#idk!! i wanted to make this bc i also wanted to draw the kwamis as horses

[lacystar]

the phantom - gabriel

christine - marinette

Raoul - adrien

Carlotta - chloe

madame giry - natalie

meg - alya

piangi - sabrina

the guys who buy the theatre- probably Chloe's dad or sum shit

NOTES:

listen LISTEN obviously no romance between marinette and Gabriel right but you HAVE TO LISTEN TO ME OKAY

adrien is still Gabriel's son (insert TEN YEARS OOOOOLD clip). for this reason it would probably make sense to have Natalie be a caretaker for him or something but im so attached to her being madame giry because she would serve titanic cunt in that role. Gabriel was in Adrien's life at the very beginning, very young, but then (INSERT EVENT I HAVENT DECIDED ON, prolly his wife dying and him having sth to do with it) drove him away to the theatre.

the opera house is the equivalent of the school in this situation. the classmates are all performers and shit.

the "miraculous" still exist in the form of divine talent or what have you. we exist in an altered world where magic, to an extend, does exist. no kwamis or anything, but there is like divine power at play for certain individuals (I already assumed the original story to be under this sort of umbrella due to shit like the magic lasso)

Gabriel (hawkmoth or whatever) has this unique and divine talent and obviously resides in the opera house, etc.

Chloe does not have this, but she's a whiny primadonna and is talented enough and her daddy owns the theatre so she gets what she wants regardless. events of musical begin as canon. alya volunteers marinette to sing after Chloe quits, marinette obviously has this divine power as well and performs

idk if she and adrien are childhood friends, but they definitely knew each other as kids and she had a crush on him then. he gets feelings for her as soon as he sees her sing. this mostly gives them a little time for marinette to rediscover her feelings and so plot can happen

Gabriel MAYBE recognizes adrien as possibly a son or something atp-- he has eyes all over the theatre-- and maybe thats a draw bc adrien congratulates marinette after the show and shit and hes like "oh shit thats my kid."

but moreso he recognizes himself in her-- their shared abilities-- and in his desperate freak loneliness wants to mentor her. he hypno-kidnaps her, show typical. she takes off the mask and recognizes him as Adrien's dad and FREAKS OUT.

again idk what drove Gabriel away but its not "ugliness" like with the phantom in the musical. probably a catastrophic career ruining things. rather than fashion, he and marinette share music proficiency, so I'd imagine he was a famous singer rather than designer before everything.

anyswag he threatens her but 100% disclosure after this there is no coming back for her. all of the later "contemplation" for returning to him is no longer on her. thats all adrien. marinette doesn't tell adrien because she's afraid for her life (Gabe threatening her)

things carry out as semi-normal idk I need to rewatch the musical. romance builds between marinette and adrien. we discover he ALSO has a talent for music/singing, and his initial desire to protect marinette from "the phantom" is sorta replaced with fascination. he hears the phantom sing or some shit and is like "woagh... he kinda just like me." basically the roles reverse a bit here. marinette wants nothing to do with the phantom, adrien wants to protect her still but the Hypnotism is working...... the voice is reminding him of his childhood, his dead Mom....

maybe marinette and adrien get engaged but they confess their feelings yada yada

mainly the "wishing you were somehow here again" shit is replaced with adrien and he hears Gabriel sing to him and hes like "wow that sounds like my dad" and marinette kinda comes and is like "well youre not wrong but hahaha adrien noooo". he doesn't find out but he gets close.

the trap is set or some shit. Natalie expositions to marinette as needed.

do not ask me what past the point of no return is replaced with.

marinette unmasks him onstage, he kidnaps her. adrien is like "HOLY FUCK THATS MY DAD. NATALIE WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU KNOW" and Natalies like "yeaaaah unfortunately im a #gabeapologist and I didn't want to taint whatever good image you had left of him in your head but ig this all backfired. anyways here's how to get to him."

adrien Goes. mari's in whatever Gabe's equivalent of the magic lasso is. Gabe is using her as bait-- he knows adrien will come for her (he knows they're in love-- again he has eyes everywhere)

adrien comes down. the secret's out. the mask is back on for now. adrien is having very complex feelings and is very much "let her go we will never see you again" but the deal is set: marinette's life for adrien to go free, or she gets to live and escape if adrien goes with Gabe. if Gabe can't return to the public eye, he can at least live on through his son and use him as a (literal) mouthpiece.

adrien recognizes his father there, knows they're both hurt (mom is dead), makes the conscious choice to show empathy. goes over, pulls off his dad's mask like he might've pulled off his hat after he came home from work when he was a kid. hugs him. Gabriel is stunned, hugs back, its all great.

the mob approaches. Gabe deliberates. marinette and adrien wait in tense silence. Gabe releases the lasso and tells them to leave and never return and never say what they've seen.

they go to leave. Gabe is alone on stage. the couple returns momentarily. a mirror to the "return the ring" scene but obvs not engagement ring. maybe chat-noir miraculous ring adrien has had since he was a kid- he knows he won't see his dad again after this. smth smth giving his dad smth to remember him by. a final moment between them. marinette and adrien escape together, hands intertwined.

gabe mourns alone a moment then disappears.

alya enters, calling for marinette. I dont think Gabe leaves behind the fucking mask bc that shit would look like an empty condom. maybe leaves behind a lapel or whatever his miraculous holding thingy is I dont remember. maybe the fucking moth glasses ppl get when they're akumatized. ykwim.

alya discovers it. picks it up. lifts it up to the light. lights out. the end.

BONUS: in the masquerade scene everyone's dressed as they're miraculous. so we get some chat noir in a dapper suit and a pretty ladybug dress for the couple, etc.

now you'd have to stay with me bc we'd need to remove literally ALL romance from it for obvious reasons but I think we could make a phantom of the opera mlb au work.

[rileyclaw]

some doodles of my red dead vigilante AU !! been playing a lotta rdo lately

[imthepunchlord]

Omigosh how do you think that particular kwami swap in @brittsarts art would work out for the kwamis, characters, story, etc.? (I’m looking for one of those long, well-thought-out description-type things that you’re really good at doing, so, as always, please feel free to take your time with this ask 😌)

For @brittsarts drawing:

LB!Nino (who I usually like to call Anatis, a species known as the eyed ladybug); I see this working pretty well. He definitely has traits to match and allow him to be a solid LB: very hardworking, very supportive, will stand firm in his beliefs, and watches out for his friend(s). While he can be inconsiderate sometimes, he has a good heart that a true LB should have. The only thing he probably lacks is the action, a LB shouldn’t just plan, provide, and restore; they need to act and be on the offensive. While Nino will stand his ground, it’s not his character to step up and get involved when there’s a situation that doesn’t include him. At most, he will fight for himself and Adrien; if someone else gets in his way, he can be standoffish. But overall, good potential on LB!Nino. 

Marifox (HULI JING!): fox and butterfly I’ve found would be the two hardest miraculouses for Marinette to work with, she has the cleverness and flexibility for fox and the generosity and care for butterfly, she could pull them off, but they’d be a constant challenge. Between the two, Marinette would be able to handle fox better since that is a more involved miraculous and can match with her strengths more; but both would be a challenge. 

Actually going to go ahead and cover both while on the subject.

For both, biggest issue is that Marinette is too aggressive, too direct. She likes to stand her ground, she likes to face her opponents head-on, she’ll step back and hide and plan when she needs too, otherwise, she likes being in the field and being involved in the fight. 

And for butterfly, that there is the biggest issue. Marinette likes to be apart of it, likes to be there. While butterfly is able to fight, as we learned, that’s not the purpose of the miraculous. It was revealed in a comic to be the miraculous of generosity and is supposed to give powers to others, let them take care of the situation. While Marinette won’t refuse help when provided, it’s not her nature to ask help from others. Marinette is someone who likes taking care of the situation for people, not let others do it themselves. With butterfly, Marinette would either endanger herself a lot or would make herself her own Champion all the time and using whatever power she wishes, leaving Nooroo alone at home most of the time. Only time I see her making other Champions is when her hands are tied or there’s something else going on in her life and she can’t be there on time. 

Now fox, between the two, fox is more up her alley. Unlike butterfly, fox doesn’t rely on others, is far more involved and present in battle (assuming the power is illusions), and relies on off cunning and cleverness, which is one of Marinette’s strengths. And while dishonest tactics aren’t Marinette’s preference, she is willing to make use of them when she has to. Now the challenge is that fox doesn’t match the aggression. As much as Marinette is a planner, she is also someone of action and isn’t afraid to get close to danger to reach her goal and face her opponents. For fox, that can be dangerous and overwhelming. Another detail is the factor that Marinette isn’t someone that stands back, that sticks to the shadows and stays out of focus like true foxes and butterflies would (like Alya and Adrien definitely don’t draw in focus on them like Marinette does when in a crowd, they stand back to observe usually). Marinette draws in attention, likes to keep that attention and face the adversary. 

Marinette drawing attention, being direct, being deeply involved and aggressive, liking to fight and be in the action; these are what butterfly and fox make challenging for Marinette. 

Now Beedrien, this is another that has solid potential. Bees thrive off community, teamwork, supporting others, being productive and hardworking, and a strong sense of loyalty. Adrien is definitely hard working staying on top of his beesy schedule, he is eager and willing to work with others new and familiar, and it is a natural instinct for him to support those that need it, encouraging people who are down and stepping up for them when they need it. Another factor to add is self-sacrifice, bees are willing to die for the hive and Adrien has a strong sense of self-sacrifice. The biggest struggle is that sometimes he isn’t a good team player, he will act out, will put the blame on someone else, can put down his teammate, can goof off and not be as serious or as diligent as he should be. (Actually now kind of thinking that Adrien may be a fox of the five miraculouses. Had originally thought butterfly, but I can see fox a lot more since he does like to be active and involved, which fox would provide) But that is something Pollen could help Adrien work on (big bonus to beedrien, if Pollen’s a punner and the two could pun together for hours). 

Chlortle (idk, Jade Queen?)… I think this is one miraculous Chloe would have a big struggle, at least, with what I’m headcanoning for the turtle miraculous so far. Turtles are patient, supporting, are fine not having attention but will step up when they have too. Turtles care and watch out for others, and as of now, Chloe ultimately watches for herself, with LB probably being her only exception (maybe Adrien too but she has yet to jump into danger to save him, yet) but even then, Chloe is quick to give LB a hard time if things don’t go well. Chloe can match by having a firm stance in her views and will stand her ground, she also does care for those she views as her friends.  But ultimately, so far, Chloe is more focused on herself and having the world resolve around her and her wants. A turtle shouldn’t be focused on themselves but look out and help others, which is something Chloe would struggle with. On similar traits, peacock would probably be more of Chloe’s alley, and bee, they are symbols of royalty and beauty, and can help Chloe learn to work hard and work with others, but can still have the spotlight on her too. 

Lastly Alyacat (who I like to call Chat Roux), between LB and BC, I say BC is the better fit to Alya, largely because of Plagg. As a lazy, calm kwami, he’s a good counter to Alya’s energy and eagerness (just like Adrien). But for sure, what BC needs is the aggression, the compassion, and a willingness of self-sacrifice. Alya matches with most of it, she’s got the passion and eagerness to act, she does have the compassion and care, but self-sacrifice for a greater cause… so far we’ve only seen that with Adrien and Marinette, but Alya, it’s riskier, willing to risk herself to get what she wants and not thinking things through. Other then tunnel vision and focusing on her goal and not thinking everything through, I can see her as a very capable BC. 

[resbang-bookclub]

AMA Transcript: Criss-Crossed

This week, @soundofez​ dropped by to chat about her 2016 Resbang, Criss-Crossed! Here’s some of what went down:

Q: What was your favorite scene to write?

fez: Fave scene hands down was the opening scene, it was one of the first I wrote. I had a lot of fun with Spirit's texts though. x)

Q: Did you always plan for two pairings to be developed simultaneously or did it pop up in the middle of planning?

fez: Deffo planned for the two pairings and it was HARD AS BALLS.

Q: How did you decide which characters would be temporary villians?

fez: I just wanted the villains to be recognizable characters with significant ties to either Soul or Maka? There's actually a pretty neat split: Tsubaki and B*S are the friends, Wes and Spirit are the family units, Tsubaki and Wes are Soul's, and B*S and Spirit are Maka's. Stein and Marie, of course, were there to be relevant to their plotline, and Crona is the forever villain. Arachne used to be Medusa until... um... canon parallels + plot relevance. In terms of who tf knows what's going on between her and Lord Death? Certainly not me. Medusa was going to have a creepy fixation on Stein.

Q: Did you secretly plan to make people fall in like with ML? *eyebrow waggle*

fez: Yes. Unequivocally. Ngl I want it to be an ML gateway fic. :^)))))

Q: ACTION SCENES. HOW DID YOU APPROACH THEM?

fez: ACTION SCENES WERE #STRUGGLES. I just sat down and like, forced myself through them. Like, k. Where are they? What are weird things that lucky charm can take advantage of? I freaking h8 lucky charm fjadsklfjasklfjka. A goddamn DIY PROJECTOR IS A CANON THING LADYBUG DID AND I SALT 5EVER.

Q: My question is why did you make Maka Chat and Soul Ladybug instead of vice versa?

fez: Uhhhhh 95% aesthetics, but tbh Maka's approach to fights is really a lot more like canon Cat Noir/Adrien, and Soul has more than enough self esteem issues to parallel canon Ladybug/Marinette. I h8 h8 h8 red-eyed cat, and I might be like wayyyyyy too attached to green-eyed cat Maka. You don't understand, I drew cat Maka and bug soul [in] like... October 2015. I have been on the cat Maka/bug Soul train for eternity.

Q: So, sequel??

fez: MAYBE SEQUEL BUT ONLY WHEN ML GIVES ME MORE CANON THINGS TO WORK WITH, AND NOT A MOMENT BEFORE.

Q: Why'd you decide to go for "they're superhero friends and irl enemies" instead of the love squad?

fez: Superhero friends + irl enemies was 100% a product of ml origins episodes. And to be fair, Soul didn't really hate her. Maka just... Maka.

Q: Did your plot outline always stay the same?

fez: NO, MY PLOT FREAKING BOUNCED ALL OVER THE FREAKING PLACE. I mean, the big overarching plot was the same b/c ch8 was like... the second chapter I finished writing? But. Man. Kid used to be like an actual student. He got lost. Crona was supposed to be more... present ahaha. Everyone started as freshman (w/ upperclassman b*s) but then like... idk I kept writing soul and I just... "bb u r not a freshman. 2 mature." Medusa, ofc, used to be the main antagonist in the way early drafts. TWO CHAPTERS SWAPPED PLACES ON ME LIKE TWO WEEKS BEFORE POST DAY. Franken used to be a doctor instead of a grad student struggling to publish. There used to be a Rachel/Arachne/Excalibur mashup villain in the works That one made it into my claims summary lmao.

Q: Omfg. What would have been their supervillain name?

fez: Idk but the chapter title would've been "The Itsy Bitsy Spider."

Q: Do you have deleted scenes? :)

fez: YOU KNOW I HAVE DELETED SCENES, I CRIED TO YOU OVER MY TOO MANY DELETED WORDS. I THINK I HAVE LIKE 50 DELETED SCENES. 7K. 7K DELETED WORDS.

Q: How do you have a villain mashup of Excalibur and Arachne? I NEED TO KNOW.

fez: I don't even remember how this Rachel/Arachne/Excalibur villain was supposed to go, I never got farther than just "this villain exists I guess." This was before i like.... logicked out that the villains should be tied to Maka and Soul somehow. 

fez: Also for cat Maka and bug Soul: look just loOK AT HOW PRECIOUS THEY ARE: http://soundofez.tumblr.com/post/132631437973/its-a-love-square-between-two-people-x-the. 

fez: I already knew that Blair would be Maka's kwami. I have Kwami Headcanons and this fic was the perf time to Indulge. Part of those headcanons dictate that cat Soul would never be able to have a kwami like Blair. And like... what a waste man. That's more ML territory so idk if I wanna go into em here? But yo, dm me and I will give you All The Things.

Q: What kinda music, if any, did you listen to while writing this?

fez: I'll have a more complete list in a moment but the big one was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdQpngguJpM 

fez: maka// this is halloween, marilyn manson  soul// l'autre valse d'amélie, yann tierson stein// fairy blue, ama lo & dj lee (i think?) marie// fuck you, lily allen tsubaki// cosmic love, florence + the machine sebastian// immortals, fall out boy spirit// take a break, phillipa soo wes// fragments of memories, ffviii crona// demons, imagine dragon arachne// come little children, erutan more songs: everytime we touch, cascada thinking out loud, ed sheeran E18, detektivbyran grey, project ml

Q: The antibug and catastrophe scenes were some of my fave scenes, did you draw from the Envy chapter for that scene? Bc it seemed that way to me, esp with Maka's breakdown, but I wanted to check and also just hear you talk about your thought process for those scenes.

fez: OH YES DEFFO. My notes have "see Eibon chapters" lmao. Like... man Maka has Issues. So many issues. And I wanted to address them. Maka is not an angel, ok? She petty and she has to Learn. She does not forgive, and that's why her arc is so focused on forgiveness. Like... one of the first lines I wrote was "cat, you are just not nice" b/c I Knew I had to. OH. LEMME SEE IF I CAN DIG UP MY SHITPOST. fez: http://soundofez.tumblr.com/post/153369132853/me-needs-maka-to-come-up-with-her-alternate 

fez : DESTRUCT-O-CAT. I DIED LAUGHING, I THINK I TOLD LIKE EVERYONE I COULD. INCLUDING ML FRIENDS LMAO. Originally Soul was gonna be lucky bug, then I realized no. He derp. And [I needed to] give Maka a reason to love him... accidentally? I need the crushing. And Maka was gonna be black cat b/c she is not French, no sirree. And then, well... Destruct-O-Cat. I almost squeezed that into a scene. Originally B*S and Maka were the ones who were gonna get littled.

Q: How'd you come up with Soul's kwami?

fez: Oooooh. I struggled? B/c I didn't want him to be an OC but he... definitely wound up being an OC. I considered using Wes but... you know... actual brother lmao. [He was] strongly inspired by Tikki for sure.

Q: Kid being Death's kwami was one of my favorite lil gems. At what point in planning did you come up with that?

fez: KIDDO HAPPENED ALMOST BY ACCIDENT. I was just trying to wrap up ch 8 and I realized Kiddo exactly follows the kwami name scheme. It was a Moment.

Q: How did you work out Soul's mom as a character? Did anything influence how you portrayed her?

fez: Ahhhhhh I never liked Mama Evans? Something about her feels like the Smother, in my head I mean. And like... man idk. Been dealing with Unpleasant Feelings at the state of the world, partly directed at oblivious rich people who just... don't get it. They think they're the sun, moon and stars but they really really aren't. I do think she came out flatter/more stereotypical than I would've liked but I also wrote her like... the week of posting rip. I vaguely wanted her to run into Shibusen and be like, ridiculously charmed. Enough to resolve her wanting Wes to Do Better For Himself, but it didn't happen :') I wish I had time to like... make her not so shallow, but I'm also not sure how I would've pulled that off. I mean she's intuitive she just... happened to be wrong about the maid lmao. I enjoyed writing that immensely, ngl. Random humor in the middle of this lady is nuts. She sees what she wants to I guess? Or she assumes. She thinks Wes likes the xxx so she... yeah. There's probably history involving bad first times and short ex relationships in there.

Q: Ahahaha omg which reminds me, that was such a different portrayal of Wes. Most people do write him as into xxx, how did you come to it?

fez: Ahhhhh man i just... I like uncommon interpretations of characters, and I like playing with Wes's character b/c he doesn't have a canon one, and I just thought... everyone makes him super different from Soul but what if he's really not? He's just a grown Soul who Soul thought had his shit together b/c he was so much older. He'd Learned how to be Perfect for his parents but like.... that doesn't mean he liked it. The thing about Soul and Wes going to separate colleges was deffo lifted directly from my college experience. I applied to my brother's uni but I didn't gun it b/c I knew my mom would move down with us if i got accepted and... I love my mom, she is much better than this version of Mama Evans, but No. Nooooo no no no no.

Q: Was there a scene you super struggled with writing or found easier than you thought??

fez: Uhhhh, I thought Soul and Maka would fight more in the library in ch 6, but they settled down pretty quick ahah. Almost too quick?? I was Nervous like... what? Is this okay? Are they being too logical? What's going on? I thought it would be +500 words of Whispered Library Fighting. Most of the action scenes slid past once I sat down to write them? I just didn't like writing them. 

fez: Deleted scenes: so many reveal iterations, so many cat confesses iterations.

Q: Omg pls feed them to me, I loved the reveal.

fez: "'I’m in love with you, dummy,' Maka snaps, feeling her face burn." There's [also] a Soul POV ladybug-reveal iteration. It's... kinda long tho. Do you just.... want the doc? lmao: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11DbejHYa3Cow5frrf2yhO9zHRPac5Zqkv-gvuVD2BJM. [fez would like everyone to know that the doc is, in her opinion, messy ;D]

Q: You did multiple resbangs, how did you manage balancing art and writing?

fez: It helps to like... not have a job or school or anything. When crunch time came I just kinda gunned it. I got lucky that all my resbangs posted so late too, b/c it gave me more time to finish. [For] Dolly's I probably could've uploaded the sketches for all the pages, b/c those were done Super Early. Lining comics takes so long orz. I really love Anne's, we just had so many headcanons in common. Her Resbang was actually the easiest for me to work on. Whenever I worked on it I was like... dang I already have this bit done???? :thumbsup: Julie's I honestly wish I spent more time on b/c her resbang is gorgeous and emotional and mkaldsjfklsadf. I wanted to collab with amanda and do a song mv with her song like I did for Anne but n o p e. And then ofc I just buried myself in ML AU.

Q: I liked that Soul was ladybug.

fez: Ladybug Soul is my beb.

Q: That decision kinda bugs me. (I say it solely for the pun, it is a wonderful decision.)

fez: In hindsight I know it defeats the idea of female protag that ML has? Oh good, I was actually worried. But I just... ladybug Soul.

Q: I semi-wish Arachne would have used spiders.

fez: Haaaah yeah. I didn't want to diverge that much from ML canon, and I tried to nod to the spidery thing with her scene? I think I tried for web imagery there. I don't remember if i succeeded rip. 

fez: Have some of my posting day struggles lmao:

fez: I am... a Mess™.

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Thanks so much for swingin’ by, fez! Stay tuned for more transcripts!