peace and Mind app will put an end to that. Forever. On the weekend before their ACTs, Anya and her friends download a new mobile relaxation app to take the edge off, unaware that it secretly plants murderous subliminal messages into the brains of its listeners. When people start dying, Anya must figure out who planted the corrupted malware on their phones and how to stop it before she becomes a killer herself. https://glistenplus.com/scripted/cant-relax/ https://feeds.megaphone.fm/cantrelax

The Devil's Antlers New Audio RPG! A Homebrewed TTRPG Actual Play Cryptid Campaign, with voice acting, sound FX, and original music. Set in the mid 1950s, this story follows four citizens around Pembine and Marinette, Wisconsin, as they begin to unveil some strange occurrences in the area. https://www.timetodierpg.com/ https://feeds.transistor.fm/the-devils-antlers

La traversée du siècle New Audio Drama! Victoire, Albertine et Thérèse : ces prénoms vous semblent-ils familiers? Suivez l’odyssée de ces trois femmes fascinantes et incroyablement résilientes dans l’œuvre de l’un des plus grands écrivains québécois : Michel Tremblay. Portée par 18 interprètes, cette saga familiale nous fait vivre les grands bouleversements qu’a connus la société québécoise au cours du XXe siècle. Plongez dans l’univers de trois générations, où la place des femmes se fortifie au fil du temps. La traversée du siècle est un projet monumental, la plus grande fiction sonore originale jamais réalisée au Québec, avec six saisons et plus de neuf heures de contenu original. Tout le texte est de Michel Tremblay, dans une adaptation et une dramaturgie d'Alice Ronfard, à partir d'une idée d'André Brassard. Ce projet hors-norme est une production du Théâtre Espace Libre, en production déléguée par Zoé Gagnon-Paquin. https://espacelibre.qc.ca/balados/la-traversee-du-siecle https://feeds.podcastics.com/podcastics/podcasts/rss/6123_4583f3239eb223783366204080342b0d.rss

Lantern Cove New Audio RPG! An actual-play RPG podcast in which 6 high school students are the only ones who can face down murder, eldritch magic, and the coming end of the world. https://www.www.lanterncovepodcast.com https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2194093.rss

EDWINA BERGMAN: RADIO VENTRILOQUIST New Audio Drama! In this fiction comedy-mystery, a young 1920s radio ventriloquist finds herself hosting a radio variety hour and cohosting a podcast in 2023. While attempting to figure out a way back home, she receives a tempting offer from a reality TV producer. https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jonmeyersscripts https://anchor.fm/s/e8270ec8/podcast/rss

Part-Time Thrills New Audio Drama! Welcome to Part-Time Thrills! Where tall tales are told in short stories rooted in horror and comedy! Time to clock in for a thrill! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/part-timethrills https://anchor.fm/s/e7dd02ec/podcast/rss

WitherBurn After School News New Audio Drama! An anonymous teenage girl starts a gossip radio show to report on the events of her small southern town. In her quest to uncover the latest scoop, she becomes entangled in the midst of a mystery. https://www.witherburnnews.com/ https://anchor.fm/s/e7e701e8/podcast/rss

Sur la route : Podcasts pour enfants / histoires en voiture pour enfants / En voiture New Audio Book! Retrouvez les plus belles histoires pour faire voyager vos enfants de tous âges en voiture. Des histoires pour chaque âges qui vont passionner vos enfants. Podcast et histoire pour enfants. https://podcasts.360.audion.fm/QzJsUCNoGsXLHDad4TWjR https://feeds.360.audion.fm/QzJsUCNoGsXLHDad4TWjR

Nearly Departed New Audio Book! A ghost story anthology sewn together with a very cozy thread, from the mixed up files of Kathryn R. Wiggins.  Katy hopes to create a space of permanent October, here to revisit whenever you're in need of a safe harbor to contemplate the living and the dead and the terrors in-between. While it may look cute and whimsical, these stories can be very scary and/or disturbing and are not intended for kids. For fans of history, melancholy, pumpkin pie, dusty mansions, flirting with terror, atmosphere, coziness, plastic skeletons, and real ones too. Katy is a writer and improviser in Austin, TX and co host of popular podcast Scary Stories from Camp Roanoke, which has over 40,000 listeners.  Katy adores history, and ghost stories are one of the ways the past echoes into the future in its own active voice. It's a way that the people of bygone eras literally come alive, and that possibility has never gotten old to her. Katy is also fascinated by the unprovable nature of ghosts--how one person can have years of their life tormented by a spiritual force and another person thinks it's all a bunch of hocus pocus. Paranormal or not, it's a fascinating reflection of the invisible struggles we each move through the world with. https://www.buzzsprout.com/2233839 https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2233839.rss

TIDLØS New Audio Drama! Vildræven er verdenshistoriens største tyv. Det mener han i hvert fald selv, men verden har ikke opdaget ham endnu. Derfor stjæler han en tidsmaskine og rejser tilbage i tiden for at stjæle Guldhornene, så han kan få den berømmelse, han er berettiget til. Til at hjælpe med tyveriet har han skytten Richard og den hyper-intelligente Ingeborg. Men tyveriet går ikke som planlagt, og før de ved af det, er de med i en hæsblæsende jagt gennem historien forfulgt af betjente, bankfuldmægtige, advokater og vikinger. TIDLØS er det største danske hørespil i nyere tid, skrevet af Troels Bering, klippet og instrueret af Jacob Octavius Jarlskov, og produceret af Audiorama. https://audiorama.dk/ https://pinecast.com/feed/tidl-s

Murder Manor New Audio Drama! When ten people are invited to spend the weekend in a mansion on a remote island, they each start dropping like flies. Can they solve the mystery of who's behind it all or will they die trying? The series is heavily inspired the critically acclaimed novel "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie. https://shows.acast.com/murder-manor https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/64dc022f00649a0011d48c8c

La Bóveda de Evo New Audio Book! Lo que realmente perdura en nosotros, anidando un profundo recuerdo en nuestras mentes, es aquello que se asemeja mucho a lo cotidiano. Pero luego de una mirada más reflexiva, no tiene nada de común. Lo cotidiano tiene tantas formas como individuos: Es caótico. Azaroso. Transitorio. Atemporal. Confuso. Voraz. Aquí, cada semana una historia original e independiente nos muestra una cotidianeidad absolutamente fuera de lo común. https://linktr.ee/labovedadeevo https://labovedadeevo.podigee.io/feed/mp3

[fragileizywriting]

and they go shopping for swimsuits for their honeymoon because marinette absolutely doesn't own one, why should she? even though they'll be alone andhe knows her and her tenacity to take off her earrings when she can, she still at least wants to have her options.

so.

they enter a boutique because marinette got caught with the shiny glass window and she's a magpie, she must be, there's no way she's a mermaid— ah, but he's had this issue with her ever since they were both young, always chasing after reflective things, which is why he gave her stopwatches, things that ticked and made noise, things that reflected light— and they come in through the door, a small 5ft woman towing a giant 6ft+ cryptid like him (he catches sight of himself in the floor to ceiling mirrors, how tight her hand grips on his fingers like a life-line, pulling on his arm the way a maltese would pull on a leash, excited about meeting a new human, and sees just how massive he is in comparision, wearing all black and his perpeptual resting bitch face that has never deterred marinette from kissing him all over, and feels like hiding behind his hands) and she is ooing and aaing at everything she sees. a woman comes up to them as he sits himself down on a fashionable love seat, knowing they'll be here a while, while the woman sidesteps him entirely in honor of conversing with marinette. they lap around the store as a warmup, clearly, and he sits patiently while marinette deposits metal hangers on him with all the bikinis and body suits with different colors she likes for her to try on later.

when she starts toeing off her sandals (he can never convince her to wear shoes like him) she's already picking out one of the two fitting rooms, grabbing as many as she can from him and zipping in behind the curtain. every selection she makes has been modest, cute, nothing show stopping, but he sees how she shivers every time he looks at her, giving her an honest i like it, and you're beautiful, because what's not to like about beautiful marinette? though she doesn't feel satisfied with the answer. some she discards before even trying on; the bodysuits leave, and the stack is thinner, and he's wondering if they'll even find anything she likes after all.

"sky," she calls out, behind the curtain for just a little while longer. "i this one isn't clasping correctly. can you do it for me?"

he reaches in without looking, head pointed towards the loveseat though she's just his wife, and he knows what her back looks like, and she'll show him the bathing suit when it's all tied up. it's privacy nonetheless, trying to prove to the storeowner/shopkeeper that he is, in fact, a good guy, and his appearance doesn't make him scary or violent-looking.

(maybe this selfconciousness is getting out of hand.)

"how about this one?" marinette says, when he's tied her up and she's pulling the curtain back, revealing yet another two piece. he pivots on his boot to go sit down before he's left gobsmacked standing up, a terrible habit he has with her, and he likes not getting a crick in his neck from looking down at everyone all the time. it doesn't pay to be so tall.

she's so pretty.

this one really fits her.

pink, of course, with ruffles and scalloped edges, because also of course, and red piping. his face heats up faster than all the others, and he does his usual i like it, but she's catching him slacking.

"do you like it?" she asks him, bending at the waist to meet his eye.

he feels a bit too big for this chair, looking at the delicate line of her cleavage.

"i do," he tells her.

"you're looking at me the way you always do whenever i'm naked," she teases, and he makes an embarassed noise, hiding his face behind his fingers as the shopkeeper lets out a polite-yet-smirking laugh. "i think you really like this one."

he can't say it out loud, of course, but hopefully she notices it too: the color of the bikini is the same as her tail, and the ruffles are petal like, similar to her fins. it's her, his little mermaid, dressed to look like a human and no one is the wiser.

"okay, i'll get this one."

"that all, miss?"

"i don't think i need another pair," marinette says with a giggle.

it's possible she won't even need his one, after all, not with the way he's desperate to touch her.

[ali-annals]

You Drew Stars Around My Scars

Cardigan AU Masterlist | Part 2 | Master Masterlist | Ao3 | CW: implied/referenced violence

Jasonette, Chapter 1/2, ~7k?

Marinette rushed from her last class to her locker.

The teeming crowds of students milled around the suddenly full hallways, pulling her closer to her goal. Her boyfriend often left little notes or clues to gifts, and it always brightened her day to find a loving surprise. How he knew her locker code, she didn’t know, but brushed it off (she’d certainly acquired dubious skills for stupider reasons than giving her SO a gift).

There was nothing there today, but when she slammed it shut she turned and walked into her boyfriend.

“Hey, Pixie. Ready to go?”

She groaned. “Nooo. I have to work on my Lit essay.”

“I can help; whatever you need.”

He grabbed her hand and dragged her to the quiet library, seemingly empty except for the rows of books and the librarian, Ms. Blue. She nodded familiarly at them and went back to her computer as they disappeared deeper into the library’s abyss. Finally, they stopped at a table and Marinette dumped her things on its surface.

“Okay, let’s do this.”

About an hour after they began working on their homework, Jason got up to find a book for references. A few minutes later, Marinette noticed he still hadn’t returned, so she decided to stretch her legs and go look for him. After scouring several rows, she finally heard a thump behind her. The trail of thumps led her to a corner of the library, where Jason was waiting with a smug grin.

“You did miss me.”

“Of course.” She rolled her eyes. “I have to keep a very close eye on you when we’re in a library or bookstore. I couldn’t wait too long or I mayn’t have seen you ever again. Like that time I lost you at the B&N.”

“Mayn’t?”

She punched his (stupidly solid) arm. “It’s an uncommon contraction that should be used more.”

“I’ll tell the world to start, then. We should make a prank on Twitter.”

“Oui, good idea! No one will know it’s us trolling them, and you can share your bizarre stories and explain your unusual skills.”

“What bizarre stories?” He followed her back to their table, setting up a new Twitter account on his way.

“Um, my ex-girlfriend possessed my other ex, for one. That time you met a civil, agreeable demon, for two…you are a mysterious person, Jason Todd.”

“Thank you, I try to be as cryptid-like as possible. What shall we name our crack account?”

“Um…our names combined make “Janette”; Janette can be the mod. For the handle, how about…Janette@pothamcrack. Yeah. And before you ask, Paris + Gotham equals Potham.”

“Great. Here, our first official tweet. Janette@pothamcrack says: ‘Mayn’t’ is an underused contraction. Use it more, cowards’.”

“Perfect. Can you make everyone we know that’s verified follow us so more people are subjected to our crack and insanity?”

•○•○•○•

Jason knocked on Marinette’s door. There was a brief flurry of activity, then she opened it enough to stick her head out.

“Heyyy, Jay. You’re early!”

“Is that such a bad thing?” he asked, faux-offended.

“No, of course not…come in. I just gotta…”

“Why is there blood on your sweatshirt? Are you hurt?”

Jason carefully circled her, gingerly trailing his hands over her body to check her reactions. When he reached her lower left ribs, she only winced once, very quickly, but he caught her reaction and yanked her Gotham Knights sweatshirt up a couple inches. Her hand grabbed his wrist tightly, preventing him from moving.

“Oh, sorry, Pix. I…should’ve asked first.” He felt quite remorseful, knowing she hated showing skin, though he didn’t know the reason why. But if she was hurt and hiding it, and bleeding…“How badly are you hurt, Pix? Do you need me to take you to the clinic?”

Marinette looked down. “I’m fine, it’s just a scratch,” she mumbled quietly. “I was just gonna change, you don’t need to worry.”

Now Jason was really concerned. Why was she hiding it? If it really wasn’t bad, she’d show him as proof, like that time he thought she chopped her fingers off (in hindsight he may have panicked a bit, but she was his girlfriend and he was terrified of something hurting her) and she immediately showed him the barely-visible nick on her finger.

He gently tilted her chin up to face him and started directly into her blue eyes.

“Marinette, I’m your boyfriend, and I’m worried about you. I understand if you don’t want me to see, but can you tell me what happened, at least?”

She dropped her gaze again, though it could only reach his callused hand this time, and inhaled sharply, then winced again.

“I was lightly stabbed from an attempted mugging, but I’m fine! It’s just a scratch! I’m sorry for worrying you. I was just gonna get a bandaid; it’s not that deep.”

“Stabbed and mugged? Marinette Wendy Dupain-Cheng Stone, why didn’t you tell me?!”

She jerked her chin out of his hold and glared at him. “Because I don’t need to answer you. I’m an adult and I can take care of myself just fine, thank you. If you don’t trust my judgement, then you obviously don’t respect me and you can leave me to my first aid.”

“Woah, Pix. I-” Jason stopped and took a deep breath.

“Okay, clearly you have some things we should talk about, but first, you’re right. I’m sorry. We can talk about this after you get first aid. I don’t have to watch, but I’m staying until we talk this stuff out, Marinette.”

Marinette headed to the bathroom where her closest first aid kit was and began unpacking it to search for the things she needed.

The door shut in Jason’s face with a decisive click.

He sat across the hall, leaning against the wall and talking to Marinette. She didn’t reply, but she didn’t chase him out or tell him to shut up, either, so he took it as a win.

Finally, the door opened and Marinette stood in the doorway, just looking at him.

Jason slowly got to his feet and scanned her up and down, just in case she’d bled out in the bathroom and was now a zombie or some other supernatural revenant his brain cursed him with imagining.

She’d left her sweatshirt off and was just in a white tank top, bloodstained on the lower left side (thankfully less blood than his traumatised brain helpfully made him think of), and her jeans. His eyes landed on her arms, which she usually had covered by a sweater or hoodie (usually one of his).

Scars of various sizes and shapes littered her arms and what he could see of her chest. She’d told him that everyone was healed and brought back to life, but he’d thought it was completely healed, not left with scars.

A sudden flash of insight hit him and he blinked, then moved across to hug her gently. “I’m glad you’re not seriously hurt. Are you in pain? Do you want me to get a pill?”

“One small slice does not constitute pain, Jason.” She was avoiding his eyes again, he noticed. He much preferred those pretty blues looking at him, not away from him in shame or pain or anger.

“I understand.”

Which hurts more, A or B? Forehand, or backhand?

“I’m so sorry you had to go through that. I didn’t…when you told me about Hawkmoth and Multimouse, you obviously toned it down a lot.”

Marinette realised he had picked her up and they were now in her kitchen, where he perched her on the island and began making her a mug of tea. Oh, she realised. He’s not just talking about the mugging.

Her lips quirked up a bit as she watched him move around her kitchen familiarly.

Jason handed her her favourite mug and leaned against the counter beside her.

“Are you okay, besides the 'light stabbing’?”

She glared at him over the rim of her mug, but it lacked heat. “Yeah, it was only an attempted mugging. The dude was following me so I ducked into an alley and when he 'caught’ me, I let him get close enough to stab me and then I grabbed his wrist, kneed him, and put him in an armlock. The stab was simply a tactical sacrifice. Then a nice cop drove by as I was zip-tying him, so I let him take the guy into the station. His name was, um, Dick Grayson, I think? He had similar features to you…anyways, yeah, I’m fine, you worrywart. I’m sorry for yelling at you earlier, I just…I shouldn’t have yelled, I’m sorry. You were just worried but it reminded me of some situations in Paris and I reacted disproportionately.”

“I forgive you, Pixie. Can you tell me what part of what I did and said reminded you, so I can work on that?”

“The…well, it wasn’t really anything. I’m just always on guard because I had to fight for people to trust me so much, and my ex-partner was…always crossing lines and I was always explaining things I shouldn’t have had to. You were just asking out of worry, but I immediately jumped to you trying to back me into a corner. It’s not something you have to work on,” she snorted bitterly.

As she spoke, Jason picked up her free hand and began running his fingers over her arm soothingly. Marinette suddenly realised what he was doing and focused on the shapes. He was slowly tracing stars around every single mark and scar on her arms. Eventually, he reached her shoulder and left his arm comfortingly across them. She snuggled a little closer and they drank their tea in cosy silence.

○○○○○○○

To Kiss in Cars and Downtown Bars

Jason flipped through the security feeds from his office in the Iceberg Lounge. A familiar face at the back of the line to get in caught his eye. Why…

He changed out of his Red Hood gear into his usual outfit of jeans, a T-shirt, and his leather jacket (different from his RH jacket), then snuck out the door.

•○•○•○•

Marinette jumped as a large, warm hand was put over her mouth. She hadn’t heard anyone coming, but they were awfully brave to attempt…whatever…in full view of the bouncers a few metres ahead. She made eye contact with one but he completely ignored her!

Now Marinette was more annoyed at the bouncer’s incompetence than the person behind her!

“It’s me.”

She whirled around. “Jay? What’re you doing here?”

He plucked her ID from her hands (thanks to Fluff and Trixx, she had a passably legal ID) and examined it.

“Not bad. C'mon.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her behind the Lounge. A passcode later, they were in the dark hallway leading from the club’s fire exit.

“Here.” He handed her a metal bracelet. “It tells people to back off, you’re under the owner’s protection. You also won’t have to pay.” He pointed to his matching bracelet. “Maybe you’ll tell me why you’re trying to enter a club?”

She strolled over to the bar, him following closely as usual.

“I’m legal in Paris. Apparently, I have the worst luck. My old class is coming on an exchange in a couple months so they can tour some American universities and experience the American high school system. The problem is, they all think I’m dead - a strawberry daiquiri, please.”

“Mood. Can’t you…avoid them? Hack the system and become part of the class going to Paris?”

She chugged half her drink, impressing him, and shook her head.

“Most people in Paris think I’m dead. Paris is bad for me…all the memories…and I was asked to be a translator if there are any issues and because I’m a helpful person who still hasn’t learned to say no, I said yes! Although, I didn’t know it was my class until the details were sent after I already agreed.”

“Oh…that is a problem. I’m also fluent in French, could I replace you or at least help you?”

“I’ll talk to Mr. Patel, he’s organising it, but that should be okay. We can continue Janette’s crack—they’re so idiotic sometimes, and yet they can be so brilliant others, I really don’t understand it.”

“I can’t wait to meet them. And um, maybe don’t chug your drink without eating something?”

“Right. Want to dance?” She held out her hand. He took it and kissed the back, spinning her away from the counter.

“Sure.”

After a couple dances and a close call with a tipsy patron, they headed to a quiet corner, where Marinette dissected outfits and rated style with Jason, who knew a surprising amount about fashion. She supposed he’d heard more than one of her rants/lectures and picked stuff up.

Around midnight, Jason’s phone buzzed and he sighed.

“Hey, Pix, I gotta go. Can I bring you home first?”

“Sure. Did you bring your bike?” She followed him outside, her hand still in his.

“Nah, I borrowed a friend’s car because I had to transport stuff earlier.”

He led her to a sleek black car and opened the door for her. When he crossed the hood to get to his side, she leaned over and opened the driver’s door for him and smiled sweetly.

The drive to Jagged’s penthouse, where she was currently living until her parents finalised closing the bakery in Paris and joining her in Gotham, was quiet, broken by her soft humming of random song snippets.

“Thanks for the fun evening, Jay. I was so bummed about them coming, but you cheered me up.”

Marinette leaned over and kissed Jason’s cheek before she got out of the car, but he wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her back for a longer, proper kiss.

“Night, Pix. Have sweet dreams, maybe of me?” He wiggled his eyebrows at her and she giggled and waved him off noncommittally. His ego would be too big if she told him she often dreamed of him.

•○•○•○•

Marinette sighed at Tikki and Wayzz for the fourth time.

“I know I should, I just don’t want to. Why can’t I live in denial a little longer? He treats me like a princess.”

“Marinette, this is the third time in three weeks that he left your date early with no explanation. This won’t be healthier for you in the long run if you keep denying it,” the ladybug kwami advised.

“I’m just tired, Tikki. Aside from the dates and being even more selective about what he tells me about his family and life than I am, it’s great! I didn’t want a busy, dramatic year. Can I seriously not just leave it a little longer?”

“Guardian, there is a difference between being patient and understanding, and letting everything slide because you don’t want to confront someone. There is a possibility he just doesn’t know how or when to bring some of these things up, so just try talking to him,” said Wayzz. “If that does not resolve anything, then you can consider what to do after that.”

“And as for the 'no drama’ you want, ignoring all of this is only adding to it,” Tikki interjected.

Marinette huffed a breath of hot air and crossed her arms petulantly, knowing the kwami were right. “Fine. I’ll ask him to meet me later.”

○○○○○○○

Peter Losing Wendy

“I think we should break up.” She looked him in the eye as she stabbed him in the heart with those dreaded words.

“Why?”

He knew it was for the best, it would keep her safer, but he’d hoped…if she wanted it, he would let her go, taking his heart with him, as he ignored the urge to hold her and never release her.

“You can’t explain those weird texts and calls and disappearances, and you’ve been late or left early with such plausible excuses…I can’t…it looks like Adrien 2.0. And believe me, I don’t want to think that, but …call it PTSD or whatever, you’re so hot and cold. You keep me at arms’ length for so many things, and then you turn around and you’re the warmest, most perfect boyfriend I could want. You’ve got this way of telling me everything, but it’s nothing at all…all an illusion. I just, I can’t do this again. It’s not fair to either of us. Gotham has been better to me than Paris, and I’m going to fight with everything this time.“

…And now she was taking his shattered heart with her.

“I asked you to come so we could talk about it, try and figure this out, but you cancelled last-minute, again, Jason. Once or twice I understood, but now it just feels like you’re avoiding me, or at least avoiding opening up to me. I’m just…done. I can’t ignore all of this anymore, and I’m tired.”

He couldn’t do this to her. He’d seen how scarred she was after Multimouse. Now, as an ordinary civilian with loads of PTSD, he wouldn’t risk hurting her anymore, repeating Parisian mistakes.

He swallowed. “I’m sorry, P-Marinette.” He turned to leave, blinking rapidly. “If you’re in trouble, call me. I’ll still come.”

As he turned to shut the door his eyes met hers.

Both pairs were overflowing.

“Goodbye, and good luck.”

The door closing behind him sounded like a sentencing being put into effect.

•○•○•○•

She didn’t go to school for two days, choosing to curl into a ball and cry instead.

When she’d first enrolled as Marinette Stone - courtesy of Jagged and Penny helping her set up a new life in his hometown - everyone had been trying to get to know the other new transfer student, Jason.

She’d snubbed him, wanting her final school year to be drama free, and he’d laughed.

Thus began an academic rivalry, and everyone thought they were sworn enemies from the cold way she’d greet him in the halls. For his part, he was warmer to her than anyone else, which confused her, but she wrote him off as a masochist.

But thanks to meddling from Mrs. Perez, who paired them up on a very important assignment, they became sworn besties instead, which led to dating. They kept it quiet, finding that trolling the entire school was hilarious to them, as well as the disappointed look in Mrs. Perez’s eyes when at the end of the assignment, they were still rivals and not in love (yes, Mrs. Perez was the biggest Marison shipper).

Jason picked up one of her design scribbles and looked at the hand-lettering she’d done when she was bored in class.

“Your name is Marinette Wendy Dupain-Cheng?”

“Yeah, so?”

“We’re Peter and Wendy! My full name is Jason Peter Todd.”

“Didn’t they end up not together?”

“… Right. Well… You’re petite, so you can be Tinker Bell then.”

She hoped her face conveyed her scepticism. “Tinker Bell? A pixie?”

He ignored her and exclaimed, “Pixie it is!” happy to finally have a nickname she didn’t hate or have bad connotations with.

Marinette cried even harder at the memory. They hadn’t ended up together, after all.

○○○○○○○

I Knew You (Marked Me Like A Bloodstain)

The tell-tale swish of a grappling hook being deployed caught Jason’s attention from where he sat on the roof’s vent, swinging his legs as he surveyed his empire’s capital, Crime Alley. He rolled backwards off the vent and faced the Dark Knight, tensing for an altercation, whether verbal or physical.

“What do you want, B,” he snapped, annoyed his depression session had been interrupted by the partial cause of the entire mess he was moping about right now.

Batman didn’t move, signifying he wanted to talk right now, not fight.

“You haven’t been around in either capacity lately, and you didn’t respond when Nightwing texted you earlier, either. I just wanted to make sure you’re doing okay.”

Angrily, Red Hood turned on Batman with a growl. “As you can see, I’m out, so I’m perfectly healthy. You don’t need to check in on your wayward soldier personally. You only care that I’m fine so that you know if you can call me to help on missions and I’ll come running back like a dog when you whistle. Just because I’m working with you more doesn’t mean I’m one of your little clones who only exists to be useful to you; I have my own life and I don’t have to answer to you about any of it.”

“Hood, where is this coming from?” Batman truly sounded bewildered. “I was only checking on you because I care about you. I care about your health and functioning because I care about you.”

“Well maybe you care too much, B. You’re constantly calling me out on missions and that’s about the only time you contact me, unless Agent A requests it. If you actually care about me as a person, if not your son, you’d ask to see me outside of the mask, but you haven’t, which leads me to my previous conclusions. I’m taking a break from all of your messes. If you need my help, don’t contact me, and clean it up yourself. I’ll be back when I’m back—if I’m back. And don’t snoop!”

Hood jumped off the roof and landed on a fire escape, using parkour moves to slide down railings, and assassin-training to evade Batman’s close tail. Eventually, Batman gave up and Hood moved out of the shadows to mope back in his Bat-proof apartment.

•○•○•○•

Chasing Shadows (in Grocery Lines)

Red Hood angrily yanked the knots tight on the goons’ restraints. He knew the Untitled were in Gotham, but why? Besides the obvious (to kill him), of course.

A flash of movement caught his eye, and he followed it carefully. He snuck up behind the faux-Catwoman and hissed, “Who are you and why are you here?”

“…Catwoman, of course. You know cats, curiosity kills us.”

Convincing.

She acted similarly to Selina, but she was… off. Wrong inflection, similar mannerisms but they were too forced, the suit wasn’t pure black like Selina’s (it was black with grey accents), no purr…

“No, you’re not. Catwoman and I have a bi-monthly feline petting session where we complain about Batman, so I’ve spent enough time with the Sirens to know you’re just… Uncanny Valley Catwoman.” He waved his hand at faux-Catwoman’s entire existence.

She hissed and her ears and tail twitched.

Were…they real?

“Look, I don’t want to fight you, but you’re making it hard. Don’t insult 'short’ people. It’s not our fault you’re trees.”

“I’ll stop saying things like that when you stop looking at me as if you want to climb me like one,” he retorted.*

Wait, faux-Catwoman, Bat-adjacent, flirting on a roof… NO! I’m not becoming Bruce!!

“I’m here because I think some of my trainer’s enemies are after me,” faux-Catwoman blurted in an attempt to change the subject.

Ha, he could still see her cheeks and neck warming.

“Who?”

“They’re a creepy old magic group called the Untitled. Ironic, I know. I don’t know much about them besides the fact that they’re incredibly evil, and they want my Miraculous.”

“Are you All-Caste too?” He didn’t think they had anyone left besides himself, but if they were travelling while the Untitled attacked, maybe someone escaped…

“What?”

“Nevermind. I didn’t know the Untitled had more enemies than my sect. I’m the last member; the Untitled wiped the rest of us out. I can tell you more about the Untitled once I finish my patrol, in 20-ish minutes?”

Faux-Catwoman nodded. “The gargoyle across from Drake Industries work for you?”

“Sure. What should I call you, by the way?”

“Onyx. Ciao!”

Twenty-three minutes later, Red Hood grappled up to his gargoyle, finding Onyx sitting beside it, casually swinging her feet as if she wasn’t 40 stories up and untethered.

“So, you like Freddy too?”

“Freddy?”

“My thinking gargoyle. You’re new in town.”

Onyx sighed heavily. “No, you’re just the first person to notice I’m not Catwoman.”

Jason sensed she needed to talk more so he employed his most effective interrogation technique, silence, and she began talking a moment later.

“This is Paris all over again. Do you know about what happened in Paris?”

Jason nodded and pulled out a granola bar from his pocket, unwrapped it, and began eating as she continued.

“I was Ladybug. When I became Guardian of the Miraculous, I revoked my black cat’s ring. He’d been corrupted since he wasn’t a true black cat, and also from living in a house with the corrupted butterfly and broken peacock Miraculous. His dad was Hawkmoth, though he didn’t know that, and he was my boyfriend as a civilian. Turns out he was cheating on me with my bully per his father’s and my bully’s manipulation.

“I used the Miraculous of Multiplication to become Bugmouse and Catmouse, and when I got the Miraculous from Hawkmoth, I put them away.

"My uncle helped me move here to start afresh… in Paris, everywhere I went, there were memories… And most weren’t happy. When I came here, life was great… I didn’t think I wanted another boyfriend but I did get one… And now I’ve broken up with him. He was perfect, and I was waiting for the imperfections, but… It turned into Paris II: Electric Boogaloo. He would disappear randomly, and it seemed like he was waiting till I was busy so I wouldn’t notice. I followed him once because he’d left something behind, but it was like he knew I was tailing him and he lost me. He never introduced me to his family — he said they were semi-estranged, but I can’t help wondering…

"So I grabbed a Miraculous and became Onyx; beating up bad guys is better than therapy, y'know? I just didn’t expect to be traced by the Miraculous’s signature by the Untitled.

“And now Gotham is becoming Paris,” she finished with a heavy sigh. “At least to me.”

After another silence, she gasped quietly. “I’m sorry for monologuing on you, you just felt… like a comrade, maybe? You give off safe vibes, anyways.”

The more she talked, the more she solidified his suspicion that Onyx was Marinette.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that, Onyx.” He didn’t want to say anything else, partially out of guilt, and partially to stop himself from explaining everything and throwing himself on her mercy and begging her to take him back.

“So, the Untitled?” Onyx cleared her throat and straightened her shoulders, turning to see his (masked) face a bit better.

“Right. The Untitled are millennia-old evil sibling magicians who got their power from a well of evil. There are only eight members of the Untitled, but they are very old and powerful. They were enemies with the group who trained me, the All-Caste, and killed them all. They can’t be killed by normal means, but I have the All-Blades, which can defeat them. Do you have anything that can harm them, do you know?” Hood asked.

“I suspect the ‘Cataclysm’ power and perhaps ‘Clout’ or ‘Uproar’, and though I’d prefer not to test it in battle and find I’m wrong, I don’t know how else to confirm my hypothesis.”

“Then how about you stay in the background while I take on the Untitled with the All-Blades, and when there’s an opening you try your hypothesis?”

“I can do that. When are we going?” He asked her.

“Sooner rather than later, I think. When can you-”

“Okay, give me ten minutes,” Onyx interrupted. “I’ll get my Miraculous and meet you at the warehouse at the edge of Gotham, in the westernmost part of the Tricorner Yards. You can lure the Untitled there or something, right?”

“Yeah, I can do that. Ten minutes average or ten minutes on the dot?”

“On the dot. I have a very precise Miraculous.”

“…okay. See you in 10, Onyx.”

•○•○•○•

Ten minutes later, Onyx appeared in the shadows of the warehouse, where Jason was already in the middle of two Untitled, his glowing swords flickering in the dark and giving off an eerie vibe. The chill and sense of evil permeating the air didn’t help, either.

Onyx’s suit was now pure black, with thin stripes of red, magenta, and brown scattered around her suit.

“Cataclysm,” Onyx whispered and threw the ball of destruction at the Untitled on Jason’s rear.

The Untitled were now alerted to her presence and she moved swiftly from shadow to shadow. One began to approach her, and she instinctively activated the tiger’s power, ‘Clout’. The immense power from the magical punch knocked the being out, and Onyx turned her attention to the two Untitled who took the place of the previous duo already taken care of by Red Hood’s swords.

“Uproar!” she cried, hoping the power-disrupting ability would work on the beings as she tossed the circlet like a frisbee at them. Onyx breathed deeply in relief when she realised her powers did work on the Untitled and turned to face the remaining two, back to back with Hood.

They attacked at the same time, swirling black shadows with surprising speed, but Onyx had prepared a second Cataclysm and yelled “Jump!” at Hood as the Untitled reached them.

The Untitled almost crashed into each other and tried to stop themselves before they could collide. It was too late, however. Onyx and Hood jumped to the first level above them (superpowers handily granting them extra height), and watched as the same cataclysm turned both ghouls into nothing.

Hood exhaled jaggedly and turned to her. “You have some nice moves and those were some sick abilities!”

She grinned, a little winded from using three Miraculous at once, and replied, “You weren’t too bad yourself! Those swords sure are handy.”

“Yeah… Thank you for your help, Onyx. I couldn’t have taken them all down at once without you.”

She waved it off and swung down to the floor again. “It was my pleasure, I assure you. I’m thrilled one less group of weird power-hungry monsters is after my head.”

“If you want to team up for a night of regular vigilantism, that’d be cool. Or are you leaving, now that you’re safe again?”

“No, I’m here for another unforeseen amount of time,” she sighed, civilian life distracting her.

Hood didn’t want to have her dwelling on their breakup quite yet so he decided to distract her. “Hey, how’d you learn that flippy move you did back there? It was really cool.”

Onyx cheered up a little. “Really? Thanks. My uncle taught me, actually… I’d taken gymnastics for a couple years so I had a good base and then he built off that. I have a similar build to his daughter, so he taught both of us. I think you’d get along great… He does prefer a sword, but he’s still pretty handy with a gun.”

“Oh, maybe I’ve heard of him?”

“Uh…Slade Wilson?” Onyx asked hesitantly.

Deathstroke was Onyx’s uncle?!

“Your uncle is Deathstroke?!” he blurted.

Onyx chuckled guiltily. “Heh. Not by blood, my nonna just has a ton of connections with really strange people, and she introduced us a few years ago. He kinda adopted me, so I just call him uncle. Y'know, we only see each other a couple times a year. He likes to surprise me when he visits and keeps my skills sharp, so he usually makes sneak attacks. I’ve got a good eye for attempted assassinations thanks to it!” she said cheerily, rambling in her nervousness but somehow concerning him more.

Hood was a little more scared of Onyx after he learned that information.

Yeah, Talia al Ghul had adopted him, but she was less likely to come after Marinette just because she was dating her son. Also, he knew her.

Slade was protective of his children, even if he did nothing else as their father, and he was unpredictable.

Hood shivered and headed home chilled, looking over his shoulder a couple more times than he usually did.

•○•○•○•

Jason wandered aimlessly down the aisles, collecting items he remembered he needed and tossing them in his basket. Bread, yeast for when he was feeling less sad and went back to making his own, milk, oats, soap, bandages and ointment, coffee, chicken, ice cream.

He headed to the only checkout lane open and put his purchases on the conveyor belt. The bored and tired-looking young adult started soullessly scanning them while Jason rolled his eyes at a gossip rag loudly proclaiming Wayne family "news” on its cover.

He reached for his wallet and spun back to face the shadows. Slim, black hair, shadowy…Marinette?

He looked closer and grimaced at Cass.

“What are you doing here?” he signed, annoyance clear in his body language.

“Saw you going by and you looked sad, so I followed you. No one else knows,” she replied.

He frowned harder. “I’m fine. Just tired. And I told B not to contact me. I’ll talk to whomever of you I want when I want to, and I don’t want to talk to any of you right now,” he signed emphatically. “Thanks for checking on me, but I don’t need it.”

He turned back to the slightly bewildered-looking cashier, who had only seen him making gestures at the shadows, and rolled his eyes harder. Stupid Bats, always making him look foolish.

He grimace-smiled politely and handed over the cash, grabbing his bags and leaving immediately, feeling even more foolish for thinking Cass had been Marinette.

Marinette wouldn’t be near him willingly for a while. Clearly he needed to do something about that.

He’d been feeling more foolish in the past couple days than in the past couple years combined.

Marinette had told him she was a temp hero, Multimouse, and stayed in contact with her friends, who had been temporary and official heroes. She clearly still cared about them and knew they were heroes, yet didn’t act any differently. He could’ve told her his secrets, she would’ve understood and kept them, but he didn’t want to hurt her with them.

Well, if she was still friends with official heroes, she’d obviously weighed the risks and decided it didn’t matter. He should have let her choose in their relationship, too.

Marinette had good judgement (the only strike he had against that evidence was her agreeing to date him in the first place, but then again he’d always been a good actor out of necessity) and he trusted it, although he hadn’t really shown that.

Tired of waffling between should he talk to her/should he leave her in peace and never show his face in front of her again, he finally decided.

PART TWO

[gloryseized]

ooc;; i've started watching the totk cutscene movie and some thoughts below the cut (spoilers obviously)

Tulin is baby and I love them so much

also the same VA as Marinette which is a weird crossover to 'hear'

and justice for sean chiplock! i'm glad he came back to voice the rito ancestor

goron stuff is eh. it's there

and i've just started zora stuff with sidon and * fans self * sidon. please. I've read some spoilers that are non-cutscene related for sidon but yeah, the chemistry is still there with link. just saying

zelda is the cryptid gf to link's cryptid bf we love to see it

I'm waiting to form any firm headcanons until i finish watching the cutscenes but ahhhhhhhhh

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

The calm before the storm

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/oPifYTx by SageRivers In which a Demi-god daughter of Hades and Persephone finds herself entangled with the miraculous and the batfamily. Belladonna has been trough a lot in her lifetime, so what is a little more excitement. Moving to Gotham was not what she was expecting, but it is welcome. She feels more at home there, but she finds out that the city is sentient and an eldritch horror. There are many timeline inconsistencies, bad people, and weird tacos. So throw Belladonna, a sentient city, timeline inconsistencies, and an unknowing cryptid together and you get absolute fucking chaos. A story that is actually filled with plot and a lot of trauma for a character. It turns into a beautiful masterpiece known as fanfiction. This is my first book on AO3 but I'm trying so please be nice. Words: 5792, Chapters: 2/?, Language: English Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug, Batman - All Media Types, Justice League - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage Categories: Multi Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Damian Wayne, Titus | Damian Wayne's Dog, Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Barbara Gordon, Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain, Talia al Ghul, Lila Rossi, Alya Césaire, Nino Lahiffe, Akuma Class, Percy Jackson, Nico di Angelo, Will Solace, Hades (Percy Jackson), Persephone (Percy Jackson), Hecate (Percy Jackson), Nyx (Percy Jackson), Poseidon (Percy Jackson), Original Akumatized Character(s), Original Female Character(s), Original Male Character(s), Alfred Pennyworth, Other Character Tags to Be Added, Duke Thomas, Chloé Bourgeois, Kagami Tsurugi, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Luka Couffaine Relationships: To Be Decided, Batfamily Members (DCU) & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Batfamily Members (DCU) & Original Character(s), Marinette Dupain-Cheng & Original Character(s), Other Relationship Tags to Be Added Additional Tags: Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Protective Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Bella is mute, Damian Wayne is Robin, Damian Wayne is Bad at Feelings, Damian Wayne is Bad at Communicating, Language Barrier, Bruce Wayne is a Bad Parent, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Jason Todd is Bad at Feelings, Good Sibling Jason Todd, Good Sibling Damian Wayne, Tim Drake is Red Robin, Tim Drake is Bad at Self-Care, Tim Drake is Bad at Feelings, Tim Drake is Not Okay, Tim Drake is a Good Sibling, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Dick Grayson is Bad at Feelings, Dick Grayson is a victim, Dick Grayson is a Better Parent Than Bruce Wayne, OOC characters, Alfred Pennyworth is the Best, Stephanie brown is not good in this, Barbara Gordon is Oracle, Good Older Sibling Barbara Gordon, Bruce Wayne Bashing, they need therapy but won't go, cassandra cain is a good sibling, the gods are more like the myths sorta, Gotham is sentient, Gotham city is an eldritch horror, tim drake is a menace to society read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/oPifYTx