#it didn’t have to be Lila ffs

[neon-danger]

call me crazy but I don’t hate the umbrella academy season 4

[amphtaminedreams]

Currently Obsessing Over, Debrief No.3: All Hail Queen Vivienne Westwood & Here’s to her Eternal Reign

-Vivienne photographed in June 2012-

“Fashion: I really love doing it. It’s really a kind of lifeline to me. It’s recharging my batteries. It’s exciting. I love what we’re doing, and I think the next thing we are doing is the best thing I have ever done. Because it’s totally political.”

-With Chrissie Hynde & Jordan at the SEX boutique in Chelsea, 1976-

-Clockwise L-R: making an appearance on the runway with husband Andreas Kronthaler at the Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood 2016 Menswear collection, in 1976 with Chrissie Hynde & Jordan, c. 1976, and in 2012 in her studio-

-in attendance at memorial for Vivienne @ Southwark Cathedral, Friday 17th February 2023, centre: Lila & Kate Moss, clockwise L-R: Alexa Chung, Matty Bovan, Christina Hendrix & husband, Helena Bonham Carter, Ellen von Unwerth, Farida Khelfa, Lucinda Chambers, Elle Fanning-

-Anson Boon in attendance at memorial for Vivienne @ Southwark Cathedral, Friday 17th February 2023-

Look, I am far from a royalist but as London Fashion Week draws to a close, the weekend saw a who’s who of the fashion mourn a Queen of the people whose crowning would’ve truly made me reconsider my position. It goes without saying that the impact Vivienne Westwood has had on both her contemporaries and a younger generation of up and coming designers is monumental, but above and beyond that, what made her such an incredible individual was the consistency with which she stuck to her principles over the years and championed a fairer world, free of structural barriers, discrimination and the destructive force of rampant capitalism on the earth. 

-Upper left portion: Vivienne Westwood RTW S/S 2016, & bottom right: Vivienne Westwood RTW S/S 2017, then whole image clockwise L-R: Vivienne Westwood RTW F/W 2010, & RTW F/W 2009-

-Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY collections, Clockwise L-R: Menswear RTW F/W 2020, RTW F/W 2022, RTW Menswear S/S 2018, RTW S/S 2023-

-Undercover collections, clockwise L-R: RTW F/W 2011, RTW F/W 2013, RTW S/S 2004, RTW S/S 2009, RTW S/S 2011-

-Matty Bovan collections,  L-R: RTW F/W 2018, & S/S 2019-

-Ambush Resort 2023-

-Vivienne Westwood RTW, top to bottom: F/W 2007, S/S 2013-

-Undercover collections, L-R: RTW F/W 2019, RTW S/S 2022, RTW F/W 2020-

-Stella McCartney collections, L-R: RTW F/W 2018, RTW F/W 2017, F/W 2020-

-Undercover collections, upper left portion, clockwise L-R: RTW F/W 2003, RTW F/W 2015, RTW S/S 2005, RTW S/S 2007, then whole image clockwise L-R: RTW S/S 2015, RTW S/S 2014, RTW F/W 2014-

She didn’t have to be That Bitch, in an industry which too often actively worked and continues to work against her goals, but she did at risk to her own success, and she made some fucking incredible clothes whilst she was at it.

Vivienne had every capability of being a thorn in the side of the industry figureheads operating business models domineered by overconsumption and yet her legacy will outlive every trend cycle imaginable ten to the dozen, reminding us that above all, principles & passion are the best thing we have if we want to truly make in impact.

-12 Emerging Designers on How Vivienne Westwood Inspired Them, AnOther Magazine, Autumn/Winter 2021 issue-

-”Pirates” collection, 1981: Though by this point Vivienne had already established a name for herself within the industry, namely through the widespread popularity of the Chelsea boutique she opened with partner Malcolm McLaren in 1971 and her work styling the Sex Pistols, whom McLaren managed, it wasn’t until a decade later that she made her runway debut with her “Pirates” collection. And you know what? She was so right for that. These are men who sail the world in pursuit of Jewells, ffs. How historically accurate that statement is, I have no clue; Peter Pan probably isn’t the best frame of reference. All I know is that ruffles and Jewells and big hats and bold patterns are absolutely my cup of tea and all those of us girlies with a preference for maximalism owe Vivienne Westwood a thank you for helping the stiff upper lipped power players of that period realise that.-

-”Britain Must Go Pagan” collection, S/S98 RTW-

-Clockwise L-R: Vivienne Westwood RTW F/W 1993, RTW S/S 1994, RTW F/W 1994, RTW S/S 1997, RTW F/W 1995, RTW S/S 1994-

-Arguably, the early years of Vivienne’s runway residency was characterised by a consistent drive to dissect, explore, and push the boundaries of the fashion of bygone eras through her work in a provocative, tongue in cheek kind of way, but one that ultimately showed her knowledge and love of fashion. Her flirtation with the whimsical, ethereal hallmarks of romantic period dressing and references to the costume-like decadence associated with the nobility and wealth of the post-renaissance world helped to torpedo a giant, jagged hole through the perfectly polished wall high fashion had built around itself to retain its status as an interest reserved for the privileged. 

Vivienne’s growing cultural relevance occurred in the midst of the 90s grunge movement that banished the illusion everything had to be perfectly refined at all times, and championed the gaudy, the over the top, the playful, controversial and performative. This time, counterculture was unruly, broody, and intentionally unyielding in a way that closely harked back to the values of the ‘70s London punk scene where VW had started out, and so it makes sense that interest in her work grew given the position her clothing came to be associated with in this decade

I don’t claim to be enough of a fashion expert to know the complete history of costume piece inspired designers and to be able to say Vivienne was the very first to bring this subversion of the expectation to appear aloof, elegant, and let’s be honest, occasionally boring as fuck, to the runway through her exploration of period clothing but she has to be one of the first to bring such a playfulness to it and her collections at the time certainly helped to reignite the childhood desire that exists in every person interested in fashion to play dress up.- 

-Christian Dior Haute Couture F/W 1998, “Les Incroyables” collection-

-Christian Lacroix Haute Couture S/S 1998-

-Vivienne Westwood RTW F/W 1996-

-Christian Lacroix Haute Couture S/S 1999-

-Clockwise L-R: Vivienne Westwood RTW S/S 2013, RTW S/S 2012, RTW S/S 2014-

-Christian Dior Haute Couture S/S 1998-

-Vivienne Westwood RTW S/S 1996-

-Clockwise L-R: Vivienne Westwood RTW S/S 2010, RTW F/W 2015, lower right portion: RTW Menswear F/W 2017, RTW F/W 2011, RTW Menswear F/W 2017, & RTW F/W 2011-

-L-R: Vivienne Westwood Bridal Made to Order 2022, Vivienne Westwood Bridal Made to Order 2020.

Marriage:

*Reasons AGAINST: too many to list 

*Reasons FOR: Vivienne Westwood’s bridal collections (and also a big party with all your friends that they feel morally obligated to attend, where you get to pick all the food and cheesy music is socially acceptable)-

-Vivienne Westwood Bridal Made to Order 2021-

-She further developed her brand’s reputation as a disruptor of the status quo in a time which saw young people in the Western world grow tired of the straight laced conservatism of the Thatcher/Reagan (forget Charlie Kelly and Frank Reynolds, these 2 were the OG gruesome twosome) and the tastemakers of the fashion world followed suit, lauding her work. As much as the impact of massive industry players is portrayed as having a trickle down effect (see what I did there) on the trend cycle, designers inevitably draw inspiration from the current social climate whether acknowledged or not and in this way the aesthetics adopted by boots on the ground, the influence of art and pop culture, makes its way back up to the runway where the Anna Wintours of the world have to like it. For people like Vivienne Westwood, Rei Kawakubo (founder of Commes Des Garcons), Ann Demeulemeester, and Yohji Yamamoto, who occupied much of the same avant-garde, anti-establishment scene from the ‘70s onwards with all 3 having been customers at Vivienne’s boutique and setting up shop in London at one point or another, incorporating that disruptive spirit probably felt like a return to their roots as designers.-

-Vivienne Westwood Bridal Made to Order 2019-

-Yohji Yamamoto collections, L-R: RTW S/S 2015, & S/S 2016-

-Vivienne Westwood RTW, top to bottom: F/W 2008, S/S 2012-

-Yohji Yamamoto RTW S/S 2023-

-Vivienne Westwood RTW, top left: S/S 2009, remaining photos: S/S 2011-

-Top to bottom: Ann Demeulemeester RTW F/W 2019, & RTW F/W 2017-

-In this period where anti-fashion established itself as an integral part of what was decidedly “in”-fashion, new roots, which would go on to produce some of today’s boldest designers, buried themselves deep and inevitably soaked up Vivienne and her contemporaries’ celebration of androgyny, experimentation with subversive silhouettes and prints, and embrace of the dark and dramatic to tell stories through their styling which served as the antidote to the immaculate coordination of looks showcased by fashion giants like Chanel. Vivienne collections managed to grasp hold of the psyches of even the most prestigious designers, and the lasting effects were visible in the heavily period themed, almost theatrical collections, the debuts of which broke the expected mould for labels traditionally associated with a sense of refinement and/or glamour. That Donatella Versace, for example, would draw influence from punk aesthetics is unexpected but once you’re aware she’s expressed her admiration for Vivienne Westwood, there are a number of Versace collections over the years where you can’t unsee that inspiration. John Galliano was known to sit front row at her shows! John Galliano. That, baby, is one mighty flex.-

-John Galliano collections, top to bottom: RTW S/S 2018, RTW F/W 1997, RTW S/S 2019-

-Valentino RTW F/W 2005-

-Versace collections, L-R: RTW F/W 2017, RTW F/W 2013, RTW F/W 2018-

-John Galliano RTW F/W 2018-

-Ralph Lauren RTW F./W 2016-

-Vivienne Westwood RTW, upper left portion, clockwise L-R: F/W 2016, “, “, RTW F/W 2016, then whole image, clockwise L-R: RTW S/S 2015, RTW F/W 2012, F/W 2013, & F/W 2012-

-Versace RTW S/S 1994-

-John Galliano RTW S/S 1993- 

-You could argue the prevalence of Westwood gowns amongst the rich and famous is kinda antithetic to its founder’s manifesto but we can’t be delusional and forget it’s a high fashion label we’re talking about and well, a business. Ultimately the craftsmanship and time which goes into original designs means red carpet photos are probs the closest 99% of us are gonna get but I’ll take it. I’m thirsty. Helena Bonham-Carter, one of the many prominent figures in attendance at Vivienne’s funeral, kinda symbolises the dichotomy; as much as her public image is of her as someone who exists outside the boundaries imposed by a privileged, aloof, very airbrushed elite, we are talking a woman with a double-barrelled family name which carries with it the exactly the kind of wealth and lineage you’d expect it to. But at the same time, she is someone who has chosen to break away from the expectations set upon her by this kind of background and do things her own way. Not so much so that her whole mismatched, slightly dishevelled whilst simultaneously very cool outer appearance isn’t made up of expensive, designer subcomponents, but if you’re going to have some brand loyalty, Helena being a Vivienne simp feels correct:

“I have an obscene amount, a sinful amount of her clothes. Decades’ worth. She wouldn’t like it, given she was always telling us to buy less.” Helena recalled buying her first pirate shirt, aged 15, from Westwood’s shop in World’s End “so I could be Adam Ant.” She explained how she once reprimanded a red-carpet journalist who asked why she always wore Westwood, because it was always “the same, same, same.” Bonham Carter replied: “No, no, no…. You have no idea how many ideas and choices have gone into this dress. She is never boring. And the dresses do all the work. All the actresses on this red carpet haven’t eaten for weeks—and I have had a full-fat English breakfast.” Of wearing Westwood she said: “I feel like who I want to be. I feel like a woman…. She has given me my armor to face the world for so many years.” She added: “Thank you for the cutting, the draping that makes your clothes so dynamic and alive, so much so that I wouldn’t be surprised to wake in the night and find them dancing in my closet, alive.”

-Extract from “Vivienne Westwood is Remembered in London” Vogue article, Luke Leith, published 17th February 2013 @ https://www.vogue.co.uk/news/gallery/vivienne-westwood-memorial-

-Helena Bonham Carter in Vivienne Westwood-

-FKA Twigs wearing Vivienne Westwood, photographed for her zine, published May 2019-

-You can’t talk about Vivienne’s impact on street style and its adoption by today's anti-it girl (which in itself has made her kinda the ultimate it-girl in my eyes, lmao) without a section dedicated to FKA Twigs, whose love of the designer is evident in her ethereal take on ‘90s grunge inspired fashion. If anyone doubts the existence of Vivienne’s influence on Twigs’ street style, may I gift you with knowledge that she included an absolutely STUNNNNINGGG feature about her whole COLLECTION of VW corsets in her zine. Money can’t buy you happiness but it can buy you archival designer pieces by the Grand Dame of Punk (no, I’m not talking about Karen from RHoP) and the ability to circumvent a year long waiting list for treatment of your ailments on the NHS sooo I mean…we’re talking substantial quality of life improvements here.-

-FKA Twigs personal style-

-Public figures in Vivienne Westwood over the years, upper left portion, clockwise L-R: Dua Lipa on the red carpet @ the 2021 Brit Awards, Kim Kardashian via Instagram backstage @ the 2019 Emmys, Winnie Harlow on the red carpet @ the 2019 British Fashion Awards, Kim Kardashian photographed in 2019, Kristen Stewart hosting SNL in Vivienne Westwood suit in November 2022, Lashana Lynch on the red carpet @ the No Time to Die premiere in 2021, Jade Thirlwall on the red carpet @ the 2021 Brit Awards, Elle Fanning on the red carpet @ the 2021 Vulture Festival, upper right portion: Bella Hadid’s street style ft. a love of Vivienne Westwood, bottom right portion, clockwise L-R: Dua Lipa on the red carpet @ the 2021 Brit Awards and on stage for the event, Billie Piper @ the 2021 UK Fashion Awards, Thandie Newton on the Cannes Red Carpet in 2018, Rihanna performing @ the 2012 Victoria’s Secret fashion show, Zendaya on the red carpet @ the Art of Elysium gala in 2016, Maude Apatow via Instagram photographed @ the 2022 Emmys afterparty, Alexa Demie @ an event for Tiffany & Co. in 2022, bottom left: Winnie Harlow on the red carpet @ the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty-

-Vivienne’s personal style over the years, clockwise L-R: making an end of show appearance in December 2011, photographed c. 1995, @ the V&A museum in London in 1998, with Naomi Campbell at the 1993 Designer of the Year Awards, @ the opening of the Costume Institute’s Anglomania exhibition in 2006, with husband Andreas Kronthaler at Ascot in 1995, photographed by paparazzi c. 2009-

-Vivienne Westwood’s “Portraits” collection, 1991-

-You really can’t talk about the common appeal of Vivienne Westwood and the label’s legacy without an acknowledgement of the irreverence of the Portraits collection, which most likely constitutes the strongest imagery of the brand in most people’s minds. For all that rambling on I did about her challenging fashion conventions, the corset is probably, like, one of the most stereotypically feminine garments out there, and so it seems contradictory that it’s probably the most famous VW piece. That being said, you just have to look at the earliest prominent iteration of the staple showcased in Portraits; the way the shape was utilised flew in the face of all that was conventional and “demure” through its combination with religious iconography, micro skirts and nude illusion cut outs, in the ‘80s ffs, so need I say more about what it is that made it so groundbreaking? It was a moment that was emblematic of the middle finger to the world attitude that Vivienne’s collections are known for, and which makes it such an iconic, and true to brand piece that is still loved, emulated, and collected by a very lucky few today.-

-Vivienne Westwood RTW S/S 2023-

-It’s only half the picture to say Vivienne’s participation in the fashion industry contradicts her personal politics, which completely ignores how much of her fortune has been redistributed through her activism over the years; to advocate for her brand is to advocate for the anti establishment mission she has made an inextricable part of it, which over the past few decades has ranged from her vocal commitment to fighting climate change, her stance on sustainability, her support of Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange, and notably her Ethical Fashion Africa campaign, shots from which feature below.-

-Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood RTW, clockwise L-R: S/S 2008, S/S 2007, S/S 2019, “-

-Andreas & Vivienne at Paris Fashion Week, 2nd October 2021-

-Andreas Kronlather for Vivienne Westwood RTW, top: S/S 2016, bottom L-R: S/S 2018, S/S 2014-

-”, top L-R: RTW S/S 2006, RTW F/W 2014, & bottom: RTW S/S 2023-

Ending with the content Vivienne would most likely find to be closest to her heart is a reflection on the Andreas Kronlather for Vivienne Westwood, surely the purest form of her punk spirit that will go on without her. Undeniably, Vivienne has had no greater influence on anyone than her husband, Andreas, with whom she publicly entrusted the more affordable offshoot of her brand, and whose creative relationship first began when he began working under her wing in the late ‘80s. They were artistic geniuses, revolutionaries, and basically the much more aspirational version of the rockstar bf/gf model bc/gf duo. Above all they were cutie pies<3 

-Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood RTW, clockwise L-R: S/S 2010, “, F/W 2017, & F/W 2015-

-”, L-R: RTW S/S 2017, RTW S/S 2009, RTW F/W 2016-

Though for the majority of the 30+ years they spent collaborating Andreas chose to be a silent contributor, the name change of the red label offshoot to Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood was the clear realisation of his journey in becoming an equal partner and suggests that over time, the direction of influence evolved from the latter over the former to a much more reciprocal force.

-”, L-R: RTW F/W 2012, RTW F/W 2018-

-”, left portion: RTW F/W 2010, top right portion: RTW S/S 2011, bottom right portion L-R: RTW F/W 2013, RTW F/W 2011-

-”, L-R: RTW S/S 2006, RTW S/S 2014-

-”, L-R: RTW F/W 2019, RTW S/S 2015-

 I’m going to get real cheesy here but I have to say it: there is no doubt that whilst he continues to showcase his designs, Vivienne’s presence in the industry will not cease to be felt. Regardless-we’ll miss you anyways, Queen.-

-Vivienne photographed at the end of her RTW F/W 2016 runway presentation, February 2016-

-Vivienne photographed attending premiere screening at Regent Street Cinema, November 2022-

Vivienne Westwood, April 1941-December 2022

[accursedvoid]

Me watching discourse over which twin is or isn’t the abuser or the victim: Y’all Lila Valeska and Zach are right there.

[mrs-barnes-rogers-writes]

A Second Chance Is A Better Chance - Christmas As A Roamer - The Second Christmas

Pairing: Alpha Steve Rogers x Omega Witch Reader, eventual ? x Omega Witch Reader and Alpha Steve Rogers X Omega Witch Reader

Summary: Rejected by your true mate at 21, you’ve given up on the Fates and the Moon Goddesses giving you a second chance. Being a Roamer for the last 9 years, you’re an Omega hardened by the world. You’re safe on your own because of your witchcraft, but it doesn’t stop Alphas and plenty of others sniffing around, especially when you’re an unmated Omega witch, who’s wolf also happens to be white, the rarest kind. You don’t need anyone, but why do you keep coming back to Brookville and why do you keep walking into trouble and helping people that you don’t know but for some strange reason feel like family. And where is that smell of apple pie coming from?

Series Warnings: A/B/O, eventual smut, violence in parts, witchcraft, shapeshifters

Chapter Warnings: Mention of violence illness

Note: You won’t see much of Steve in these festive drabbles but they are important to the backstory as we see snippets of what led Y/N to leave her pack.

You were going home for Christmas. FFS. You didn’t want to. You’d have preferred to do have done plenty of other things. Walked over hot coals, put pins in your eyes, eaten a toad, anything but go home for Christmas. But then the Luna had called. Not Diana. The new one. Alpha Jacob’s mate. A lump formed in your throat as she started to tell you that they were finally having their blessing ceremony. They had mated a few months after you’d left and you had got to know her briefly before your departure but it was a struggle with everything that had happened over the months prior and with Jacob giving you sad puppy eyes in the background. She’d told you then how she wanted a Christmas blessing and you’d hoped you’d missed it having skipped Christmas last year. Jacob wasn’t a fan of social media and always gave clear instructions that he didn’t want things like his birthday all over the internet so you’d thought maybe the blessing was the same. You thought wrong. You were about to interrupt and make an excuse to end the call, I mean why was she calling you anyway, that’s when the hit came. They wanted you there. She wanted you there. Jacob wanted you there. You swallowed hard. Then the second hit came. She wanted you in the wedding. She wanted you to give them a witch’s blessing. Fuck. This wasn’t right surely. Jacob couldn’t think this was a good idea, could he? Your omega buried herself in the back of you mind to let the white wolf and witch takeover. Your temper started to rise and the lump in your throat started to turn venomous. How could he think this was right? You blessing them after what had gone on between you! Your snarky reply was stopped by a deep growl on the line. “Lila, what were my last words to you! OMEGA!!! What did I say?!” Jacob. There was a rustling and you heard a timid response. “I was excited. I just wanted to tell her. A witch’s blessing can help you have a pup.” You heard Jacob growl and your wolf snapped. This wasn’t her fault. She had no idea how things were between you. “Jacob Jones! You growl at her one more time and I’ll fly over there and beat the living shit out of you with my broom.” You heard him let out a shuddering breath as he said your name. “Y/N, I’m sorry.” “It’s not me you need to apologise to dipshit!” He signed and you heard his apology. “Lila, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have growled at you like that. It’s just it’s hard for her to come home.” “I just wanted to help. I thought I was helping.  You said she doesn’t answer you or Tyler when you try so I thought I’d try. I thought I was helping.” “I know baby.” Vomit. You were pretty sure your face now looked like the green emoji. “Will you do it?” You realised he was talking to you again. “What?” “The blessing. Will you do it?” You sighed. “I know it’s hard..” “Actually Jacob you don’t know, you’ve not been rejected or dealt with the shit I have.” “I know, I’m sorry.” The line went quiet. “Y/N” “Do you really want me to do it?” “I do.” “Jacob, it doesn’t seem right. Don’t you think it’s weird if I do it?” “No.” “Jacob.” “She wants a witch’s blessing.” “She wants a pup.” “I know.” “You know a blessing doesn’t actually help you catch for a pup right? The herbs just boost fertility a little and flush your system. There’s no guarantee. That’s an old wives tale.” “I know but you’re one of the few I trust.” “Charming!” “I meant people, not witches.” You stayed silent. “Please Y/N. It’d mean a lot to her. To me. Mum and Dad too.” There it was. He was playing the David and Diana card. You tried not to bite. “How are the old dears anyway?” Jacob let out a whimper. You’d known him since you were three years old. You’d heard him whimper twice. Once when the rejection sickness was on the verge of taking you and again when he told you he found Lila. “Jacob, what’s going on?” You heard Lila comfort him. “Jacob, what is it? Jacob! Lila! Lila!” There was a rustle and you heard sniffles. “Alpha David, Y/N, he’s sick.”, it was Lila, her voice broke as she continued. “It’s bad Y/N.” Fuck. You were going home for Christmas and you were going to need Dragon’s Blood.

[idontgetpaidenoughforthisshit]

That moment when you find yourself feeling slightly sorry for Reginald, and it’s revealed that he is in fact an even massiver cunt than previously depicted

“I’m going to murder my child and time his resurrection.” This was a fanfiction trope before it became canon, I have like 20 fics bookmarked with that exact premise ffs.

And then he trained the other kids up for a suicide mission. At least this Pogo isn’t a massive fucking enabler like season one Pogo.

I did not like Season One Pogo. This also helps explain the emotional distance the Sparrows have between themselves and Grace. Because there wasn’t Viktor murdering his nannies (which, really? Put some sugar in it or get a better kettle, after the first two dead nannies it was obvious!) she was likely introduced later, and therefore they were more independent and wasn’t as needed in a maternal role (they were in their 20’s when Pogo left, and we saw no sign of Grace then, so it was likely she was a far more recent addition).

By introducing Grace after Pogo left, the Sparrows knew that if they got too attached, Reginald would probably destroy her. Also, they didn’t need a mother (in their 20’s) and she likely had less time to develop and evolve. Reginald could also have put restrictions on her programming in order to prevent her from becoming too attached and “betraying” him the way Pogo did.

But I digress, this post is Why Reginald Hargreeves Is An Utter Shithead, not The Fascinating Differences Of Grace In All Seasons (though I may do one of those for fun later)

So we all had sympathy over him being drugged by his children, and his patheticness with the ice cream and then BAM! His assholish colours are revealed.

He tested Klaus’ immortality (episode 6 he starts) in both timelines, there is the infamous Diego Stutter moment of Season 2, which caused the fandom to thirst for his blood (also fuck Lila for inducing the same response).

And he’s raising his children for a suicide mission.

I think that’s what truly sums up the difference in the end, quite simply because of the ways they were raised - the Umbrellas were raised to save the world and destroy it, the Sparrows were raised to die and technically outlived the Umbrellas (I mean, technically they’ve all died, Five just undid it, therefore the Sparrows have a better track record. They’re both just denying the roles they were raised for because Fuck Reginald Hargreeves).

So yeah, the man’s more of a shitbucket than we thought, don’t waste any sympathy on this monumental twatwaffle

[icyaslack]

TUA S3 Spoilers

Ok so I need to externalise my feelings concerning season 3 on way or another. First, I really really liked this season, I think more than season 2. It was darker and more mature, with lighter (and sometimes silly) moments in between. And at last they got to properly curse! THANK YOU! let them say fuck we’re not in a soap ffs! It does have writting flaws and problems but all in all it’s really good and makes me want season 4 so bad! And I’ll need at least 2 rewatch to fully see the little details here and there. The rest under there cos it’s gonna be long.

Luther next. I was quite happy for him this season he got to experience real love and be loved and understood back. Sloane is good for him. The last episodes were especially brutal on him, being killed by his dad whom he literally just forgave is cruel and tragic. He also got nice interactions with most of his siblings too.

Klaus got to grow and see how truly powerful he can be (even if there’s big plotholes here). He’s got a really good arc and really nice and sweet interactions with each siblings, Ben and his mother. Same as Luther he didn’t deserve to be killed by Reginald after being so nice with him and trying so hard to see some good in him.

Vikto is way more bearable this season too. At least he’s trying now, I liked him a lot more. I hope he stays in this path.

Diego went through emotional levels he learnt to be more open and he will make a great dad! All his interactions with Lila were absolutely gold and I’m glad they’re so close by the end they’ll need each other.

I have so many feelings for Five and his arc. Firstly, I really didn’t like howwas handled his relation with Delores, like at all. It was awkward as best and not coherent with what we saw in the other seasons. They reduced his whole trauma and complicated mental paths to simple romance... I’m disapointed.  But the whole him being the Founder of the Commission thing? I still haven’t properlly understand all the implications here but I know for sure it’s fucking tragic and mindblowing, but it’s interesting and I hope we’ll learn more, even if I really doubt we will. The whole scene where he meets his other self? It killed me, both Aidan Gallagher and Sean Sullivan are remarkable. They don’t have a lot of time, but the emotions man!! The’yre perfect and they both broke my heart. I know the writers will not give Five time to process all of it and if it does it’ll be just implied. Just like the fact he apparently talked to at least Diego about the barn?! And we didn’t get any of their reactions to that. A lot of explaining is done behind camera and I hate that. Another scene that killed me is when Five lost his arm, his dominant one on top of that! I think I blacked-out a little, I needed to rewind. It was brutal and nobody gave a fuck, I know they didn’t really had time to react but a comment would have been nice. He’s so strong and his pain tolerance! God! I don’t even dare think about what went through his mind then... I’m glad he had some happy time with his family though, but he clearly drank way more this season too. I frankly need to know his full speech at the wedding. He got absolutely sweet mometns with his siblings, the dances and the bachelor party, the roadtrip with Klaus... I do think it helped in his decision to not try to save the Universe, he was content. This whole process might seem quite random considering he tried for 45 years to save the world but it kinda made sense, I need to think more about it to form an opinion.Especially about the last episode.

Finally I can say I haven’t emotionally recovered and I have a lot of questions but in a good way.

[chatonnoir]

lol hi anon who sent that ask about immediately blocking bad takes and then still thinking about them

the post i saw was 'mlb is racist because lila is italian and i googled 'are italians liars' and google said yes. also that part with chloe saying 'make sushi' further cements it so the creators of this show are awful!'

They decided it was racist because they ..... Googled if “Italians are liars”?????? I’ve never heard of any Italian stereotype about lying?? I even searched a bit and read through various descriptions of bad Italian stereotypes because of this ask and I’ve yet to see a single thing about lying. Also, letting Google do their critical thinking for them is a really interesting choice. I’m just going to move on and not comment on this 

Dear god I’ve literally seen that Chloe take before in comments on Astruc’s twitter during season 4 (not even season 2 ffs) where they basically say “why did you make Chloe racist, that makes you racist.” ?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!? HUH?????? A writer takes a rich white antagonist who is repeatedly shown to be ignorant and mean and has her be racist towards the Asian characters, having her make “they’re all the same”-type comments and comments ridiculing their English, both very common forms of racism towards Asians. These comments are presented as being ignorant and mean by the show, and the protagonists are shown getting rightfully angry and trying to call her out and correct her on this. They saw this and arrived at the conclusion that the WRITER was the racist here?????? Please tell me what mental gymnastics were necessary to arrive at this conclusion. I can only imagine it’s coming from the people who love an idealized fanon version of Chloe and pretend anything that doesn’t agree with their version either didn’t happen or was actually the fault of another character or the writers themselves -- “Chloe isn’t racist!!1!1 Astruc MADE her be racist!!1!1″ Sorry to her stans but her racism is a completely realistic depiction of how ignorant privileged white girls like her show their ignorance in real life, y’all can’t just make up “evil Astruc” headcanons to gloss over it and pretend she isn’t racist.

[bard-of-worlds]

Chapter 28

Hey, I wanted this all to be out last week, but it took a while to write it like I wanted it to be, hard to get the words on the screen ya know, but my new system is working and I like it.   Sooooo, I’m going to be putting up my first poll once the new month rolls around, it’s about my Pokemon story.   And about this one, I see at most two more chapters for this one, then we begin the first of a seven-part saga, and I’ve been thinking about making an ‘Extended Edition’ of this one, just a few ideas in my mind.  So sit back and let’s see what happens next here!

 So it’s here first and on FF AO3 by 8PM today, hope every buddy had a great Thanksgiving!

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  As Enhancetress giggled evilly Shadowmoth looked at her and smirked.   “So then Rodger saw everything then?”  

 “Yes, and a freelance reporter got everything on film!  With him added in, the plan will work perfectly Lord Shadowmoth,” Enhancetress purred and Shadowmoth grinned as he felt excitement burst out of him.  After all his failed plans, this was working!   Was this what the heroes felt when they won?

 “Perfect my dear.  I think your idea was right, we do see better results when they don’t fight the transformation.   Let this be a new beginning for us,” Shadowmoth said as he grinned, ideas forming being his eyes.  “For too long I looked only to what I was able to gather from that book.   Let us look to other means, other ways.   And we only looked at one source, perhaps we can find another way.”  

 He didn’t know what could work, but the fact that he had been so obsessed with the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous, that might have been the only reason that his wife was still lost to them.   He had tried to craft stronger Champions, and how he had Lila do so much to make Marinette fall and become his masterpiece!   He had a lot of respect for the girl, she was creative, caring, and had a nice reputation.   But that creativity……. If he could make her his Champion then he knew beyond a doubt that she would have won with an army behind her, hence the mass attack.

 He hated to admit it, but his planning ability wasn’t even a faction of Marinette’s, that was why he had decided to use Lila to try and get Marinette to feel a strong enough negative emotion to let one of his Akuma take control of her, to use her abilities for his goal.   But he wasn't heartless, he planned to reward her if she defeated the heroes, and returned to the school even if she failed.  But after Nooroo had told them everything about the wish and the price for it, he was glad he had failed.  

 But then there was the way things had spiraled out of control, and all because of Lila!  He scowled as he thought of what that fool had done.   After the attack failed because Nathalie was sick, he had planned to honor his contract with Lila, since “he” had no other knowledge about what Lila had done and why, since all he wanted was an ‘unbiased’ view of his son’s school life.   But then the little twit had lied about how his civilian persona had ordered Marinette’s expulsion, he admitted that Lila’s plan to get Adrien to think he had ordered everything that happened to Marinette so Adrien would ‘play ball’ with her was insulting, but then Adrien had exploded and this restraining order after he had run away…….. nothing had turned out like he thought it would and he could only hope that he could pull off a win in the end, and with their new direction and goals the end game might have been different, but it was there for them to take.

 While Shadowmoth had his internal revelation Enhancetress was having her own, and after a few moments decided to bring up what she had just realized.

 “Of course, and I wonder if we should reach out to other possible pawns, non-magical ones,” Enhanctress suggested and Shadowmoth looked at her and grinned as he started to see her point and the possibilities that they had ignored for so long.  

 “Yes, that might work.   Alone we have failed so much, but only because we’ve been working with the same power as our foes!   We can find a few gangs and empower them, send them against more civilian targets and then from there, make a war chest,” Shadowmoth commented and Enhanctress nodded with a grin.  I mean what was I thinking?  With all, I’ve done all I didn’t do was turn to crime, and with everything they’ll charge me with if they ever catch me, why not go for broke?  And with the Seven in my city, I just need to reach out and take it all.  He thought as he grinned as he let his imagination run wild with the possibilities before him.

 “A wise move, I’ll have a list of people we can use and targets later today,” Enhanctress said with a sly tone to her voice as Shadowmoth nodded.

 Her past had shown her that such people were necessary to get some work done in the wilder parts of the world, and looking back it was stupid of them not to have reached out to that kind of people, there were so many other possibilities to look into that they hadn’t even considered before!

 Had they been so fixated on the Miraculous, so sure of what they had deduced based on their research that they ignored all the other possibilities?   A doctor who knew about Magic could have found out what was wrong with Emile so much sooner, but they were so sure that the only way to save her was to get those two Miraculous, but then breaking the spells on Duusu and what they learned!   The only way forward was to move and do things that weren’t what they had done before, all they needed to do was keep trying and eventually they would have a win!  

 Ehancetress smiled as she got off her stool and curtsied to Shadowmoth.  “Lord Shadowmoth, might I trouble you for passage to our secondary site?”

 “With the power that the Miraculous of Emotion has granted us, that is but a trivial matter,” Shadowmoth said as he summoned a feather and put it into his staff.   As the purple blob formed next to him, Enhancetress grinned under her veil.

 “I’ll go and prepare the next stage my lord, good luck making it look real,” she said and Shadowmoth just laughed as he shook his head.

 “I did marry an actress my dear, I’ll be fine.  I have gotten some experience in directing our Champions.   And these two can’t be worse than the divas I’ve had to deal with,” He said as his Sentimonster finished forming.

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 As Thunder Lord looked at her, Salacia looked around and tried to figure out if there was any way that she could get away.   She pressed one of her legs into the roof and glared at Thunder Lord.  “You think I’ll give her to you?”

 “No, but I hoped you would see reason, but then your kind rarely do,” Thunder Lord said softly and shook his head.    “Well, I guess I’ll just have to take it by force then.   So your answer then my dear?”

 Salacia just took a stance and readied herself as Thunder Lord shook his head releasing a sigh.  

 “I suppose I expected this, really I did.   But then I had hoped the time you’ve had that little god wouldn’t have let you bond, but then I suppose I was expecting less from you than I would have from myself if I’m honest about all this,” Thunder Lord said dramatically and looked at Salacia and sighed again as he shook his head.   “How do you want to die then?”

 Without a word, Salacia threw herself to the side moments before another Lancer appeared and attacked the place she was standing.  As the two Blaster Legions fired at her she didn’t even wait until she landed, as she was horizontal with the roof and away from it by inches she shot out her arms and pushed off the roof, somersaulting into the air and spinning to the right dodging the blasts as she threw herself off the roof.  

 Thunder Lord watched with a bit of shock on his face and started to laugh.   “Well done!  Perhaps I won’t let her go after all.  A few weeks of conditioning and I’d have a good warrior for one of the other jewels I have!   And she might be cute under that mask.”  

 The Lancers chittered at him and he looked at them for a few moments.  “Well, go get her, alive please!”

 The Legions all roared and ran, jumping off the roof to chase down Salacia as Thunder Lord drew his sword with one hand and reached for the hilt with his other.

 Below Salacia ran, going away from where the people and the Akumatized villain was, hopefully, she would be able to handle this without going there, letting the others handle the other problems without adding this to it.   She ran on as blasts from the Blasters fired down at her as the Legions and Thunder Lord chased after her above on the roofs.

 As she reached a park she smiled as she knew that the space would let her try and handle the monsters one by one, hopefully, she could get a Blaster or one of the Lancers with her power and have them cover her back as she escaped.  Looking over her shoulder she saw two Lancers ahead of the pack with the Blasters staying back.   She looked around and noticed a tree ahead of her, dashing at it she jumped at it and somersaulted, landing against the tree she pushed off and spun in the air and punched out at the Lancer’s spear as they tried to strike her as she passed over their heads.  

 Running at the Blasters she dodged their attacks and sent a savage blow against one of them, cracking its head as it screeched in pain as it fell, bleeding from the ruin of one of its eyes.  As she dodged to the right as the Lancers caught up and attacked her, she smiled as she saw that the maimed Blaster looked like it was dying.  She felt a small amount of pride, she had taken one down on her own, but there were so many more to go.

 As one of the Lancers charged at her, she landed and pushed its lance aside with her right arm as it tried to attack her, then she punched with her left arm and it moved backward for a moment, stunned but that was all she needed to do as she jumped and did a spin kick and tore off its head!

 As the dead body of the Legion crumbled to the ground, Salacia looked at the other Legions as they stood there growling at her.    Her Kwami had told her that they were just large insects with larger versions of the same organs regular bugs had so she didn’t feel too bad about this, but they were still alive and they might have a small sense of loyalty to their broodmates.

 As the last Lancer stood there protecting the lone Blaster the sounds of an incoming energy blast caused her to jump to the right in a lunge that made her horizontal for a moment.  

 As she landed in a roll a roar from two more Legion Slashers charged at her.   She jumped up and in the air she prepared to attack them as soon as she landed when suddenly the Slashers were both lassoed by a red yoyo!   As soon as that happened they were pulled into the air and a spin by Ladybug before being thrown at the remaining Lancer!  

 As Salacia landed she saw Ladybug was suddenly there, smiling at her as Miss Hound took a defensive stance before them.

 “Thanks, Ladybug!” Salacia said and Ladybug grinned back.   “How’d you find me?”

 “We were on patrol when we saw these things chase you, where’s that girl from last time?” Miss Hound asked as she looked at the monster

 “She’s not here, it’s……” Salacia began only for loud clapping to sound.

 “ME!  So this is the famed Ladybug?   My my, your photos don’t do you justice my dear!   And who is this canine beauty?” Thunder Lord’s voice came from behind them.   The heroes whirled around and saw Thunder Lord looking at them with four more Lancers guarding him.   “And you handled the Lancers so well, that Lusty wrench will be so disappointed that her works were done away with so easily.  Oh wait, where are my manners?  I am currently Thunder Lord, leader of those who call ourselves the Seven Deadly Sins!”

 Ladybug looked at Thunder Lord and let her eyes roam over his body, trying to find anything that might let her figure out was his Miraculous.  ”So the woman with the scythe, she was under your command?   And what does a life-taker want in my city?”

 “Life harvester as I told you friend behind you both.   My works only gather the leftover life energy that people release after they die violently,” Thunder Lord said and he grinned at her.   “I wonder my dear, what a few hundred years of experience with that Artifact would do for you, want to find out?”  

 Miss Hound was doing the same thing as both noticed something on his right leg that drew her eye and she wondered if was it, thankfully Thunder Lord hadn’t noticed her eyes, he had looked right at Ladybug and kept his attention on her.

 Ladybug looked at him and clenched her yoyo as she glared at him, keeping an eye out for anything else as she kept her focus on him and his monsters.   So far his team seemed not as bad as Hawkmoth, they had only fought the heroes and used monsters, not civilians as the ‘villain of the day’ as he does.

 Thunder Lord only looked at Ladybug and he could barely keep a smile from his lips.  The girl was as strong as he hoped but her magic, it was there under the locks of the Order just waiting to burst free.   He had to admit that Hawkmoth’s campaign was a good thing if it led to her being given a Miraculous before one of those things found her and claimed her.  The death and carnage such a corrupted birth her power would have resulted in, that was almost unthinkable.

 Salacia looked around covertly; so far the two Lancers and Blaster were just staying where they had been thrown to the ground.  How did Thunder Lord and Nekhbet control them?  Bolla didn’t know much about the magic the Legions were created by, but she had said that golems needed an artifact to let others control them.   So by that logic then, Thunder Lord had to have something that let him work his will on them, and he had to have it on him, if they could get it away from him then maybe they could escape.

 “You offering to share your stolen lives?” Ladybug asked and Thunder Lord shrugged.

 “The wars on this continent would have been so much worse if I hadn’t gathered the life force of those who passed on my dear, truly it would have.   But ask those little ones of yours about the Elementals and watch them clam up, like all the Kwami the self-named Guardians took,” Thunder Lord said Ladybug went still as she tried and failed to hide her surprise.

 “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Ladybug said as she looked at Thunder Lord and hoped that he believed her.  To have another person, even an enemy, confirmation that the Order had cast spells on the Kwami; it was something.   But then his words about how the last two wars might have been worse if they hadn’t taken the stray life force, that was shocking and it only showed that they didn’t know everything there was in the world.   If there was something that they needed to know, then capturing one of Seven’s Kwami and Miraculous to question them was something that they had to do.

 “We gonna keep talking or we gonna do something?” Miss Hound asked as she spun her escrima sticks in her hands and Thunder Lord just sighed and gestured at the three girls, the Legions responded with a roar.

 As two Lancers charged at them, the Blaster and other Lancer behind them fell back as the Blaster fired at them.  

 “Handle range, Miss Hound follow me!” Ladybug called as she moved to attack the charging Lancers, Miss Hound falling in behind her as Salacia ran towards the Blaster.   As the guardian Lancer tried to get at her she spun to the side and lunged at the Blaster, it dodged but she landed and dealt a spin kick that tore off its head.  

 Meanwhile, Ladybug and Miss Hound attacked the two Lancers.   Miss Hound blocked her foes with her right stick before piercing the Lancer’s left eye.   As it fell back with a screech she punched through its throat and as it wheezed to death as it fell she grinned and moved to help Ladybug.

 Ladybug had made sure to keep the lance away from her with her spinning yoyo as she tanked the blows from the Lancer with it and kept moving backwards until Miss Hound was there and killed it from behind.

 As one the two heroines nodded to each other they charged at the Lancer fighting Salacia and within moments it was dead on the ground and then the three stood together glaring at Thunder Lord who watch with a stage look on his face.

 “Well done, but then I can do this!” He called out as he threw two large fleshy eggs into the air, as they reached the top of its arc, they glowed black and broke apart, each one releasing four energy stars that shot out and hit the ground, revealing eight Slashers.   As the two Lancers moved forwards slowly toward the heroines' as Thunder Lord just laughed as he looked at the girls.  

 “Did you two think that three of you would be able to run in and win without a plan? I mean really! Two Rookies and a semi-experienced Wielder?” Thunder Lord asked and Ladybug grinned.

 “You forgot the other semi-experienced Wielders on our team,” Ladybug said and Thnderloord look at her before he went still and fell forward.  

 As he fell behind him a portal was revealed, Apisera grinning as she held her top and from her stance, she had stung his back. Apisera grinned at them as she stepped from the portal with Pegasus.  

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 “We can’t run in without a plan, so ideas?” Ladybug asked the others as they ran after Thunder Lord, Miss Hound leading the way.

 “I’ve got one, it might work……… but you’ll be alone with….. Salacia,” Pegasus began, causing the others to look at him as he continued.  “I’ll go with both Miss Hound and Apisera, we’ll move along the rooftops until I have line of sight on the battle.  You meanwhile backup Salacia fight off the monsters.  Then I create a portal behind him, he’s stung and then we’ll take his Miraculous and whatever he’s using to control those things.”

 “No, I’ll go with Ladybug, it looks like it’ll take more than two heroes to handle them,” Miss Hound said and the others looked at her.

 “You sure about that?” Ladybug asked and Miss Hound nodded.

 “Yes, I need to be better, so yes,” Miss Hound said and Apisera looked at her oldest friend and smiled.

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 “Well, that worked great!” Apisera said with an edge to her voice as the Legions went still.

 However a moment later the Legions roared and four Slashers and Lancer charged at Ladybug, Miss Hound and Salicia while the rest charged at Apisera and Pegasus.

 “Quick, grab the items with magic and throw them through the portal!” Apisera called out as she put herself between the Legions and Pegasus.

“Try around his feet for the Miraculous!”  Ladybug called out before dodging a blow and throwing her yoyo around the neck of a Lancer that tried to attack the others.  

 As Asperia punched the Lancer, Pegasus felt around Thunder Lord’s feet and found something that he felt around and found a clip that let him remove it.   He pulled away a small grey circle as the bodysuit of Thunder Lord started to change, the yellow becoming ruby with black streaks that went to the sides.  

 “He has two Miraculous?!” Pegasus stammered as he stared at the transformed wielder before the roar of charging Legions made him jump backwards as he clutched it.  A ball of light formed and be a green chibi Kwami.

 The new Kwami had a yellow body, two antennae above large blue eyes on an oversized head and four single limbs on a small humanoid body with a small light from its behind and two short insect wings on its back.  

“You freed me!   No, he’s still alive?!   His power lets him make an explosion! Dodge his Wraith Bolts if you want to live!” The Kwami screeched in a feminine tone.  

 Pegasus looked from the Legions to the Kwami, his mind going at lightning speed as he tried to figure out what to do before he nodded, coming to the only decision that he could make. He held his hand with the Miraculous towards the Kwami and opened it.  “Take it and go!   Stay safe!”

 The Kwami looked from Pegasus to the Miraculous and nodded with a small smile.   “Thank you!”

 The Kwami flew away and one of the Slashers roared and lunged for the Miraculous but Pegasus intercepted it and with a few blows he killed it.  As the depowered Thunder Lord roared and jumped to his feet he looked around, finally spotting the Kwami flying away with its Miraculous clutched tightly to its body.   Looked around he saw the heroes in combat.   He zeroed in on Pegasus and he saw red as he roared, drawing his sword and charged at him.

 Looking up Pegasus saw Thunder Lord charging at him, he dodged the blows as the others dealt with the Legions, however, a beeping told him that his transformation as a hero was almost done for now.  

 “You worm!  Do you know what I had to do to take that power from the fools who held it?!   The chaos I had to engineer to even find out who had it!?  With that power, I was able to do so much, much that is now gone!” Thunder Lord spat as he locked blades with Pegasus.    

 “So I what, stopped your ability to use lives?” Pegasus asked and Thunder Lord laughed and shook his head as he glared at the hero.  

 “No, all you did was keep me from killing things and then leaving their bodies intact, now my rage has returned to those who earn my wraith,” Thunder Lord said before a yoyo wrapped around his arms.   They looked to see Salacia, Ladybug, Miss Hound and Asperia ready to attack Thunder Lord and

 “If I’m right we took your thunder, so what?  You still call yourself Lord or something like that?” Asperia asked with a smirk and Thunder Lord laughed.

 “No, for now and forever I am Wraith Lord!  And you will feel this drake’s fury!  Wraith Bolt!” The self-named Wraith Lord cried as he pointed his sword at the heroes and a beach ball-sized energy ball formed at the tip before it shot at them. They dodged but it hit one of the Legion that got back to its feet, setting off a large explosion.

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 As the police and Heroes moved down the street to get away from the tsunami of Midnight Crew Sentimonsters after them, Chat Noir looked around for anything that might let them turn the tide, let them get ahead.  Viperion had been following after the horde, keeping an eye on the two Villains who followed after their minions, ready to attack when the heroes were occupied with the Midnight Crew.   While they had tried to keep from killing them, the Sentimonsters had done everything but kill themselves, moving into the blows or taunting the police so they would fire at them, then dodge so one behind them would be hit in the head. These tactics had raised the number of Sentimonsters to just below one hundred, but Roi Singe was thinking that something was wrong, but he couldn’t see just what it was.

 “Any change?!” Chat Noir called out and Viperion called back.

 “No, they’re still too protected for me to even think about getting a shot off!   Keep running, should I try Second Chance?!” Viperion asked and Chat Noir cursed.  He saw Arashiko falling back next to him as Carapace helped an officer move faster while Lieutenant Eduardo was carried over Roi Singe’s shoulder.   The good Lieutenant was cursing up a storm, but nothing he said had any value to it at all.  

 “No dude, we need you to stay as you are man!   If something happens we might need you to rock and roll!” Carapace said and looked around for any place that they could use to make a stand!

 Viperion nodded and cursed that he forgot he was alone at the other end of the horde overlooking Dark Owl and Lunar Raven as they hid behind a large France flag Dark Owl had ordered some of the Midnight Crew to use to block the back from anyone seeing them.   Viperion knew he could attack but if he was wrong and the Akuma Item wasn’t where he thought it was then……….  Maybe I can try Second Chance and see what I can learn about them?    Need to run it by the others but it might be the only chance we’ve got to turn it around and pull off a win! Viperion thought as he looked down at the street and tried to judge the best place to try and attack them on his own.

 “Who could have the Akuma?! Can you see anything Viperion?” Arashiko asked and Viperion was about to respond and then a feminine chuckle was heard over their communicators.

 “Neither of them has it heroes, but I’ve got my eyes on them,” A sensual female voice said as the heroes all looked at each other not knowing who was talking to them.

 “Who are you?” Viperion asked and the voice chuckled.

 “Well in honor of the cute Archer-Boy’s question, the names Arachne.   And let’s just say I’ve been watching you all for a while and my little partner recently met Chat-boy’s, so after the problems at the river and park I decided to throw my towel into the ring so to speak.   I’ve heard about the issue that probably caused this from a few sources I’ve got.   And how both were Akuma before, I wanted to be on guard nearby in case of another attack using one of them.  I didn’t expect to see two at once through,” Arachne said and Viperion blushed as he looked around, trying to spot her.

 “Fuck, I forgot the item doesn’t have to be with the Akuma!” Chat Noir’s voice said from over their communicators and Viperion winced as he saw how bad this could get.

 “Yeah and the guard is another separate Akuma, two of the first group of Sentimonsters and one of her own,” Arachne said and Viperion looked down at the throng of Sentimonsters and then at where he thought the two Akumatized villains were.   If they didn’t have the Akuma on them, then they had to go and get it to Ladybug, but they couldn’t let them rampage until they could find the butterfly Akuma!  

 Chat Noir meanwhile thought much as the others did, and he could see a few options to handle this but all of them required Viperion to go off on his own, and that was a problem. He couldn’t see anyway for Arashiko to disengage without letting the enemy know, and then when you add in the question of how Hawkmoth had done this, with the name change he thought Hawkmoth had merged Miraculous, and that just meant that things will be a lot worse in their future, plus then there was the fact that two separate Akuma, this was looking very bad.

 “No choice dudes!” Carapace said and looked at the other heroes with a troubled look. “I’ve been running plans, and I can’t think of anything to let anyone beyond viper-dude leave!”  

 “Me either, we need to stay here and hold the line,” Chat Noir said as Roi Singe and Arashiko both nodded and Chat Noir looked at the horde of Sentimonsters.  

 “Yeah.  Go Viper-bro, we’ll hold the line until you and the others can

“And where are the others?” Arashiko asked before they heard a large explosion from somewhere else in Paris that shocked the Sentimonsters.  

 “I can guess where they are bro,” Roi Singe said dumbly before picking up the pace, the others putting on speed as the Midnight Crew stayed where they were for a few moments, moments that would make all the difference.

 “Viperion, go!”  Chat Noir commanded as he looked at the police and took a deep breath.   “We’ll draw their fire and keep moving until you can get the Akuma and find Ladybug!”

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 Rena Rouge stopped and looked from the explosion in the distance to her left and the courthouse to her right.  She had moved towards the courthouse after she transformed and she expected to make it there soon, but she grew worried as the longer she ran, the more time passed that she hadn’t heard from anyone and then there was that explosion that she just heard.   She didn’t dare try and contact anyone either, if they were in combat that might let whoever they were fighting win.    On one hand, she should go help out with the double attack, but on the other the explosion…… people might be hurt or need help.  But a moment later before she could do anything she heard the sounds of something large running nearby.   Ducking behind a chimney, she looked around and saw Dark Kitsune carrying Volpina who had a briefcase in her hands with two Midnight Crew members following behind.   Rena Rouge knew instantly that they were only along as guards.

 As soon as she locked eyes on Lila’s Akuma form, Rena Rouge felt nothing but anger.  With all the revelations that Marinette had given her and then the talk about Adrien’s book, Alya had figured out fast that Lila had been bullying Marinette for a while now and tried to use Alya and their other classmates to isolate her, the incident that caused the hearing just her most explosive yet.    

 But Rena Rouge had seen a briefcase in Volpina’s hands, but one hero against an Akuma plus three Sentimonsters?   She wasn’t suicidal but that just seemed to be too much for one girl alone.  She was about to move when suddenly something covered her mouth and whatever it was pulled her into the shadows.  She started to try and break free before someone spoke next to her right ear.

 “So fox-girl, but I thought one of those things was gonna see you.   If I let you go will you please calm down and talk quietly?” A sensual voice asked and Rena Rouge went still before she nodded before whatever was covering her mouth moved away and released her.

 Rena Rouge shot forward and looked at whoever it was and blinked.   Staring at her was a girl her age with an athletic figure dressed in a grey bodysuit.   Her head was free but a grey eye mask with two pure black coverings over her eyes.  Her hair was jet black and in two buns on the side of her head, and her lips were pitch black.   On her bodysuit above her breasts was a red spider whose legs reached out to both sides, and in her hand was a black gymnastic ribbon.   “Sorry girl, but I couldn’t let you ruin my tracking down that false fox!  And I figured that it would be bad if the little witch over there caught a foxy girl like you!”  

 Rena Rouge blinked and blushed as she looked at the teen before her and she took a moment to shake her head and look at the spider heroine.   “Who are you?!”

 “Oh, yeah.  My name’s Arachne, nice to meet ya.   Soooo.   Some of your team is holding on against two Akumatized villains and these death multiplying servants of theirs…… so I saw them send two of them away with a briefcase and then that witch become an Akuma told your teammates about it, then the explosion happened and here we are!” Arachne said and Rena Rouge blinked, her mouth dropped open in shock at what she had heard.

 “Okay, so Ladybug and the others are holding the line and……..” Rena Rouge began, trying to think about how to handle this and get the item to Ladybug without breaking it or Volpina trying to stop her.  Okay, Lila’s a liar with the power to make illusions, and she’s probably got a powered-up Akunma with how Hawky’s been lately.  Add in that Sentimonster I saw her riding and the two guards……… with just Viperion and the new girl this is gonna be hard!   Maybe I can make an illusion of Mari being given a Miraculous….. not that would just put her in more danger!   How to handle this?  She thought before Arachne coughed and smiled awkwardly.

 “Yeah, No not Ladybug.   I just saw the Chat, Turtle, Viper and Ape boys with the Dragon-girl,” Arachne interrupted her and Rena Rouge looked at her and then down at her flute.

 “Okay, okay.   That means time to call in some help before we strike!” Rena Rouge said as she smirked and activated her tool’s communication function.

  XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 As Ladybug blinked away the buzzing she looked around, and saw that everyone even Wraith Lord was shocked.   As she got back up she saw Wraith Lord look at her with a bit of awe in his body language.  

 “You got up first, I guess that you deserve to hold the Ladybug after all,” Wraith Lord said as the other heroes all stood up.  

 “Don’t think you’ll leave Paris the same as when you entered!” Apisera declared as she heard a beep and knew they had to finish this fast.

 “You’ve lost your minions, the chances of you winning are next to nothing!” Pegasus said as Miss Hound nodded.

 “You asked for my friend, we’ll take your slave instead!” Salica said proudly as she looked at Wraith Lord.

 “You’ve used that Miraculous for evil, we will stop you!” Ladybug declared as Wraith Lord looked around.  

 “You’ll try,” Wraith Lord said as he looked around and almost reached for his belt but he knew how many of Lust’s creations he had taken and he had used all of them.   That bolt was a lot stronger than the last time, I guess the ability to use magic does increase with age.   Still this might be good, and this is done.   I’ve learned a lot and I’ve taught them a bit.  For now, I will leave that way.   He thought before he started to grin and laughed as the heroes looked at him as they moved closer to him.

 “Let me tell you all two things my foes.  1, this is not the end but the beginning of our fight!  And 2, what I did just now?  That wasn’t my Miraculous’s power!” He said before he was suddenly engulfed by a black energy sphere before he shot into the air like a bullet, laughing madly as he flew away.  

 As the heroes stared after him another two beeps caused Ladybug to turn and look towards a part of the park.  “Follow me, there’s a manhole nearby!”  

 She shot off with the others behind her, even Salicia who looked around for anything that might still be lurking around.   After Ladybug had pried open the manhole both Pegasus and Apisera had dropped down, and as Ladybug covered they saw a flash as it was sealed.

 “He wanted my partner,” Salicia said as she looked at Miss Hound and Ladybug.    Both of them looked at her with a scowl, the very idea of taking a Kwami from one of the other heroes was unthinkable to them!

 “So another Hawkmoth then?” Miss Hound asked and Salicia shook her head.  

 “No, they said my power could defeat them, and how he didn’t want such power outside of his hands……. And what he did at the end and that bolt wasn’t his Miraculous, that what is it?” Salicia said as she looked at the two heroes.    “I think they know something my partner doesn’t know, I don’t like this at all.”

 Before Ladybug could say anything her yoyo started to beep, removing it she saw Rena Rouge was trying to get in contact with her.

 “Ladybug here, sorry we couldn’t make it but we….. wait Volpina’s back!?  How??  Wait a briefcase!?  And at the courthouse a Sentimonster swarm that can multiply?!  Okay, I got it, yes that makes sense.   We’ll be there soon!”  Ladybug said as Apisera pushed open the manhole and climbed out.

 “What’s wrong Ladybug?” Apisera as she reached down and pulled Pegasus up.

 “We’ve got problems, two of them.   Rena Rouge and another Miraculous user like Salicia have their eyes on Volpina on a Sentimonster with two others as guards under orders from Hawkmoth!   She’s carrying a case that might be the Item for the Akuma at the courthouse, and the others are dealing with Sentimonsters that can multiply, while they have to protect police being led by our least favorite Lieutenant.” Ladybug said and they all blanched as they saw the same horror they felt reflected in Ladybug’s eyes.

 “I’ll go with you after Volpina Ladybug, my sting would probably do more good there…..” Apisera began but Salicia interrupted her.

 “Wait, my partner said I can turn any magic ability backwards.   If I can get to one of those Sentimonsters I might be able to make them all be absorbed back into that one,” Salicia said and the others looked at her in shock and Apisera looked down at her top for a second.    

 “If you can do that, I can get one of the Villains and Carapace could trap the other one!  Good idea newbie!” Apisera said as the others nodded

 “Then I’ll go with Ladybug, I can track Volpina down if she escapes us!” Miss Hound piped up and then Pegasus shrugged.  

 “I’ll be able to help them all escape at least if things go bad, so I’ll head to these two,” Pegasus said and Ladybug nodded.

 “Then we all know what to do, good luck everyone!” Ladybug said and without another word, they all ran off, each of them going to where they had said, each of them hoping that their actions would lead to victory.

 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 Dark Owl laughed as he saw the Midnight Crew move to charge at the villains and gangsters that dare stand against the cause of justice. Once he found Marinette and made her THE NEW SPARROW after he talked to her and taught her the right way to behave, then everything would be perfect in his city and they would be ready to defend it from everyone who would dare to harm it!

 “Everything is going well Owl!   Should we send some of the crew to encircle them?” Lunar Raven asked and Dark Owl smirked as he turned to her.    He wondered for a moment if he should say anything but then he looked around and saw that there was no way for anyone to overhear him and he started to laugh. Lunar Raven meanwhile only looked at him and wondered what was wrong with him.   “What do you know that I don’t Owl?”

 “Oh many things my dear, I made a special plan a few moments ago, I expect to see the results of that very soon!”  Dark Owl said with a laugh and Lunar Raven looked at him and was about to speak when she went still.  Dark Owl walked forward and then turned to smile at her, not seeing her he turned around and saw her standing completely still.

 “Override active,” Lunar Raven said suddenly and she started to spasm as she fell to the ground.  

 “RAVEN, HELP HER!” Dark Owl ordered.   As two of the Midnight Crew came towards her she suddenly slashed out with two blades that formed on her arms.  As the Sentimonsters died Dark Owl drew an owl-themed broadsword sword with two wings as a cross guard and looked at Lunar Raven.

 “Have you lost your mind Lunar Raven?!  What’s gotten into you?!” Dark Owl demanded as Lunar Raven looked at him with a lifeless look on her face.

 “Secondary Akumaization has happened, returning to base, hostile Akuma detected, defeating,” Lunar Raven said tonelessly before she attacked him, slashing out with the blades on her arms.  

 Dark Owl blocked the blows, moving backwards as a Shadowmoth energy mask formed over his face.   “Sorry Commissioner, but our Raven seems to have been brainwashed!”

 As the two crossed blades, the two Sentimonsters ‘killed’ by Lunar Raven had already spawned two more, but these two each had pink glowing lines on them.  As one of the normal Midnight Crew moved closer to the four new ones, before it could touch them suddenly two of the changed attacked the normal one, killing it swiftly.

 As the other Midnight Crew Sentimonsters moved backwards the puddle the killed Midnight Crew had become rippled and spawned two more of the Corrupted Crew Sentimonsters. As the six Corrupted Crew looked robotically at the normal Sentimonster blades sprouted from their arms and they attacked the Midnight Crew with a cry.

 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 Shadowmoth glared as an energy mask over his face let him see what Dark Owl saw.  As he tried to send his wraith at Lunar Raven, but shockingly he hit a mental barricade, the ‘impact’ causing him to develop a headache that forced him to his knees.  He tried to ‘reach’ for the Corrupted Sentimonsters but he ‘hit’ another wall much softer.  As he shook his head he glared into space as he tried to figure this out.

 “What, no!   I’ve lost control of both her and those Sentimosnter? But How!   DARK OWL, SHE’S A SPY FOR THE VILLIANS, TAKE HER DOWN HARD!” Shadowmoth roared as he got back to his feet.

 Shadowmoth closed his eyes as he felt the connection he had with Dark Owl lose some of its strength and then he formed another mask.

 “Enhancetress, are you well?” Shaowmoth asked and he heard her reply.  

 “Yes, everything is ready on my end, why?” Enhancetress sent and Shadowmoth sighted.

 “One of my champions broke free and is attacking everything, she also took control of some of the Sentimonsters! Watch yourself my dear I fear someone else has been planning something in our city and are only moving now,” Shadowmoth said and he felt Enhancetress’s worry and smiled.  She was truly a good friend to be so loyal to him, but then they both cared about Emile.  

 Shadowmoth walked towards a computer screen and frowned as he called up a program and with but a few buttons pushed a file was brought up, a webbed list with the heroes, the Seven, the Giles figure and himself.   He looked at it for a few moments and made another list, with Caline Bustier under an empty blank person with question marks as the name.   “So there is another player, but what are they after?”

 Shadowmoth stared at the screen as he went over everything they knew, so far he and Nathalie hadn’t been able to figure out where the Guardian could be hiding.    And finding that one to talk about what his kind did to the Kwami was near the top of his list, if he had any information about the healing ritual Duusu spoke of then if he had to he would pray it out of the only Order member in Paris, by any way he had to.

 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 Dark Owl charged in and slashed out with his sword, Lunar Raven moved backwards and dodged the blows, parrying every third strike with her right arm as she led Dark Owl away from the heroes.    As the two Akumatized villains fought Lunar Raven's face kept perfectly still, not reacting to anything at all as Dark Owl grew madder with each blow.  Lunar Raven parried a blow and sent Dark Owl’s sword to the side and she shot forward, kicking off Dark Owl as she jumped backwards and landed by a building.

 Dark Owl looked around and saw that the Midnight Crew and the Corrupted were locked in a stalemate, and he watched as one of the Corrupted slew another and saw the taint spread to the puddle.   He looked at Lunar Raven and knew that he had only one choice.

 “FIGHT IT LUNAR!   YOU’RE STILL IN THERE!” Dark Owl bellowed as he sent a mental command, cursing that he had to use his plan to fight his ally instead of defeating his foes with his strategy.   With a roar, Dark Owl jumped upwards and slashed downwards at her right arm, only for Lunar Raven to keep her silence as she lunged to the side and kept moving in what seemed like a random pattern.

 Meanwhile, as the Sentimonsters fought themselves the heroes and Police had been able to get across a car bridge.  As Carapace and Roi Singe went to the rearguard position, both prepared to hold the line if anything went towards them.  Looking back at the carnage, Chat Noir gripped his weapon tighter.  I’ve never seen anything like this before, never!   The Akumatized follow Hawkmoth’s orders, the few Sentimonsters follow the orders of the Akumatized!   They shouldn’t be able to do this!  he thought as he looked at the battle between the Akumatized villains and Sentimonsters.  

 “This is insane, I’ve never even heard of anything like this……” Arashiko said with a shocked look on her face.  

 Chat Noir nodded and looked at the carnage before them, seeing the strange mutated or corrupted Sentimonsters attack the normal ones.   This was completely beyond anything that he had ever seen since he had gained his Miraculous!    

 So far the battle had stayed away from them, but everyone there felt like this as mad as it was, that it was only the calm before the storm.   As they watched there was a cry from the right and suddenly a tide of the normal Midnight Crew Sentimonsters charged over the rooftops and attacked the corrupted.

 “Where”d those things come from!?”  Carapace demanded and Roi Singe went still and paled.   As he watched the carnage, everything crystalized in his mind and he shook his head in shocked horror.

 “Dude.   We can’t win here, we can only outlast them,” Roi Singe muttered in horror and Carapace turned to him in shock.  

 “Don’t you all get it!? Those things can damage themselves to multiply!  Dark Owl must have sent  some of the ones we killed away and ordered them to kill each other until he called them back in!”  Roi Singe said the police officers and heroes all paled in fear as they understood the sheer craftiness and strategic mind of Dark Owl.

 “Just like the last time,” Chat Noir said as he shook his head, wondering just what caused a school principal to have such a strategic Akumatized form.    

 “So what do we do? And where’s the Lieutenant?

 “HERE!”  Lieutenant Eduardo called out from a side alley that he poked his head out of.   “There’s an old bunker from the War down this alley!   It has an opening to the sewers, we can hold them there as a chock…….. why are they fighting each other?” Lieutenant Eduardo asked as he saw Dark Owl and Lunar Raven fighting as their Sentimonsters all fought each other, but one side seemed to be stronger to his eyes.   “What happened?”

 “Don’t know, so far they seem to be evenly matched and are after us, probably due to the ‘psych’ of the Akuma,” Chat Noir said as he looked at the ‘battle’ between Sentimonsters.   A beeping from his weapon tool caused him to activate with a hopeful smile.    “M’Lady?”

 “Negative bro, this is Apisera moving towards the Courthouse from the south with the Dolphin and Horse, we’ve got a plan to handle the Sentimonsters, where are you all and what’s the situation?”  Apisera's reply caused the heroes to smile as Chat Noir felt a bit of relief hit him.  

 “To the east sis, bad but weird.   The Akuma just started fighting each other and the Sentimonsters are too.   We’re on the other side of the Seine at the bridge for vehicles.  And the side for Hawkmoth just got a lot of reinforcements too,” Chat Noir said as he saw some of the Midnight Crew start to try and disabled one of the Corrupted only for it to kill two of them, the puddles they formed as they died having the same lines as the corrupted.

 “Fuck.   Stay safe, we’re coming in and Horse-Boy got that look that he has a way to get you all to safety,” Apisera said and Chat Noir nodded and looked at the battle as the tide started to turn again, this time towards the ‘Corrupted’.

 “Hurry, we might have a big problem,” Chat Noir said softly as he looked at the police behind them.

[the-delta-42]

Infected

Infected

Ladybug darted to the Akuma’s side, ducking under its arm and conjuring a dagger to cut the object from the chain around the Akuma’s neck. Ladybug swung the arm holding the dagger, only for the Akuma to grab her arm and wrench the dagger free.

“Thank you.” Sneered the Akuma, before plunging the dagger deep into Ladybug’s side.

The Akuma leaned forwards, allowing Ladybug to rip the chain off their neck. The Akuma fluttered out and Ladybug caught it in her yoyo. She purified the butterfly and cast her Miraculous Ladybug. The scars that adorned the Eiffel Tower vanished, but the burning pain in her side remained. Ladybug looked down and saw the dagger was still in her side. Ladybug looked at the Akuma victim, before carefully wrapping an arm around them and taking them to the ground.

“Can you make your way home from here?” Asked Ladybug, looking at the citizen.

The citizen nodded and started to walk off, leaving Ladybug to head to the rooftops before she de-transformed. Ladybug just made it to her balcony, the dagger still in her side, it had to stay in to prevent her from bleeding out…right? Her transformation fell and the burning pain became blistering agony. Marinette looked down at the blade and wrapped her hand around the leather-bound handle. She quickly clamped her hand over the wound, as Tikki spotted it and flew off to get the first aid kit.

Marinette examined the dagger, the blade was roughly half the length of her forearm. On one side of the blade, it was serrated and on the other it was curved. Marinette’s first thought was that it was a hunting knife, before Tikki returned.

“You need to go to a hospital, Marinette.” Said Tikki, looking up at her chosen.

“And say what? I got stabbed fighting an Akuma as Ladybug?” Questioned Marinette, lifting her shirt up, “I don’t think it hit anything important.”

“That’s not the point, Marinette!” Protested Tikki, as Marinette put anti-septic onto the wound, “What if it gets infected?”

“Tikki, that only happens if the wound isn’t cleaned,” Sighed Marinette, carefully threading a needle, “I cleaned the wound, and this is going to hurt like hell.”

Tikki winced and looked away as Marinette stitched herself back up, “I still think you need to go to the hospital.”

“Tikki, I’ll be fine, what’s the worst that can happen?” Asked Marinette, climbing down into her room and carefully settling herself down into her bed.

I

Marinette scowled at the maths problem in front of her. It’d been a week since she had that knife jammed into her side and it was killing her, Lila had tried to trip her up and it was boiling. Thankfully, there hadn’t been an akuma today.

“Alright everyone, complete the problem you’re currently on and hand them in.” Said the Teacher, making Marinette sigh.

Alya glanced at Marinette’s paper, “Er, girl, you’ve only done three questions.”

“Sorry, it was really difficult.” Excused Marinette, collecting the papers and walking up to the teacher’s desk.

“Marinette, is everything alright?” Asked the teacher, frowning, “You look like you’re burning up.”

“It’s nothing.” Dismissed Marinette, handing the papers to them.

They had PE next, Marinette hoped that no one would question the vest she was wearing. No one even noticed she was wearing a vest, it hurt to move her arms. Marinette stumbled slightly and shook her head to get rid of the black spots appearing in her vision.

D’Argencourt had Marinette’s class standing in a line, “Today, we have guests, some from my fencing troop and others from other schools.”

Marinette spotted Kagami and gave her a small wave, before looking back at D’Argencourt.

“We will start our lesson off with five laps of the gym and then some stretches to warm up.” Commanded D’Argencourt, making everyone groan, “10 laps!”

Everyone was still grumbling as they started jogging, Marinette slightly slower than everyone else. Lila noticed and smirked to herself. They completed one lap, two, three. On the fourth lap, Lila ‘tripped’ and had Marinette run into the back of her.

“OW!” Cried Lila, gripping her ankle, as Marinette fell onto the floor on her side, “My ankle, it hurts!”

Everyone headed towards Lila and Marinette. D’Argencourt glanced at Lila and instructed her to sit on the bench for the rest of the lesson, before turning his attention to Marinette.

“Ms. Dupain-Cheng,” Said D’Argencourt, before frowning, “pretending to be unconscious isn’t going to work.”

Marinette didn’t move, making D’Argencourt sigh through his nose and grab her arm and hoist her up, “Ms. Dupain-Cheng!”

Rose looked over as D’Argencourt spoke and spotted a red patch blossoming on Marinette’s side. Rose screamed and pointing at the area, D’Argencourt followed Rose’s finger and froze.

“Le Chien; get the nurse, Raincomprix; call an ambulance, Lahiffe; get her parents.” Ordered D’Argencourt, carefully lowering Marinette to the ground and kneeling beside her. The teacher placed his hands over the wound and pressed down. He noticed no one had moved, “NOW!”

Nino and Kim shot off, while Sabrina ran to get her phone. Everyone was silent, as Sabrina returned with her phone. A couple minutes later, Kim returned with the nurse.

“Good lord!” Gasped the Nurse, before rushing over, “What the hell happened?”

“Rossi tripped, Dupain-Cheng ran into the back of her, I lifted her up and she started bleeding.” Grunted D’Argencourt, as blood seeped between his fingers.

“Keep compressing the wound, judging by the amount of blood it’s fairly deep.” Said the nurse, as Nino returned with Marinette’s mother.

Sabine froze, before she looked around. Alya looked like she was going to faint, while Adrien looked like he was staring death in the face. Sabine headed over to Alya, she might not be able to help her daughter, but she could help her friends.

“What happened?” Asked Sabine, touching Alya’s shoulder, jerking the girl from her daze.

“I, I don’t know.” Confessed Alya, “One second we were jogging, and the next Lila had bumped into Marinette and she passed out. Then Mr D’Argencourt picked her up and she started bleeding.”

Sabrina led a pair of paramedics into the gym, where they took over from D’Argencourt and the school nurse. A Police Officer entered a minute later, looking around and spotting the school staff. Adrien, Nino, Alya and Sabine were joined by Kagami and Luka.

“Looks like a knife wound.” Said a Paramedic, carefully removing Marinette’s blood-soaked shirt and vest. The Paramedic froze, “Apparently she tried to patch herself up.”

The Officer froze when he heard that, “I don’t suppose you know how to contact her parents?”

“Her mother is other there.” Said D’Argencourt, pointing at Sabine.

The office nodded and walked over to the Chinese woman, frowning.

“Mrs Dupain-Cheng?” Asked the Officer, looking down at the short woman.

“Mrs Cheng.” Corrected Sabine, looking up at him, “Is she going to be alright?”

“She should, at most the wound is an infected, shallow wound,” Responded the Officer, “I don’t suppose you know how she got the wound?”

Sabine shook her head, “No, as far as I know, she hasn’t come back in bleeding.”

“Is there anyone who you can think of, that may want to harm your daughter?” Questioned the Officer.

“No, I don’t think anyone would want to hurt Marinette?” Replied Sabine, her gaze falling back to Marinette.

“Are there any issues at home?” Asked the Officer, frowning.

Sabine’s head snapped around to look at him, her face going slack in shock.

“Are you trying to say that my husband and I did this to her?” Demanded Sabine, struggling to process the accusation.

“We’re considering all possibilities.” Answered the Officer, folding his arms, “We’ll be speaking to her when she wakes up.”

Without another word, the Officer spun on his heel and walked off, leaving a gobsmacked Sabine and silent Alya. The others had heard what the officer said, as well as what he’d implied.

“Marinette’s parents wouldn’t hurt her, would they?” Asked Lila, capitalising on the current state of shock.

“Her parents are the nicest people going,” Said Kim, frowning, “that guy was white, right?”

Nathaniel nodded, “He’s been hanging around the area, he’s actually known to be biased against anyone who doesn’t fit the aryan race.”

“Wait, he’s a nazi?” Asked Kim, giving Nathaniel a sideways look, “How’d you know?”

“His social media was featured in the news,” Responded the red head, “I thought he was suspended.”

“He is.” Confirmed Sabrina, getting ff her phone, “I just asked my dad if he’s been put back on duty. The answer’s he wasn’t.”

The class went over what Sabrina said, before the girl continued, “However, what he said about speaking to Marinette when she woke up was standard procedure, given how no one else can answer how she got that wound.”

“And the accusation that Marinette’s parents were responsible?” Asked Alix, glancing at the Paramedics, who were loading Marinette onto a stretcher and preparing to leave with her.

Sabine moved to follow them, stating she was Marinette’s mother. The procession exited the gym, leaving everyone in a flat silence.

“If that police officer is going to try and say that Marinette’s parents did this, we need to find a way to stop him.” Said Kim, as Alya, Nino, Adrien, Luka and Kagmai joined them.

“There’s a security camera that looked away from the school, it has Marinette’s balcony in the frame,” Said Alya, looking around the class, “it might’ve caught what happened.”

Everyone slowly turned and looked at Max.

“How did I know you were going to do that?” Sighed Max.

I

Everyone crowded behind Max, trying to get a good view of the screen.

“The School has to update their firewall and security systems, because it was far too easy to hack in,” Said Max, typing away at his keyboard, “Now, I just need to find the camera and the moment Marinette was stabbed.”

“Wait, you’re in?” Asked Kim, looking at Max.

Max sighed and slumped, “Yes, Kim, I’m in.”

“Ha, ha, classic.” Grinned Kim, as Max started his search.

“How far does the footage go back?” Asked Adrien, as Max brought up a video of Lila and Marinette.

“Well, this is the day Marinette was expelled.” Said Max, as Lila started walking down the stairs, “I don’t know what’s going on, since there’s no sound.”

Lila got to the bottom of the stairs, sat down and started screaming. Everyone stared as the teachers appeared and Lila accused Marinette of pushing her.

“That lying bitch.” Seethed Alya, pulling out her phone and opening google.

“What are you doing?” Asked Alix, as Alya glared at her phone.

“Research.” Growled Alya, glaring at her screen.

“Anyway,” Said Max, deciding to move forwards, “This is about a week ago, now we just need to wait for Marinette to appear.”

The group sat and watched as evening flew past, Kim laughed when he saw a pigeon fly into Marinette’s room and the girl throwing it back out the window. The evening progressed further, as the footage slowly got darker.

“This is surprisingly high quality.” Remarked Max, as a flash in Marinette’s room caught their attention.

Everyone froze as Ladybug appeared from Marinette’s skylight and swung off into the city.

“Okay, either Marinette’s Ladybug, she know’s who Ladybug is or she’s hooking up with Ladybug.” Said Kim, as Ladybug suddenly reappeared in the frame, with an Akuma chasing her.

“I missed an Akuma?” Whined Adrien and Alya, getting strange looks from everyone else.

“Are you two sure you aren’t one person?” Asked Nino, as Ladybug and the Akuma vanished again.

Everyone waited in silence for Ladybug to appear on the screen again. Max decided to speed up the footage, until Ladybug reappeared.

Ladybug roughly landed on Marinette’s balcony, where her transformation fell. Marinette sat crouch with her hand pressed against her side. A first aid kit flew up to her, with Marinette starting to patch herself up.

Everyone was silent at they tried to comprehend what they’d just seen.

I

Sabine watched as Marinette wriggled in the bed. A nurse stuck her head through the door, with Officer Raincomprix behind her.

“Marinette,” Said the nurse, softly, “This nice man was hoping you’d be able to answer some questions.”

Marinette scowled at the nurse, “I’m not a child, I’m fifteen and I know who he is.”

The nurse flushed, as Officer Raincomprix entered.

“Marinette,” Asked Raincomprix, sitting in a chair not far from the bed, “Can you remember how you got stabbed?”

Marinette looked down and gave a small nod.

“Do you know who did it?” Asked Raincomprix, leaning forwards.

Marinette shook her head, getting a disappointed sigh from Raincomprix.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone you’d been stabbed?” Questioned Raincomprix, running a hand down his face.

“I was embarrassed, I guess.” Mumbled Marinette, picking at the blanket.

Raincomprix sighed, “Marinette, you were very luck today. The doctors told me that the wound was become infected and, if it’d been left any longer, could’ve led to sepsis.”

Marinette continued to look and pick at the blanket.

“Marinette, the next time you’re hurt from an outside source, you need to tell someone, even if it’s a minor thing, like a bruise.” Implored Raincomprix, before getting up and leaving.

Sabine reached out and grasped Marinette’s hand, making the girl look at her, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You and Papa are busy.” Mumbled Marinette, looking back at her lap.

“I meant what you are doing as Ladybug.” Sabine gently squeezed Marinette’s hand, making the girl’s head snap back up to look at her.

“H-how do you know?” Stammered Marinette, her mouth suddenly dry.

“Marinette, please,” Sighed Sabine, “give your father and I some credit. We noticed how you were conveniently absent during attacks, and you kept returning as if you’d been running a marathon.”

“I thought I was careful.” Mumbled Marinette, looking at her lap.

“You were,” Assured Sabine, “but we live under the same roof. The only way we wouldn’t know is if we were neglectful.”

“D-do you want me to stop?” Whispered Marinette, glancing at her mother.

“No, I just want you to be more careful in future. Maybe you could take up some self-defence classes just in case something like this happens again.”

Marinette kept her head down and gave a reluctant nod, at least her mother didn’t demand she stop being Ladybug.

“Now, how did you get stabbed?” Asked Sabine, looking down at Marinette.

“I, kinda, conjured a knife and the Akuma forced me to stab myself with it.” Mumbled Marinette, but Sabine heard her.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!”

I

“We can’t show this to the police.”

No one looked at Sabrina when she spoke, none of them disagreeing with her. It was bad enough that they all knew Marinette’s Identity, they couldn’t go and blab to the police.

“We’re going to have to tell her that we know.” Stated Adrien, looking around, “We can’t keep this from her.”

“How can we tell her?” Asked Juleka, looking at the Model, “How can we tell her that we know she’s Ladybug?”

Adrien was silent for a moment, “Leave it to me.”

[fragileizywriting]

Hi! Super dumb question here but you were the first fic writer I could think of who might have some tips.

How do you manage and organize all of your WIPs? All of mine are in my notes app but the tagging system sucks on iPhones and I’ve had to use folders inside of folders for everything.

Part of me wishes so desperately that Ao3 didn’t delete drafts after 30 days because it’s the only way I’ve been able to tag things properly. These days I’m just, “Do I put this in my enemies to lovers folder first or the soulmates one??? Do I have a folder in my AUs folder for coffee shop meet-cute that also has a Lila takedown plot??”

hi anon!!!! this isn't a dumb question at all!!!

oh god oh god, anon, my organization skills are probably the worst ever, but i'll still share what i have and hopefully it'll help? maybe? hopefullyyyyy?

i personally write using google docs because i'm always constantly switching between computers and i write on my phone too when i'm on the train to school!! i don't need much, honestly, and i don't enjoy having a grammar editor that's constantly reading my stuff (grammarly is on such thin ice with me, yelling at me for putting ellipses in the wrong places) so just a simple blank screen with nothing fancy is how i do it. i know a lot of people use scrivener but it's not free and i am Very Much Not in Any Way Financially Able To Buy A Program when google docs works just fine, so i don't mind it!

i like having my stuff available, and docs is always really helpful. my drive looks like a mess outside of my Miraculous folder-- it looks like a scrapbook with all the random images and powerpoints for school saved, but i have a folder (with a very hidden name of "FF" just in case i were to have to open my drive in front of a projector screen) but inside it, i organize all of my fics like this:

i really like the color pink.

if it's an idea i have that i'm not sure if i want to develop into something bigger, it goes into the oneshots folder. if i like it a lot and actually start writing it (and am interested,) then it gets it's own folder!!! but the downside is, some of these i haven't touched in years...

i have a lot of earlier fics for miraculous (like, before i even decided that writing was a thing i wanted to do) but i didn't want to throw them away, so they got put into the reject pile. the stories were... weird. they didn't go anywhere, which i probably just didn't know What to write about, but they're saved (forever!)

don't let this organization fool you, though. i have about 80 different google documents in the dl folder DX

as for tagging, i don't really think of the tags until i'm in ao3 to begin with. i actually don't have a lot of wips that i'm trying to keep track of!! in the oneshots folder, i just write the general idea at the top of the document, and let it go from there-- that way i don't have to worry about if i forgot a key element to the story, or something of the sort.

for example, if i were the one organizing your coffee-shop AU takedown with lila, i would label it by name! maybe if i needed to do some planning, i'd make a folder inside the oneshots folder (assuming it won't be a 100k+ fic at the end) so i could keep my notes organized for it!! or bring it out and give it it's own folder outside the oneshots folder!!! (which btw let me just say the fic sounds like an AMAZING story and i 100% want to read it) (just putting that out there)

[purplebass]

Silver Lining // Kell and Lila

Like I said earlier, I needed writing therapy. Tonight, my choice were Kell and Lila (again). I don’t know, these days I really feel them. I’m inspired to write FF about them. And I hope you enjoy it! x

Couple: Kelila, Kell Maresh and Lila Bard Rating: M Spoilers = No (this can be read without having finished the series)

A ship stood dark against the night sky. Aboard, just two passengers.

She suggested they took the vessel to dine on the sea. She said she missed being above water, having decided to settle down on land for the time being. She knew they couldn’t be away for too long. She was sure the time she would tell herself that she had to take a break would come. She never thought it would be this early, this unexpectedly.

Lila kissed him on the dock. Kell grazed her back with his hand, and she did the same to his neck. She loved burying her hands in his hair when their lips were too busy to speak, to breathe. She also adored when he did the same and tangled his calloused hand through her dark strands, then let his hand descend on her neck, on her chest.

Kell told her he loved her a couple of times. He used words, and not only gestures to demonstrate it. But she didn’t need to hear anything. If his affection only depended on the way they brushed each other’s lips ever so intensely, she didn’t need any confirmation that he had yielded himself to her completely, without losing himself. He was still Kell, but he also loved her so openly, so fiercely.

This feeling scared her, but she was also grateful for it. She had never been treasured like that before, and this was the reason why she hadn’t been shocked when she found out. But first, she had to acknowledge something else.

Lila dragged him to the cabin. She was sweating despite the season, but she hoped he wouldn’t notice. She glanced at him with eyes full of hopes and expectations and saw the same spark in his. He still hadn’t had enough of her, and she could see the hunger in his gaze, but also respect. He would never force her to do anything she didn’t want to do, and the same worked for her. She tried to shrug this sensation prickling the back of her head off her mind until they were below deck.

They resumed their kissing, which turned into disrobing each other of some of their clothing, which then evolved into exploring each other. They both took part in that, but for some reason, he had been the one who paid more attention to her body, to her need to be cherished. If her old self would see her now, she would laugh. Of all the things Lila envisioned in her future, she’d never thought –

“I’m a few weeks late,” she said out of the blue, unable to stop herself, as Kell had just laid his full lips on her stomach. It sounded better in her head, but now that it was finally out, she could heave a deep sigh of relief. “I’ve seen a doctor the other day, and he confirmed it.”

Kell had stilled below her, on his knees. On another occasion, this would have been very pleasing to see. After spending a lot of months with him, she had realized that she was always eager to know what he would do with his mouth. She had wondered what his lips would conjure in this moment. If they would even utter a word. Perhaps he would dive into the sea and swim back to the palace.

He lifted his chin to look at her. His hands still lain at the sides of her hips, and he still hadn’t removed them from there. He probably ignored that she was secretly thankful. She was still Lila Bard, but in that moment, she needed all the support she could get.

“What does this mean, Lila?”

“That I’m a mess,” she replied without thinking. “A mess with child,” she added nervously, rolling her eyes at the ceiling. She could feel the tears pricking the back of her eyes, but she wouldn’t cry. No, she wouldn’t –

She felt the absence of Kell’s hands when they left her hips. She was already missing them, but he wasn’t ready to let her go yet. He placed one of her face, tenderly brushing his knuckles over her cheek. Lila closed her eyes, wishing for the tears to stop. But it was useless.

“My lovely Lila,” Kell murmured gently. “Why are you crying?”

“I don’t know,” she told him, but in her heart, she knew that the real answer was: ‘Because I told you my secret and I’m afraid that you won’t like it. That you would leave me’.

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. This was so out of character for her, but there were several things she had done that far that she would have never thought she’d do a few years back. She shouldn’t be surprised.

“You know that I love you,” he told her again, in that same charming voice. The voice of a person who adored you, who would give their life for you. She could recognize it after a few times she’d heard it before. And she was certain that he meant it with every fiber of his being.

“Yes,” she murmured.

“Then you realize that I love every part of you,” he continued, his hand still firm and warm on the side of her neck. The other, roaming on her bare stomach. “And that I will love every part of you the same way that I love you. Wait, maybe even more.”

A frown crossed Lila’s face. “Even more?”

“Are you jealous?”

“I…” she bit her lip, “no”.

Kell grinned, and then he hugged her body to his chest.

“Thank you,” she said, her voice low. She knew he had heard her, but he didn’t reply. So, she tried to be as honest as possible, and as truthful. “I love you,” she added in an even hushed tone. It was the first time she had willed herself to actually say the words, but she had always tried to mean them through actions.

“I know,” he replied simply, and kissed her head, and held her tighter than he had done in the past. And Lila knew that she wouldn’t trade all of that for all the gold in the world.

[always-anxious612]

Magic in the Air: Chapter 6

Description: Everything is chaos with Roman, Dee, and Virgil all trying to master their magic. And If Patton can’t help with magic, then he could at least help Remus get a good grade. At least, that’s what he thought until everything started to backfire.

Pairings: roceit, analogical, intruality, platonic DRLAMP

Warnings: crying, pain mention (let me know if I missed something or you want something tagged)

Word Count: 1,529

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 7, Chapter 8,  Chapter 9

It had been a few days since Remus started practicing his makeup look on Patton. It was going pretty well in Patton’s opinion. Remus assured him that he thought it was coming along nicely as well, but Patton felt like he was frustrated for some reason. In fact, they had been beginning yet another practice session when Patton felt the odd feeling that something was ff with Remus once again.  He studied Remus’s face as he leaned back to study his work so far.

“Looking fabulously gory already, Patton.” Remus grinned, making Patton raise an eyebrow. Why did it seem like frustration was practically radiating off of Remus when he seemed normal? Patton’s heart hurt a little as he tried to figure out what was wrong. He just wanted to help.

“Are you sure everything is going ok, Re?” he asked tentatively.

“Wha—of course everything’s going ok. I’ll have you looking like a broken bleeding human mess in no time.”

Patton bit his lip. He couldn’t help but feel that Remus was lying, but he didn’t really have anything to base it on other than he could just…feel it. Remus was focused on blending something on Patton’s forehead, looking unusually concentrated.

“Are—Are you sure that you’re ok?” Patton chanced asking again. Except for a subtle twitch in his expression, Remus remained focused.

“Of course, I am Patty. What’s with the questions? Not used to seeing me quiet and focused?” Remus cackled leaning back to examine what he was just working on. Patton let out a frustrated sigh and leaned back to study Remus’s face.

“Remus, please stop pretending. It’s fine if you don’t want to tell me what’s wrong right now but I know there’s something. You don’t have to pretend.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, tadpole.” Remus insisted, still smiling. Patton rolled his eyes fondly at the nickname but quickly leaned away when Remus tried to continue working. He could feel the frustration. He could feel something else too. Insecurity. Remus was radiating both emotions and Patton didn’t understand how he hadn’t noticed sooner. His heart twisted in pain. If he could just get Remus to open up, he could help.

“You do know what I’m talking about Remus. You do. Just—Just talk to me.” As soon as the words left his mouth, his heart started aching even more than before, radiating a sharp pain that wouldn’t leave. And suddenly Remus was crying through his smile. He—Patton couldn’t have—he didn’t cause—

“Calm down, Patty whack. I told you I’m fi—” he cut himself off with a sob and finally his smile slipped away.

“Wha—What? Why am I crying? When did this start? I feel fine?” Remus sniffled, trying desperately to push away his tears.

“Wait I’m sorry, Re I was too harsh. Please stop. I didn’t mean to make you cry. Don’t cry.” Patton panicked, not knowing how to respond. Surprisingly, Remus stopped at his request and wiped at his eyes. Patton’s heart clenched, his chest burning.

“Patton. What the—”

“I don’t—I didn’t. I just wanted to help you. I just want you to be able to tell me what’s wrong. Tell me what’s bothering you. Let it all out, Re Re.” Patton explained, trying to keep the edge of panic from his voice. Remus broke down again, cursing as he sobbed. He looked like he was struggling with something before finally opening his mouth.

“I’m scared I’m really not good enough to do this. What if my professor is right and I fail at the one thing I’m good at. What if I really am just a creep and a failure who no one likes. What if everyone hates my project. It’s too weird. I just want to make my professor proud. I want to make you proud. I can’t handle failing at my one passion. I can’t.” he blurted out.

“Remus.”

“What the heck. Patton, make it stop. I didn’t mean to. I feel like I can’t stop it. You—You’re doing this. Tell me to stop or—or something. Just make it stop, Patton.”

“Wha—o-ok, um, Remus, please calm down. Take deep breaths, ok? Breath for me, honey. Calm down.” Patton encouraged, drawing Remus into a hug. Remus sucked in a shaky breath and wiped at the tears streaming down his face. Patton sucked in a breath of his own. What had Remus meant he was doing this? Taking another deep breath, Patton pushed the thought aside, trying to clear his mind. After a few minutes, the sharp pain in his heart had mostly disappeared and he was much calmer.

“R-Remus, I’m so sorry for pushing you, but I’m sure you’ll do amazing for your makeup. You’re incredibly talented. But also, if your professor says it’s not good—which I can’t imagine will happen—that doesn’t mean you’re a failure. You can always improve, and you’re trying your best. It’s important that you have fun. You love makeup. If you can’t enjoy doing it anymore, then you’re putting too much pressure on yourself. Give yourself a break. What you create may not appeal to everyone but that’s fine. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, you’re incredible at the type of makeup you do. And I’m already proud of you, Re. You’re so creative and talented. Just because I don’t—I don’t exactly feel comfortable with some of the, um, darker things you make doesn’t mean I’m not proud of them or of you.”

Remus was silent and Patton was too nervous to try saying anything else. He didn’t mean to be so pushy. He really didn’t. Instead, he decided to simply hold Remus against his chest, rubbing his back in what he hoped was a comforting way.

“Patton, how did you do that?” Remus finally spoke up, his voice much softer and more vulnerable than usual.

“D-Do what?” Remus sighed and shifted in Patton’s arms, curling more into his chest.

“You—I wasn’t feeling that bad before. I was frustrated, yeah. And I guess all those thoughts were there, but when you told me to talk to you…I couldn’t stop crying. I physically couldn’t stop. When you said stop, I stopped. When you said to let it all out, I—I let it all out. I tried to stop the words. I tried to stop crying. I just—I couldn’t.”

“You think I forced you to—Remus. But that would mean that I have—But I would never. I didn’t mean to make you cry. I didn’t mean to make you tell me that stuff against your will. I would—I would never. I’m sorry. I’m sorry Remus.” Patton apologized over an over again, clinging to Remus who was squished against his chest. It wasn’t until he heard soft sniffles that Remus pulled away.

“Hey, Patty-whack, it’s ok. At this point, I’m pretty sure you have magic. And if it’s magic that we’re talking about. None of the others could really control it when they first discovered theirs either. It makes about as much sense as I do most of the time. In my opinion, you’re one of thos feelings people. What are they called? Empathy? Empass? Empath? Whatever, we’ll talk to Logan about it later, ok?” he soothed, gently wiping Patton’s tears away.

“Ok.” Patton whispered.

“Come on now. You’re going to ruin your makeup.”

“Sorry, Re.” Patton said, pausing in the process of going to wipe at his eyes.

“It’s fine. Actually, the dripping mascara kinda adds more creepy to it. I’ll have to see what I can do with that.” Remus replied, examining the makeup.

“Anyway, you can just wipe it off, we can practice more tomorrow.”

“Oh, but, um—I don’t mind starting over. I-If you like.” Patton stammered. He didn’t want to ruin Remus’s makeup practice on top of everything else.

“Pat, don’t worry about it, k? I still have plenty of time to practice. We can just relax for now, yeah?” Remus assured, tone becoming unusually caring. Sighing, Patton nodded and went to take off the makeup. He was still a bit worried for Remus, but he was sure he’d be ok. Remus wasn’t one to lose hope or be rattled easily. In fact, Remus was so tough and chaotic that it was sometimes hard to remember that he needed reassurance just like everyone else. Patton made a mental note to start complimenting him more. He deserved it anyway. And Patton, well Patton was terrified of messing up, of saying something wrong, of not being able to help those he cared about but…he’d be ok too, eventually.

            When Patton returned to the living room, Remus had packed up all of his makeup supplies and had started a Disney movie.

“Hey, Patty! Check this out! Bet you didn’t know I could do this with my tongue!” Remus called from the couch. Patton couldn’t help the giggle that slipped out of his mouth. Yeah, Remus would be alright, and Patton would do better at helping him and learning to not be so, um, pushy when it came to good and gross. As for his apparent magic, he’d talk to Logan about it eventually. Today though, he’d rest. And with Remus cuddled to his side, that’s exactly what he did.

  Taglist: @catolicabuena @look-ma-im-on-tv @its-always-the-witching-hour @sure-i-exist @wellhellothere09 @star-crossed-shipper @cemmy @lila-lupus

[sparklyaxolotlstudent]

The Ladybug Puppet Show 

Chapitre 11.

Lila Gets Exposed

-

Lila felt weird.

Ever since returning from her “trip”, the class had believed all her tall tales so far, even briefly turning on that goody two shoes Marinette, but ever since they started their dumb little show, they had been paying her less and less attention. Sure, they still believed her, and included her in their reunions and projects, but whenever she tried to make herself the center of attention, to try to make their dumb little show include Ladybug’s BFF, aka herself, they would sidetrack her, like when she promised Original Muppets, and they had the gall to actually accept the offer and make her fulfill her promises. And after she spend all that time choosing good socks and the best googly eyes the store had, they had dared to refuse her masterpieces, all for the crappy puppets that Marinette was making.

To make matters worse, whenever she tried to get them to do something for her, they would say they were too busy with the show. Even Alya!

To quote Chloe, it was ridiculous, completely and utterly ridiculous!

But everything changed when they had their meeting for the second episode.

Unfortunately for Lila, people had less taste that she gave them credit for, and the first episode had been a success, despite its low brow humor, easy jokes, clichés and stereotypical and 2D characters. Chat Noir had even made a fart joke FFS!

After getting Ivan’s approval, it was decided that the second episode would be about Stoneheart, and have the team actually defeat him, since the first episode had been an origins story where they fought(and lost) Hawk Moth directly, which was honestly delightful. And it was kind of fun how much of a dumbass they were making the “heroes” out to be.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng had barely been paying attention to the meeting, lost on her own little world in her sketchpad, so Lila of course had to ask her what was she doing while everyone else was working. And that girl had smugly replied that she had been sketching some ideas for the puppet of Stoneheart. What a bitch. So of course everyone went to praise their little ‘Everyday Ladybug’. Gosh, Marinette was as bad as Ladybug sometimes.

But not everything was lost, after Marinette had allowed the others to praise her, she expressed some difficulty on making the puppet look scary and actually made of rocks, and was planning to go to the fabric store to see what they had, until Kim suggested gluing rocks to the puppet, which made everyone laugh.

Lila herself had said that they might was well use a rock with googly eyes (she still had some). Her plan, of course, was that Marinette would get furious and then she would play the pity card and turn the class against Marinette. Again.

She wasn’t planning that Ivan would actually like the idea of presenting Stoneheart as a silly rock with googly eyes. Mylene then said they could add some wax lips to the rock and kissed Ivan (yuck) and everyone loved the idea even more. Even Marinette! She didn’t seem to mind that now her sketches were for nothing! A simple comment meant that she had wasted her time trying to make a scary akuma puppet and she was smiling!

Lila was furious… or rather, she would have been, but the others were actually praising her idea. “Good thinking Lila!” she heard Rose say, with others echoing her. Unlike other times they were praising her, this time felt different… Lila couldn’t put her finger on why, or how, but she didn’t felt the usual rush she felt for being the center of attention, however, she felt something else. She wasn’t sure what it was.

She also promised to get the googly eyes she still had.

She actually got the horrible feeling that they were playing a prank on her, or that Marinette would reveal yet again that she actually made a stone puppet of Stoneheart and steal her thunder… but her googly eyes were actually well received. It felt weird to actually not break a promise and deliver what she had said she could do. It felt even weirder when Marinette genuinely thanked her. It was that weird feeling again.

Ivan even picked the rock she suggested would make a nice Stoneheart, and thanks to her experience with the socks puppets, she actually helped gluing the googly eyes to it.

She ended up with glue-y hands with colored paper, as did Ivan and Rose, (which was weird, because they weren’t using any paper) and she thought the others would make fun of her, but they didn’t! Kim was a dork(like always) and their comments actually made her laugh.

She contributed in other ways to the episode, always vigilant in case they were trying to prank her, but… the attack never came. Rose actually added some of Lila’s commentary to her adlibbing of Princess Moth. Marc had thanked her for some inspiration writing the episode. Including the fact that they made Stoneheart a Rock with googly eyes. It didn’t move or had any dialogues. It was just a rock, and still, the team had had difficulties defeating it.

Their favorite dialogue was Queen Bee using Venom on Stoneheart… which did absolutely nothing, and still the team being surprised it didn’t work.  

Hawk Moth had been avoiding her for some time now, which did not help with her mood, but on the other hand… ever since that meeting she had been a lot less annoyed at her being ghosted.

After Alya uploaded the episode “Stoneheart”, Lila noticed something that made her feel even weirder. Ever since that meeting, she hadn’t told the others any tall tale, or had asked for any special treatment, and yet the others were still as friendly as ever, even more than before. Marinette even made macaroons to celebrate the first episode getting a million views, and actually made her pistachio, her favorite flavor.

Lila felt weird.

And she kinda liked it.

-

HA

If I’m going to redeem Gabriel and Chloe over a freaking puppet show, I might as well redeem Lila while I’m at it. And what better than redeem her over some googly eyes? I’m always salting on her, so this felt like something out of my comfort zone to do, so I did it. Don’t get me wrong, I still hate how she is handled in canon, but only making fun of her, even in this AU would get boring (and kind of mean for the other characters to keep doing) real fast. 

Is she still a horrible person? Yep! But she will change with the Power of Friendship, or die trying!

So the full title of this chapter was actually “Lila Gets Exposed... to Friendship”

[yeet-noir]

a huge pet peeve is how people seriously say that Alya shouldn't aim to be a journalist because she got her facts wrong about Lila,. A) It was an interview so she was a primary source like how interviewees are usually. B) Ladybug literally saves everyone?? It's not that big of a deal, and C) EVERYONE HAS WEIRD LIVES. Luka and Juleka live in a pirate ship ffs! Plus imagine Marinette screwing up and being told to never become a fashion designer despite loving it like how Alya loves journalism

I know! She is young, she is NOT a professional. How started making people in this fandom believe that if she messed up on her learning progress of becoming a journalist that she needs to quit trying. Kids have ambitions all the time. 

Imagine if somebody wanted to be a doctor, but when they were 14 they didn’t tried to help somebody with basic first aid treatment, but due to lack of knowledge/experience they didn’t clean a wound before apply a bandage. Ya not a good move, but are people then gonna be like: you SUCK, did you seriously wanted to go in the medical field without properly understanding how to do this to a 14 year old?! 

Take it to the show. What if everybody started ganging up on Nathaniel cause he traced somebody’s drawing. Ya that’s not a good thing and copyright infringement, but for a inexperienced 14 year artist this would be a learning experience. Heck I bet a few people could relate to this as a child 💀 But imagine the fandom saying Nathaniel should stop drawing that and that he’s awful and irredeemable that he did that for it directly impacts the other artist and he should just stop. That be kind of funny lololololol

[purrincess-chat]

Go cat get them! I’m tired at people over exaggerating Adrien and Marinette’s mistakes when they’re just human and KIDS at that. Can’t they be selfish? Of course they can! It’s annoying for some parts but they’ll learn because I have said before they’re freaking KIDS. They’re allowed to make mistakes ffs. And why dismiss them being selfless just to make a point that they’re selfish? Can’t they be both? That’s what humans are. And if they’re gonna fault something, it’s because of the narrative.

Yeah, I wouldn't even call myself a bleeding heart Adrien stan, and I do recognize that he has flaws and has done somethings that the narrative didn't paint out to be wrong even when they were, but again I see that more as a narrative problem than a character problem. I think for a lot of people they started out that way, but things have gone on to such an extreme now that people legit hate Adrien and think he is unworthy and selfish and whatever but that is kind of the point I made about salt recently that if you perpetuate it too long you forget how to see nuance and suddenly you're mad over the tiniest things and blow them up to be way worse than they are. (Like the CB thing, people ignore the fact that he just found out his dad is keeping his mom in the basement and his dad literally just physically abused and emotionally manipulated him, but sure he purposefully destroyed the whole world like wtf would you do???)

Personally, I still like Adrien. I couldn't be certified Adrinette trash if I didn't. As with a lot of things in this show, you have to kind of pick and choose what you consider canon since there are so many inconsistencies in the writing, and in Adrien's case I will usually either write him as what the writers are *going* for with him (a sweet repressed nerd who might be a lil stupid and naive at times) or I take the issues presented in canon and have him appropriately scolded and able to learn and grow. It's funny to me when people scream about how canon never calls him out or let's him grow but then they make a "fix it" where he just gets beaten with a stick or made out to be horrible rather than doing what they're mad at canon for not doing and allowing him the opportunity to grow. Like they're mad at canon for not letting him develop but then they don't develop him either so I'm like

I dunno maybe I can't bring myself to be too mad at him because I spend a lot of time writing him (I prefer to do Adrinette from his perspective sometimes because it's more interesting to watch him fall in love) and I'm so used to fixing his "problematic" behaviors so he can be an actual character cause like I can polish anything if I put my mind to it. I've done it with Chloe, with Lila, hell, with Gabriel. You can fix anyone if you try hard enough, but these people would rather hate than try because hate is easy. Trying is hard and you dont always get a lot of notes when you try. But ya know, in my experience you get blocked a lot less for trying than hating. Just my hot take I guess.

But if people want to ruin their fandom experience I'm not gonna stop them because I've been where they are and understand the addictive nature of salt, but at some point I did have to take a step back and realize that the root of the problem was less with canon and more with my own perspective and attitude. Yeah, canon has a lot of flaws, but I can either die mad about something that will never change or I can just create wholesome content where everyone gets to learn and grow and be happy. Except Gabe cause fuck that guy.

[pinetasticapple]

A Miraculous Carol: No time like the present

The Spirit of Time Present is here. Just what is Adrien about to observe?

Also on AO3 and FF

Adrien glanced at the clock. It was a little past one and no sign of the next spirit. Even so, he was wide awake, his mind reeling with ideas and theories on how he was going to foil Lila's web of lies. So many questions were rolling in his mind while he walked around his room, arms crossed while he came up with question after question, the inquiries piling up in his mind.

Should he go with the teachers? He had seen how little of help they've been with this situation, so that was out of question. The principal? He believed every lie Lila told, not to mention he was afraid of a bad reputation.

Should he tell Marinette? As much as he wanted to, a part of him was adamant to do so, since he didn't want to pull her down to more anguish thanks to Lila. He was serious in wanting to be by her side, after all, they were friends. And Marinette was someone that was always there for him. Heck, he had called her their everyday Ladybug.

Well, Adrien snapped his fingers in realization, then he could be like her every day Chat Noir in protecting her from evil.

Plagg snickered behind him.

"What?"

"That sounds funny."

Adrien's face flushed. He hadn't realized he had said that last part out loud. He ignored Plagg and continued his pacing. How was he going to convince his friends? He still had the bitterness of the picnic they were planning to do without Marinette. After everything she had done for them? For him?

He shook his head. No, he couldn't let his emotions overtake him.

They were all mostly blinded by all the supposed things Lila had been doing, and the possible networking they were going to have because Lila was telling names left and right. Adrien frowned. How had he not seen it before? Maybe they weren't hurt now but then? What would happen when the lies came undone?

The clock changed to 01:30 in the morning when a sharp knock startled him. He looked at Plagg but the kwami had moved to nap on his pillow. Adrien threw the covers on him and moved to open the door, careful to position himself in a way it blocked the sight of his pillows just in case Plagg shifted in his sleep.

He was shocked to see Kagami standing outside of his room.

"K-Kagami?"

"Hello Chat Noir," she said with a sharp tone and stepped into Adrien's room "it seems you have worked out your situation before my arrival."

Ah, so the next spirit, Adrien thought as he let her pass by him. He closed the door and followed her. The spirit that had taken Kagami's image walked and moved so similar like her, Adrien had trouble seeing if it was the spirit's personality or a very good impersonation.

She wasn't dressed like Kagami usually was. She was wearing what seemed to be an outfit based on her alter-ego Ryuko combined with her normal outfit, the skirt was longer and completely black, with red leggings and black polished shoes. Instead of a white shirt, she had a long black coat with red swirls around the sleeve cuffs and back.

"Are you…"

"I'm the Spirit of Present Time," she said, "I see my partner left on a good note with you, as I said, you are already working it out."

"Yes," Adrien straightened himself.

"The Miraculous grants powers but also responsibilities," Kagami said "the key to it is balance."

She pulled out a fencing sword as she spoke, Adrien taking a glimpse at it. It wasn't like the one Kagami used for practice. This one seemed to shine under her grip, the tip emanating a small glow that illuminated the area they were around.

"I am about to show you the ramifications of the present," she pointed the sword at him "Chat Noir, every decision we make, every choice we do, creates ripples in our time."

"Y-yes of course," Adrien tried not to put his guard up against the sword. He had no idea what Kagami was going to do, but as a Spirit, he had to be sure to show how on board he was with the situation.

Kagami nodded and lifted her sword, only to touch Adrien's head with it. Adrien felt like he had been dunk in freezing water. His skin had goosebumps as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. For a moment his lungs shrunk, his nose plugged as he gasped for air.

And just like it had started, it was over. Adrien looked down to see he was still in his pajamas, but he wasn't in his room anymore. He looked up to see he was standing right in front of Marinette's home. The sky above him was bright and devoid of clouds. It looked like a nice sunny day.

"What," he looked around but the Spirit was nowhere nearby, not even Plagg was with him this time. The streets weren't empty, but it seemed like no one was paying attention to him. He walked towards a man that was on the phone, but his eyes widened when his hand passed through him like he was a ghost.

"Oh, this is a vision then," Adrien turned around to see the park. If he had to guess it was around noon, with some kids playing and a group gathering on the far side. He squinted his eyes and recognized them all. They were his classmates. They were carrying things and setting a blanket on the grass and the realization hit Adrien.

This was the day of the picnic. But the one Nino had just told him. The one everyone arranged to have without Marinette.

He walked towards them, his hands balled in fists at his sides. One thing was to alienate their classmate, but to have the audacity of doing it right where she would see? The park was next to her house!

It was just when he was right up in Nino's space that he remembered, he wasn't there. They couldn't see him let alone hear him.

Adrien groaned but shook his head. He was here for a reason after all.

"It's too bad we couldn't get the usual pastries,"

"It would have been rude- "

"Don't worry, I'll make sure my aunt makes samples for all of you so you can try really good patisserie, she is a world-wide baker after all."

Adrien whipped his head at the sound of Lila's voice, his left eye twitching when he spotted her with the other girls of his class, gathered around Lila like moths to a flame. He didn't want to listen to them, he wanted to make them see sense in what they were doing was ostracizing a classmate, but he was unseen by them.

Has this how it had been before? Adrien blinked at that thought that crossed his mind. Had he said something against them before? The few times he could remember were when they celebrated that time they thought Chloé had left for good.

And even then he hadn't taken into account the reason behind it for them to do so.

It was then that Lila looked up at him and Adrien froze. Was she able to see him?

But she was giving a sly smile, her eyes a little above his and he turned around to see that no, Lila wasn't looking at him but at Marinette's home, where he spotted her right at the back door of her house.

Adrien's heart broke when he looked at her. Even from the distance, he could see the way her shoulders slumped on her frame, her eyes not looking at the group but at the ground. She looked just like how Adrien saw in that first vision a few hours ago.

Lila turned her eyes back to the group and laughed as she pulled an arm around Alya while the blogger took her phone for a photo and Adrien's stomach burned. This was beyond cruel. Lila had to have done this on purpose.

It was then that he spotted a purple butterfly flying towards her and his heart stopped. No, he walked towards Marinette, his steps quickening as the Akuma approached her. Not her, he thought in desperation, anyone but her.

Adrien ran out of the park and stretched his hands to push her when he phased right through her and the scenery around him changed.

It was night time, but he still wasn't in his room but the streets of Paris, where he saw Ladybug sitting on the edge of a rooftop, her eyes fixed on the Eiffel Tower. Adrien looked around and blinked when he saw himself sitting next to her. As Chat Noir.

"My lady?"

"Today was too close," Ladybug sighed "it's concerning."

"You mean the Akuma that almost got…"

"That girl can't handle more akumas targeting her Chat," Ladybug said, "it's getting too dangerous."

Adrien held his relief inside. Marinette hadn't been akumatized but what Ladybug was saying worried him more. More times? Had Marinette been targeted multiple times? He tried to work out when that could have been, many situations coming up, the majority related to Lila.

"But, Buginette, even if it happens, we will be able to defeat the Akuma and help her," he heard himself say.

"Perhaps," she looked at the sky, and Adrien wanted to reach to her, hold her, assure her that he was going to be there for Marinette.

"I just don't think I'll be that strong."

Ladybug's words froze him in place. He couldn't hear the rest because the scene stopped there. What did she mean? Was she close to Marinette? Adrien bit his thumb. He also didn't think he would be able to face an akumatized Marinette. Something inside him yelled at him it was wrong, how would he even fight his princess?

Adrien's thoughts halted. He called her princess of course when he was Chat Noir. Why did he think it now? Marinette was special to him, even if she was the second friend she made on that day, she was always there to show him kindness, even after that rough start. She always gave the extra mile for him and even if she sometimes looked nervous around him, Adrien never felt less appreciated around her.

She was special to him yes. A dear friend. A good friend that needed his support. He wanted to be there for her as well, support her, protect her, hold her close-

Wait.

Adrien blushed. Where did that last thought come from?

The scene changed. He was back at school, his classroom with everyone but Marinette and himself in it. Adrien found himself at the doorway, with Alya talking with Lila on the place that belonged to Marinette.

"I mean, it is weird that she is always away or unseen whenever there's an Akuma," she said in a hushed tone "for all we know, she might be helping Hawkmoth!"

"And she is the only one from the class that hasn't been akumatized."

"What about Adrien?" he heard Nino turn to them "he hasn't been akumatized either."

"Because Adrien is nothing but good," Lila sighed and Adrien's skin crawled "while Marinette? I know she's been your friend but after the things she's said to me…"

The anger rose again in Adrien's throat. He hated that, people assuming he was perfect, a model boy that did nothing wrong. If anything, Adrien was more and more aware that he had lots of flaws, but he wanted to do good. He wanted to learn from them and be around people who didn't put him on a damn pedestal.

He turned to a side to control his anger when he saw Marinette, her eyes widened as she listened to the same conversation that was going on in the classroom, and his anger increased more.

Marinette was strong. Marinette was determined. She didn't need anyone to take her fights.

But Marinette was a person. She was a teen just like him, someone that needed a friend, someone that stood by her side.

"Ladybug can defend herself just fine, but if there is one person she can trust to have her back at all times, it's us."

Felix's words resonated in his brain. Didn't he say that before he was shown all these visions? He was going to be her every day Chat Noir.

The Marinette in front of him turned on her heels and ran away from the school, with Adrien following after her, desperation in his eyes as he ran after her. There was nothing he could do right then, nothing but watch how Marinette bumped into someone else that caught her before she fell.

"S-sorry,"

"Marinette?"

Adrien looked at Luka's expression frowning in concern as he held Marinette by the shoulders, talking to her with his calm tone until she calmed down. Adrien's stomach twisted inside him at how easy Luka managed to do that with her, how easy Marinette's shoulders slumped and leaned on the musician. But he growled in frustration when he saw yet another purple butterfly going their way. Luka had to do something, Marinette was too vulnerable right now!

"Marinette,"

"There's one here isn't it?" Marinette laughed with tears falling down her eyes, it made Adrien's heart clench.

"You can resist it Marinette," he heard Luka say while the butterfly hovered above Marinette.

"I just don't think I'll be that strong."

Adrien remained frozen on his spot as darkness came back to his surroundings. He was back in his room, the clock marking it was already past 3 in the morning, but Adrien couldn't care less about that.

There was no doubt. Marinette was going to be akumatized.

But her choice of words, they resonated inside Adrien.

"Chat Noir?" he heard Kagami's voice "have you seen what is happening?"

"Y-I…"

Adrien couldn't put his thoughts in coherent order. The words she said, the attitude, the traits. Adrien's brain was processing it all too fast. Marinette and Ladybug, Ladybug and Marinette. Even if he knew just how wrong was what Lila had said, there was a speck of truth in that Marinette was never around during Akuma attacks.

"Kid?" he heard Plagg approaching him, poking him on the cheek but he was too focused on his thoughts.

Marinette always disappeared during Akuma attacks. Same like he.

Marinette always had creative ways to do anything put in front of her. Ladybug had way too creative plans to defeat Akuma. Marinette was goal-driven like Ladybug. Marinette was loyal, determined, kind and caring like Ladybug.

"What did he see?"

"The now," the spirit replied, "but what he is gathering is up for him to realize."

Ladybug had the same shade of eyes as Marinette. Ladybug had the same damn hairstyle like Marinette. Ladybug stayed up until late night with him and Marinette had bags under her eyes, waving them off as late-night projects.

"Adrien? Answer me, kid, you are worrying me."

Adrien had met them both on the same day.

"Marinette is Ladybug."

He blinked, looking at Plagg and the spirit. Kagami put her sword away and gave them both a curt nod before walking towards the door, disappearing before she even touched it.

"Marinette is Ladybug" Adrien looked at Plagg, his eyes scanning the kwami to see if he was right, his suspicions coming true when Plagg didn't laugh it off.

"Well shoot, that was not the lesson you had to see."