#hero scout marinette

[mlbigbang]

2023 Marichat & Ladrien Fic Rec List

It’s the end of the year which means it’s finally time for the ML Big Bang’s yearly fic rec lists! We’re really excited to bring you our contributors’ favourite fics started this year to supply you with plenty of reading material while you’re waiting for the Big Bang fics’ publication in January.

Boulangérella by @aidanchaser

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

It's a creative Cendrillon retelling with the kwamis as fay, Adrien as the kingdom's prince and most wanted thief, and Marinette as the seamstess and superhero partner stealing Adrien's heart twice over.

Scary, like a little black purring kitten by @h-sunnywet-d

The calendar just turned into October, and Chat Noir has to make sure that his Good Friend Marinette appreciates the new season wholeheartadly. It sure won't backfire on the long run.

Just An Ordinary Girl by @kasienda

Chat Noir and the other heroes are in a bit of trouble, and Ladybug wanted just one weekend off! But luckily they know someone who can help. Someone who is just an ordinary girl…

you will never sleep alone (i'll love you) by @ladyofthenoodle

Marinette had saved up for months to be able to afford this vacation. Not only that, but she’d spent months trying to convince herself that it was okay to even take a vacation, that Monarch was really and truly gone. Which was why Tikki was at home with Alya, so that Marinette could actually relax and enjoy the plush amenities the hotel had to offer, such as a bed that looked like it cost five times her monthly salary. Or, she would be able to enjoy it, if she wasn’t standing in the middle of the villa she’d booked over a month ago, fighting for the bed with freaking Chat Noir, of all people.

May I introduce myself, Your Highness? by @chocoluckchipz

Whether picking up a stray animal off the streets or saving a dying child at the market, Adrien had always strived to be the best version of himself. Truly, he would've been the perfect candidate to be snatched up by a kwami, were he an orphan, dying somewhere remote after a short life full of nothing but suffering and misery. Yet as it stood, the sole heir to the French throne had little to complain about. Apart from, perhaps, a complete absence of a love life. That is until a mysterious girl, wandering around his gardens at night, catches his attention.

This fic has it all - Ladrien, royalty, fairy tale elements, magic and disguises! It's an enthralling read and one of my absolute favorite fics from 2023.

The Perfect Date by @peachcitt

“I dare you to ask this special someone on the date you just described.” “I totally will,” Adrien says with confidence, looking into the camera and nodding resolutely. “Scout’s honor.” He holds up the kitten as if swearing an oath. There is a space of silence. “Right now,” Hanna says. Adrien stares at her. “I’m daring you to ask that person out right now,” she says. or adrien has a little slip up during a live interview, and ladybug hears. for the golden hour zine!!

reserved by @luckyyoyo

“Don’t you think,” he coughed, a blush creeping up his cheeks, “this kind of thing should be.. reserved for my girlfriend?” He gestured to their poses. A squeak came from her mouth and her knees buckled, but surprisingly still had no struggle keeping Adrien up. “You know, you could always be my girlfriend.” Ladybug, saviour of Paris and local damsel-in-distress Adrien Agreste, suggests he gets a fake girlfriend to ward off his zombie fans. While lovingly holding him in her arms, of course. Adrien, far too comfortable in her arms, suggests it could be her. Introducing your superheroine pretend-girlfriend to your strict, uninterested father is a bit harder than Adrien realises.

Displaced by @kasienda

Adrien loosened his tie and dropped his suit jacket unceremoniously across the back of the sofa that was already cluttered with unopened boxes, mail, and unfolded laundry. He really should have listened to Nino and hired a maid or cleaning person of some sort. But well, he still had a secret to keep, and keeping that secret was more important to him than ever. He moved to his bedroom on autopilot without turning on the light, intending to collapse into bed immediately. But when he tried to slip into his space, he found it was already occupied. He flipped his phone flashlight on towards the ceiling to light the room in a soft glow. In his wife’s place, Ladybug lay sprawled diagonally across the bed.

here comes the rush before we touch (come a little closer) by @ladyofthenoodle

When an akuma attacks during Adrien Agreste's beach themed photoshoot on a dreary day in Paris, Ladybug is on the scene immediately. Unfortunately, with a glimpse of Adrien's alluring abdomen and without her partner, it's not long before she's hit, and Adrien with her—but maybe Ladybug can afford a little vacation with the boy she loves. He's certainly not complaining.

On Borrowed Time by @miabrown007

The life of Paris’ Golden Boy is all shine and glamour; blindingly bright smiles, neverending parties, bargaining for just a shard of time for being happy. But that’s alright; Adrien has long given up the false hope that someone will get it. That is precisely why it’s a spectacle when she does, when she barges in like a hurricane in crimson and turns his life upside down. Heaven knows, it’s time for the wind of change.

[ilikekidsshows]

Many people said "CN is not a good fighter' and I just realized how the narrative really make it looks like that's really the case despite of him being supposed to be a fencer champion and know martial arts and I was?? Baffled?? He even beaten by Scarabella despite being more experienced in fighting than Alya?? Either this show favor the girls more to the point it want to show that boys are incompetent or the boys are really incompetent in universe idk

---

The Scarabella thing is a combination of three things, at least, in my view, and some are problems that were always there, while others relate more to the retool. 1) The writers are pushing this being a girl power show so the girls always have to be smarter and stronger than the guys. You can see a bit of this in the preretool show where the boy classmates are, to be frank, already depicted as a bit more stupid than the girl classmates. Compare what the boys get up to when they gather together (throw a frat party) with what the girls get up to when they gather together (fashion shows, planting trees, hatching get Adrien quick schemes). 2) Cat Noir/Adrien is too popular so his role in episodes and importance to the narrative have to be diminished as much as they can while still keeping him around enough for his toys to sell. I’m actually starting to think “and Cat Noir” was a purposeful decision to make the show more marketable that Astruc then didn’t want to commit to. 3) Ladybug has to be the greatest at everything ever, regardless who is being Ladybug at the moment. Ladybug can’t lose to Cat Noir because she’s the better/more important/stronger hero.

Please ignore how Ladybug’s “fighting ability” in most episodes with actual villains is running away while Cat Noir fights them head on. Please ignore how Ladybug’s strategy for physically strong or fighter type Akumas is to have Cat Noir fight them while she comes up with a plan. Please ignore every single time there’s a horde of enemies, outside of Rena Rouge’s introduction episode, where Cat Noir was worfed to make her entrance more impressive when she saves him (wow look, another pattern), Cat Noir is the one who takes them out. Please ignore how Cat Noir utterly destroyed Miracle Queen’s elite fighting force with the most broken superpowers at their disposal.

Like, before I was done with the show and fandom, I tried to avoid saying I think Cat Noir is the better fighter. I said it was a “matter of taste” instead of “Ladybug gets handed the most important powers and the writers obviously favor her and her fighting style so this comparison is incredibly unfair on Cat Noir”. But, even then, I have always thought that Cat Noir’s fight scenes are just more often actual fights versus Ladybug’s super planning skills making her the most important character ever. Miraculous leans into trickery in fights, because that’s Marinette’s strength and lets her be “the best in a fight”, but in terms of actual fighting ability, Cat Noir just shows more actual moves and strength and tactical thinking in a moment. In a battle shounen series, Adrien would be the better fighter, and Marinette would go through a training arc before she can best him.

We also have a bunch of evidence that Cat Noir is physically stronger than Ladybug from the OG show, but I could never say that straight-up, because, even before the retool made discussing this show into a minefield, Marinette stans were a fucking annoyance on the fandom who’d dogpile anyone who said anything that could be construed as “Marinette salt”, like, “I think Cat Noir is physically stronger and her wins are based on strategy and not strength”. The reason this statement would rub people the wrong way is because Marinette is always needed for the win condition, so she has to be better, even though Sailor Moon is the worst fighter among the Sailor Scouts and still has the purification powers. There’s also the sexisim of the girl character needing trickery to win, while the guy wins in honest hand to hand more easily. After all, the Miraculous fandom’s logic is that pointing out obvious writer biases means you actually hold those biases.

In a fight between any type of Ladybug and Cat Noir, Cat Noir will lose because it’s Ladybug. In addition, the boys are provably depicted as more incompetent than the girls, especially when they're shown doing something side by side. But, if we look at actual fighting accomplishments, Cat Noir has more impressive fight scenes under his belt than Ladybug, because the people making this show are actually pretty sexist in what they actually show their girl characters doing.

[adhdswagcompetition]

and your contestants for the adhd swag competition are...

under the cut because i think this might be a bit long

Luz Noceda from the Owl House!

Mabel Pines from Gravity Falls!

Michelangelo from Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Kel from Omori!

Sonic from Sonic!

Arataka Reigen from Mob Psycho 100!

Reki Kyan from Sk8 the Infinity!

Percy Jackson from Percy Jackson!

Leo Valdez from Heroes of Olympus! (... it IS a separate series it counts)

Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece!

Sokka from Avatar: The Last Airbender!

Joseph Joestar from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure!

Ryan Akagi from Infinity Train!

Marinette Dupain-Cheng from Miraculous Ladybug!

Scout from Team Fortress 2!

Nemona from Pokemon!

Athena Cykes from Ace Attorney!

Pearl Houzuki from Splatoon!

Bart Allen from... uh... DC!

Gregg Lee from Night in the Woods!

Ryuji Sakamoto from Persona 5!

Lightbulb from Inanimate Insanity!

Four from Battle for Dream Island!

Sprig Plantar from Amphibia!

Miko Kubota from Glitch Techs!

Jesper Fahey from Six of Crows!

George Beard from Captain Underpants!

Moth Flight from Warrior Cats!

Evelyn Quan-Wang from Everything Everywhere All At Once!

Bart Simpson from The Simpsons!

Jack Russell from Bluey!

Gretel Grant-Gomez from Hamster and Gretel!

and...

You! From Real Life! (hand pointing meme)

some (most) were by popular vote, and a few got in because canonical.

Matchups to be shared soon. (... after I sleep.)

Luz was the most voted, with 22 votes, compared to Mabel and Michelangelo's 12!

(the lowest was 4 and 2)

[princess-of-the-corner]

Say, recall that post on how Season1 to 3 could be done with the revised Butterfly? I realize one could get the same general plot beats out of season 4 with it & the 12 Kwami too... Well kinda.

Here's how I'd do it if I had to stick to some things bit not others XD

Season 3: As before, Kim was Tiger King & Chat Blanc was more like a prophecy. Also Gabriel steals the Miraculous that weren't being used, Mouse & Peacock.

Miracle Queen is slightly altered to show more sympathy for Chloe, either with her being an Akuma kid, so Gabriel forcibly Akumtizes her, or showing how unstable her head-space is.

Rather than declaring for Hawk Moth, Chloe just tries to run but its seen as an admission of guilt by the heroes who don't ear her out.

Season 4: Marinette & Adrien's whole arc is grappling with issues of trust, forgiveness, looking back and realizing mistakes sometimes in time other times too late & the increasingly crushing weight of their duties. Overall mostly the same-ish, the differences come from the villains and can be broken into 4 quarters.

Quarter 1: Truth & Lies is one episode, Gabriel has been subtly negging Kagami & having Lila through one means or another stoke paranoia in Luka. He uses Mullo to duplicate his Akuma & transforms them both at the same time, as well as giving them Familiars. He uses the Peaock to transmute their physical forms to make them more dangerous or hard to hit.

This nearly wins him the day, Marinette has to pull on most reserve heroes & uses a combo of Multi-Mouse & Trixx to protect her identity, which coincides with her having to reveal her identity to Alya to get the job done. The big reason he loses is the Kwami didn't tell him that while adults can use the powers more than once, they can still be hurt overdoing it, so Gabriel collapses from the strain & is pissed.

Stuck on more subtle methods for the next quarter he persists in trying to low key undermine Kagami, Chloe, harass the other temp heroes & uses Lila as his on the ground scout. She's living alone in a new apartment now with her mother thinking she's at a fancy boarding school & she's clearly... struggling, but doubling down thinking she can somehow 'win'.

The other big shift if Chloe's head-space is less pro Hawk Moth and more bitter cynic about the heroes. Sabrina notes she thinks 'something' happened on Miracle Queen Day but Chloe can't/wont talk about it.

Sole Queen happens here with her trying to be a good big sister, IE:

"Dressing and acting this way is expected, this is how we avoid mothers wrath, don't fall for fathers sad dog act give him an inch & he takes a mile. Our classmates have no sympathy for people who aren't doormats & if you want to resist Hawk Moth you have to be strong!"

The pressure she puts on Zoe is a microcosm of the pressure she's under & Zoe snaps. Then gets accepted by the class which Chloe has mixed vibes on at best. Their relationship persists a little longer n that Adrien & Chloe "I want this to work but not on your terms" and Chloe's "I want this to work but I need more from you than you give."

Quarter 2: Alya has been helping Marinette cover her identity, serving as substitute Ladybug and the "new" fox.

Lila continues stalking & sabotage. Chloe's head space continues to deteriorate, while others like Kagami also show issues they get sufficient support that it doesn't break them.

Queen Bananas is actually a major episode two one scene. When the movie is being discussed in class, Chloe is absent. It cuts to Gabriel's Manor where a very frazzled Chloe is being given a manipulative spiel about how "This movie is for you, to finally say your piece and have people hear you."

When she leaves she sees a similarly frazzled Lila being shooed away, "You are not meant to come here in daylight" and the two hair a brief stare off before looking away and pretending they didn't see the other. Besides that, when Gabriel sabotages 'her' movie and gives it to the class in secret, Chloe's breakdown reaches peak.

This is also where she realizes Gabriel is Hawk Moth intensifying her lashing out at Adrien, "Were you in on this!? Of course you don't understand you never listen!" and as Queen Banana she is extra unhinged. Still, nefore she transformed she was shown scribbling "Gabriel = Hawk Moth" on her arm.

Quarter 3: Lila has been stalking Alya and while nothing is confirmed, (To Gabriel) he does know she's still in Ladybug's confidence. Cue all that noise.

Alya almost gives in, but doesn't solely cos she knows Marinette's identity. IE, she would have gone Miracle Queen for her family too, but she had more reason to trust Ladybug.

Despite the win, this is where Alya has to publicly quit being Ladybug's ally because she's endangering her family.

& worse? The fox is missing.

Lila has it, but Hawk Moth doesn't know.

At the end of this quarter Gabriel is back to using all three Miraculous baby!

Penal Team is the culmination of Chloe's anger at the heroes, isolation from support & rejection by others all manifesting in a massive:

"You want a monster, I'll give you a monster like you've never seen!"

This also breaks between Chloe & Sabrina; potentially on purpose. The battle is hard and hectic & Ladybug has to call on many heroes to win & they ultimately end up in a stalemate.

Chloe's anger is to uncontrolled to articulate anything beyond vagaries abut being left exposed, how she thinks Hawk Moth will win, s just trying to survive, ETC. When looked back on it makes a major point but in the moment it gets a:

"This is why you were never fit to be a hero!"

Which ends up leaving her so depressed, along with the stalemate that she forcibly kicks Hawk Moth out of her head and just... Quits.

Lila comes to recruit her at the end of it but Chloe is looking at the broken glasses and smirking, stopping Lila in her tracks by asking if she wants a jib.

Quarter 4: Adrien is still being sent on some kind of tour, or Felix has some kind of prank (Seemingly) planned for the event. Either way Marinette needs to get in to see him for sentimental reasons like passing on a gift from class or to stop the "Prank" (the whole thing with the rings)

She is surprised that Jean seemed leery to add her to the staff when Zoe used her Chloe impersonation though. As well as confused there's another "new staffer" Its Chloe in a bird mask. Yet a confident, swaggering Chloe is also attending the party, whaaaat?

Yeah its Lila using Glamour and make up to pass as Chloe.

Meanwhile Chloe breaks into Gabriel's office, finds the secret entryway and basically holds reveling the truth or Emilie's life hostage in a very. "Yes I'll go down but I will take you down with me" way. Forcing Gabriel to surrender the Peacock "He used it least so he's likely to give it up" and swear to leave her loved one's alone.

He bitterly does so before Akumatizing himself to try and get it back.

Lila gets a message telling her to leave & that Chloe will be leaving Paris that night if she wants to come. Lila is unsure caught between escape or finding a way to do more than 'run and hide', but either trust Ladybug enough to jus tell her this stuff. So she gets caught & Gabriel realizes she had the Fox but she loses it.

The episode ends on a disguised Chloe getting a hotel room in London, having used the transmutation power to make gold.

The big finale is basically built around a major scheme of Gabriel's.

Like canon in that respect but also him offering Lila a "Chance at redemption". Which comes with incredible danger!

She manages to play her part well, in part by figuring out Ladybug's identity and does actually steal all her Miraculous, including Tikki.

Buuuut she doesn't trust Gabriel and when he does indeed turn on her she manages to slip away with Tikki & maybe one other.

She returns it to Marinette & gives her a brief summary of, "Hawk Moth is Gabriel, he messed with out heads, betrayed us, and was always going to throw us away, & I don't know what to do anymore."

Exactly what state she's in when its all over, or if its even her who makes the delivery or a Kwami she gave the Miraculous too, or if she stays in Paris are all unclear. The underlying theme is she got dragged in too deep and taken advantage of by a adult manipulator. & that she didn't think anyone would believe her or care once she knew how bad it was. So rather than trying to get out (As Choe did) she tried to turn the game on him and uuh, it didn't pan out.

This episode would also likely involve Adrien also discovering the truth about Gabriel & basically needing to run like hell, but he can't contact Ladybug about it in time.

Season ends on Marinette & Adrien revealing their identities as they resolve to continue the fight.

Chloe is shown watching Hawk Moth's dramatic "I will soon win!" proclamation with Doosoo insinuating she'll be making a comeback in Season 5.

Not sure what would happen there, but yeah. that's a general idea anyway XD

let! Chloé! Go! Feral!

[ggomos-maribat]

Soul-Stitching: The Heir and the Guardian

Masterlist

Chapter 6: fight and surrender | AO3

CW: the Order of Guardians appearing, mentions of death, wanting to kill, blood, violence, references to childhood abuse and trauma

Damian holds Marinette in his arms for the night as they lie in bed. He'll die first before he lets her go again. There's relief and comfort in burying his nose in her hair and running his thumb over her  shoulder. 

“The Order rebuilt themselves over the years with the handful left. They want the Guardian, so they're planning to hold Gotham hostage,” Marinette yawns. “Something like that.” 

His hold around her tightens. “Why not let us handle it?”

If they do, he'll skin every one of their enemies alive before they can even look at Marinette. 

She snorts. “They have a supply of miraculous-adjacents. Mostly brooch ones to help them make a sentimonster army. I don't think you bats and birds can handle that crisis very well.” 

“Will you be alright then?” He says softly. 

“Mhmm. We have a plan. Are you coming with us?” 

Damian thinks for a minute. He doesn't have combat experience with miraculous magic, and Marinette's team seems to have solid chemistry with each other based on what she has told him. If he gets involved, he might just end up interfering.

“I will return to Gotham as well, but I'm not sure how I can help.” 

She laughs. “It's not too different from slashing bad guys.” 

“I know but what if I disrupt your plan?”

“If I propose that you hold off the Justice League, can you do that?” 

“Of course.” 

He looks down at her, brushing stray hairs away from her face. Her eyes are closed but she's still tracing her fingers on top of his chest. He never expected to let someone in so easily but this is Marie. She's the one he went through hell with, the one who took blows for his mistakes, the one that has been haunting his dreams since she died. 

She has lived her own life in France, even became a hero, and yet she never forgot about him. He's happy she never forgot. 

Slowly, Damian moves his head to plant a small kiss on the crown of her head. 

---

Marinette stands at the top of Wayne Tower, tugging on her billowing ceremonial robes for the ritual. On the concrete, she traces over an intricate Guardian symbol with chalk, which is to be overlaid with the real material. A transformed Fei stands at her side, one hand over her earpiece. 

“Chat says it's a three-kilometer radius,” Fei relays. “Nothing too far out; they're moving as one like you predicted.” 

Marinette nods. She sent Adrien to scout around Gotham city and detect the activity of the brooch-adjacents using the Peacock miraculous. Her own power can sense them within a certain limit, but she isn't certain where the Order is scattered. “Let's begin,” she announces, pointing one hand straight upwards at the sky. 

Marinette calls upon shell-ter, which manifests a green barrier around a part of the city, capturing the distance of three kilometers. That way, combat is restricted in the city—the civilians (those without miraculous magic) can vacate outwards, but it is untouchable from the outside. Luka and Kagami will survey the barrier's outer perimeter while Adrien and Fei will stay inside and make sure Marinette's untouched during the ritual. 

The Cleansing Ritual is something she has picked up from the temple, though the exact method of performing it is something she owes to the previous Guardian's memories. It will break down the Order's defenses first; having the capability to remove miraculous magic from adjacents within its proximity. After eliminating their weapon, she’ll deal with the sentimonsters they have already created.

 Fei steps forward to hand her a thick book. “This is all we could find from the temple.” 

Marinette glances down. It is an incomplete copy of the Grimoire; nothing too special but it should be enough for the ritual. She was hoping for some spare adjacents but the temple has nothing of the sort anymore. “Thanks, Fei, this will do.”

She summons her cataclysm and crushes the book into heavy ashes, which she uses to trace over the symbol. It glows just faintly, signaling the effectivity, and she settles on the center. The most important thing is that the ritual is not disturbed, or else she’ll have to start all over again.

“I'll stick close by to fend them off,” Fei assures her softly.

“If it comes to worst, just come tell me.”

“But I thought—”

“It doesn't matter. You can interrupt me.” She doesn't know how they made their sentimonsters or if they will be harder to deal with than the creatures they fought before. She only knows that the adjacent-born monsters don’t operate by amok—once they are destroyed, that was that. But Marinette isn't willing to take any chances, especially if her team is in danger.

Marinette wipes her hand on her sleeve. Like Chat, she bears the power of destruction at the tip of her fingers. If she can, she would take the Order out with her own touch, but she obviously can't in that situation, where civilian lives are at stake.

After bidding her goodbyes, Fei leaps away to take her position. From her pocket, Marinette pulls out the thread that is tied to her senti-double's existence. Now, for the distraction. 

She crushes it in her palm with the power of destruction.

Damian returns to the cave, breathless. Only two bats seem to be holed up in there, but the youngest Wayne wastes no time starting to explain roughly about Marinette's background. 

Tim and Cass look at each other before the former speaks, “We know.” 

Damian stops. “You know?” 

“Hood and Oracle investigated on their own. They sent in a report to the JL hours ago,” Tim turns to the computer. “Speaking of the JL, they're a mess right now. Apparently, Marinette disappeared from her cell . . .” 

“She's here. In Gotham.” 

“She's what? ” 

“You will not tell Father,” Damian demands. “Send a message to Oracle not to alert the League if she catches her here. There are members of the Order of Guardians attacking tonight, and Marinette will be facing them herself.” 

“W—what?” Tim clicks on a screen to see a green barrier materializing over downtown Gotham. “Is this what it is? We should—” 

“Do nothing,” says Damian. “They have a plan.” 

“Dangerous,” Cass pipes up, frowning. 

“It will be more dangerous if we or the Justice League interfere.” Damian shakes his head. “We cannot let them compromise this. Both sides will be operating by magic as well; it's best not to get caught up in it.” 

Damian's fingertips are cold, hoping that nobody has alerted Bruce yet. He needs to make them understand that he was desperate—that he was asking not as Robin, but as their brother. 

The screen shifts, showing what looks like an army marching down the streets. The sentimonsters have taken every kind of form: human-like, giant crawling insects, mechanical figures, fanged creatures. A collective chill passes over the three as they think that this must be what Paris has endured over the years. 

“I sent a word to Babs but . . . are we really sitting here doing nothing?” Tim asks. 

Damian purses his lips, remembering Marinette's words to him. “We can help protect the barrier and evacuate civilians. But we must stay out of the fight.” 

Cass nods and disappears into the shadows to collect the other vigilantes. Meanwhile, Damian hovers near the screen, swallowing down his worry. They watch through the cameras as a white ring of light radiates from the top of Wayne Tower. 

---

Kagami knows a thing or two about being restrained. She has suffered under the tortuous rule of her own mother, forbidden to do this or that, and for years she hasn’t realized just how caged she was. She hasn’t seen a mirror of her own life until she met Adrien, who suffered under the same predicament. Although she is already somewhat free and exploring the world on her own, she knows she can’t forget the memory of her shackles. 

So when she first heard about Marinette’s past, she was livid—this is Marinette, the same person who once taught her about freedom and she hadn’t known how much the Guardian suffered in her youth. After Marinette told them, there were things about her that started to make sense: how she’s somehow a natural at fencing despite claiming that she has never touched a foil before, how she sometimes stares too long at her arms, how she knows an akuma is nearby before it becomes fully visible. 

That is why Kagami has vowed to become Marinette’s support, like Adrien, Fei and Luka are. 

“There are sentimonsters on my side, Ryuko.” Luka’s voice crackles from her earpiece. “Bats incoming too.” 

Kagami lowers her sword and scowls at the group of sentimonsters on the street below the ledge she��s perched on. They’re more grotesque than the ones they had in Paris. Marinette has warned them that not all the monsters will be captured inside the barrier, but Kagami didn’t expect that there will be this many of them. 

She stares off at the wispy light from inside the barrier. At least there are less of them that can attack Marinette during the ritual. 

“On my side as well,” she reports back. “There are many, but I can deal with them.” 

“Mmkay, be careful, my aria.” 

Kagami jumps down to intercept the bunch trying to claw their way into the barrier. She feels only a bit of resistance while slashing them with her weapon, but she figures that their strength is in numbers. Since they’re made only from brooch-adjacents, they should be weaker than normal sentimonsters. But she can tell they’re still dangerous for anyone who doesn’t wield a miraculous. 

She sidesteps and punctures another centipede-like sentimonster. They easily dissolve into nothing as long as her swing is lethal. She can’t quite pinpoint yet where they’re coming from but more hordes are appearing faster than she can eliminate them. 

She grits her teeth, debating if she should use the Dragon miraculous’ powers. Transforming into any of the elements can take out many sentimonsters, but using the power too much—though she doesn’t have a time limit anymore—can drain her own energy. If the sentimonsters can easily multiply, that effort is futile. 

“Hey kid, need some help?” A voice asks from above her. 

Kagami whips around. A vigilante is crouching behind a gargoyle on the building closest to her. His helmet, guns, and leather jacket tells her (if she remembers correctly) that this one is Red Hood.

She ignores him and continues attacking. Meddling bats. Apparently, Marinette has allowed the Robin boy to help them out, but she can’t see how they can be anything more than a liability in the miraculous-driven battle. It seems that Red Hood doesn’t understand this at all and comes down to fight with her. 

“Shouldn’t you be rescuing civilians?” Kagami dodges out of the way and decapitates a wolf-like sentimonster. 

“That’s all done.” Hood procures a knife from his belt and throws it at another sentimonster . . . 

Only for it to bounce and clatter onto the ground. 

The vigilante lets out a slew of colorful swears. “Normal weapons don’t work on them?!” 

“Obviously.” Kagami rolls her eyes. 

“Uhh, then how—” Red Hood stumbles back when one of the monsters pounce on top of him, but Kagami drives her sword into it before it can maul him. Her breaths quicken as she tries to keep up with the pace of their overwhelming strikes. 

While she’s jumping from place to place, she keeps an eye on Red Hood who’s now attempting to shoot at the monsters. She notes his agility and swiftness—he’s good enough jumping out of the way and keeping himself uninjured. The only problem is that his attacks aren’t working. 

Kagami lets out a deep sigh. 

“Here, use this.” She tosses her sword to the vigilante, who catches it with surprise. 

“I can use this?” he quizzes. “What about you?” 

“I can fight them without my sword.” The important thing is that you can make yourself useful now. “Do not worry about me.” 

To prove her point, she activates Water Dragon and transforms into a wave that drowns several sentimonsters at once. She changes from one element to the next, blowing a strong gust of wind and then finishing off another horde with a bout of lightning. Luckily, Red Hood seems to have experience with the sword as he’s able to take down the sentimonsters with the Dragon miraculous weapon. 

Kagami leaps up onto a window ledge to get a better look at the situation. The numbers are dwindling, but there are still a lot of them. She glances at the Wayne Tower again. The ritual must be nearly completed—then the miraculous-adjacents can’t be used anymore. 

“Hey!”

She turns to see that Red Hood has grappled up to the next ledge. 

“Oracle’s asking if she can connect your comms to ours.” Red Hood taps the side of his helmet. “We haven’t told the Bat or the JL either. We’re here to help.” 

Kagami wipes off the sweat from her forehead. “I will ask the others.” She turns on her earpiece. “Red Hood is with me. They’re asking—” 

“If they can connect to our line.” It’s Fei who answers her. “Yes, I heard. Luka got the same request from Red Robin. I don’t know if we can trust them right now. The ritual—” 

“Let them.” Another voice buzzes in. 

Kagami inhales sharply. Marinette. 

Adrien chimes in. “M’lady. But the ritual—” 

“Is finished,” Marinette says. “It’s okay, let them connect. They can help; if you can’t let them borrow your weapons, I give my permission to have them use the miraculi.” 

Fei audibly gasps. “What?!” 

Kagami surveys the street. They do need the manpower at this time. She knows the vigilantes can easily connect to their comms, since their line can link up normally to non-miraculous ones. The problem is having strangers wield miraculi for the first time. 

“It’s okay,” Marinette says gently. “Kagami, Luka, finish off the remaining ones outside the barrier first. Take the vigilantes with you and convene at one location. Fei, please portal to the outside and help them in. Give them any miraculous you see fit—Adrien please help in choosing. I think the Order is nearby—I’ll join you as soon as I can.” 

“. . . Yes, okay. Fine.” 

“Got that, M’lady. Cool, I get to hand out miraculi this time!” 

“Copy that.” 

“We can meet up at the park,” Kagami suggests. “We’ll finish up in ten.” 

She hears a second voice above them—a vigilante clad in blue and black who has begun bantering with Red Hood. “Make that five,” she corrects herself. 

---

Fei can tell that Adrien can sense her hesitance. She looks up at him after he takes her hand in his. “You've got the miraculi?” he asks. 

She nods, holding up a small satchel where the Miraculous Box is safely kept. 

“Are you sure we can trust them?” Her hand hovers the satchel. 

“If Marinette trusts them, then we can trust them,” he squeezes her hand. “Anyways, if they try to take the miraculi for themselves we can easily snatch them up again.” 

She cannot argue with that logic—they're handing out the miraculi just so that the vigilantes can fight the sentimonsters. They will have no problem using the weapons, but they are inexperienced at handling a miraculous in general. That gap alone will make it easy for them to take back the miraculi if the jewels are not handed back willingly. Not that she hopes it will ever come to that.

Fei carefully takes the glasses from the box and unifies the Prodigious and Horse miraculous to create a portal. She peeks at the swarms of sentimonsters still lingering around the streets below them. “What about . . .?” 

“Mari will take care of them,” Adrien— Chat— tells her softly and nudges her forward. 

They traverse through the portal, reaching the agreed meetup point outside the barrier. In that moment, a crackle rings from Fei's earpiece, followed by an unfamiliar voice. 

“Aha! I've got it,” the voice says. “This is Oracle. Can everyone hear me?” 

“I think you are connected to our line now,” Kagami's voice answers. 

The group is gathered as agreed. Fei tears her eyes away from them and looks expectantly at Chat Noir, waiting for his instructions about the miraculi. If it were up to her, the miraculi shouldn't be in her care in place of the Guardian; the Parisians know more about the jewels than she can ever read from the Grimoire. But she knows Adrien still has a heavy heart about taking that responsibility, so she trusts him to choose the miraculi to hand off at least. 

“Hmm,” Chat taps on his chin with a clawed finger. “Mouse, Bee, Horse, Peacock.”

She freezes. “I'm sorry, the Peacock? ” 

“What? We can fight fire with fire in this case, right?” 

Fei concedes; the sentimonsters from the real Peacock should be stronger than the adjacent-born ones rampaging in the city. But she's surprised Adrien doesn't seem to have any reservations using it again after it was taken from Hawkmoth. 

“Aegis, sorry, but can you switch back to the Snake? I need the Turtle.” Adrien requests Luka, who has donned the Turtle miraculous for the night since his original miraculous offered little in head-on solo combat. Luka complies wordlessly. 

Fei watches as Adrien tosses the miraculi one by one, telling the still-puzzled vigilantes that their kwamis will explain everything (and not to worry because he, too, barely received instructions when he first used his own miraculous). The Mouse pendant is handed off to Nightwing; the Horse to Red Hood; the Bee to Black Bat; the Peacock to Red Robin; and the Turtle to Robin. 

Fei notices that she, Ryuko, and Viperion share the same curious looks at Chat's choice. 

“You don't get it.” He shakes his head. “It's all about the vibes. That's how M'lady used to pick them.” 

“Wait, do we even have feathers for the Peacock?” Fei whispers to Chat. 

“Ah, right.” Chat smiles widely at Red Robin. “Sorry, you might have to catch pigeons or something.” 

Fei looks over the group. “Are you sure the JL won't be stepping in soon? Batman?” 

Robin crosses his arms. “Even if he tries, this isn't his Gotham for tonight.” 

---

After giving her commands, Marinette jumps down carefully from the tower and onto the surrounding buildings. She keeps her comms on to monitor her team and hears that their line has been connected to the Bats’. Though the ritual was a success, there is still much to clean up in the mess—their goal is to cause minimal damage and keep Gotham as it is, since the restoring power of the Ladybug doesn't apply to adjacent-born sentimonsters. 

Hands in her pockets, she drops down on a window ledge. Most of the civilians have been evacuated, and the sentimonsters are more focused on her anyways as if she were a beacon. With a swipe of her hand, she summons the Turtle's barrier and the Tiger's clout to herd the sentimonsters in one place before coming near them to use her Cataclysm. 

She clenches her jaw when she feels the presence of the Order coming closer. 

She has not regretted killing off the members of the Order when she was taken. The memories of the previous Guardian have become hers after all, so she has relived the futile struggle of the girl and the ‘experiments’ they've done to her in the guise of ‘rituals’. But she dislikes the lack of remorse she feels after killing—it seems hypocritical considering that she's the heroine of Paris. 

Marinette walks down the street, sensing the movements of the Order. She shouldn't be complacent about the situation; she doesn't know what the enemies have as an upper hand. On her way, she extends her hand to pulverize the sentimonsters coming at her with just one touch of Cataclysm. 

“Marinette, we're inside the barrier. The Bats have their miraculi. We'll start clearing off the sentimonsters,” Fei's voice reports loud and clear from her earpiece. 

“Good. Please steer clear of my location,” Marinette replies. 

“Okay—” 

“Please be careful,” Robin's voice cuts through. 

Chat snorts out a laugh. “What he said.” 

“I will. Thanks,” she takes a deep breath, ignoring the teasing jabs of the other voices. 

She sees the familiar burgundy robes up ahead, shielded by an unmoving line of sentimonsters all in the image of animals: tigers and panthers with glowing eyes; predatory birds hovering above; and oversized wolves. Marinette plants her feet firmly on the ground and holds her knives. These sentimonsters are not like the others; they are made with stronger, more potent adjacents. 

“The Guardian,” a raspy voice echoes from down the road. 

Marinette's grip tightens on the hilt of her weapon. Those grating voices have followed her in her nightmares for so long, even coming to life in one encounter with Sandboy. Though she has finished off their Tibetan base, there are still some who have escaped and some who have been hiding away in other parts of the world. 

The thought of them sickens her to no end. 

The sentimonsters lunge forward. 

And so does she. 

Marinette runs, infusing Destruction into her knives and throwing them at the creatures before they can touch her. Then, she calls on Fetch, from the power of Adoration, to pull back the knives into her hands. The hooded figures are closer now—she sidesteps one sentimonster and jumps over another. She's about to come face to face with the Order when she's suddenly knocked back by one of the wolves. 

She grunts while trapping one knife between the sentimonster's sharp jaws to keep it from biting down on her. Its claws have trapped one of her arms, scratching through her skin deeply. Marinette clicks her tongue in annoyance. These ones can fatally injure her, and she's already slowly losing energy. 

Finally, she gains the momentum to kick the sentimonster away and open up a portal behind her back to slip through it and escape its hold. She transforms into a large wave of water, followed by a bolt of lightning to kill off the whole pack. 

“What misuse of the Guardian's blood,” a voice snarls from behind her. 

Marinette catches her breath, turning around with fury in her eyes. Misuse? They talk about misuse when they were the ones who drew her blood for power. They preach so passionately about saving people with the Guardian's blood when they were the ones who handed off the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculi to Ra's al Ghul to abuse. 

“You have desecrated the blood of our Guardian!” Another monk cries. “Give back what you've stolen from us!” 

“Ungrateful vessel!” 

“They should have drained you dry when they had the chance!” 

“It was a mistake to bring you back!” 

“Murderer!” 

“Assassin's dog!” 

Marinette shuts her eyes for a second. She keeps a firm grip on her knife and asks coolly, “Why are you mocking me when I am your Guardian?” 

“You are an impostor! Give us our Guardian's blood back!” One growls. 

“For you to use in your crimes?” 

“They are not crimes. We are creating jewels for the protection of humanity.” 

Marinette's jaw twitches. The years Paris has suffered under Hawkmoth—they called that protection? 

“And yet you keep the jewels for yourself,” she mocks. 

“Because there are those more deserving of that power.” 

Bullshit. She isn't ignorant of their misdeeds. For so long, adjacents have been circulating around black markets and underground auctions. They were practically using the Guardian as a human factory. As for the real miraculi, they have been given to the most vile identities just like how the Butterfly and Peacock that were thought to be ‘missing’ was given to Gabriel Agreste. 

Marinette tries not to let her anger run rampant. There are already many voices coming from her earpiece, both from her team and Gotham’s vigilantes each cursing out the Order—

She gasps, tensing all over. 

She hasn't noticed. 

The prickly feeling she has felt many times back in Paris.

Marinette looks down on her knife to see that it has changed its appearance. The monks continue talking down at her, but seem to be waiting for something. 

“How dare you taint the blood—” 

Don't you want to kill them? 

“---a worthless—”

It only takes one touch. 

Her head is pounding as she tries to blink her vision back to focus. 

“The poor soul of our Guardian—” 

You've had blood in your hands before. What's a few more victims? 

“The poor soul of our Guardian wasted on a killer.” 

What will your Master say seeing you this cowardly?

Marinette draws out the knife and kicks it down to the ground, shattering it into pieces. A dark violet aura floats up from it—a remnant of the Butterfly's power. With a shuddering breath, she calms herself down. This is their plan. It's just an adjacent. It's not as powerful as the real thing. They must have had one stored too far from the range of the ritual. 

She turns to her enemies— 

I am not a killer. 

—And forces down her powers—

I am an assassin. 

She pounces forward with suppressed miraculous magic and launches attacks at them with her bare hands. Without their miraculi rip-offs to play with, they are mere powerless humans anyway. She kicks and punches, just enough to have them immobilized but never too strong to meet death. She remembers Adrien's words about his father: ‘ death is too merciful of a punishment’. 

It's the same for the Order. Death will be too forgiving. Even a slow death. She dodges a loose attempt of a hit and flips one over her back. 

The only thing that will destroy them is seeing her being the ‘blight’ to the line of Guardians.

---

Unbeknownst to the miraculous holders and vigilantes, there have been watchers witnessing the attack on Gotham and listening in to Marinette's conversation with the remnants of the Order. 

They’ve made a terrible mistake with imprisoning Marinette. 

And now they have no right to interfere.

The Justice League observes silently as Marinette brings the Order to its knees, without any trace of magic or weapons. Just her bloodied knuckles and pure strength. They recognize the anguish in her movements—careful and precise as someone born in the League but ferocious like someone delivering vengeance. 

Finally, she binds the enemies in ropes just as the last of the sentimonsters are finished off by the rest. 

The three founders are particularly tense. 

It must be them who will make sure that the Order will meet its justice.

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Taglist: @noisydreamlandkoala

[imthepunchlord]

One ideia for The Buggettes AU is instead of going for what canon,roll with the what pre-canon had done for the characters:

https://www.artbookwiki.com/show-bibles/09-07-2012-v3-1

This link is for all miraculous materials(bibbles,artworks...) from the PVs to the closest thing to the canon

Like Tikki was apparently very different from canon Tikki, she was more optismistic and Marinette was not much of a hard worker that she is now

I do think the Buggettes should be a only girls group,because that was the ideia back them was a Sailor Moon-esque anime,so maybe a honorary male member? Like tuxedo mask was a honorary member to the Sailor Scout group, only appearing one time or another to help

I also think the villain should be Gabriel/Richard with the spider or scorpion jewel instead of the butterfly,because yk,rainbow

First off, thanks for sharing the link! I'll look forward to checking that out.

Personally though, I rather work off what we got in canon for characters, mostly (as some things can be debated to be OOC as characters will do as the ep demands them to, not whether they would truly do that or not). There's a better idea of who the characters are, and I have a lot more to work off of, especially as I don't know how in depth it goes, and that's essentially kinda making OC characters as chances are good, I'll just have vague details to build and work off of.

And that could be at least 14+ original characters to craft.

Well, I could do it, but this au, I didn't have doing the earlier concepts in mind. I'm more interested in taking the canon take of characters and set up, and seeing how they work off this earlier concept for miraculous and kwamis, particularly them being fairies and not able to make the wish with just grabbing two miraculous.

Also, personally, it doesn't sound like Tikki changed all that much, if at all. As earlier seasons of ML, Tikki was a very positive and optimistic kwami. It's just the later seasons that defaulted her to critical mouthpiece and made her less positive and encouraging. Which did make sense with earlier concept Marinette, who was a lot more problematic so made since for her to have a kwami that calls her out more. But they changed up Marinette so she's not as problematic, but they didn't really change up Tikki or their dynamic, which just makes Tikki come off as overly critical and with high expectations towards Marinette.

And fair! I'm good doing an all girls team, especially as we didn't really get it in canon, not as heroes. And given ML's over valuing the romance, I am in the mood for more friendship focus on the girls and their dynamics, especially as most of it came down to focusing on Adrien.

And I will say, for a Tuxedo Mask character to be an honorary member, Scorpion doesn't have a set place yet, as I would vote Spider!Gabriel, as spiders are more known to catching bugs in their web, and it can work off Gabriel using and manipulating people as spiders are usually villainous tricksters.

Nor am I opposed to still keeping in the kwamis (only they're tied to Prodigious instead of Miraculous) which atm now have a number of 15-16 (depending if I use Longg for Dragonfly, as I don't have an original design for Dragonfly yet that I like yet).

[lily-drake]

The Demon's Queen

Chapter 17

First <> Previous

Mari is 18 Damian is 19

“Okay, let's start the trimonthly meeting,” Superman announced from the head of the table.  The Watchtower was filled with the founding members of the Justice League to go over everything that had happened in the last three months, which was a lot.  

“Well let’s begin with the most major events,” Batman grumbled, “There were four mass scale alien invasions that involved the whole League plus Young Justice.”

“Thankfully we were able to solve two of them with civil treaty talk,” Wonder Woman chimed in, a gentle smile on her lips as she reminisced on the events.  

“The other two had to be captured which resulted in the mass destruction of New York, New Jersey, Missouri, California, and Oregon,” Black Carny listed, “from there we had to help pay for reconstruction.  Batman, how much did we have to pay?”

Batman gave the whole League his normal flat look, seemingly unimpressed with the group.  “$1.6 billion,” he growled, scowling at the rest of the members, most of which didn’t meet his gaze.

“Right!”  Superman exclaimed.  “We’ll go over the cost of everything at the end.  Next on the agenda is reconnaissance missions and what we’ve learned.”

“The Young Justice team has gone on nearly fifteen missions in the past three months, most of which were successful.  From their hard work we were able to prevent five Kobra-Venom shipments,” Flash began to quickly list off, “having skimmed the reports, the few that went off the rails were quickly resolved and handled by other members of the JLA.  Going along those lines it was also discovered tha-”

A loud ringing went off and everyone looked back at Superman with a blank stare. “Sorry everyone, it’s one of my emergency lines that I give to citizens, let me juuust-oh.”  After Superman had removed the small device his face fell from his usual cheery demeanor into something more tired and solemn.  “It’s Mrs. Dupain-Cheng again.”

There were a few frustrated sighs from around the room, others simply shaking their heads in exasperation.  As of today it had been one full year since one Marinette Dupain-Cheng had officially gone missing.  She and her husband had been calling them every few weeks demanding updates, but the truth was that they hadn’t found anything.  Even when Tim had thought he had gotten a lead, it ended up falling flat as there was nothing they could deduce purely from black clothes.

Not only that, but ever since her disappearance, there hasn’t been a single magical attack, which has made looking for her a lower priority.  It wasn’t that they wanted her to stay missing or for a lack of scouting, but the matter of fact was that they were dealing with bigger active threats on a day-to-day basis, and there were simply no clues as to where she could be.  They let the message go to voicemail and continued on the meeting with a more sober tone.

__________

Ladybug and Chat Noir Were the Villains All Along–An Informative Article About the Truth Behind Akuma Attacks and the “Heroes” Who “Protected” Paris.

16:24 Written by: J. Jona Jámesón (previously hosted on Wild Safari)  & Raine Coffee Chaos

It has now been officially one year since Paris’ so-called “heroes” have vanished, along with the emotional terrorist known as Hawkmoth.  The last sighting of the heroes was during the last battle with the Akumatized victim known as The Reaper, a twelve-year-old boy that has chosen to remain anonymous.  

In that last battle, the video was captured of the Akuma, The Reaper, having the ability to take the lives of any person or being that came near their scythe or made direct eye contact.  Other videos taken by popular blogger, Alya Césaire, showed that both of our heroes greatly struggled with this Akuma, where Chat Noir once more fell victim to it, and once more Ladybug barely succeeded on her own.  Since the end of that battle both our heroes have simply disappeared along with the villain that brought them to light in the first place; which begs the question: were they ever heroes to begin with?

*video of final akuma attack from “The Ladyblog” filmed by Alya Césaire*

Take that masked menace the Flash, for example.  He presents himself as a protector of the masses with his super speed, but has a suspiciously cordial relationship with his ‘Rogues gallery’. These villains are known to have a moral code, avoiding unnecessary harm to innocents and children while committing their various nefarious crimes. It’s more than likely that they’re in cahoots with Flash; pulling off their various stunts with him acting as the “hero”.  Making it so that the police cannot properly do their jobs. He is wrongly adored by the unsuspecting masses in Central City, even having a museum! Perhaps he cooperates with the Rogues in a desire for attention and infamy! 

However, just as people worship the Flash, the people of Paris worship Ladybug and Chat Noir.  And now that Parisians are no longer afraid to talk about the atrocities inflicted on them, it has been widely speculated the heroes that Parisians so heavily relied on were mere children ! If we study the very first video taken of Ladybug and Chat Noir five years ago compared to the most current video of them, it is obvious that the both of them had grown and matured at the same rate as an average teenager.  A set of teenagers could never accomplish what Ladybug and Chat Noir have done on their own! There must have been someone behind the scenes.

*Photo of Ladybug and Chat Noir side-by-side during Stone Heart right next to an image of Ladybug and Chat Noir side-by-side during The Reaper *

Who’s to say that, in the end, these kids were not in fact working with Hawkmoth the entire time? Their job: to create mass fear and panic among the citizens of Paris so that everyone would fear for the safety of themselves and the children, who were most at risk if you look at the Akuma, Gigantitan, who was only 5 months when first akumatized, and was targeted nearly 18x after through the years for minuscule, child-like frustrations.  

From this prolonged fear-epidemic, studies have shown a mass decrease in mental health and an extreme increase in the unhealthy coping skill of suppressing emotions so as not to be a target.  This in turn has led to a massive increase of people searching for and spending on therapists, where there is a shortage of them in Paris. Commonly referred to as the ‘Captive Hearts Epidemic’. And with the government being unwilling to bring in more from outside the city, and France as a whole unwilling to bring more in from out of the country, it is not hard to believe that this was a ruse for people to spend more money to big Healthcare Companies.  We have already seen time and time again that Mayor Bourgeois is a corrupt politician only interested in putting more euros in his own private account.  It is not hard to believe that he paid off these children and mysterious entities to terrorize the city into buying higher and more expensive health plans, especially since any damage done by these so-called heroes–rather conveniently–just magically disappears; so he never has to worry about paying for any reconstruction.  

This war has gone on for over five years without end.  The very sudden disappearance of Paris’ heroes and villains without so much as a warning is far too suspicious.  It makes no sense as Ladybug and Chat Noir have had no trouble making public appearances and taking interviews.  It’s obvious they care about how they are portrayed through the media, so why disappear without telling anyone unless they were caught and forced to give it up? Are we truly in the clear, or are we just coming home to a peaceful disaster? 

17:07 RenaRougeOfficial:

How dare you make up such blatant lies and falsehoods!  Ladybug and Chat have defended and rescued our people every day, putting aside everything in their lives for us. 

Instead of trying to vilify them, why not think of the actual reason they disappeared.  Perhaps they defeated Hawkmoth and decided to leave the scene to live in peace.  Or maybe they got injured when defeating Hawkmoth and didn’t want anyone to know.  Or perhaps it’s because 

“Ohhh, that’s a good one Alya, here add this,” Adrien jumped in, startling Alya from her rant filled with righteous fury.  She was forcefully pushed aside as Adrien began to type on the keyboard, adding to her rant.

you are just lacking in brain cells.  Ladybug and Chat Noir risked their lives every single day so that this city, this world even, could continue on.  They put the world on their shoulders knowing that if they failed then the universe itself could have been destroyed.  Stop trying to destroy the heroes' reputations simply because you want clicks and views.

“And, send!”  Alya announced, slamming her finger on the button.  “Now, onto the next one,” she declared while opening a new tab.

“Okay, that’s enough you two,” Nino called out.

“Oh come on Nino!  Just one more,” his girlfriend begged.

“You said that five articles ago.  I’ve only tolerated you two doing this for so long because of the day.  But if you keep going we’re gonna be late,” Nino barged in, powering off the computer before either could do much as protest.  

Adrien and Alya looked away from Nino, a deep sadness penetrating their hearts, the same sadness they had been trying to ignore all day, all year really.

Nino watched as Adrien rubbed at his finger, twisting a ring that was no longer there.  He had been an absolute wreck the day it had gone missing, saying that it was a parting gift from his mother.  Nino could tell he was lying, but didn’t pry as, at the time, it looked like he had just watched someone die.  And then with the news of a mysterious attacker stabbing both his father and Nathalie had both been stabbed in their own home and had nearly died of blood loss.  Even though he was a terrible dad, Nino didn’t think he deserved that .  And Marinette was still missing.  It felt as if everything was falling apart at the seams.

"Let's head over to the bakery.  Tom and Sabine are waiting for us," he whispered, turning away from his two friends so they wouldn't have to see his pain.

@The_Official_Ladyblog

The Truth of Paris’ Heroes: A Response to the Forgetful

22:34 Written by: Alya Cesaire

It has, unfortunately, come to my attention that there have been some doubts about the sincerity of our heroes and their intentions in fighting for our city. While my beliefs have personally never been shaken, I know that I was able to get to know the heroes on a much more personal level than most. The heroes were, as has been speculated, children. They never confirmed this to me, but I genuinely believe it to be true.

I believe that our heroes were in the same age range as myself, and as such, they were more comfortable opening up to me about the struggles they faced while they were saving our lives.

Ladybug used to cry to me, about how she had to lie to her family about who she was. About how she felt she was a bad friend for having to run away to fight a battle she never wanted to be a part of.

Chat Noir shared how isolated he felt. How he felt free in the suit compared to his life at home. How he had little to no support group to help share the burden of his secret.

They were indeed children, fighting in a war they had no reason to be fighting. They put their lives on the line every time there was an attack. They showed up for us without fail each and every time we needed them, and this is how we repay them?

This is how we thank them?

We come at them, with accusations and cruel assumptions in response to their sacrifices. They gave their very lives for Paris over and over again, and yet here they stand; accused of participating in the crimes they fought so desperately against. How is this fair to them?

How could we treat them this way?

I personally, would like to apologize. Not to Ladybug, the symbol of hope for Paris. Not to Chat Noir, the very definition of Loyalty. But to the people behind the mask. To the children behind the masks.

I’m sorry for how we have treated you, for the suspicion that has been cast upon you. For the doubts we have held as you held the very world on your shoulders. Thank you for always giving your life, for continuously fighting despite your own doubts, and for saving us every day without fail. I know better than anyone, that we did not deserve you.

I hope you find your peace, in the aftermath of Hawkmoth.

__________ Ever since her mission, things had changed in the base.  No longer were the other assassins skirting around her, giving her side glances, and weirdly enough, they were no longer ignoring her.  When she had first come back, Tomoe had kept her in the medical wing for three days, where during that time The Boy had come in to check on her wounds, before leaving without a word.  She had brushed it off as him wanting to make sure his prized possession was still capable of doing his dirty work, but there was something in his eyes she simply couldn’t place.

Then when she had left she could feel the eyes on her.  One of the members even gave her a bow of greeting.  

“Samiet 'anak dhahabt fi muhimat mae abn awa li'iinqadh baed al'atfali. eamil jid,” one of the others grunted.  It took her a moment, but she was able to mentally translate it to, Heard you went on a mission with the Jackals to rescue some kids.  Good work.   It made something in her feel warm.  Valued even.  The feeling lasted her the whole day.  But there was always a dark feeling in the back of her mind.  The reminder of what she was forced to do to free those kids haunting her day and night.

Her thoughts often wondered to the kids.  She had blacked out before she could even know what happened to them, but nobody knew, nobody except one person and she wasn’t going to go searching him out.  Granted she didn’t have to as he came to her.

Marinette had been reading the book Talia had given her–it was in Arabic so it took her a long time to translate making it a very slow read–but she had been reading it for so long that her head was starting to hurt.  Laying down on the small cot she stared at the beige ceiling, imaging the night sky.  As of her mission she had been less restricted, allowed to move more freely around the base.  Maybe she could use that to her advantage.  Setting the tome back on her small dresser.  The idea came with some risk, but at this point she was willing to take it.

Carefully sliding the dagger she was now allowed to keep into its sheath at her hip she exited her room, stalking through the halls on light feet.  Making sure that nobody noticed or followed her as she made her way to the stairs that lead to one of the towers that overlooked the base.  Slowly she went through the small trap door before closing it behind her.  There above her was the starry sky in all of its glory.  It was a warm night that carried a gentle breeze strong enough to brush her hair aside every so often.  The stars glowed brightly as the full moon shone down its ethereal light upon the whole mountain top.

From her perch she watched as the tall grass and wild flowers danced and bowed with the wind, listened to the sound of the night life playing around her, the feeling of being a mere spectator in this moment, the-

“What are you doing up here?”

Marinette nearly jumped out of her skin as she spun while pulling out her dagger in one swift move only to come face-to-face with The Boy.  She felt her grip tighten on the hilt of the blade, but didn’t move.

“I asked you a question,” he demanded blankly.

Her eyes narrowed, but slowly she stood from her stance while sheathing the dagger.  “I just wanted to see the stars.  Am I not allowed even after completing your mission?”

He didn’t respond, just stared her down, his green eyes almost glowing in the moonlight.  They stayed like that for a few minutes, staring into the others eyes before he broke the silence asking, “How are you faring?”  

The question took her by surprise.  How was she supposed to respond to that ?  “What do you mean?”  She questioned, crossing her arms in front of her.  

She watched as he slowly walked past her toward the wall, staring out at the base.  “I know that the first kill can be…onerous.”

Marinette stared at him like he had grown a second head, none of this made sense.  “Did you think I was going to kill myself?”

“No, however it is best to not dwell on those thoughts alone.”

“Well I was trying not to think about it right now, but as you so generously brought it up I guess I must spill my soul to you,” she replied sardonically.

“Tt.”

Marinette took a few steps away from him, watching him as she leaned against the stone railing.  His face never changed, always stoic, as if it were carved from stone.  His forest green eyes moved from side to side, scanning the area around him.  His hair was kept short, though the tips of his bangs brushed against his forehead as the wind continued to blow.  His shoulders tense, as if ready for a strike.

They stayed silent, minutes passing between them as they stared out the distance.  “Why me?”

She heard him sigh tiredly, not even looking at her as he spoke, “I already told you that.  I don’t like repeating myself.”

“No.  There is no way that you looked at me as Ladybug and me as Marinette and thought that I could ever be qualified to run this,” she stated, swinging her arm out at the end as if showcasing the base.

“You still doubt yourself,” he grunted, shaking his head disappointedly before turning to face her, looking her directly in her eyes.

“I will not repeat myself again, so listen closely, Marinette.  As Ladybug I saw your tenacity, bravery, strategic prowess, and dedication you held.  Even as Marinette you still held those exact traits, because even though you might have believed that you and Ladybug were two different people, the truth is that is simply not possible and you know it.  Even if you feel less confident you lead your class of fools with strength.  You never put yourself above your duty.  Even with the knowledge that you were killing yourself, you still took on the responsibility of ensuring the safety of your home.  I admire those traits, they are what make you a competent leader, and I believe that you would be an excellent asset in the League’s legacy.”  

Marinette stared at him in disbelief, brows furrowing as she replayed his words in her mind.  “I’m not just some asset you can use for your games!  Have you forgotten that I’m a person too?”

“Of course you are, I have never stated that you are not,” he huffed, a brow lifting as he spoke.

“Yes you did!  You have since the day I met you!  You only think of me as some sort of weapon, just another tool you can use.  Well I’m not a tool!  I only saved those kids because it was the right thing to do!  But you don’t even care, do you?  If you did, then those kids would be somewhere safe!”

“They are safe!  Each of them were returned to their families,” he stated firmly, stopping Marinette in her rant.  It was the first time she had heard him show any emotion in his voice.  “And those without a family were given the choice to either join the League and learn to fight for themselves or be sent to safe foster homes where they would be protected from being put in such a situation ever again.”

Marinette stared at him in awe, she hadn’t expected that.  She had truly thought that he would have forced all of the kids to join like he had her, or he would have hid them away somewhere else to keep them quiet.

“Then why didn’t I get a choice?!”  She yelled, tears of frustration pricking at her eyes, “Why has everyone here gotten a choice but me?”

Here he finally hesitated, turning his head away with furrowed brows.  They stood there for many moments, Marinette trying to catch her breath as her shoulders remained tense.

“It’s late…”

“Is that all you have to say?!  You can’t even answer this one, simple question?”

“You should go back to bed.”  And with those final words he retreated back down into the base leaving a simmering Marinette atop the parapet.

“HA!  That was real smooth, Lover Boy,” Plagg goaded as Damian walked briskly through the halls.

“What are you going on about?” Damian demanded angrily as he snatched the pocket sized god out of his hair.  How the infernal beast was able to hide there so often without his notice he still could not discover.

Plagg gave him a large Cheshire grin as he stared up at the boy, “I’ve seen a lot of fighting in my life, but nothing compares to these.”

Damian rolled his eyes and let out a long sigh.  Sure he admired Marinette and her tenacity, but she was just so infuriating!  She was obstinate, brash, an idealist, and argumentative.  There was always a blazing fire behind her sapphire eyes, always alight with the need to prove herself.  It was as aggravating as it was endearing.

Shoving the small, laughing god into one of his hidden pockets he entered his rooms and tried to push away the question he could not answer that echoed in his mind.

“Can you believe him, TIkki?!  First he demands I answer his question then he refuses to answer mine, and not only that but he runs away!  Can you believe that Tikki?!”  Marinette turned to her right looking up in the air expecting to see her small red and black friend, but was met with nothing.  Marinette clenched her teeth in frustration, it’d been over a year now and she still believed her kwamii was still with her.  It’d been over a year, but it’d been nearly five years before they had ever been truly separated in such a way.  Marinette didn’t know if she’d ever get used to the emptiness of the air, the knowledge that she was truly alone.

Marinette stared out over the base once more, watching the flicker of the sconces that lined every wall.  She couldn't help but think back to his face, the way he finally showed her some emotion.  The storm in his dark emerald green eyes before he looked away from her, the way the moon cast shadows over his carmel skin and his sharp, stunned features.  The way the wind blew his bangs across his forehead without his notice.  In the end, she couldn’t help but loathe him.  

She hated his pride, his stubbornness, his stoicness, his skill, his ambition.  But if she wanted to escape from here, she would need to become as good as- No.  She would need to become better than him.  Because even if she escaped without that skill, he would just come back for her and she wouldn’t stand a chance.

Her mind wandered back to the last conversation she had with Talia before Talia left on her own mission.

“Have you been studying the text,” Talia asked her calmly.

“I have.  It’s in Arabic though, so it’s been difficult at times to get through.”

Talia gave her a warm smile, “Very good, Marinette.  You’re doing well.”  Her words warmed her chest, and Marinette couldn’t stop a smile of her own at the praise.  “Have you been able to practice what you’ve learned thus far?” 

Marinette’s smile fell, “No, I haven’t even figured out how to activate that sort of power, I don’t even think I can.”

“Tch.  That sort of thinking is the reason you have not advanced,” she paused for a moment before bending slightly to be eye level with her and placed her hands atop Marinette's shoulders.  “I have to leave for a few months, but when I return I hope to train you more in this power, however, you will have to seek me out.  I can not help you unless you want to be helped, so I leave this choice to you.”  

Marinette couldn’t stop the tears that welled in her eyes.  A choice, she finally had a choice!  She hadn’t had one of those in so long.  She didn’t get a choice to be Ladybug, didn’t get a choice when it came to Chat’s flirtations, didn’t get a choice to become the guardian, didn’t get a choice when it came to helping her class, she never really got to choose anything; until now.  She finally had a choice . 

“Thank you, My Lady,” she said softly, bowing her head in respect.

“But of course child,” Talia whispered, tucking a loose strand of hair behind Marinette’s ear, “Be strong.”  And with those parting words, Talia disappeared into the shadows.

Talia had been back on the base for a few weeks now, but Marinette hadn’t approached her for the offered lessons.  She hadn’t pressured her, in fact she hadn’t even brought it up since even during their sparse training sessions.  

If she wanted to escape The League of Assassins, she would need an advantage.  She would need to know or have something that would make it so that if Damian did come after her, he wouldn't be able to touch her.  With that thought in mind, she finally made up her mind.  Tomorrow she would approach Talia and accept the lessons.

Next

Thank you @the-coffee-fandom, Sage, and Worried_Safari on the maribat discord for helping me out with this!

Taglist:

@aespades @adrestar @astrynyx @doll246 @queenz-z @toodaloo-kangaroo @crazylittlemunchkin @seraphichana @miraculous-ninja @dorkus-minimus @mysticsoulgirl @ritacrow-blog @snow-leopard-777 @fidget-eep @sometandomstuff333 @lady-phoenix-of-tardis @shreeing @achaoticmess1 @liquid-luck-00 @buginetye @stainedglassm @prettylittlebutterflie @laurcad123 @iloontjeboontje @heartsong18 @raeuberprinzessin @when-no-wings-do-broomsticks @jennifer-rose123 @moon5608 @corporeal-terrestrial @skitarii-alpha-c6-555 @saltysugarysembei @phantom120 @kking13 @depressed-bitchy-demon @a-slytherinish-gryffindor @iamablinkmarvelarmy @fleursroses @buginetye @humanoid606 @ev-cupcake @blackroserelina @rainbowbunny0159 @the-ace-reader @humanoid606 @taewinterbear95 @blueberrygeniejam @alex-rebecca-pearce @neulosfantacyworld @devilbunny612 @boredteen19 @agentxx92 @animegirlweeb @geminis93 @thatquirkydancer

[matt0044]

Miraculous: Tales of the Jungle Book - AU crossover

Mowgli and Tikki - Ladybug

Lala and Plagg - Chat Noire

Artwork by joesanchez involving the most underrated Jungle Book adaptation out there.

It all for free on YouTube no less. Search Jungle Book Nantoons and enjoy a hidden 1980s gem.

So... yeah. In a world of IP renewals and brand management, I wouldn't put it past Disney to try and cash in on The Jungle Book where Mowgli becomes superheroes with his friends not unlike The Lion Guard. Basically cashing in on Marvel and Miraculous all the while.

My idea would be a fifty-two episode animated series adapting concepts from Miraculous with some story and character beats from Jungle Book Shonen Mowgli. The first season would be a relaxed pace of thirteen self-contained episodes that lay the foundation for a much meatier Season 2 and onwards involving our Cat Noir to be.

So… what about the she-wolf turned catgirl?

Lala is based on Leela, a minor character from Rudyard Kipling's novel, and expanded on in an minor on again, off again role as Mowgli's, well, mean girl. The Chloe Bourgeois to Mowgli's Marinette. So... why here as Chat Noir...e?

Well... it homages the original plan for Felix to be the Cat bearer rather than Adrien with him being standoffish towards Marinette. Here it's more like Lala sees a need to prove herself against Mowgli and vice versa.

As Chat Noire, Lala is a lot more “likable” towards Ladybug both as a means to work together and to show the hidden depth beneath the priss she parades herself as.

It would play into the overall themes of identity and belonging, especially when new enemies enter the fray.

As for the premise:

”Deep in the heart of India, a pack of wolves help uphold the Law of the Seeonee Jungle with special jewels bestows upon them and allies of other species. These Miraculous were created in a time when man and wild lived together. When harnessing the power of the Kwamis, they deemed that a bearer would assume a human form if they weren't of man already.

This was to preserve secrecy of who had the jewels and the power themselves. Animals were considered suitable since humans already tended to underestimate their kind already.

However, a nasty vie for power in what would be known as the Cold Lair resulted in a schism between humans and the wild for generations to come. A new policy was decreed: the Miraculous could not be trusted with humans lest the world falls to ruin.

Shere Khan the Tiger, one such ally once upon a time, betrays them with the Butterfly Miraculous of Empowerment and slays Alexander the bearer of the Ladybug Miraculous. The fallen hero is survived by his wife and three sons, one of whom is an adopted human boy named Mowgli.

Inspired by his father's sacrifice, Mowgli becomes a young man-cub trained by Alexander’s closest friends in the ways of the wild and eligible to be considered as a Miraculous bearer. Other young wolves step up to be considered as future defenders of the Jungle as Tikki and Plagg scout them for potential heroes to face Shere Khan, now declaring himself as Hawk Moth.

Meanwhile, the power of destruction would go to somebody that would make the mystics themselves roll in their graves.

As Akela's granddaughter, Lala grew up to be a bitch in every sense of the human's derogatory term. She was often quick with a cutting remark and to take out her bad mood on others. Lala could also be a bit of diva when it came to holding her head up a touch too high. For older pack members, they knew that she was only going through what they saw as a tomboy phase with the lack of a mother figure. For younger members... no, she was pain full stop.

Especially towards Mowgli the man-cub. She'd often cut into his hunts if they crossed paths and show him up, especially to rub in how he'd never be a real wolf. The man-cub would hardly take it up the tailbone but rarely got the last word in. Lala was the most vocal to object to him joining the pack and even challenged him to hunt more prey than her to present to Akela if she wanted his vote.

Her grandfather agreed to this if only to propose that the younger members perform a hunting excersise as a way to prepare for Shere Khan. In truth, this was a cover for the Kwamis to scout their promising new bearers. Plagg found himself drawn to Lala when it came to her attitude and related to how she didn't care about how others saw her. His hand was forced when Tabaqui was akumatized by Shere Khan, now Hawk Moth, and turned into a rock beast.

Stone Heart interrupted Lala's hunt and chased her through the woods. Quick thinking and dodging bought her time to hide before Plagg revealed himself. Lala recognized the Miraculous as that of her father's, Vermillion, and felt her bravado get its second wind. Plagg was about to explain it all when she snatched the ring and slipped it onto her wrist, the camouflage charm allowing it to seem like any other accessory.

"Plagg, Claws Out!" Lala shouted. Plagg protested but was soon drawn into the Miraculous and transformed the wolf into a half-human half cat heroine. She even struck a pose upon revealing herself to Stone Heart as if she'd rehearsed for this very moment.

Chat Noire, as she declared herself, had trouble using her extendable staff and found herself on the run again. She was saved by her agility spiking but soon found herself on a cliff. Mowgli bailed her out with his boomerang and even caught her in his arms much to her embarassment. However, Stone Heart soon came crashing down. By instinct, Chat Noire grabbed Mowgli and extended her staff to vault him to safety.

All the while, Tikki was hesitant to consider Mowgli after feeling she left Alexander to die in order to save her Miraculous. However, an Akuma attack causes forces her to make her choice.

Though Lala's haughtiness showed, she played herself off as more playful and charming like the heroes she heard of. It helped that Ladybug's ingenuity earned her admiration when they purified the Akuma. Thanks to Mowgli's human spark of creativity, he's able to utilize the Lucky Charms even when they're of devices he never heard. She even felt a rare sense of guilt when Tabaqui admitted that Lala's sharp tongue made him vulnerable to Akumatization.

Before splitting up, the two heroez gave a fist bump to commemorate their first outting. However, they had to keep their identities mum to each other lest Hawk Moth got a hold of one and squealed on the other. They took their time bantering about while slinging and vaulting through the Jungle for practice. If they only knew that their new best friends had been their worst enemies...

The challenge ended with both Mowgli and Lala finding both their prey collection to have been snatched by scavengers. With the pair of them both losing, Lala scoffed and ate crow by giving her vote for Mowgli to stay. She even told the man-cub that she'll be sure to not let him outdo her. Sharing a cocky grin with her new rivals, something changed in Lala. Small but noticeable.

And thus, the most unlikely pair became the only things keeping Shere Khan at bay..."

------

More pics will follow as I crystalize this potential fanfic further with concept art.

[airabuhan]

recently i’ve been thinking so much about the miraculous ladybug awakening movie (& i highly recommend it to anyone who’s seen the show, it’s a really good rewrite of the show that i think takes the potential of miraculous ladybug and does it SO GOOD…)

(minor spoilers below for the mlb awakening movie and the show? mostly just a rant abt my kohaai mlb au & the movie)

i have a kohaai miraculous ladybug au based on the first few seasons of miraculous (i havent watched past season 3 i’m sorry 😭) so upon seeing the movie a part of me wants to kohaai my favorite scenes from the movie but ahhh… the way that marinette/adrien are characterized in the movie differ a lot from the show (in a good way imo, because the way they grow as characters throughout the course of the movie as a result of their hero personas is SUCH a good pay off) but because they differ so much, i cant really see kohaai in their scenes even though i love it SO much… i have been so obsessed with this movie since i’ve seen it 😭

i do want to redraw this one screencap as kohaai i think but the way that ladynoir are in the movie, they have so much chemistry but it’s almost a different sort of chemistry than what kohaai has? so i can’t really say that it matches? especially because in the movie they kind of gloss over/skip adrien’s conflict with his father in wanting to go to school?

my mlb au is actually very heavily based on the idea that kohaku feels heavily trapped in zashikirou, and that he wants to be free… similarly, adrien in the show (emphasizing season 1 adrien because later seasons adrien is… um. sentimonster… anyway.) wants so badly to go to school, because he never got the chance to? he’s constrained in his role as adrien agreste, the model for his father’s fashion line, a perfect son who doesn’t really get the freedom to do as he pleases. (kohaku also expresses many times that he wants to go to school too, and when given a ‘chance’ to go to school in the bankara scout story, he’s excited and prepares a lot for it with the same sort of excitment and nervousness that adrien has initially when he wants to attend school)

i assigned kohaku to adrien/chat noir in my au because they share this theme of wanting freedom, wanting to go to school, and i think kohaku would find a lot of comfort and freedom through assuming a chat noir persona? like how kohaku relied heavily on the TV and internet to learn about the world, in my mlb au he would get that chance as chat noir, a freedom he really yearns for but for a while is unable to obtain.

and of course, i assigned aira to marinette/ladybug because of the themes of love, hearts are heavily associated with aira and while marinette and aira are pretty different at their core, i thought aira still suited the role of ladybug a lot?

and hhh i put a decent amount of thought into this au (though i was primarily just imagining their dynamics and stuff because i am not touching the mlb lore established in the later seasons with a 10 ft pole 😭) but i think mlb and double identities + kohaai with their online & irl lives kind of suited each other?

back to the movie though, i LOVE how the movie explored their dynamic. THE LADYNOIR SCENES WERE INSANE. i highly recommend this movie for so many reasons but when it comes to their dynamic itself, it doesn’t really read as kohaai in the same way as the season 1 dynamics sort of do to me? primarily because the movie cuts out adrien’s struggle to try and attend school, and it focuses a lot more on his grief about his mother, which is even shown visually with how adrien wears earphones to block out the world in the movie

though i’d love to draw kohaku with the earphones in his ears as well… or kohaku as chatnoir saying that the person under the mask saved him, made him smile genuinely for the first time in a really long time… hfjhgh

but it’s not really the same dynamic because movie adrien and show adrien have two different struggles, and movie adrien is different enough that it doesnt really fit into my kohaai au hhh

still i’m kind of tempted to redraw some of the scenes from the movie as kohaai just because of how gorgeous they were?! and kohaai + the moon is a KILLER combo, what with kohaai’s first irl meeting being under a bright moon…

this is such a niche rant i feel like only a couple of people will understand me but hahhfhg i’m a little insane so

[gloryseized]

Plots please for annabeth & will, ochako & marinette and whichever of our muses you would like !

Meme Tag -- @stellaelillac

Annabeth & Will

Smol Annabeth and Will at camp! And

Also year-rounder stuff! What the heck are they up to during the off-season?

Head counselor stuff in general? So this would be more set during HoO, or at least the earlier part, but like attending meetings together, working on lesson plans to teach younger campers, etc.

Quest buddy thread? Maybe they go on a scouting mission together before the battle of Manhattan?

Ochako & Marinette

Confession that I've only sort of seen My Hero Academia, so these are rough ideas but-- I feel like Marinette and Ochako need to hang out and share notes, talk about fighting bad guys and saving the world but over ice cream

They also obviously need to fight crime together

oh! Marinette can give Ochako a miraculous briefly yes

[xoverarts]

One big example of how filler is useful (when it is good and not just wasting everyone time) is 90 Sailor Moon Anime.

Those episodes of monsters of the week take their time to explore each sailor, their personalities, relationships with the other cast. That's why the friendships of all the sailor scouts are more solid and the two deaths scenes of the sailors are so powerful (against Queen Metalia and Sailor Galaxia).

I think one problem with filler nowadays is that a lot of storytellers don't know how to use it properly, those episodes just shows us the characters going towards a situation without exploring nothing further from the characters, they go with the most literal way of the word "filler" while making those episodes.

Ladybug is one series that could benefit a lot by taking full advantage of fillers, especially if they wanted to do a lot of heroes, one episode revolving around how Alya is a good heroine but a terrible journalist, another episode about how Nino needs to learn to keep secrets. Episodes that focus on other characters, yeah Marinette can be involved in the plot and five support but she can take a rest from being the main focus (especially cause her plot around liking Adrien got old really quick).

Do filler, but do it good

genuinely one of the worst things that’s happened to television in the last few years (exacerbated by streaming services) is death of Filler. going from 20 episodes to 8 because “we didn’t really need that episode where the main characters went to the beach right? it had no long lasting effect” but we DID!!! we needed to see how they act without the Big Bad Plot and to establish the dynamics between the characters and lay in the sun (do they forget sunscreen? how do they react to a thieving seagull? do they get buried in the sand or do they do the burying?). the plot isn’t everything. the action doesn’t hit as hard without the quiet moments. give us character development and our little scenes back

[natedogx15]

Miraculous Descendent Chapter 52: A Loyal Canine of the Pack

Previous Chapter

Right now, Dark Owl is leading another group of students out of the school while Stormy Weather is scowling down at him from her spot in the sky. She quickly flies toward him and gets directly in his face to confront him, causing the students to run in a hurry.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Stormy Weather asks him angrily while pointing toward the running students.

"I'm evacuating the civilians so they're out of danger when Ladybug and Cat Noir arrive." Dark Owl tells her without a hint of fear toward the young girl-turned-villain

"Why are you bothering to do that? They should be here to see my incredible victory over the heroes so they'll know who the best weather girl is." Stormy Weather snaps.

"They can watch from the safety of a distance. They shouldn't be put at risk because you want to show off when we claim the Miraculous." Dark Owl tells her with a scowl as he glares back at her.

Stormy Weather growls before Hawkmoth interrupts their argument.

"Enough, Stormy Weather. Allow Dark Owl to do as he likes. He is not getting in our way by evacuating the students." Hawkmoth chastises her.

"Thank you, Hawkmoth. Be ready to be defeated if you try anything villainous after you get the Miraculous. Hoo, hoo." Dark Owl says with a nod.

"Of course," Hawkmoth says in an amused tone as he stares at Dark Owl through the connection.

"You heard Hawkmoth, Aurore. Now, keep an eye out for the false heroes while I make sure your schoolmates get to safety." Dark Owl tells her in an authoritative tone.

"My name is Stormy Weather!" She shouts at him with a scowl that Dark Owl ignores.

"Don't take that tone with your principal, young lady. We may be in costume now, but I'm still in charge of you while you're on these grounds." Dark Owl tells her, his tone not changing from the authoritative one.

Stormy Weather scowls at him, and her umbrella starts to spark slightly, but Dark Owl isn't intimidated. He keeps staring at her with his arms crossed until she reluctantly flies into the air.

"Stupid principal. Stupid Hawkmoth." She mutters in annoyance as she flies away from him.

Dark Owl watches her fly for a few seconds before returning to evacuating his students.

Unknown to the two, lying on the roof of the school and peaking down at them is Sabrina in her hero costume.

Her Miraculous suit consists of a form-fitting, long-sleeve orange shirt under a black sleeveless vest with matching form-fitting orange pants that are white at the inner legs, black boots, and black gloves. On the left side of her vest's chest is a circular brownish-orange emblem with the symbol of a dog head on it, and around her right leg is a black pouch containing a small orange metallic ball with brown and white circular patterns. On the ends of her long-sleeve shirt are two grey lines with an orange one cutting between them. Unlike Ladybug and Cat Noir, she is not wearing a domino mask and instead wears a pair of orange-tinted hunting glasses with a black frame. On top of her head is an orange police cap with three white dots on the forehead, a black visor, and fake dog ears on the top of it.

"It looks like they're fighting. Why is Hawkmoth having Dark Owl evacuate the school? He's never done that before." Sabrina says as she stares at Dark Owl while he helps another class of students shift through the ice toward the school's exit.

She frowns in confusion before looking up toward Stormy Weather and seeing her scout around to see if Ladybug and Cat Noir are coming while impatiently tapping her new umbrella in her hand.

"It doesn't look like they're a happy team-up, like with Chloe and Pixelator." Sabrina realizes before looking around.

"Where are Ladybug and Cat Noir? They're usually on top of anything happening at this school." She asks worriedly as she looks around for the two more experienced heroes with growing nervousness, not wanting to have to fight these two on her own.

With Marinette. She's desperately trying to get her mom to let her go back to school. Or at least separate from her so she can transform.

"Mom, please. I promise I'll be careful." Marinette begs as she tries to get free.

"No. You need to leave it to the heroes, Marinette." Sabine tells her daughter.

"B-but Ladybug will be looking for me. She usually checks on me after the Akuma attack to make sure I'm okay and to check if I've seen anything suspicious." Marinette tells her nervously.

That causes Sabine to pause slightly before turning to her daughter with judging eyes. Marinette reels back slightly and clams up under her mother's gaze.

Finally, Sabine loosens her grip on Marinette but doesn't drop her gaze.

"Marinette... are you telling me the truth right now?" Sabine asks while gazing at Marinette.

"Yes. If you let me go back, I can prove that Nate and I aren't lying. Please." Marinette begs.

Sabine looks at her daughter uncertainly before steeling herself and reaffirming her grip on Marinette.

"I'm sorry, my Little Star, but no. It's too dangerous with two villains." Sabine tells her daughter.

"But-" Marinette starts before being cut off.

"No, Marinette. You'll get another chance later. But I want to make sure you stay safe." Sabine tells her daughter.

Marinette looks dissatisfied and worried at her mother's words but knows nothing she says will help her. Nate also looks anxious at this turn of events and looks around for something to help them.

Meanwhile, Adrien is going through a similar problem with Nathalie. The two are waiting around the corner across from the school for Mr. Garde to arrive with the car. Nathalie watches for either of the villains while they wait while Adrien looks for a way to escape.

"Are you sure we can't help the other students escape? They're in danger, too." Adrien tells Nathalie anxiously.

"They'll be fine, Adrien. The police are already on their way and will help everyone else. Besides, the Akuma that helped us might help them, too." Nathalie tries to comfort Adrien.

At the reminder of the strange new Akuma, Adrien pauses and looks back toward the school.

"Why do you think he helped us anyway? I mean, Hawkmoth didn't care who got hurt before." Adrien states as he looks toward the school with conflicting feelings.

"Who knows? The man is willing to terrorize all of Paris for two pieces of magic jewelry. It's hard to get into the mind of someone like that. It could be the Akuma himself, too, and not Hawkmoth." Nathalie states as she taps her foot impatiently.

However, she suddenly realizes something and starts tapping on her tablet at an alarming rate. Adrien looks at Nathalie in worry before he hears ringing from the tablet. Upon hearing this, he realizes Nathalie is calling his father. Or, at least, trying to.

"Come on, Gabriel. Pick up." Nathalie mutters as she anxiously taps the ground while waiting for her boss and friend to pick up.

Back with Sabrina, she realizes that she may have to fight these two alone for a while. That line of thinking causes her to cringe in worry.

"This is not how I thought my debut as a hero would go. I thought I'd be helping Ladybug and Cat Noir." Sabrina groans.

Unknown to her, Dark Owl grows suspicious about the heroes not showing up yet and decides to help Stormy Weather in her search.

"Albert, activate infrared." Dark Owl orders.

His eyes turn red, and he looks around the school with his new heat-seeking vision until he spots a heat signature lying on the roof.

"There you are. Albert, flight mode." Dark Owl orders and activates his wings again.

He quickly flies atop the roof and lands directly in front of where Sabrina is hiding, startling her greatly. She's not the only one surprised. Upon seeing her, Dark Owl and Hawkmoth are also shocked since she's not who they were expecting.

"What is this? Another Miraculous wielder? And they're young, too?" Hawkmoth questions in shock from his base as he looks at the slightly fearful and intimidated Sabrina.

"Who are you, young lady?" Dark Owl asks suspiciously.

Taking a moment to steel herself, Sabrina stands up and looks at Dark Owl before saying.

"I'm Canine," Sabrina says while getting into a fighting stance her dad taught her, where she keeps her hands open with the palms facing the ground while widening her stance.

"I see. It seems you came here to try and stop us in Ladybug and Cat Noir's place." Dark Owl says as he strokes his beard.

At the same time, Stormy Weather takes notice of Canine's presence and flies toward her and Dark Owl.

"Who's this? This isn't Ladybug!" Stormy Weather shouts in annoyance as she stares at Canine.

"Another young hero, it appears. What should we do, Hawkmoth? She has neither of the Miraculous you're after." Dark Owl asks as he looks at Canine inquisitively.

"It doesn't matter. I am after any Miraculous I can get my hands on. It doesn't have to be the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous. Just bring me one." Hawkmoth orders the two through his connection with them.

"In that case, it's time to cage the dog." Stormy Weather says with a wicked grin as she points her umbrella at Canine and fires an ice beam at her to try and freeze the rookie heroine.

Canine rolls out of the way of the attack and reaches into her leg pouch to pull out the ball inside. She then raises it behind her and prepares to throw it at one of the villains.

When the villains see Canine's weapon, Stormy Weather lets out a cackle, dropping her guard as she laughs at Canine.

"You have a dog toy as a weapon. And I thought Ladybug's yo-yo was lame. What do you plan to do with that, play fetch with me?" Stormy Weather asks between her cackles as tears start to well in her eyes.

Canine glares at the weather-themed villain for her mockery and throws the ball at her. The ball flies toward Stormy Weather at surprising speed and crashes into her. To the surprise of everyone, the ball has a lot of force behind it and sends Stormy Weather crashing into an empty classroom across the school from them before bouncing back into Canine's hand.

Canine and Dark Owl stare in shock at what she did before Dark Owl shakes it off and narrows his eyes at the new heroine.

"I see you're not to be underestimated. If you give me your Miraculous, I promise no harm will come to you." Dark Owl tells her as he holds his hand out for Canine to give him her Miraculous.

Canine glares at Dark Owl and shifts away from him slightly while readying for another throw.

"That's not going to happen. I'm going to stop you two or keep you here until Ladybug and Cat Noir show up." She tells him before throwing the ball at Dark Owl.

Unlike Stormy Weather, though. Dark Owl understands the danger of that throw and quickly side-steps out of the way before pulling out a few owl-themed boomerangs and throwing them at Sabrina. Sabrina quickly dives out of the boomerangs' attack paths before standing up again and glaring at Dark Owl.

As she dodges, her ball slams around various parts of the school before launching back toward her and hitting her in the chest.

"Oof." She grunts as she instinctively puts her hands where the ball hits her and holds the object.

"Hahaha, it seems you're not used to your abilities yet. That's unfortunate for you but lucky for me. Surrender, luck is always on the true hero's side, hoo, hoo." Dark Owl laughs as he realizes he has an advantage.

He quickly pulls out some more boomerangs and throws them toward Canine. Her eyes widen, and she quickly jumps off the roof to the second floor.

"Why is it only the villains get an instant how-to fight book with their powers?" Sabrina groans as she sees the boomerangs stick to the roof edge near where she jumped.

Her enhanced senses quickly warn her of danger, and she instinctively jumps to the ground. Just in time, too, since a lightning bolt hits the lockers. She quickly rolls to the side and stands on her hands and knees to see Stormy Weather angrily flying out of the empty classroom.

"You are going to pay for that, Dog Breath! Don't you know that dogs should stay inside during a storm!?" Stormy Weather asks as she aims her umbrella at Canine and fires another lightning bolt.

Sabrina's eyes widen, and she quickly jumps out of the way of the second lightning bolt before running. As she runs, she throws her ball at Stormy Weather. Stormy Weather holds her umbrella up and creates a shield through a continuous creation of snow and ice to block the throw. The ball bounces off the protective barrier, sending Stormy Weather back slightly, back into Canine's hand.

Stormy Weather lowers her umbrella to better look at the running heroine with her piercing glare before using it to fire another lightning bolt that Canine ducks behind a pillar to avoid. At the same time, Dark Owl dives off the roof to the second floor and chases after Canine. She sees this and decides to try something different with her throw. Instead of aiming directly for Dark Owl or Stormy Weather, Canine throws the ball into the pillar Dark Owl is about to pass.

The ball bounces off the pillar in front of Dark Owl's head, but he doesn't have time to say anything as it immediately ricochets off the windows across from the pillar and into Dark Owl's head, sending him crashing head-first into the metal of it. The ball then sharply bounces off the floor into Canine's waiting hand.

"Yes." Canine says with a grin when she sees her idea worked.

Her happiness is short-lived thanks to Stormy Weather almost hitting a part of her body not protected by the metal pillar. She quickly has to duck to avoid the attack.

"Hold still, you mutt. Hey, hero-wannabe, hurry up and help me here!" Stormy Weather snaps at her teammate while trying to hit Canine.

"Watch your tone, young lady." Dark Owl warns her with a glare as he shakes off the damage from Canine's attack.

Canine runs through the hall before jumping to an empty classroom to try and avoid Stormy Weather's attacks. Unfortunately, it doesn't last, as Stormy Weather shoots the door off as soon as Canine manages to close it.

Thinking quickly, Canine dives under one of the desks to try and avoid being seen.

"I need to figure out how to beat them. Where are you, Ladybug?" Canine thinks in a panic as she tries to remember how the heroes beat the Akumas while wondering where the heroes are.

Marinette is rushing back to the hotel, with Nate and Sabine running behind her.

"Marinette, why are you in such a rush all of a sudden?" Sabine asks her daughter in worry as she follows behind Marinette with Nate behind her.

"I just want to get home as quickly as possible if you're not going to let me help Ladybug," Marinette tells her mom as she seems to speed up toward the hotel.

"And to get you to stop worrying about me so I can transform and help Cat Noir with the villains." Marinette mentally adds as she runs.

"Is she mad at me?" Sabine asks her mind worriedly as she watches her daughter run.

"This is my fault. If I had captured the butterfly at the time, this wouldn't have happened." Marinette mentally berates herself.

What Sabine doesn't know, besides her daughter's secret identity, is that Marinette is feeling a heavy amount of guilt for today's events due to what happened during Simon Says' debut. Because of that, she's feeling extra anxious about wanting to help defeat the villains.

"How are these two in such good shape?" Nate wonders as he struggles to chase after the two.

The group eventually arrives at the hotel, and Marinette rushes past the lobby toward the elevators with her mom hot on her heels. The two enter the waiting elevator, with Marinette rapidly pressing the button toward her room's floor. It soon closes, leaving a tired Nate behind to lean on one of the lobby chairs.

"I'm just going to wait and see what happens from down here. Good luck." Nate wishes his cousin luck before he sits in the chair he's leaning on to catch his breath.

In the elevator, Sabine gives her daughter a worried expression as Marinette anxiously looks at the floor numbers on the elevator screen rise.

"Marinette... are you angry with me for not letting you stay?" Sabine asks her daughter worriedly.

Marinette jolts in surprise and looks at her mother in shock.

"No! Why would you think that? I know you're only worried about me. Of course, I'm not mad at you." Marinette immediately promises to her mother.

"Are you sure? You seem in a hurry to get away from me." Sabine tells her daughter.

"I just want to go to my room. I'm not mad at you." Marinette tells her anxiously, not liking that her mom thinks she's mad at her.

Sabine gives her own worried look toward Marinette and finally finds her words.

"I'm sorry if you think I don't trust you to get Ladybug to talk to us. But I didn't want you anywhere near such a dangerous villain." Sabine apologizes.

"It's fine, Mama. I know you love me and just want to look after my safety. Please stop worrying about me. I promise I'm not mad at you." Marinette says before enveloping her mom in a hug.

These words and the sudden hug finally ease Sabine's worries as she quickly hugs her daughter and feels her fears melt away.

"That's good. I'm glad to hear you're not mad at me." Sabine says as she caresses her daughter's hair while hugging her.

"Of course, Mama. I'd never be mad at you. I'll show you another time that I know Ladybug. I promise." Marinette promises before releasing her hold on her mother when the elevator door opens with a ding.

"Bye, Mama. I'll be working on something in my room until Ladybug takes care of the Akumas." Marinette tells her before running toward her room.

"Alright. Let me know if you need anything." Sabine tells her daughter as she watches her run to her room. Sabine doesn't have long to watch as the elevator is called down, but she can't help but still worry about her daughter's recent actions.

Marinette quickly closes the doors to her room, and Tikki appears out of her hiding place in Marinette's jacket.

"My, today is unfortunate for you? You haven't been able to help for some time. Hopefully, nothing terrible has happened while you were stuck with your mother." Tikki says as she looks at Marinette with a slightly worried expression.

"I know. We need to get to the school as soon as possible. Hopefully, Cat Noir is doing fine, holding the villains off alone. Tikki spots on." Marinette orders, causing Tikki to enter her earrings and for her to transform.

With that, she quickly rushes out of her room toward the stairwell to get on the roof. After getting there, she jumps off and uses her yo-yo to zip back toward the school. All while thinking.

"Please be okay, please be okay."

Back with Canine, Stormy Weather floats into the room to search for Canine, only to immediately get hit by a ball thrown by Canine in her hiding place and slammed into the wall. Canine quickly uses this chance to exit her hiding spot and tackle Stormy Weather.

"Gotcha. Now give me your umbrella!" Canine shouts as she tries to take the umbrella from Stormy Weather.

However, she doesn't have enough time to get it out of Stormy Weather's grip since her instincts warn her of the boomerangs Dark Owl throws at her, and she has to duck out of the way.

"Hoo, hoo. Impressive, young lady. You are quite talented. But you won't be able to defeat both of us." Dark Owl says as he jumps between Canine and Stormy Weather to protect his ally.

Canine glares at the two villains before deciding to try something else out.

"I was hoping to save my powers for when Ladybug and Cat Noir got here so I could tell them about what I can do, and we can develop a strategy. But it looks like I have no choice." Canine thinks as she glares at the villains.

"Command!" Canine shouts, causing her Miraculous to glow bright orange.

The villains tense when they see this, but nothing seems to happen after Canine activates these powers until she speaks to them.

"Go to sleep." Canine orders while glaring at the villains.

As she orders this, orange-tinted enchanted soundwaves emit from her mouth toward the villains. Suddenly, the two find their bodies heavy, and it's hard for them to focus as they hear Canine's words.

"Wh-what's going on?" Stormy Weather questions as she holds her head in one of her hands while trying to stay upright.

"Hypnosis." Dark Owl groans as he slouches slightly while glaring at Canine.

"Go to sleep." Canine repeats while glaring at the villains as she tries to get them to fall asleep.

Dark Owl grits his teeth as the two villains start dozing off. Deciding to act quickly, Dark Owl pulls some smoke bombs out and slams them into the ground. The smoke and sudden action causes Canine to stop using her power. Using that opportunity, Dark Owl grabs Stormy Weather before pulling out a grappling hook and using it to zip out of the room.

While he escapes, it takes Canine a little time to recover and for the smoke to disperse.

"*Cough**Cough**Cough* Where did they go?" Canine asks as she looks around the classroom to see the two already gone.

She quickly runs out of the room to look for the villains and notices a weakened Dark Owl holding Stormy Weather over his shoulder while climbing onto the school roof.

"Stop!" She shouts at them, but no soundwave comes from her mouth.

Dark Owl doesn't listen to her and runs toward the other side to escape.

"Albert, flight mode." Dark Owl says through his tiredness as he runs off the edge of the school roof and plummets toward the ground.

His cape quickly changes into wings, and he glides off, out of Canine's reach. Not knowing this, Canine quickly chases after the villains and gets atop the roof to find them.

"Where did they go?" Canine asks in a panic as she looks around the roof to try and figure out where they went.

"Ugh, what do I do? Should I use Fetch? No, I'll be out of powers to use and have my timer start if I do. I can't do that while there are still two of them running around. It's too much of a risk. Where are the heroes?" Canine asks as she begins to panic about what to do to get the villains back.

She doesn't have to panic for long, though. She soon hears something landing on the roof behind her and then.

"Who are you?" A feminine voice asks behind her.

Canine quickly turns around while positioning her arm to make another throw before seeing Ladybug, who is in her own fighting stance upon seeing Canine's arm raised, standing behind her. When she sees it's one of the heroes, all tension is released, and she lets out a relieved sigh.

"Oh, thank goodness." Canine says happily, and Ladybug drops her guard when she sees how relieved Canine is to see her.

"Are you the one who's been fighting the villains? Where is Cat Noir?" Ladybug asks in worry as she looks around for her partner.

"I'm sorry, I haven't seen him. I've been fighting them by myself. I'm Canine, by the way. It's great working with you again, Ladybug." Canine introduces herself with a kind smile as she looks at the hero.

Ladybug is surprised at the introduction before smiling happily when she realizes her, Cat Noir, and Nate's gamble paid off, and they got an ally out of it.

"It's nice to meet you, Canine. I'm sorry you had to fight on your own like that. I don't know about Cat Noir, but I couldn't get away to transform without anyone seeing for a while." Ladybug apologizes to the rookie.

"I'm just thankful that you're here now." Canine says in relief as she gives Ladybug a tired smile.

Ladybug nods before looking around for the villains.

"Where are the Akumas anyway? Did you beat them by yourself?" Ladybug asks her.

Canine drops her head sadly while saying.

"No, they managed to get away. I'm sorry." Canine apologizes.

This gets a quick and panicked response from Ladybug as she frantically waves her arms while trying to calm Canine down.

"You don't need to apologize. This whole situation is my fault because I let Stormy Weather's butterfly get away when I was fighting her. Besides, there's a new Akuma whose abilities we don't know about, and you're new to this. It's not your fault they got away. The fact they didn't take your Miraculous means you're doing amazing." Ladybug promises to the rookie heroine.

"I still feel bad, though." Canine apologizes again.

"I'm sure we'll be fine. First, we need to find the Akumas again." Ladybug tells her.

"I might have a way to bring them back. Or at least one of them. But I'll only have five minutes before I transform back after I use it." Canine explains while raising a hand.

Ladybug blinks in surprise for a second before smiling.

Here's a link to Canine's Costume Design

Next Chapter

[ilikekidsshows]

wait where did astruc say that stuff about sailor moon now 😭 is that like a recent thing or??

---

There's a new interview out, or there's a proper translation for an older one, because I’d heard some of the stuff in it before, but Astruc could also just be repeating himself. The interview is for Astruc’s ego stroking, since he mostly spends it playing the pass the blame game for his contested writing decisions and trying to sound wise and experienced by pretending he’s seen critically acclaimed shows he actually hasn't. He also tries to hype people up for Miraculous being this never-ending show that just goes on and on by claiming he has only told 5% of the story he has planned. I’m just wondering, if he has so many story ideas, why didn't season 4 have a proper story and spent all its runtime setting up season 5 instead? He also claims season 7 will make you rethink season 6, which makes me think it's gonna be another season 4 where nothing actually happens despite this show being supposedly fully serialized now. Or they're going to make some more blatant retcons and pretend they're surprising and totally set up plot twists instead.

A lot of people are freaking out about Astruc saying there's enough of this sloppily-told story to last us twelve seasons, but I’m cringing at his claims that they have Gabriel and André’s backstories all figured out and they’d like to dig into that some more while giving André a redemption arc. He was really into the idea of an André redemption arc, because, as he puts it, André actually wants to change unlike Chloé, who Astruc really totally wanted to redeem, you guys, but she told him no :( 

I’m serious, by the way; he literally claims he wanted to redeem Chloé and gave her every chance to change her ways but she just wouldn't, because real people in her position wouldn't and they value realism oh-so-much, which is why Marinette can install a one-way mirror in the girls' bathroom at her school and not get a felony charge. He loves to act like he isn't the puppeteer holding the strings. I can hardly wait for some retroactive justification for how these rich, middle-aged white men’s abuse and neglect of their children is okay. The show didn't have enough abuse apologia in it yet! :D

Like, I expect writers to lie about how great their writing is, they're trying to sell you a product of said writing after all. I just think, if he's gonna claim he’s doing something new and unique, he should actually check the media he claims his show is related to. Every time he makes statements about shows, movies or comics, he makes it obvious that he doesn't actually know anything a person who’d seen them would know about them. Like, yes, Sailor Moon is the core Scout, but any decisions the Sailor Scouts make are made together or Luna gives them orders. Usagi is not the standard type leader Astruc makes it sound like she is when he says his Sailor Moon -like Miraculous AU would have Marinette “lead her own hero team”. Although I’d be interested in an AU where Marinette actually cares about what others think, Astruc has made it clear that's not what he's interested in, so his description of Sailor Moon is already incorrect before he says this version of Miraculous also wouldn't have a love story, because I guess he thinks the “Tuxedo Mask is useless” memes are the actual canon or something, which just proves that he hasn't seen the show, since from the first episode onward, Tuxedo Mask is an important, helpful ally to Sailor Moon. Just because he doesn't have flashy magic attacks in the first anime doesn't mean he doesn't contribute important insight or distractions or isn't actually physically capable.

Basically, Astruc can't say two sentences about a piece of media without all of it being incorrect. He's gotten way too comfortable thinking nobody in this fandom reads or watches anything not Miraculous-related, probably because, in all these years, the fandom at large hasn’t discovered that Marinette is clearly just Nikki Maxwell with superpowers all the way down to her character design. When you get away with plagiarism, it tends to make you cocky.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Queens Second Chance thought but I imagine Hawk Moth's plans alter because of the heroes "Stepping up their game".

Like, it makes no sense not to try and prepare for Heroes Day and maybe try and ensure some key Akumatization don't happen (Kim) While still letting there be enough to lure Hawk Moth out to try and take him down.

This likely fails due to butterfly effect, but they probably don't run into the same issues and maybe HK even realizes they were prepared for this. He can't imagine a leak so while he may not deduce the exact reasons, he may try and adjust his plans to be more unpredictable.

Anyway, with Sass around there is likely no attempt to summon Nooroo, so Fu is still hidden. But given him, its likely that Ladybug & maybe Chat are still going back and forth for reinforcements. Or otherwise make it clear there is somewhere other Miraculous are stored by sometimes having them sometimes not.

Chances are, Kagami's whole thing with her mother likely goes the same.

Even if she & Adrien are together, I can't see Marinette passing up on the competition and Tomoe being well, Tomoe. Plus Chloe may have mentioned Kagami uses the dragon in a id not to be petty.

If her identity is still revealed then HK likely zeroes in on her.

This is both bad and good. On one hand he doesn't have as much insight or access to her as he does Chloe, nor is Kagami of the same mindset as Chloe.

On the other hand, she is rather like stone, you can strike her hundreds of times and nothing happens but hit a fault line and she crumbles & Hawk Moth & Mayura have empathy powers.

Thus one avenue would likely be trying to foster negative emotions in Kagami and generally spying in a bid to see where the Miraculous come from, hell likely even scouting.

Lila also likely gets a "Promotion" in that she as Chameleon & a stealth Sentimonster are sent around town to try & uncover a key location. Or are otherwise watching in secret during battles to gather intel.

There's no logical way Miracle Queen would even be attempted though Heart Hunter might work like Oblivio and just be another big Akuma. Though Chloe would be paranoid as hell on the day itself.

All in all, he likely tries to rely more on spying and his ideas for a MIracle Queen Scenario likely involve finding an identity, then engineering a scenario to Akumatize a Miraculous Wielder.

Either while they are using their power, or to have them transform after the fact.

OH TERRIFYING

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Especially because Alya isn't single, which undermines the "no dating" message and the episode ends with Adrien and Marinette "together" for all intents and purposes, meaning that Plagg and Tikki should have gone to another set of new holders if romance couldn't happen between the ladybug and the black cat (and apparently only them because Rena and Carapace is a non-issue). But they don't, so what was the point here? That you can be together, but only if that happens before you get a miraculous?

The show really cannot commit on what messaging it wants to send about romance. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Joan of Arc and her black cat apparently stopped fighting and protected the people because of their love (don't get me started on how much I dislike using a real historical figure like that), but they also had to give up their miraculous for... reasons? So does love empower or does it weaken? Can you be a hero and live happily ever after? Because the show seems to say that you can't.

Like, this is the lead in to Plagg and Tikki taking the miraculouses away:

Plagg: Sugarcube! Having to force them to choose between love and their mission is just awful! Maybe Master Fu was wrong to choose them. Tikki: No, they’re made for each other. Love is what gives them their strength. Plagg: But the impossible part of that love is destroying them, and I know a thing or two about destruction. Tikki: (sighs heavily) What can we do? Plagg: We must free them of that impossible choice. We must… free them of us.

...so does love give them strength or not? And how does it strengthen them? Because, outside of Dark Cupid, we've literally never seen The Power of Love do anything to magically save the day. It's only caused them pain and it's the thing that's driving Gabriel and Nathalie to domestic terrorism so, yeah... None of this is a good look. (See previous Chat Blanc rant about how that episode should have been impossible.)

The Power of Love is supposed to empower you through the relationships you form, not because of an unrequited crush that's secretly returned. It's not reverse hanahaki disease!!! It's taking the emotions that we associate with strong, loving relationships and turning them into something that can save the world because it gives you strength. Cheesy? Sure, but that's the trope. That's what those words mean. Oblivio is another rare example of this. Box Noir may have been treated as a joke, but that was Adrien doing something insane so that the woman he loves wouldn't have to fight alone.

I don't know how to explain this better than to show this scene from the 1992 Sailor Moon R movie where a song called "The Power of Love" blasts in the background while Sailor Moon stops an asteroid from hitting Earth with her magic, which only works because it gets powered up by the love and support of the sailor scouts and Tuxedo Mask. It is one of the cheesiest things that you will ever see, but it nails the assignment. When you say "The Power of Love", this is what I'm expecting. Anything less and why are you using those words?

Also, just from an audience enjoyment perspective, Nino and Alya saving the day so that their best friends can rest is just narratively satisfying in a way rando rookie Zoe flirting with Alya isn't. It's arguably another type of Power of Love because, as the clip above demonstrates, that's not a romance-only trope. It's supposed to apply to friends, too. The sailor scouts get more screen time in that clip than Tuxedo Mask does!

About cat Nino, it wouldn't be possible because the very reason Tikki and Plagg tried to change holders was because they thought the romance and hero job of their current holders doesn't work together. They wouldn't choose ANOTHER couple as the new Ladybug and Cat right immediately, it wouldn't make sense for the episode.

To start with, the whole “quitting so the kids can romance” thing is ridiculous for reasons I’m too tired to explain rn but w/e. They could’ve made it work so that Nino got picked alongside Alya. Made it so the kwamis quit so the kids could have a mental health break instead and therefore Nino was fair game.

Besties theme > plot

[salthaven]

A Lady’s Scout (and the Salt within her Soul)

A Lady’s Scout (and the Salt within her Soul)

   Marinette doesn’t know how the rumors started. Oh scratch that, of course she knows how the rumors started. Hell, she encouraged them herself!

   She was pissed, and rightfully so. Her friends had all left her, betraying her, forgetting her, leaving her behind for Lila. A single incident turned into multiples, and Marinette ended that same week in the back once more, now a permanent resident of the back row. All it took was a few crocodile tears from Lila to Miss Bustier, complaining about sight problems. But of course, she just needed to be a little closer to the board. Like Marinette’s spot kind of close. But it’s fine, because Marinette can sit with Nathaniel, and aren’t they such good friends?

   Marinette didn’t even try to complain, already knowing that she’d lose. And so she ended the week in the back, silently fuming as Alya didn’t even bat an eye at the change.

   And it only continued. Days turned into weeks, and the weeks never ended. Suddenly Marinette was being forgotten, abandoned on an island, watching in vain as her classmates were left in awe of Lila’s latest ‘travels’. Sure, she had Nathaniel, but he was wrapped up in his comic most of the time.

   So Marinette became wrapped up in her own little world of designs. Without her friends by her side, Marinette found herself with more free time than she’d had in months! (It looks like Lila can bring some good into her life!)

   The first creation was a fox themed shirt, styled after Rena Rouge’s costume. Bold orange merged seamlessly with a creamy white, little embroidery creating a picture in the corner for searching eyes to find. A little fox, prancing among the flowers. A little fox, searching for something.

   A little fox, searching for the Miraculous she’d never get again. Because why would she? Why would she, when she was no longer dependable? When she was no longer trustworthy, no longer loyal? When she’d forget Marinette for the next best thing?

   So maybe Marinette was a little bitter, but who could blame her? And besides, why would she want to keep a fox that betrays her when she could have a friend who would silently stand by her side, or rather sit there, and come up with his own little illusions each and every day?

   Fennec debuted three weeks after Marinette is exiled to the back, on a sunny day that does little to represent Alya’s mood.

   Marinette presented the shirt on that following Monday.

   “Th- thank you, Marinette,” Alya said, eyes widening as she gazed at the shirt. “But why is it fox themed?”

   “Oh, you reminded me of Rena,” Marinette said with a wink, but there was no smile on her face. There wasn’t one on Alya’s, either, but only teary eyes.

   Later, Marinette would look down at Alya and be met with skeptical, questioning eyes. But the eyes turned away quickly, downcast.

   Marinette watched on from her spot in the back, eyes searching for flaws. She found them in her partners, and she created.

   Next came a hoodie. A soft green, with a hexagonal pattern stitched in with darker thread. A hood, large enough for an old friend to hide his head in, even with a hat on.

   He was protective, but not of Ladybug. Only Rena Rouge, only ever Rena Rouge. But Rena was gone, and so he would be, too.

   Luka swapped teal for green, becoming Protecteur. Her protector. Because he’d never harmed her, he’d never betrayed her. He’d always been there, a silent support, and now he could be the same for Ladybug.

   When Marinette gave Nino the hoodie, his eyes locked with hers, an unusual trait.

   “Hey, what’s up with the Carapace theme, dudette?”

   “He was just like you, wasn’t he?” She asked, and then she was gone, hidden in the back.

   It’d be hard to miss how he tensed from so high up. Perhaps it was good, being forced to the back.

   A bee themed skirt was made quickly. Light and simple, the white skirt had little yellow bees buzzing along the hem. Cute, yet impractical. Focusing more on looks than on functionality.

   Yes, that was the way Marinette worked out her stress from Queen Bee, from the hero who never was, and never would be forevermore.

   She presented it before she chose a replacement, and was met with weariness.

   “You never give me gifts, Dupain-Cheng,” Chloé pointed out bluntly, eyes challenging. “What’s with the skirt?”

   “Oh, I just thought you’d like a little keepsake,” Marinette responded, already turning away.

   Three days later, a new bee was chosen. Monarch rose up, a force to be reckoned with.

   Kagami was all too happy to take up the mantle, to take out her stress on the poor Akuma victims. She was honored to be chosen, and Marinette was happy.

   Her team was chosen, fixed to her liking. She was protected, she was safe, no longer relying on classmates who would only let her down.

   And the rumors spread. From Alya and Nino, whispering to one another about what the gifts could mean. To an accidental comment near Lila, who used it as fuel to spread her fire. Because if Marinette knew...who’s to say she isn’t acting as some sort of scout?

   “Ladybug and I had a falling out,” Lila explained with a flip of her hair. “I didn’t approve of the idea, so she and I had a spat.” She smiled at Alya, all sugar and sweetness. “I’d never replace someone like you...but Marinette would encourage it.”

   Alya had glared at Marinette the rest of the week, and the whisperings picked up.

   Chloé learned from Lila, and came marching up to Marinette immediately.

   “Lila says you’re some kind of hero scout, huh?” Chloé said, shoving her face into Marinette’s. “What, are you some kind of goody two-shoes who talks to Ladybug, crying when someone upsets you?”

   Marinette raised an eyebrow. “Me? Why, I do nothing of the sort! I’d never complain to Ladybug like that.” She smiled, fully aware of the searching eyes. Aware of the awe stricken gaze Nathaniel sent her way, of the shock in Nino’s eyes and pure hatred in Alya’s. “I wouldn’t complain, but if she does come by for advice...who am I to lie?”

   She saw how Lila glared, teeth grinding. She saw how her classmates reacted, some with excitement, others with worry. Unsure how to feel, unsure how to act.

   Fennec, by then permanent much like her Bee and Turtle, questioned her during patrol, right in front of Chat Noir, Protecteur, and Monarch.

   “Hey, Ladybug?” Fennec asked, eyes full of nerves.

   “Yes, Fennec?”

   “Is Marinette some sort of hero scout for you?”

   With those words, Ladybug saw how her three teammates paused. Protecteur and Monarch seemed shocked by the words, Chat Noir just leaned in closer, waiting with baited breath for her answer.

   “She is,” Ladybug replied easily, knowing the rumors would spread, knowing the rumors would lead to hatred and excitement and an alibi. (Because how could Ladybug’s scout be a hero, especially Ladybug herself? It just wouldn’t be possible!) “I tried giving her the Fox Miraculous back during Sapotis, but she suggested a friend of hers. They were good, so I asked her for a Turtle recommendation. Carapace worked well. She thought Queen Bee could redeem herself, so we gave Chloé a shot.”

   “Why did you replace them?” Chat Noir asked. “If Marinette suggested them, why would you change your mind?”

   “They stopped being reliable.” Ladybug shrugged, twirling her yoyo. “They left Marinette alone to be isolated. They let their friend be threatened by a liar, and when Marinette finally admitted it to me? I can’t have people who act like that.”

   “Did she recommend us?” Protecteur asked, and Ladybug smiled.

   “You three were the first people she could think of, and she had shining recommendations for all three.”    She saw the way they reacted. Monarch smiled, Protecteur beamed, Fennec looked ready to have a stroke...and Chat Noir seemed pensive, eyes searching for something.

   Marinette went to class the next day, and things had changed. For some reason, Max, Kim, and Alix were being extra nice to her. For some reason, Adrien spoke directly to her, despite having shied away the moment Alya got mad. For some reason, she felt like she was being watched. It was more than usual, more than when Lila first spread the rumor that Marinette was a hero scout.

   But it didn’t click on why until Kagami spelled it out during lunch.

   “They want to be heroes, too,” Kagami muttered, inching closing to the bluenette. Luka dropped into the spot beside her, and Nathaniel quickly sat across from them, setting his bag in the last remaining spot.

   “So they think I can help with that?” Marinette questioned, an eyebrow raising.

   “You are a hero scout,” Nathaniel pointed out, cheeks tinted red with embarrassment. “If you deem someone worthy, Ladybug will give them the Miraculous.”

   Marinette glanced around, saw the way Kim eyed her, expression eager as he waved excitedly.

   Of course. Her one time Roi Singe...and the Pegasus and Bunnix to follow. They knew she had a say, and so they were sucking up to her.

   Marinette turned her gaze away, focusing on her true friends. “I only tell Ladybug about the real heroes,” she muttered, missing the way her three friends blushed.

   That night, she was itching to create, and so she did. A monkey inspired sweatband, with a tiny, comical version of Xuppu stitched on the inside. It only took a few hours, and Marinette was happy with it.

   Kim jogged up to her as she walked into the classroom, still beaming. “Hey, Marinette!” He said happily, as if he hadn’t ignored her, too. “Want to hangout soon? I have a track competition, you should come see it!”

“I can’t,” Marinette replied dismissively, “but here’s a good luck gift.” She pressed the sweatband into his palm, and watched him stumble as he realized what it meant.

“Oh...okay,” he said with a frown, deflated and hurt. He moped over to his seat, allowing Max to console him.

By lunchtime, Max seemed nervous, glancing at Marinette with panicked eyes. He seemed to be calculating, consulting Markov. Whatever he realized, it was enough to set him on edge.

   Two days later, he was sure of his results. Marinette came up to him, and she smiled coldly.

   “I made you these,” she said, and set a pair of sunglasses in his hands. “I thought you’d like them.” She turned, ignoring the way his eyes dropped, and then paused. “And don’t worry, they’ll protect your eyes from dangerous napkins.”

   Later that day, Marinette would sit at home and laugh at her comment, then continue on to start one of her final gifts.

   Her class was chaotic. Half of them followed her around like she was Lila, trying to do favors for her, trying to get into her good graces, trying to be someone special in her eyes. Many of them stayed far away, however, hiding from her sight, unsure if they should hate her or hate themselves, unsure what went wrong, unsure of what to do.

   And then she had her actual friends. Nathaniel, Luka, Kagami…

   And, according to the school, Ladybug.

   Alix became pushier. The young girl practically bounced like a rabbit as she’d follow Marinette around, trying to prove herself. She thought she was in the clear, that the future was set in stone. She owned the watch, after all, so it was rightfully hers, right?

   Marinette presented her with a hat, light blue with a little white pom pom on top, and Alix froze.

   Later that day, Ladybug made a trip to Alix’s house, and she left a perfect replica of the watch behind. Perfect, of course, except for the lack of a certain bunny-themed Kwami.

   Alix didn’t show up for school the next day, and Marinette didn’t bat an eye.

   Just like that, her team was complete, and justice had been served.

   But Marinette wasn’t done.

   No, because there was one last thing to do. One little thing.

   Marinette donned the Mouse, one last time. She split herself up, until a dozen little Multimice were running through the school. She snuck into each class, gathering information. Looking for future options.

   And playing her final card in the game she’d been playing for months.

   Her class was silent as Miss Bustier took attendance, eyes on their teacher as Multimouse slipped underneath the door.

   “Marinette?” Miss Bustier asked, eyes curious, and Multimouse raised her hand, as if on autopilot.

   “Here!” Her little voice squeaked out, and then she gasped, covering her mouth.

   But it was too late, she’d been ‘found’. Miss Bustier stared, wide-eyed, crouching down to see her student on the floor.

   “M- Marinette?” Miss Bustier asked, and Multimouse shook her head.

   “No, no, of course not!” But it was too late, wasn’t it? Marinette was never a good liar, was she?

   “You’re Multimouse?!” Alya shouted the question, hands slamming onto her desk. Lila, beside her, stared, but the stare quickly turned into a dangerous glare.

   “I, uh,” Multimouse sighed, curling in on herself. “Fuck.” She turned to face Miss Bustier. “I...I guess I’ll explain, but just wait a second. I’d rather do this at full height.”

   “Okay?” Miss Bustier nodded, still baffled. “What do you need?”

   “Oh, just my other me’s. They should be here right about now.” As if on cue (oh they were definitely on cue), the other Multimice came darting under the door, making their way to Multimouse. They went up to her, quickly combining into one normal-sized Multimouse.

   “Woah,” Nathaniel whispered, eyes shining with excitement. The rest of the class seemed to feel the same, any negative feelings forgotten (well, except for one certain girl) in the moment.

   “Why were there so many?” Rose asked, eyes searching for any others that may have stayed small. “What were they- you- doing?”

   Multimouse laughed. “Wasn’t it obvious? I’ve heard the rumors, guys, I know what you think.”

   She watched how they paused, how their mouths dropped and their eyes widened.

   “You were looking for new heroes?” Adrien asked, speaking up for once in his life, and Multimouse shrugged.

   “Ladybug wanted new blood. Sent me out to search. She’s done it a few times, dropping the Miraculous off so I could get stuff done.” She looked to Miss Bustier with the sweetest, most innocent smile she could ever give, and said, “I hope you understand why I’m late so often. I couldn’t exactly tell you the truth, it’s supposed to be a secret after all.”

   “Of course,” Miss Bustier said, and Multimouse smiled wider.

   (So maybe it’s a partial lie, but Marinette was sick of getting detention for saving the goddamn city every day.)

   “How long has this been going on?” Alya asked, hands shaking as she held onto her desk, as she struggled to not grab her phone.

   Multimouse made a show of pausing, of tapping her finger to her chin before smiling. “I’ve been sneaking around since Carapace’s debut. After that, Ladybug wanted me to search more often. It helped her get a grasp of what goes on in the world. She can’t have eyes everywhere, but I can.” She giggled, then frowned. “It’s been tough, having to hide this for so long. I had to hide from Chat Noir, too, in the beginning, in case he got possessed. If he only focused on Ladybug, he couldn’t go after me during my secret missions. I nearly lost the ability to use the Miraculous when I revealed my identity to him...oh no.”

   “What?” Adrien asked. “What’s wrong?”

   “I suppose Ladybug won’t use me any longer.” Multimouse hugged herself, looking out the window. “She can’t, not anymore.”

   “Why not?” Nathaniel asked, looking hurt.

   “You all know my identity. I can’t be a hero, it isn’t safe. Especially when Ladybug’s stalker- shit.”

   Like a conductor of an orchestra, Multimouse played them once more. She struggled to hold back her smirk as the class went berserk once more.

   “She has a stalker?” Adrien asked, slamming his hands on the desk. “Who is it?”

   Multimouse shrunk back. “It- it’s not my place to say. Ladybug said to be nice, that she can fight her own battles.”

   “Is someone hurting her?” Nino asked, and Multimouse just took another step back. “Who?”

   “I really shouldn’t-” but the class is wild now, and they want the truth. So Multimouse sighed and pulled on her jump rope, opening up a hidden phone. “Alright, I’ll call her.” She hit a few buttons, then nodded. “She’ll be here soon. I should go...Ladybug will want the Miraculous back.” One last sad look to her class, and then she leaped out of the window, sneaking up to the roof.

   One quick change later, Ladybug hopped into the classroom, eyes narrowed.

   This time, Alya pulled out the phone, finally unable to control her desire for footage. “Ladybug! Ma-”

   “Multimouse,” Ladybug cut off quickly.

   “Multimouse told us that you have a stalker?” Alya asked. “Who is it?”

   Ladybug raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t you know? You put her on your blog every single week, after all.”

   Alya froze, and so did Lila.

   “I- I’m not-” Lila tried to start, but Ladybug was ready.

   “Lila Rossi has been claiming many things since she got to Paris. I’ve heard claims of her being Volpina, a superhero. I’ve heard her claim that she was a better hero than me, and that she and I are best friends. She’s been Akumatized multiple times, and I’m not quite so sure whether or not it’s just to get close to me. She has tormented my scout, ostracizing her and claiming that I would support her, that I would listen to her. Lila Rossi has created an illusion in her mind that I owe her my friendship, and that my scout has done her wrong, and I would never trust someone like her.” She glared at the girl, at the camera. “There is one good thing Lila Rossi has done. She has been a wonderful test for my previous temporaries in order to see where their loyalties are. Other than that, she has been stalking me, creating up stories, and ruining lives.” She glared at Alya. “Now, if that’s all you want, I must go find my scout. She seemed rather upset, and I’d rather not fight my favorite civilian.”

   Then she left the room, and she didn’t come back for the rest of the day. Instead she stayed home, claiming she felt sick, and let herself relax.

   She created her final design.

   When Marinette came into class the next day, she wore a beautiful pink dress, embroidered with little gray mice. The message was clear, and Nathaniel seemed disappointed. Adrien did, too, but Marinette wasn’t sure why.

   She was greeted with apologies, with promises to be better. With questions, wondering how she’d managed to be Multimouse for so long without raising suspicion. With admiration, as their friends realized who the true friend of Ladybug was.

   And Marinette just turned away, turned to her true chosen heroes.

   Later that day, rumors of a heroine in a dragon’s red were heard, and if Ladybug was suspiciously absent…

   Well, the other heroes enjoyed patrolling with their scout, and the world was right for one more day.  ----- And with that, I have finally written this fic! Thank you to @liamnl for letting me use this idea, it was really fun! (To be honest, I wasn’t sure how to end it, so I figured Marinette could get her last revenge and call out Lila once and for all.) I hope you all enjoyed it! <3