#i’ve only read le fantôme de l'opéra

[yaksha-lover]

ok i know phantom of the opera malleus is already a popular concept but can we please acknowledge how that moment in the novel where erik starts crying while thinking of how christine didn’t run away after he pulled off his mask is so malleus coded. like the barest acknowledgement of humanity and empathy (even without romantic reciprocity) after being feared and rejected by the world for so long is enough to bring him to tears and be endlessly thankful for that one moment of acceptance.

it’s so malleus with yuu being his first friend and the only one not to shy away in fear, i can imagine him just feeling so overwhelmed with surprise and joy when yuu does something very simple for him, like when they invited him to the vdc.

[dapper-ships-herself]

Le Cirque des Désenchantés

Greetings one and all! I welcome you to our humble circus! Look around you at the world outside, be not fooled by the glamorous blanket they will try and throw over your heads. Out there is a cruel world of misery and despair, a place where the downtrodden find no purchase and are left under heel, it is a gem covered in grim and dust. But, must we lay down and weep over this fact? Here, in this tent, we see the world for the way it truly is, and so we add our own color! The world will not give us the luster we seek, so we shall create it for our selves! Join us on this night, where even we can create our own best of all possible worlds!

Allow me to introduce myself~ I am your ringmaster, Voltaire!

 I have been told I’m a bit of an optimist, even in the face of this cruel world. I adore this circus with my entire being, having founded it and recruited each member myself. My special ability is called Candide, and it allows me to read the mind of an individual I make eye contact with.

Now, allow me to introduce some of our members~

This man is Martin, a friend of mine since childhood. He’s not actually a performer, but he is essential to us. I suppose you could call him our strategist, he manages much of our back stage and helps keep me in check, This circus wouldn’t run nearly as smoothly without him. He’s a bit of a glass half empty kind of fellow, pragmatic through and through; I’ve tried to tell him he should lighten up a bit more for as long as I’ve known him.

Jane de la Vaudere is our fortune teller. She carries with her an aura of mystique, but she is truly warm and motherly, especially caring to those of us in this circus. Her special ability is called La Sorcière d'Ecbatane, when her left eye is covered, she can see a limited glimpse of a person’s future, and when her right eye is covered she is capable of producing a myriad of fantastic magical effects, mostly harmless shows of light and such that we use in our performances, but she does have a few trickier spells up her sleeve.

Stendhal is our master magician! As talented as he is with slight of hand, he’s an extremely shy fellow. The mask he wears is not only for the sake of his costume, it’s also a sort of security blanket for him, and he rarely takes it off. His ability is called Le Rouge et le Noir, which allows him to control playing cards.

Renee Vivien is one of our performers. She loves luxury and relaxation more than pretty much anything, and adores a good celebration. Her ability is called Le Club de l'Enfer, allowing her to summon a group of tiny devil like creatures to do her bidding.

  Gaston Leroux is a performer with us. Mysterious, quite, and aloof, those words work well to describe our precious Gaston. Be not deterred by his mannerisms and general lack of social skills, he dedicates himself in his entirety to this circus and truly cares. His ability is called Le fantôme de l'Opéra, from his body he can secrete an inky substance that he can manipulate at will, and is also able to to sprout eyes within this substance to look around an area remotely.

Rachilde is our beast tamer. Truly a gentle girl, she prefers to lead our animal performers through a kind touch rather than through whips as is traditional. Though she is very kind and gentle, she is not incapable of showing a, shall we say crueler side to herself; this rarely comes out though and only in the face of a threat to our family. Her ability is called Face à la Peur, letting her see her target’s greatest fear and then trap them in a mental space with an embodiment of that fear, the target is physically asleep until either she releases them or they somehow manage to defeat this fear.

Albert Camus acts as our clown. Many people are put off by his face and admittedly very creepy demeanor, but that’s all surface level, inside he is a caring, sweet man who simply wants to make people smile and wishes others could see his intentions better than they often do. His ability is called L'Étranger, which allows him to induce temporary memory loss upon a target, making them a complete stranger to them self for up to a day.

 Charles Baudelaire is a dancer for us. Calm and graceful in everything he does, he is quite the fan of teasing his fellow circus members, but it all comes from a place of love truly. His ability is called Les Paradis Artificiels, he can create a special powder which he blows out of his pipe and into the air, effecting the ambiance of an area, usually used to either relax people so they let down their guard, or excite them.  

 Victor Hugo is our strongman. He is the true definition of a gentle giant, and you can’ help but trust him despite his imposingly large frame. He’s an expert at controlling his incredible strength and is surprisingly dexterous with his hands, he loves to whittle wood as his hobby. His ability is called Les Misérables he is able to blanket an area in apathy, making it difficult for those within to muster up the energy to fight or even move.

And last, but certainly never the least, we have

Gillian, our star acrobat. She is a master of the aerial silks and a sight to see on the trapeze, her balance upon the tightrope leaves audiences on the edge of their seats. She has a penchant for sarcasm and mischief with a sharp smile to match; beyond that, though, she is very easy to fluster with words, the only place she’s never lost her composure is in the air. She adores our circus family more than anything, seeing it as the only thing worth truly caring about for the most part. Her ability is known as l'Essence de l'Humanité, an ability that greatly increases the strength of other abilities; it works best through physical contact, but if she puts her full concentration on an ability user and so long as she keeps that concentration and they remain within her line of sight then it will also take effect.   

Dear disillusioned, we hope to see you come around to enjoy our spectacular performance some day, where you can forget your troubles for one night and enjoy an enchanted world~

---------

So yeah, this is the french group of circus OCs for Bungou Stray Dogs I’ve been talking about for a while now! 

They are a very popular performance across Europe, though most audience members have no clue about the, hm, shadier jobs they take low-key.

These authors were chosen either because they’re famous and the first ones I thought of with the prompt of “French authors”, or they are from the decadence movement of French writing, which was a movement characterized by “self-disgust, revulsion at the world, skepticism, delight in the perverse, and belief in the superiority of human creativity over logic and nature”. I thought that fit in with the theme of this being a group of people who have come together after being looked down upon, beaten by, and exposed to the darker parts of the world, they are disillusioned from seeing a perfect world. But they have also decided not to be totally jaded depressos about this, instead for the most part adopting an attitude of “yeah, lots of things suck, but we can have fun together in a little world of our own creation”, which is the circus. 

The circus is an extremely tight knit family and they all love each other dearly, all believing that they have to look out for each other since no one else will.

Story wise, I think they enter in between seasons 2 and 3 and would have their own season where they are actually the antagonists. Fyodor wants to continue to poke at the agency and try another approach at retrieving the book before he gets his own hands dirty by becoming more directly involved. So, he approaches Voltaire and tells him about a special book that can make anything come true, and that this book can be used to create the “best of all possible worlds” he so desires for his circus family. Under the guise of branching out in touring, the circus heads to Yokohama, Japan.

I have a bit of a plot worked out from there, but mostly pertaining to how the arc wraps up. This post is getting long, but I’d be happy to talk about that more later~

Anyway, please love my circus children, I worked hard on them.   

Picrews: o, o, o, o, o, o, o, o, o

[glassprism]

Which english translation of Leroux’s Le Fantôme de l'Opéra is your favorite?

This assumes I’ve read more than one English translation of Phantom...

Anyway, my response to asks like these (since many seem to ask because they want a recommendation) is to always send them to Fdelopera’s post about English translations; it’s quite exhaustive and done by someone who is not only an expert in the Leroux novel, but who understands French and was working on a translation herself. Her conclusion is that David Coward’s is the best in terms of completeness and accuracy to the text.

Just personally, I’ve skimmed through Coward’s translation, mainly for the parts that I know were abridged from other translations, and I found it informative, if a bit clunky in the wording. I and many other fans probably first read Leroux’s novel through the de Mattos translation, which is quite easily found since it’s in the public domain, and it has a beauty and “historical” feel to its language that remains quite memorable, and if you are involved in the fandom a lot, you’ll see a lot of lines from that translation being used for edits, gifsets, and metas.

So in general, I’d say my favorite, and what I like to recommend fans read, is the Coward version for completeness and de Mattos for the language - or, as Fdelopera says in another good post, “you should read Coward if you want to know what Leroux wrote, but you should read de Mattos if you want to know how Leroux sounded.”

[infernusvacua]

Astaria: Introduce all your snakes (also previous ones) with photos and names, please and thank you.

“Ah, mais bien sûr, mon chéri. I always love talking about my darlings. They are my pride and joy, even those whom I have outlived. I can’t cover all of the snakes I have ever owned—that would be a massive list, as I used to have a bad habit of simply taking snakes whenever I saw them and keeping them, regardless of whether or not they had owners already. But I will cover the most important darlings in my life, who really became family more than they were pets.”

“My first python was this exquisite little beauty. I called her Fleur-de-Lys. This was long before ball pythons were even considered eligible to be kept as pets; they were mostly being imported for zoos and private collections. An acquaintance of mine in the very last years of the 19th century had acquired Fleur and showed little interest in her except as decoration given her strange coloration. I felt a sort of kinship to her situation and took her off his hands. We spent some months traveling together while the investigation into his murder was underway. She was about a year old when he bought her, and she passed away in 1926.”

“Next came Erik, mon petit fantôme. His pattern looked like little ghosts, non? I had just read the newly published Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, so the name felt very fitting. He was also a rescue from an unfortunate situation, sent to a zoo that had no idea how to handle snakes. They didn’t even think he was a ball python because of his pattern. When I brought him home, he was around two years old and very malnourished, but it didn’t take long for him to flourish. He passed in 1943.”

“Fate also brought us together with Christine, who I found in the collection of an intolerable bore of a man who absolutely did not deserve her. Since she looked similar to Erik, the name came naturally. It was truly perfect; they got along so swimmingly together that I think Christine’s little heart broke when Erik passed, because she started doing poorly after that and passed herself not long after.”

"However, I think Fleur and Erik must have had an affair at some point, because that’s the only explanation for how little Curieuse simply appeared in my home. She was born in 1924, and she was one of my longest-lived snakes, not passing until 1969. I originally named her because her markings looked like question marks, but she turned out to be quite the explorer and troublemaker. Sweet little thing, though.”

"Curieuse was my only companion snake for a long time, but then I was introduced to Étoile. Around this time, the piebald variation was discovered, and the couple responsible for Ettie had been hoping they would get some in their latest clutch. When she came out, they were somehow disappointed in her, I supposed because she was neither piebald nor albino. So I immediately took her off their hands. I believe she was born in 1963, and she passed in 2000.”

"That prompted me to see if I could find any others like her, and that lead to my beloved Milady. She was born in 1979 and only passed three years ago. I don’t like to pick favorites, but I think Milady might have been the one I’ve loved the most. We just connected very deeply. She never bit me once—all the others have had at least one accidental snap when they’ve been in feeding mode, but not her. She was too proper for that. I miss her dearly.”

“And that brings me to my current three bébés. By this point, ball pythons had taken off as a more mainstream pet, and breeders were starting to embrace the strange and beautiful morphs their snakes were showing, as well as giving them names. I got Arsène in 2005 from a very nice breeder. They called him a black chocolate python, which I rather liked. I named him after the greatest gentleman thief in all of literature, and though he’s not a thief, he is quite the gentleman.”

“Cosette is my third blue eyed leucistic, now that I know what the term is. She’s only seven years old and extremely shy compared to Arsène and Bijou, but she’s a doll and I love her dearly. The moment I saw her, I knew I had to have her—I mean look at that pink tone! Absolument magnifique!”

“And last but not least, ma jolie petite princesse, Bijou. She is still a baby at two years old and I spoil her absolutely rotten. She really is a little jewel, and although she can be demanding, she is the easiest snake I’ve ever had when it comes to handling. I think she loves it, to tell the truth. Being held is just another way for her to show off and have people swoon over her.”

[communistchexmix]

Unmasked

Hi @littlemissastar! I’m your @mlsecretsanta gifter! I heard you liked Marinette, Adrien, the kwamis, and fluff, so here you go! Happy holidays, and I hope you like it!

(Warning for others: Season 2 spoilers ahead!)

It started with, of all things, a field trip.

They were right in the middle of their theatre unit in Mme. Bustier’s class, and so when Mme. Bustier found out that a small local theatre right near the school was putting on Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, well, they just had to go see it.

Marinette loved Le Fantôme de l'Opéra from the very first scene. It had only recently made its debut in France as a play, despite the original novel being of French origins. She had read the novel once in school a few years ago. As for the play, it was a fabulous show right from the beginning, and by the third song, she was daydreaming about making the costumes. Just as she was wondering how long Christine’s intricate dress would take to stitch and embroider, there was a frightened childish wail from a few rows behind her.

Marinette refocused on the play. Christine, who was, of course, the main character, was singing to a mirror. In the mirror- which had been blank only a few moments before- there was now a ghostly, half-masked face. The Phantom had first appeared onstage, and it seemed that the child in the row three behind her didn’t care much for the masked figure.

As the still-masked Phantom led Christine into his subterranean lair, the child’s wails only grew louder and louder. Marinette exchanged a half-sympathetic look, half-wince with Alya, who of course had chosen to sit right beside her.

“Ugh!” she heard Chloe exclaim loudly from down the row where she was seated next to Adrien. She had been cuddled up next to him since the lights went down, but now she was seated upright in her seat, glaring back at the sobbing toddler. “Can’t somebody shut him up? This is why we should have gone to the Palais Garnier. It’s the proper setting anyway.”

Mme. Bustier shushed her.

“The Palais Garnier doesn’t even put on plays,” Alya whispered in Marinette’s ear.

Marinette was about to reply quietly when a piercing scream split the air. This was no child’s scream, but the voice of a young woman. It was followed by the toddler screaming again, only this time there was a new, tonal quality to it.

Marinette spun around in her chair to look. Alya already had her phone out, so she honestly should’ve expected this: the toddler was flying.

Specifically, the toddler was clothed in a white jumpsuit with a lime-green mask emblazoned on the front. He wore a matching Phantom-style mask that covered the right half of his face. On his feet were dark red-and-green shoes that were flashing with red and green lights. And, oh yeah, he was hovering a few meters off the ground, far above them, glaring down at the stage with a fury.

Panicked, audience members all around Marinette began to scramble for the theatre doors, trying to escape. But the newly akumatized child wasn’t interested in them- he floated towards the stage, hands outstretched.

The actors onstage didn’t notice until it was too late. With a delicate cry, the actress playing Christine fainted, swooning backwards into the actor playing the Phantom. Marinette expected him to catch her, but he was frozen in place and the actress slumped to the floor.

Mme. Bustier was behind Marinette and Alya then. “Come on, girls, let’s go!”

Marinette looked away from the stage for an instant- the rest of the class had already fled. Only she and Alya were left, and of course Alya had her phone out, live-streaming the akuma to the Ladyblog as the toddler reached out his hand and touched the Phantom on the shoulder.

Instantly, the Phantom’s white mask vanished.

Pleased, the toddler gave a happy giggle, and then cried, “No more masks!”

“That’s his objective?” Alya whispered to Marinette. “No more masks?”

Just then, a fed-up Mme. Bustier grabbed the two girls’ hands and practically dragged them into the crush of people heading for the doors. “We can’t stay here! There is an akuma!”

Marinette glanced down into her little pink purse. It was cracked open, and Tikki was peeking out with wide blue eyes.

Hide, Tikki! Marinette mouthed, and Tikki vanished, the purse snapping shut. Marinette glanced around- there were a lot of people, so could she slip unnoticed into the crowd and find an empty place in which to transform? No, she couldn’t- Mme. Bustier’s grip on her hand was like iron. She would just have to wait.

She hoped Chat Noir would show up soon.

Alya was furiously trying to hold her phone and type on it at the same time with just one hand. “I’m putting out a call to Ladybug and Chat Noir,” she informed Marinette. “If we’re still here when Ladybug shows up, this will have been the best field trip ever!”

The trio made it through the doors safely, although Marinette was sure she’d stepped on at least three feet, and met up with the rest of the class outside. Marinette scanned the group of huddled teenagers for banana-blonde hair. Where was Adrien? Had he made it?

There was Rose’s sweet blonde mop. There was Chloe’s yellow ponytail. Marinette spotted Mylene’s colorful locks and the bleached streaks in Kim’s hair… but no Adrien.

“Where’s Adrien?” she gasped to Alya.

Chloe must have overheard. She flipped her ponytail nearly into Marinette’s face, her face looking like she had sucked on a lemon. “Adrikins said he had to go,” she said sourly. “I wanted him to stay here, to protect me, but he wouldn’t!”

“Forget Adrien protecting you,” Alya shot back. “Ladybug will be here soon, I’m sure of it!”

Chloe’s face brightened. “Ladybug! That’s right, I’m sure she will show up to protect me. After all, I am-”

Mme. Bustier broke in. “Chloe, where did you say Adrien was?”

“He just left,” Chloe snapped.

“I can go find him,” Marinette volunteered. If she could get away from the group, she could transform- and then she would find Adrien, and then she would defeat the new akuma. All while trying to avoid Chloe.

“I’ll go with her so she doesn’t get lost!” Alya said brightly, grabbing Marinette’s arm.

Marinette winced. If Alya went with her to find Adrien, she wouldn’t be able to get away and transform.

Mme. Bustier looked conflicted for a second, but then she nodded. Turning to the rest of the class, she bade them go home. When she turned around, Marinette and Alya had already vanished into the crowd.

Alya squeezed Marinette’s arm. “You can find Adrien on your own, right? I really want to stream this for the Ladyblog!”

Relieved, Marinette broke into a smile. “Yes! I mean, of course I can. Be carefu-”

Alya was already gone.

Marinette raced around the corner of the opera house and hid behind a giant circular news poster advertising an up-and-coming Jagged Stone concert. She clicked open her purse.

Tikki flew out. “What is it with Hawkmoth akumatizing children lately?” she asked worriedly in her high-pitched, squeaky voice.

“I know!” Marinette sighed. “This is going to be... fun.”

“Are you ready?”

Marinette straightened. “Yes. Tikki, transform me!”

A minute later, she was vaulting over the top of the poster, clad in red and black.

🐞🐱🐞

There was a back door into the theatre, and luckily it was unlocked. Marinette slipped in, the door shutting with a soft click behind her. Backstage it was pitch-black. Gasping, she stumbled for a second, tripping right into a curtain. With a sigh of relief, she took the curtain into her hands and began feeling her way left. Sooner or later she’d find a light source.

She felt a hand fall lightly on her shoulder.

Marinette freaked out. Tensing, she grabbed the arm attached to the hand and flipped it- and the body attached to it- over her. Her attacker shouted, surprised, as she slammed him/her to the ground and put a knee on his/her chest. She squinted, trying to make out details of the person’s face.

The attacker groaned. Then there was the flick of a light, and one of the attacker’s hands- black-gloved, clawed hands- was holding a flashlight, pointing up towards his face. His pale, black-masked face, grinning like the cat that ate the canary.

“Miss me, Bugaboo?”

Marinette climbed off of Chat Noir. “Chat! About time you showed up.”

“About time?” he joked. “I’ve been here for fifteen minutes!”

Helping her partner up, Marinette cleared her throat. “The akuma is a toddler this time. Based on what I’ve seen, he’s trying to get rid of all the masks he can find. That means that he’ll come after us whether Hawkmoth wants him to or not. But we have to be careful- I don’t want to hurt a toddler.”

Chat nodded solemnly. “Of course, that would be a child’s mistake.”

Marinette took the flashlight from him. He must have found it somewhere backstage. Shining it around, she was suddenly dizzyingly glad she had stuck to the curtain- there was junk all over the floor. Nails, cloth, boxes, you name it. She shined it down to the edge of the curtain and began leading Chat by the wrist towards it.

“But getting his akuma should be child’s play,” Chat continued behind her. She ignored him.

Around the curtain there was a door with a thin silver of light shining from under it. As Chat opened the door for her, bowing deeply, Marinette switched off the flashlight.

They were in the wings of the stage. The toddler akuma was wrecking the set, alone. It appeared that the actors playing the Phantom and Christine had fled. The theatre was empty, and other than the akuma’s childish yells, it was completely silent.

Marinette squeezed Chat’s arm, then pointed at the other side of the stage. Even without the flashlight, Chat Noir could see in the dark- he would have no problem making it into the other wings through the pitch-black backstage, and then they could approach the akuma in a two-pronged advance.

Where’s the akuma? Chat mouthed to her.

Marinette shrugged. She scanned the toddler again, from head to toe, looking for the telltale dark purple that signified an akumatized object- or looking for something that seemed magical and powerful. She found nothing of the second, so she focused in on the first: purple, purple, purple.

Green mask. No purple.

White-and-green jumpsuit. No purple.

Purple cuff bracelet. No purple.

Red-and-green-

Wait!

Marinette focused in on the bracelet. It was a dark purple-and-black cuff bracelet encircling most of the toddler’s right wrist- the one he had used to vanish the Phantom’s mask.

“His bracelet!” she whispered to Chat Noir. “The akuma must be in the brac-”

The akuma turned toward them, blue eyes full of rage. He focused in on the two superheroes in the wings, red and black. Marinette had a feeling he was staring right into her soul.

“Masks!” the toddler screamed. “Masks are scary. I don’t like masks!”

Then he flew at them with a vengeance, hands outstretched.

Marinette and Chat leapt to the side, and the akuma flew right past them. Sprinting out onto the stage with her partner, Marinette eyed the toddler, who was clumsily turning himself around in midair. “Don’t let him touch you,” she called to Chat Noir. “The masks are magic, but I don’t want to take any chances.”

“Ladybug!!!”

Marinette could almost hear the exclamation points in the girly squeal. And oh, she knew the voice, and how she dreaded it.

The door to the lobby, which had previously only been cracked, slammed open to its full capacity, and in flew a blonde blur of yellow and black. Chloe. She ran at full speed up the aisle and to the side of the stage, clinging onto the lip of the stage and gazing up at Marinette with starry blue eyes. Alya stood in the doorway, filming the entire fiasco.

Marinette waved them off. “Get out of here!” she called to the Ladybug-loving pair. “It’s too dangero-”

“Ladybug! Watch out!”

Chat Noir tackled her and the pair rolled off into the wings. The toddler hovered in midair near where Marinette had been, although- Marinette reached up and fiddled with the edges of her mask just to make sure- he hadn’t touched her. The mask was still there.

“Do you know if he touched me?” she asked quickly, glancing up into Chat Noir’s face above her. “I’d like to know if the masks would…”

Her voice died out into a small squeak.

Because on top of her, where he had landed after their roll, lay a black-clad boy with a tail and claws and a baton strapped to his lower back and no mask.

Marinette was looking into the green eyes of Adrien Agreste.

She screamed and scrambled backwards, out from under him.

“What? What?” Adrien- no, Chat- no, Adrien- no, Chat- ugh, he exclaimed, looking down at where she huddled against the black curtain, cheeks flaming red. “Milady?”

For some reason, hearing Chat’s beloved nickname for her come out of Adrien’s lips made it all too real. The toddler akuma had somehow, for some reason, been able to get through Chat’s kwami’s magic and taken off Chat’s mask, and Chat Noir was- Adrien Agreste was- Chat Noir was A-

Nope. She still refused to believe it. Refused to believe that Alya had been right that one time, refused to believe that her handsome, sweet Adrien- that her arrogant, punny partner- were one and the same...

“It’s not real,” she said, half to herself. “You’re not-”

Chat’s hands went to his face. “Is there something on my-”

When his fingertips couldn’t find his mask, he froze.

“Ladybug,” he asked in a low voice. “Is my mask on?”

“Nnnoo,” Marinette managed to get out. Her voice was quiet and quivering, and-

The akuma was suddenly between them, his hand reaching out to touch Marinette’s shoulder. Her reflexes took over and she dove out of the way onto the stage.

The bracelet. The bracelet. She focused back in on the akuma.

“Stay in the wings, Ad- Chat,” she shouted.

“Will do, milady,” he called back, voice shaky.

“Ladybug!” Alya said loudly from the doorway, stepping fully into the theatre and mostly closing the door behind her. “Is something wrong with Chat Noir?”

“Now’s- not the- time!” Marinette yelled to her best friend, furiously dodging the toddler’s chubby fist onstage as she tried to grab the bracelet off of his wrist without being touched. “Alya, stop recording! Both of you, get out of here!”

“I can help!” Chloe said brightly, scrambling up onto the stage rather clumsily. She stood straight and tall a few feet from Marinette, hands on her hips. “Hey! You! The child! Get away from Ladybug!”

Alya too ran closer to the stage, kneeling down so she could get the best shot of the action. Marinette cast a despairing glance at the two girls, so eager to be part of the fight…

She reached for the toddler’s cuff, but he flew higher, out of her reach, towards the ceiling.

Exasperated, Marinette turned briefly to wave the girls away. Instead, right as she was looking directly into Alya’s phone camera and opening her mouth to tell them she would have to forcibly get them away if they didn’t evacuate immediately, she felt the brush of tiny toddler fingertips on her back.

There was a slight tingling sensation across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose, just enough to let her know that something that had previously been there had been taken away. But even without the tingling, the gasps from Chloe and Alya would’ve confirmed it.

Her mask was gone now, too.

“Marinette?!” Alya shrieked excitedly as Chloe screamed “Marinette Dupain-Cheng?!” in a very different tone.

Marinette- for, except for the bodysuit and yo-yo, she was now exactly Marinette- focused in on Alya first. “Stop recording!” she ordered, then glanced to Chloe. “And make sure both of you stay in here until further notice!”

They knew her identity, now, after all. She couldn’t just let them go.

The toddler looked at her, then at Chat in the wings. He giggled and then blasted up, up, up towards the ceiling. Smashing a hole in it, he zoomed away.

Marinette dived into the wings with Adrien/Chat Noir, pointedly facing away from him.

“Is yours gone, too?” he asked gently, sounding defeated but with a slight hint of hope in his tone.

Marinette nodded slowly. He hadn’t heard Chloe and Alya both scream her name, then. Good. That was good. She wanted to hold on to her old dynamic with Chat Noir for as long as she could...

“Did they see?”

Still nodding, Marinette glanced around. Masks. I need masks for each of us. We need to go catch that akuma before he wrecks anything else.

I hope Lucky Charm still works…

She threw her yoyo into the air. “Lucky Charm!”

Minutes later, she was holding a mask. Not two masks- she tried to peel them apart, to no avail. One mask, and only one mask.

She went to plaster it onto her face, but Chat’s hand stopped her.

“If Chloe and Alya saw,” Adrien’s voice said gently, “and you’ve seen my face… Ladybug. Milady. The cat’s out of the bag.”

The puns. Always, with the puns.

Marinette couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing.

Adrien looked bemused. “What?” he asked, chuckling slightly himself.

Marinette turned her face towards him, still laughing.

Adrien Agreste making cat puns.

She never thought she’d see the day.

“I…” Through laughter, and through tears, she managed to cackle out: “I never thought it would be Adrien Agreste running around France in a catsuit making cat puns and flirting with me constantly! Adrien Agreste, flirting! Flirting with me!”

“Marinette!” he exclaimed in response.

And then, just as it had been when he thought Animan had eaten her, she was enveloped in his arms. Only, this time, she returned the hug, instead of standing there shocked.

He pulled away from her, green eyes shining down into her blue ones. “Out of everyone, I never guessed you once,” he said with a laugh. “So I suppose- when we were fighting Evillustrator- that urgent mission you had to take care of-”

“It was being Marinette!” she finished.

“Cute, isn’t she?” he responded dryly. “Really?”

“Well, this explains how you got out of the sarcophagus when we were going up against Riposte!” Marinette realized, plastering the mask onto her face. “And- Horrificator! I wondered how you got into the school, and there wasn’t any slime by your shoe.”

“I guess we should have realized it earlier,” Adrien chuckled. “We’re pretty clueless.”

Marinette smoothed out the edges of the papery mask. “Can you still tell it’s me?”

Adrien studied her, green eyes roaming over her face. She felt herself flush hot. It was the same way she looked at Adrien every day… or at least, she hoped she looked this suave, and not like a blushing, bumbling mess. Did he feel this same way?

“I can,” he said at last, “but only because I know it’s you. Hair dark as night… bluebell eyes… wait. Waaaaait a second. Did you respond to my poem on Valentine’s Day? When Kim got akumatized? It wasn’t signed but-”

“It was me,” Marinette confirmed, glancing around. She had to focus on the task at hand: defeating the akuma. Now she had a mask, and she hoped it would hide her identity well enough, since it was magic. But what about Chat?

The curtains. Scissors.

She hushed Adrien and listened. Faintly, she could hear two voices arguing from on the other side of the thick red curtains.

“Chloe? Alya?” she called out.

The voices quieted, and then she heard Chloe snap, “What?”

“Are you two still ready to help?”

🐞🐱🐞

Akumas always seemed to go to one of two places: the Louvre, or the Eiffel Tower. The toddler was no different, and Marinette and a newly-masked Adrien only had to ask two civilians before someone pointed them the way of the former. There, underneath the glass pyramid, they found the toddler vandalizing numerous priceless artworks that featured masks or half-hidden faces. He had done away with at least five or six in just one of the wings when they got to him, lured him outside with their new masks, and managed to get him to look at his reflection in the glass panes of the Louvre pyramid. The toddler then tried to vanish his own mask, and while he was preoccupied with that, Marinette managed to swoop in from above and tug the cuff right off of his wrist.

It was metal, so Chat used his Cataclysm on it, since stepping on it would most likely just bend it. The bracelet crumbled to pieces and out flapped a small, purple-and-black akuma.

Marinette took hold of her yo-yo and slid the tip of her fingers down the surface. “No more evildoing for you, little akuma,” she warned the butterfly as it tried to flap away.

The top of her yo-yo split in two and slid away, revealing a blinding white light emanating from within. Marinette spun the yo-yo and aimed it at the akuma, letting loose her throw.

“Time to de-evilize!”

It caught the akuma squarely and returned to her.

“Gotcha,” she said with satisfaction, tapping the yo-yo’s surface. It opened again to let loose the newly purified akuma. “Bye-bye, little butterfly.”

It flapped away, a speck of white in the cloudless blue sky.

Marinette turned to Chat. Her earrings beeped, as they had been for the past four minutes. “Shall we? I can activate the Miraculous Cure once we get back to the theatre.”

They saluted the clapping crowd who had gathered around them; then Marinette took out her yo-yo, Adrien his baton, and they flew away across the rooftops.

Back at the theatre, Chat found a flashlight and illuminated them both as they hid backstage. Marinette peeled off her mask and tossed it lightly into the air. “Miraculous Ladybug!” she cried, and her magical swarms of ladybugs went off to fix all of the damage that had been caused that day. A few stayed behind, enveloping Adrien’s head, and Marinette only had time to giggle before her face was covered by the tickling wings of glowing red ladybugs as well. When they had gone, she only had time to reach up and feel the edges of her normal mask secure against her face before her earrings beeped once more and her transformation fell away.

Adrien’s new “Princess Bride”-style mask was gone, and in its place was his normal one, just covering his nose and around the eyes. Marinette sighed in relief.

“Claws in, Plagg,” Adrien voiced.

A green light surrounded him, starting at the feet and working its way up to Chat’s messy hair, which turned into Adrien’s neat locks as he detransformed.

Tikki flew up to Marinette and perched on her shoulder. “I’m so glad you finally revealed your identities to each other, even if it was an accident,” she chirped in Marinette’s ear. “Holding this secret every day since you fought Dark Owl was quite the task!”

A black kwami with green eyes and a tail flew up and hovered near Adrien’s head. “I almost told you, but I didn’t think you’d believe me,” he said in a crabby voice. “Plus, Tikki’s bossy and she shushed me when I found out your precious Ladybug was Marinette. Now. Do you have any Camembert?”

This last question was directed at Marinette, who shrugged. “Camembert? No. Tikki eats cookies.”

She pulled one out of the bag she had slung over her shoulder and offered it to her kwami- chocolate chip, Tikki’s favorite. Tikki accepted it and began to munch happily.

Adrien sighed and pulled a slice of stinking cheese seemingly from nowhere. Marinette wrinkled her nose- her parents worked with Camembert sometimes in the bakery, and she’d never been too fond of the smell- but Adrien’s kwami swooped in on it and swallowed the small triangular slice whole.

“Plagg, you should have told me!” Adrien berated him. “Why wouldn’t I believe you? Marinette’s amazing and a great friend.”

There it was again, that friend word. Marinette slumped and looked away.

“And she replied to my poem, so now she’s not only my friend, but my Valentine,” Adrien said cheekily with a very Chat-like wink.

Plagg turned to Marinette with wide-open eyes. “Wait, that was you?”

Marinette.exe had stopped working. She blinked at Plagg and Adrien, unable to form a coherent thought or word. “I- ah- um- er- um- I,” she stammered out. “I, you, you’re, you’re okay with that?”

“He’s been in love with Ladybug since you first met,” Plagg said dryly. “I think he’s a little bit more than okay right now.”

“We should probably go talk to Chloe and Alya,” Tikki suggested. “I hope they’re still here! And if they are, we should take them to Master Fu.”

“That old fart?” Plagg groaned. “Heeeeere we go again.”

“Who’s Master Fu?” Adrien asked.

Tikki just giggled. “You’ll see!”

Chloe and Alya were still in the otherwise-deserted theatre, sitting at opposite ends of the front row. Both were on their phones. Chloe looked up as Marinette appeared alone on the stage (Adrien was hiding in the wings), then harrumphed and looked down at her phone. Alya, on the other hand, immediately clambered up onto the stage and ran to hug Marinette tightly.

“It’s true, isn’t it?” she clamored. “My best friend is Ladybug. Oh my God, I’m best friends with a superhero. I’ve been thinking back on every appearance Ladybug has made and- when I got that private interview with Ladybug and you claimed to have set that all up, of course you did, you just turned into Ladybug and met me on the stage! And I totally called it, that was your history textbook- and thank you so much for saving me from Prime Queen, and-”

Chloe was typing on her phone. She appeared to be texting, or tweeting, or something of the sort. Marinette stopped Alya’s rant for a second and looked down at Chloe. “She hasn’t put the news on any social media, right?”

“No, I made sure of that,” Alya assured her.

“I wouldn’t be spreading false rumors anyway,” Chloe snipped from the audience. “There’s no way that Marinette Dupain-Cheng is Ladybug.”

Alya folded her arms and reminded the blonde, “You literally helped me make Chat Noir’s mask for her earlier, and then you saw Chat Noir wearing the mask we made on that news feed you were watching not five minutes ago. There’s no way you’re just going to ignore the fact that Ladybug- your idol- is in our class.”

Chloe put her phone away and stood up. She wouldn’t look directly at Alya, but she glared at Marinette. “Fine. Whatever. You’re Ladybug,” she grumbled. “But I still don’t like you at all. Not one bit.”

“Doubtful,” Alya muttered.

“And until you provide concrete proof, I won’t fully believe it,” Chloe continued on, still ignoring Alya. “Next you’ll be telling me that Kim or Ivan or- hah, you’ll be telling me that Adrikins is Chat Noir!”

Adrien crept out onto the stage. Marinette waved at him to go back- she hadn’t signaled for him to come out and reveal himself to the girls yet- but it was too late. Alya was silent for a second, and then she screamed with laughter.

“No way,” she guffawed. “No. Way!”

Chloe spotted him next and her jaw fell open. “Adrikins!” she whimpered.

Adrien held out his hands. “Chloe, I can explain-”

Chloe put her hands on her hips. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” she complained loudly. “My favorite person in the whole wide world, Adrikins, is my least favorite superhero- and my least favorite person in the world, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, is my favorite superhero!”

Alya was still howling with laughter. “You’re pranking me!” she shrieked. “Chat Noir’s in love with Ladybug, who is Marinette, and Marinette’s in love with Adrien, who is Chat Noir! Please tell me you kissed him already.”

Adrien glanced at Marinette. “You’re in love with me?”

“Now is not the time,” she said, blushing bright red.

“You totally are,” Alya confirmed. “You’re blushing!”

Tikki flew to Marinette from where she had been hiding with Adrien and Plagg in the wings, catching up with her fellow kwami. She cleared her tiny throat. “Ahem,” she reminded Marinette. “Master Fu?”

“Right,” Marinette said, nodding at the two girls. “Um. You two know our identities now, so- there’s someone who needs to know. Both of you need to come with us.”

Chloe was staring at Tikki and pointing. “What,” she asked with pause, “is that? I swear, if it’s a giant bug, I’m going to scream.”

Adrien climbed off the stage and put his hand on Chloe’s shoulder. “Come on, Chloe,” he told her. “I’ll explain on the way.”

🐞🐱🐞

Master Fu paced up and down his room, Wayzz watching him with concern from where he and Tikki were having tea on the currently-unused gramophone nearby. (Plagg, who wasn’t one for tea, was sitting in the horn, eating another piece of cheese that Adrien had provided for him.) He eyed Alya and Chloe, who were standing with Marinette and Adrien in the center of the room.

“Let us go over the story once more,” he said calmly. “During the fight against the akuma today, the akuma managed to make both of your masks disappear.”

“Right,” Marinette confirmed.

“And Alya and Chloe saw, quite clearly, your identity.”

Marinette nodded.

“They then proceeded to find scissors and cut one of the stage’s curtains into a decent mask for Chat Noir.”

“It was a pretty good mask,” Adrien volunteered.

“I found the scissors,” Alya contributed.

Marinette nodded. “She’s pretty good at finding things, even when they’re hidden.”

“Like your identity,” Alya murmured to her. Marinette elbowed her in the side, and she shut up.

“I did most of the cutting,” bragged Chloe.

Master Fu nodded. “Then they proceeded to wait for you, as you instructed, and keep your identity a secret.”

Alya cleared her throat and said, “I wasn’t streaming to the Ladyblog, just recording so I could post it later. And I deleted the video while Marinette and Adrien were fighting the akuma at the Louvre.”

“Wonderful job,” Master Fu complimented her. Then he turned to Marinette and Adrien. “Ladybug, Chat Noir, the fact that Hawkmoth was able to make your masks disappear with his akuma’s powers concerns me. Back when this young lady-” he gestured to Alya- “was akumatized, he was not able to even detach Ladybug’s mask from her skin, but now he has, and your identities were revealed to these two. And you are positive that the akuma did not see either of your faces? Hawkmoth can see through his akumas’ eyes, remember.”

“We’re sure,” Marinette reassured him.

Master Fu stopped pacing and looked Marinette straight in the eyes. “I am still concerned. This means that he is growing more powerful and it may become even more difficult to defeat him with just the two of you.”

“What are you saying?” asked Adrien.

Master Fu turned to the gramophone and motioned for the three kwamis to move. They did, Tikki and Wayzz carrying the tea set with them.

He put his thumbs to the dragons’ eyes and pressed them, which made the keypad come up. He tapped in the same three-button code, and the top of the gramophone turned and moved to the side, allowing the Miraculous box to rise to the top. Marinette had seen this before, but it was a surprise to Adrien, Alya, and Chloe, who all gasped in surprise.

“Hey, I know that pattern,” said Adrien, squinting at the top of the box. “Plagg and my ring came in a little box with that pattern on top.”

Marinette smiled. “I told you- that was all Master Fu.”

Adrien looked puzzled. “How did you manage to get it in my room?”

Master Fu winked as he took the box into his hands. “I’m very spry for one hundred and eighty-six.”

Chloe looked him up and down. “You don’t look that old.”

Adrien was staring at the box. “Does this mean you have more Miraculouses?”

In answer, Master Fu only opened the box. Inside, just as it had been when Marinette visited him before Gabriel Agreste was akumatized, there were seven spaces for seven Miraculouses- but there were only two pieces of jewelry inside, the fox-tail necklace on the orange space and the bumblebee comb on the yellow space.

“If it’s going to get harder to defeat Hawkmoth,” Marinette realized, looking down at the Miraculouses, “you’re saying we’re going to need help.”

“Two more Miraculouses,” Master Fu confirmed. “Two more superheroes. And now, we have two perfect candidates- two young women who have shown their willingness to help protect Paris many times, and who now know your identities anyway.”

Alya gasped slightly. When Marinette looked at her, her hazel eyes were starry and shining.

Master Fu turned to Chloe first. “First, a girl with a sharp tongue and stinging wit, who seems to prefer the color yellow over all others, and who gets along well with the Ladybug. I bestow upon you the Bee Miraculous.”

When Chloe took the comb into her hands, it burst into blazing yellow light, and from the light formed a bee kwami who stretched and yawned, then focused in on Chloe.

“This is Pollen, your kwami,” Master Fu introduced. Then he turned to Alya. “And for a girl good at finding hidden things, who has a bright mind and engaging personality- I think you make a perfect fit for the Fox Miraculous, and with it, your kwami Trixx.”

Alya reached toward the necklace with reverence.

“Go on, take it,” Master Fu encouraged her; Alya scooped the necklace up into her fingers, where it lit up with orange light that solidified into a fox kwami with purple eyes.

Master Fu stood back and eyed the four teenagers. “This should be enough for now, but I trust you four to tell me if you are struggling, and I will give up the Turtle Miraculous if necessary. For now, however…”

He clasped his hands behind his back.

“Ladybug. Chat Noir. Rena Rouge. Queen Bee.”

Adrien reached behind Chloe and took Marinette’s hand. She looked up at him, surprised, but squeezed it. He smiled down at her and squeezed back.

“You are the protectors of Paris. Serve your city well.”

[rubbersoles19]

Fic summary: After the fire, after the lair, after making her choice, Christine remains haunted by the decision, and the ghost that forced it upon her. She sees him everywhere, and hears his voice, feeling him continue to tug at her heart and at sing to her mind. However, it's been a year since the Opera Populaire burned down, and there hasn't been a single sign of her angel, living or dead, besides the ones conjured up by her own madness. Raoul, try as he might, has been powerless to help her. He's stayed by her side, assured her the Phantom will never hurt her, and taken out loan after loan from Philippe, his brother, to help her, but not even he can save her from her own mind. Word, then, reaches them about a doctor in America that might be able to help, and the two leave the hurt of Paris behind in desperate hopes to find a new home, and new life.

But can madness, like ghosts, really ever die?

Author’s Notes: I've been planning this series for quite a while, but only recently decided to start writing it out. This is a long series, and long stories, so stay tuned for updates.Also, I'm publishing the chapters in real time as I write them over in my discord server, "Disdain and Ecstasy", and all are welcome to join! 

I've never read the books, but have obsessively consumed as much of the canon as I can, though my heart lies in the ALW!musical. Since I think all adaptions have plenty to offer, I've decided to marry different bits and parts from the different canons together in to make this universe. The roots, however, lie in the ALW!Musical, and I consider the cast from the 25th Anniversary Concert as the canon for this, including Sierra Boggess as Christine, Hadley Fraser as Raoul, and, of course, Ramin Karimloo as The Phantom. You don't have to adopt these actors for yourself, but there's my reference for them. :)

I'll update these as I can, but again, you can watch the live time updates in my Discord. Onward to victory! And lots of Angst of all descriptions.

@another-chorus-girl @operaofthephantom @eriks-stale-breadstick

[littlelonghairedoutlawllho]

AO3 Meme

@convenientalias tagged me and I basically live for doing odd statistical analysis of my fics so I love it

Finally a meme that speaks to my soul

Rules: Go to your works page, expand all the filters, and answer the following questions! (Note that sometimes AO3 filters lie.)

What are your first and second most common work ratings?

General Audiences (135) 

Teen And Up Audiences (109) 

Seems fair enough

What’s your most common archive warning? Least common? Do you consider yourself an adventurous writer?

Where I have actually used warnings it’s:

Major Character Death (14)

Graphic Depictions Of Violence (4) 

I’ve never used the Underage or Rape/Non-Con warnings, and I have no intention of using them any time soon. Tbh I’m a little surprised at how few MCD fics I’ve written. I could have sworn it would be higher than that, but I suppose a huge amount of the angst I’ve written tends to have people surviving at the end (eventually) because I just find it more rewarding. But I was sure there would have been more deathfics

I don’t consider myself all that adventurous. I mean, at this point I know the sort of stuff I’m burning to read and can never get enough of, and that’s what I tend to write. But there’s a lot of stuff that I’m uncomfortable exploring or thinking about, or that just doesn’t sit right with me, so that probably reins in any adventurours tendencies I have

How many fics have you written in each relationship category? Is this more accidental, or do you have preferences?

F/M (139)

Gen (84)

M/M (83)

F/F (15)

The huge proliferation of het fic is solely thanks to all the short E/C pieces I’ve written, and when it’s excluded my relationship categories are changed to look like this:

M/M (79)

Gen (75)

F/M (37)

F/F (14)

which is a good bit closer to how I actually perceive my own fic. I’d definitely drawn to slash both in writing and reading, so the fact that one ship I’ve written for can skew all my numbers definitely feels a bit strange.

What are your top 4 fandoms by numbers? Are you still active in any of them, and do you tend to migrate a lot?

Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera & Related Fandoms (156) 

Sherlock (TV) (98) 

Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling (15)

The Saga of Darren Shan - Darren Shan (11)

I’m definitely still active in PotO (just about these days), and I’ve been contemplating writing some more Harry Potter stuff, but odds are I won’t. I don’t migrate much at all when it comes to writing, but I’ve read a huge amount of stuff for fandoms that I’ve never written for, and have no immediate intentions of writing for. I guess I’m just drawn to writing and exploring certain things, even though my interests are broader than that. Plus, a lot of the feelings I’ve had about other fandoms (Persuaders, Time Traveler’s Wife, Tombstone, Wynonna Earp, Danger UXB, Chess, Les Mis) tend to get distilled down and incorporated into fics for other fandoms or original stuff. Wraiths, RTtR, and Tinder Date have acted as sort of buffers and I’ve sort of expunged my Other Fandom Feelings into those in different ways. I just find it hard to write for different fandoms.

What are your top 4 character tags? Does this match how you feel about the characters, or are you puzzled?

Erik | Phantom of the Opera (125)

Christine Daaé (116)

Sherlock Holmes (83)

John Watson (67)

In fairness, the reason Erik is my most written about character is the fact that I write about him a lot in conjunction with other characters. It’s not just E/C that’s shoved him into the top spot, but all those little exploratory fics and the Pharoga stuff and the Gen stuff. He’s someone who’s relationships I tend to write about a lot without him being the viewpoint character, but he does seem to be central to all I’ve done.

This top 4 is basically just a breakdown of the top 2 ships I’ve written for. The next 4 is a little more varied but it continues the domination of just 2 fandoms, which says a lot about the things I’m able to write.

The Persian (Phantom of the Opera) (42)

Raoul de Chagny (22)

Mycroft Holmes (17)

Irene Adler (16)

Bonus, the top 4 relationships tagged:

Christine Daaé/Erik | Phantom of the Opera (103)

Sherlock Holmes/John Watson (47)

Erik | Phantom of the Opera/The Persian (25)

Raoul de Chagny/Christine Daaé (24)

It’s fair to say that I’ve written an unholy amount of PotO fic, but let’s remember that a huge amount of that E/C stuff is angsty as all hell, and some of it is indeed also R/C.

I can’t say I’m shocked with how it’s turned out, but I am satisfied that I’ve written more Pharoga than R/C.

What are your top 2 most used additional tags, and your bottom 2? What would happen if you combined all 4 of these into a fic? 

Top 2

Angst

Fluff

Bottom 2 (though considering just how many different tags I’ve used, I just went for the bottom two of my top ten)

Implied/Referenced Drug Use

Reflection

Honestly? Odds are I’ve probably already combined all these. Sounds just like any painful Pharoga fic of mine.

If I haven’t written it yet I’d be very surprised

How many WIPs do you have currently running on AO3? Any you don’t plan on finishing?

2, Fragmentations and Past and Future. Though considering that they’re both collections of one-shots they’re not really WIPs in the true sense of it. I keep planning to finish them out with ficlets already on my laptop, but I never get around to doing it.

Most of my fellow writer friends only use or predominantly use FFN, so I won’t tag anyone