#marinette didn't want to give up her memories

[rosie-b]

🦮 fill this empty space (ask game)

(link to the summary)

This turned out to be... longer than a snippet, and like the summary, angstier than I expected. It's been that kind of week ig! But there's a promising ending because I needed one :)

It had been a warm summer day when the old Marinette died.

The new Marinette woke up surrounded by golden light, soft, green grass, and the soft murmurings of a stream in northern France. It was perhaps the best way for her rebirth to happen, in a calm, relaxing environment far from the place she somehow knew was home.

She met her family there. They already knew her, and called her "maman," or "ma femme," or "my lady."

Marinette was no one's lady. She never had been, but according to video evidence and the testimony of her husband and children and best friend, that was one of the many roles her past self had filled.

Marinette did not know how to fill any of those old roles anymore. But because of the secret, magical way she'd chosen to lose her memories, she couldn't let anyone know this fact. She had to study years worth of business lessons in mere weeks, preparing for her return to Paris and the international company she would soon be in charge of running again.

At least her past self had accounted for this new Marinette's incompetence. But no one else seemed to see that she wasn't the same woman she had been once, back when a kwami lived in her purse and villains of the day (and year) kept plaguing Paris.

Adrien, the man past-Marinette had married, professed to still be in love with her. He saw some of the differences between the new Marinette and the old one, but claimed they weren't nearly as big as Marinette thought they were. And he chose to spend most of his time around her, so maybe he was right. He whispered praises for each small thing she did, both when they were alone and in public; took the time to learn her new habits; made her fresh coffee for when she woke up two hours after he did; stayed out of her bed to help her feel comfortable.

Marinette could see why her past self had loved him. It was something both halves of her were beginning to share, a love for this man who found a way to bring joy to her life even when it had been turned upside down.

But it didn't change the fact that the new Marinette was not the same woman he'd married. That fact was written into the vows Adrien and the past Marinette had exchanged; the way they had split up their chores; the daily schedule that Adrien still remembered while the new Marinette did not.

To Marinette, this new self of hers was nothing more than a facade made to cover the void her past self had left behind. She was thirty years old and as empty inside as a newborn baby, with no memories to guide her through this unfamiliar world.

Marinette was an icon, the magazines said. A paragon of virtue in an age of corruption, one half of both Paris' favorite couples, a woman who managed to be a world-famous CEO and an attentive mother at the same time.

That wasn't the new Marinette's reality. She didn't even know her children's middle names, though she was learning their favorite desserts, sports, and hobbies.

Most days, it was like learning a foreign language, and it felt just as isolating when she got something wrong or tried to remember something she thought she knew but actually didn't. Sometimes, this new life of hers was crushing, a drain on her already empty self, taking the last bit of Marinette out of her.

But not always.

As out of place as Marinette felt in her own life, the people in it still felt right somehow. They'd been there for her when she woke up; they were there to hug and comfort her when she cried in the night, to help teach her about her own life and tell her about theirs, and to listen when she said she felt different. They loved her, that much was clear, and they promised to love her no matter which Marinette she was; the old one with all her memories or the new one just fumbling through life.

And somehow, even though she claimed not to feel anything more for them than for other strangers at first, Marinette still loved them back. Their presence soothed the ache she felt in her chest, the one she felt when she couldn't remember, and she found herself more than missing them when they weren't there. She looked forward to hearing about their day, to learning their middle names; she held on to the facts they told her about themselves like sweet gifts of gold and honey, like they were all she needed to survive, to fill the empty space her memories had left behind.

The new Marinette was not the old one, and she never would be.

But maybe that was okay. The new Marinette had her own space, too; it began here, in this remote, rural town near the seashore, and it would expand back to Paris, to the place where the old Marinette had lived.

Marinette's home had always been her family, the people she loved. That was something she knew without having to remember it, and something she was more sure of every day.

So she studied the journals her past self had written, re-learned how to design, baked bread beside Adrien, sang songs with her children and stayed by their side. If her mind was an empty slate, then she was going to fill it with love, the same love she'd chosen before and was choosing again.

And someday, this new Marinette would feel whole again.

Thanks for the ask! I hope you enjoyed <3

[lilybecca1]

So I noticed something when I was looking at how Izuku smiled at Katsuki...something about it just seemed familiar and I couldn't put my finger on what it was.

Until NOW

Like the way his smile just looks so fond, it's different than how he usually smiles at other people. There's just something about it that just screams that it's the look of love to me. But I couldn't really explain it or compare it to anything else before.

Well now I finally put two and two together and realized what it reminded me of...THIS MF

The way he looks at Marinette, he was so obviously in love with her, like can y'all see it too? The way his eyebrows relax and scrunch upwards, that fond smile.. IT'S LITERALLY THE SAME

I think generally animators have similar ways to show expressions, and this fondness, this genuine awe is something that I have also seen quite a lot of times before. That smile and that expression that you hold for the person that means so much more to you than anyone else, who you genuinely love from the bottom of your heart because they've shown a side to life and feelings that you never knew before. That smile is reserved for the person who your life wouldn't be the same without.

And his small laugh here ahhhyhshxhsjsj

It's such a sweet laugh like how Adrien laughs at Marinette too because he finds her awkwardness sweet.

And when you look at the parallels, it's so obvious. Like the moment Cat Noir realized he was in love with Ladybug as he looked up at her in awe:

And Katsuki's proud smile as he was looking up at Deku:

Then there's the fact that they both blindly trust each other because they know that the other would always win and save the other, no matter what:

Even Cat Noir sacrificed himself so much in the past for Ladybug to win, because he knew she'd always win..just like how Bakugo sacrificed himself for Izuku because he knew he'd never give up

"You know I like to fight by your side. But against you? Never"

"I could never hurt the person I love"

But that's not all. Remember the APOLOGY scene IN THE RAIN when Marinette fell in love with Adrien?

Yeah, now look at the Bakudeku version of it. The fact that Adrien and Bakugo both opened up and apologized and both of it happened in the rain..and look at Izuku's reaction to the apology. You can't tell me that he didn't fall in love a little at that moment just like how Marinette did. It's literally the same minus all the blushing and the smiling.

Want more? Well, here's Season 4 ending when Cat Noir reached his hand out to Ladybug, giving her back the hope after she has already lost all of it. Showing her that they can still do it, together. That she hasn't lost everything as long as he's still there. Reminds you of something?

And then as they look out at the distance with newfound hope...just like how Bakugo and Deku did at the cliff in that one Memories episode.

There are literally SO MANY parallels between them, and this is a CANON COUPLE that we are talking about, who are CANONICALLY IN LOVE. This is NOT a coincidence. Even if these are not meant to be parallels, the fact that they are so similar means that their dynamic, their relationship is very similar. So if we took bkdk in Miraculous context, then they'd be a couple. If there was even a tiny bit of flirting between them, it would be undeniable. In Miraculous, they are meant to be a couple, so it's obviously portrayed in their interactions that there is something between them. In MHA however, they are not specifically made to be canon, but their dynamic is essentially the same. They are the person that they trust the most, they rely on each other, trust each other with their life. They have no doubt in the other, they know that the other would always win. Their life wouldn't be the same without the other. They're Yin and Yang, just like Marinette and Adrien. The Sun and Moon.

Bonus:

The way she holds Cat Noir's tail reminds me a lot of how Izuku was holding Bakugo's tie lmao

When their eyes meet

Ladybug getting angry at the villain for hurting Cat Noir like Deku losing it when Bakugo gets hurt

[marinettesaltprompts]

We Can Grow Up Without You (Two-Letters inspired Anti-prompt)

Inspried by a post of @broadwaycutie16

Marinette had snapped one day. She was done with being a hero.

She had a plan all figured out. She would trick Chat Noir into an ambush so that she could take the ring from him. She would trick Lila into thinking that the ring was secretly in space, all while she secretly kept the ring for herself as leverage, then give the Miracle Box to Lila so that she could be "the Ladybug that Paris deserved", one that would also ensure her former friend's misery. With her memories wiped, Marinette could be with Luka, the only person who cared about her, all the while holding onto the ring so that she could go after Lila, in case she ever needed the Wish to ensure Luka remained loyal to her.

Clearly, this was the best plan, an insane Ladybug thought.

So imagine the chill in her blood when a year after she done her plan, she went to go check on the ring, only to find it missing.

It didn't take long for Marinette to find the news about Chat Noir seemingly betraying the new Ladybug, revealing her to the world as Lila Rossi. She (alongside Felix, who was also unmasked as the new Hawkmoth) were both arrested on charges of essentially staging akuma attacks, while the "Chat" that was Lila's partner was revealed to be a Sentimonster in disguise. All the miraculouses were collected by the real Chat Noir, then he too disappeared.

Marinette knew exactly where he went, however.

Snarling, a livid Marinette went to the office tower of Agreste (renamed from the well known Gabriel brand) where Adrien was located, having returned from a month long vacation. She was unexpectedly let in without resistance however, as Adrien was supposedly expecting her.

Smiling an empty smile, Adrien stared at Marinette, sporting not only a familiar ring, but also a familiar set of earrings.

"Hello Marinette, its been a while, hasn't it?"

Naturally, Marinette was anything but polite. She ranted and raved about how Adrien wasn't supposed to have the ring (nor the earrings). She was outraged, horrified, and most of all confused.

Despite not needing any reason to tell her, Adrien obliged Marinette's demand for an explanation and told her his story.

About a month after Marinette went through her plan, Adrien took a lot of time to think about things. What he had went through regarding losing his miraculous, what he had felt at being tricked by Ladybug and Marinette. He wanted to scream and shout, to let go of his anger and blame everyone around him. Yet he had remembered one of the wise things Plagg once said (during a time he wasn't asking for cheese), and decided to reorient himself by focusing on one step at a time. Adrien messed up by letting his guard down around his former crush, but decided to make up for it by going after the new Ladybug, who at the moment was causing trouble for Paris.

Through some detective work (with the help of Max Kante) and using his head for the first time, Adrien tracked down Felix over the course of a week and managed to catch the latter off guard. Stealing the Peacock Miraculous from his cousin, Adrien created a sentimonster to track down the other miraculouses while pretending to be his cousin (to keep Lila unaware), including his former ring and the butterfly miraculous, which Felix had kept in a safe for when he was causing villainy as "Hawkmoth". He also learned from Dusuu the truth about himself, that he was actually a sentibeing created by his mother, and that her using the then broken miraculous was the reason for his passing. Despite the revelation shaking him, Adrien kept going, focuing on one step at a time.

From there, it was easy to take care of Lila (who grew so arrogant that she didn't expect Adrien to have any way to take her down) and get the rest of the Miracle box back. He also managed to track down the pieces of the Rabbit Miraculous and repair it again, after Marinette was able to destroy it.

With all the Miraculouses returned, Adrien finally used the opportunity to finally figure out what went wrong with his former partner and what caused her to give up being a hero.

Through evidence provided by Tikki and Plagg and a little help from the Rabbit Miraculous (through windows in time), Adrien had learned what went from with Marinette and why she had snapped. She saw how other people used her for granted, Adrien included, and how the responsibility overwhelmed her to the point she felt she had to leave.

However, Adrien also saw that Marinette had also ended up blaming other people for why she was like this (despite having other options to fix her problems), including blaming her partner for being supposedly unreliable (when she had pushed him away from helping with her plans or choosing the wielders) and for being unknowingly tricked by the Sentimonster Ladybug (which he admitted was stupid at the time, but he couldn't have imagined a sentimonster posing as a human at the time). Worse still, Marinette had started to blame the people of Paris for being akumatised, refering to them by their akuma names, despite it clearly being Hawkmoth's fault.

It was Marinette's mention of "Chat Blanc" that got Adrien's attention. Through a window in time, he learned of the alternate timeline in which he was akumatized by Hawkmoth, and learned the truth about his father: he was secretly Hawkmoth this entire time. Adrien was traumatised from this, but kept going.

This eventually led to learning of Marinette's plan to quit, having snapped and deciding to leave the fate of Paris in Lila's hands because "that's what Paris deserved".

Adrien spent a whole week going through all the information, every memory, every significant event, every bit of the life of Marinette Dupain Cheng, then another week to take it all in.

By the end, Adrien was horrified, but he was in a way grateful for what he had learned. Adrien felt sympathy for Marinette and why she felt she had to quit, but at the same time he could not condone her plan to leave Paris to Lila, nor her insults towards her former friends and family, especially with how she blamed them for being akumatized. He also realised that he did in some way play a role in her downfall (especially with his flirting and not trying harder to reach out more), and he did feel somewhat ashamed with himself for not noticing Marinette's feelings until it was too late (though given that Marinette had been somewhat possesive of himself with her stalking and attempts to control his love life, maybe it would have been a toxic relationship that was best to not have happened).

With all that being said, Adrien decided he would take matters into his own hands. With the Miracle Box now in his hands and with the Guardianship belonging to him (after threatening Lila with being Cataclysmed), Adrien decided he would make a new Order of the Guardian sect in Paris, with himself as the leader. He would use the recovered Miraculous to make a team that could not only help Paris, but all of France, choosing people that could handle the stress of being a hero since he could pay them for their services. Since Marinette no longer wanted to be the Guardian due to stress, Adrien would use what he had learnt to ensure he wouldn't make the same mistakes as the former Ladybug. He apologised to Marinette, but told her that he would be taking care of the Miraculouses now.

Of course, this all passed through the increasing erratic Marinette's ears. All she wanted were the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous back so she could make her wish and bring everything under her control, all while ensuring everyone suffers. Plain and simple (to her broken mind at least).

Adrien, of course, politely refused, since Marinette had no right to them considering her plans threatened the very reality they were in and that she had given up the box to someone untrustworthy. It was only once Marinette attempted to attack her former partner that Adrien transformed (without uttering phrase, having mastered his powers by this point) and restrained the insane former heroine, at which point he gave up being polite and threatened Marinette with ruining her newfound life with Luka. Adrien did not want to do so, but he would if she kept going with her foolish quest. Marinette wanted her peace? Fine. But she would not threaten others into acting the way that she wanted.

"...Screw you Chat Blanc" Marinette uttered, having finally lost whatever mask of sanity she had before, eyes growing increasingly erratic. "Just like last time, you tried to destroy me and all of Paris to get the wish, now you'll do it again because I walked away from you, right?"

"Now that was just a low blow..." Adrien replied tersely, the comment about the akumatization getting under his skin. "But since we are going for low blows, what gives you the right to blame others for being akumatized? Prin-cess Jus-tice?"

"Th-that wasn't real! YOU'RE LYING!" Marinette yelled.

Smiling a sad smile, Adrien pulled out the Rabbit Miraculous, quickly showing a window in time before Marinette could react. With no words being spoken by the Agreste, Marinette could only watch as her former self fell under the sway of Scarlet Moth, having no means to resist the akumatization, being moments away from removing her earrings before the akumatization process was cancelled, not by Marinette's own strength, but by the slim chance of Nathalie falling ill.

"Of course, you wouldn't be so quick to judge others if you remebered being almost akumatized. But you gave up your memories, didn't you? All so you could be happy."

Marinette fell to her knees, having gotten cataconic from the truth.

"You know ... that apology I said to you before." Adrien continued "I don't think I mean it anymore. Not to this version of you at least. The Ladybug... the Marinette that used to be before you was someone I considered a friend, a person that ended up being broken by the responsibilities of things she couldn't handle on her own. Yet at the same time, she tried to push people away because of it out of a belief she had to sort things on her own. Had I apologised earlier, had I tried harder to reach out to her... perhaps this entire debacle wouldn't have happened, and she could have retired in peace rather than in anger. Then again, I'm not the same person I was before. I grew up. But you didn't, did you? You're just someone who has no idea about what Paris has gone through. You only saw the last letter of a broken woman and decided to take her words to heart, laughing at the suffering of those who once relied on her to feel safe against a manipulative man, blaming them for their own akumatizations despite having no control over themselves, feeling like what they deserved was justified despite having no memory of what they did to you. You're just some echo of Marinette, an echo that has no memory of anything except her hate, her suffering, and her desire for revenge. You didn't grow up. You just ran away while getting to enjoy the spoils of doing so. You didn't grow up. You didn't change."

Marinette could say nothing, having gone entirely blank. Adrien called security into his office and had her escorted off the premises.

Sighing, Adrien went to a portrait of his mother and pulled it back, revealing a small mural of photos, the main one being a smiling picture of a younger and more innocent Ladybug and Chat Noir. Adrien did not know if the emotions Ladybug showed in that photo were real, but he would cherish them regardless, even after she was gone.

Adrien left inside the mural a single yellow rose, before getting back to work.

[familyagrestefanblog]

If you ever wondered how little some Marinette fans care about actual canon, always remember that the theory of "Marinette has to one day give up her memory of her whole life by renouncing her guardianship to pass it on and die in tragedy" is entirely made up by the Fandom.

Nothing in the show ever so much as implied that this is something every guardian has to do by default and it doesn't even made sense logically because it fundamentally requires of you to ignore that Marinette could die in a car crash tomorrow like any normal person and she'd obviously have died a guardian, too, with the Miracle box then being passed on regularly. The universe won't explode if Marinette Dupain-Cheng hasn't first given life itself permission to kill her off by renouncing her guardianship. Su-Han was literally shown to have control over the Miracle box, too. The world will live.

Not to mention that the guardian culture looked MUCH more like all of them were supposed to be able to guard several Miracle boxes the Temple has because they were/are a whole ass GROUP of people picked for that cause and had to dedicate their lives to that temple and calling. Marinette in Canon is as good as stated by Su-Han to not follow any rules on how a guardianship is supposed to work and Fu was alone by necessity. Permanent heros weren't even supposed to be a thing much less a whole team by one Miraculous holder guardian (which is also not supposed to exist).

Just because canon had Marinette say "Nah, imma do whatever I want cause I'm the only guardian culture I'll take into consideration" doesn't it mean she's suddenly the only source of reference for how this works. She didn't invent guardianship, the logistics and rules don't start with her. There is literally no reason for why Marinette at any point HAS TO give up her memories when she's old. She can just give someone else the Box and not renounce her guardianship until she dies. Why are people insisting that that's not possible as if the show would ever tolerate Marinette having to follow such an order anyway?

The theory literally relies on you treating Marinette as the first and only guardian to count for the logistics of this, and you entirely ignoring everything we've ever seen of the guardian culture and lore in the show because I have genuinely no idea where the fuck this reading came from. Certainly not Canon cause it's in no way Canon compliant, her fans just ran with introduced concepts and rewrote everything about it for maximum drama.

Giving up one's memories is a safety method and nothing in Canon ever treated it as anything else.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Tell me, what did you think of ML when you first discovered it? I thought Chloe's arc in season 2 was decent for this type of show, even if it could have been better. I also never took Marinette's obsessive behavior over Adrien that seriously until it started getting really grating.

My first interaction with ML consisted of me looking for kids shows to watch in Spanish, finding Miraculous on Netflix, watching maybe three minutes of The Bubbler, and then turning the show off because it didn't seem very good. That's the episode that starts with Marinette freaking out about giving Adrien a birthday present and it gave me the impression that Miraculous was doing the classic female-protagonist-pines-for-the-male-protagonist-who-barely-even-knows-her-name trope, which is not a trope that I'm into. I'm way too ace for that shit. This is the scene in question as I looked it up to make sure I was remembering it correctly:

Marinette: Ah! (she stops right in front of Adrien.) Um, he-- Hey! (she gets nervous as she holds her gift behind her back.) Adrien:(surprised, shyly) Hey. Chloé:(as she watches what's happening outside) Wait! Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing? Don't tell me it's Adrien's birthday?! Sabrina:(checks her tablet, gets surprised, and makes excusing noises while smiling sheepishly.) Chloé:(facepalms) Ugh, do I have to do everything myself? Seriously, what are you good for? (walks toward Adrien.) Marinette:(nervously) I, uh, I wanted to, umm, gift you a make-– I mean, gift you a give I made-- I mean... Chloé:(yawns while Marinette is talking and then shoves her away) Out of the way. (she acts sweet.) Happy birthday, Adrien! (throws herself onto him and gives him a kiss on the cheek.) Mwah! Adrien:(surprised) Yeah, thanks Chlo.

This backs up my vague memory that my initial assumption was that Adrien and Chloé were friends while Adrien didn't know who Marinette was because he was clearly much more comfortable with Chloé. Same goes for Nino who was talking to Adrien earlier in this scene.

I'm not sure when this first watch occurred, but I know it was at least a year before I revisited the show. I made a friend in another fandom and that friend was transitioning out of Miraculous, but they had a lot of really good Miraculous fanart and even some fanfic which got me curious as I couldn't understand why anyone would be into the show given my dismal initial impression.

On this friend's recommendation, my SO and I started watching Miraculous an episode or two at a time. I was pretty unimpressed with the actual show, but I started reading early fandom fanfic between our watching sessions and that kept me interested enough to keep watching. My initial impression of the show didn't really change until we watched Origins. That's the episode that really made me fall in love with the canon characters as it took everything about the show and elevated it. The crushes had depth! The Chloé/Adrien thing wasn't just the bitchy rich girl going after the popular boy! Gabriel was confirmed to be the big bad! Things were suddenly going places and that honestly wasn't surprising.

It's incredibly common for kids shows to have lackluster first seasons where they don't really commit to anything major re plot because they're just testing the waters to see if they'll be green lit for more seasons. Because of this, I was under the impression that Origins must have been when they got green lit and season two was going to do the standard kids show thing where they really get to dive into the plot and characters in a big way now that they're making money. This assumption was backed up by the addition of the new heroes to the show's intro.

For the first half of season two, I was invested as it seemed like we were finally getting seasonal arcs. Chloé seemed to be getting set up for some sort of character arc, which I was all for as I enjoy a good mean girl arc. We also had some tension brewing between our heroes with Fu favoring Marinette, a dynamic that felt more accidental than planned since it only happened because Marinette found the grimoire at the end of season one. I thought all of that was going to come to a head with Chloé's Queen Bee debut as things had seemingly been set up for Chloé to be Adrien's pick for a Miraculous.

Then Queen Bee actually happened and my excitement quickly faded. I still cannot think of a less interesting way for Chloé to get and use the bee. No one gives it to her and she outs herself on national television right away? Talk about wasting an idea. Clearly this had just been a one-off thing done so that the show could drive up hype for season two based on promo images of Chloé as a hero.

But it wasn't a one off thing. For some reason, they kept bringing Queen Bee back and that's when I knew we were in for a bad time because that should have never happened. It especially shouldn't have happened when Marinette was giving out the miraculous. I could maybe see a setup where Adrien gives Chloé a second chance, but Marinette trusting Chloé made no sense:

Marinette: I must choose someone who's not impressed by people in power. Who can help me trap Malediktator. Huh?! Of course! That's it. (reaches for the Miraculous of the Bee) Wait, what am I thinking? (facepalms)

Yeah, what are you thinking? Alya was your first choice for the bee, she isn't impressed by people in power, and she wasn't hit by Malediktator, so go grab her! Why would you pick Chloé?

Long story short, I kept watching because the show wasn't terrible, my SO enjoyed hearing me dunk on it as we watched it, and I was really enjoying the fan content, but I didn't have much faith in canon after the midpoint of season two and I continually lost faith as the seasons progressed. I never pictured it getting as bad as seasons five, but I only had hopes for Miraculous to be truly good for about 2 weeks as that's how long it took us to get from Origins to the Queen Bee mess. I was also disappointed by Alya and Nino's hero journeys. I expected them to be chosen for grander reasons. As is, it felt like they only got recruited because their loved ones were in danger.

Since you brought up Marinette's crush, I'll end by saying that I have never been a fan of that style of crush-based humor (once again, way too ace for that shit), but it didn't bother me in a serious way because it was very obviously meant to be humorous. I just suffered through the jokes when they happened and then moved on as there was no reason to dwell on them. It probably helped that I was reading a lot of fanfic and even the people who love the show generally agree that Marinette's crush should be played down in more serious stories.

The only time Marinette's crush bothered me was Derision as that episode straight up destroyed her character. It also made the writers look awful because they made Kim the bad guy for laughing at Marinette's behavior, but we'd just spent over four seasons being told Marinette's behavior was a joke, so what is the lesson here? Are we all supposed to feel guilty for laughing at a trauma response we didn't know was a trauma response? Are the writers saying that trauma is funny? How can you be so tone deaf?

[mc-lukanette]

Luka had always felt like there was something missing from his life. It wasn't something he could put into words, but it was undeniably there. As if he were a guitar without strings, he grew into a teenager without being able to express it to anyone.

When the news of Hawk Moth attacking Paris came, Luka wanted to do... something. It was like an instinct stirring inside him telling him to go, to go do it, but he didn't know what he was supposed to do. He stood up when he heard the news of danger and looked for someone who wasn't around, or he'd rub at his wrist as if there was something meant to be there.

Things became better yet more confusing when he finally met Marinette. He'd seen her in pictures before but never in person, and he felt a little more whole just at the sight of her. Ladybug added a bit more as well when he got to meet her up close. It felt right and he couldn't help seeing the similarities between her and Marinette.

There was even something deeper - something sad that made his chest feel tight - but he couldn't place it.

Then, the day came when Hawk Moth's latest akuma, Desperada, arrived on the Liberty. It was also the day where everything finally clicked into place.

——

Luka was wandering the sewers, looking out for any sign of Adrien when he heard voices. Following them to their source, he walked until he spotted them from around a corner, though he stood back just in case he was interrupting something important.

Ladybug and Adrien stood there, still mid-discussion. While Luka couldn't see Ladybug's face nor what she was holding in her hands, he could tell that neither seemed particularly happy.

"And..." Ladybug began, "you really don't remember anything?"

Adrien shook his head, desperate to cheer her back up. "No, I do! I remember all the timelines I reset!"

"That's not—" She sighed heavily. "Never mind. Thanks for trying, Adrien."

He looked a mix between utterly dejected and confused, but she didn't clarify and turned around instead.

"...Oh—" She stopped in surprise. "Luka?"

Luka took that as his cue to step out fully, rubbing at the spot his guitar strap would be if he had it on. "Sorry. I didn't want to intrude."

Her reassuring smile was bittersweet. "It's okay. I'm glad you came along, and we were just—" She turned her head to gesture at Adrien, but he'd already run off somewhere. Looking back at Luka, she insisted, "Anyway, it was nothing important."

He decided not to pry, noting how disappointed she looked as if her world had come crashing down. There was still an akuma on the loose and he opted to focus on that instead. "You said you're glad I'm here?"

"Mhm." She held something to her chest, hidden in her fist, and closed her eyes. "I... I need a temporary hero to help me against Desperada."

He eagerly stepped forward, putting a hand to his heart. "Whatever you need, Ladybug, I'm here to help. Anything to protect my family and friends."

She nodded approvingly, perking up. "That's what I like to hear."

Then, she presented the object in her hand to him, and all of Luka's other thoughts ceased. He was certain she was still talking to him - his mind faintly registering what sounded like a rehearsed speech she might give to any temporary hero - but his focus was locked on the bangle in her hand.

Marinette, Ladybug, and now the bangle: the snake miraculous. It felt like everything had been building to that very moment, like the "something missing" in his life was finally about to be filled in.

He didn't hesitate to accept her offer, the bangle feeling smooth and natural in his grip. Taking a breath to steel himself up, he raised his other hand and slipped it through the bangle.

Almost instantly, he was hit with an intense way of dizziness. His vision blurred as he staggered, but he could still make out Ladybug's concerned face.

"Luka?!" she called in alarm, gripping his shoulders to help keep him upright.

Memories flashed in his mind, ones that weren't his own and yet were. Fighting evil, donning the snake miraculous, and the partner who was always by his side all replayed in his mind like a movie set to fast-forward, yet he somehow comprehended all of it.

He'd live a different life, and not just one life but many before his current one. While Sass was known as the kwami of Intuition, the snake represented so much more than that and the miraculous's design showed as much.

Renewal - a cycle that never ends - and with help from Tikki it was all complete: the creation of lives and a cycle of reincarnation. It was an arrangement that he'd had with his ladybug partner with the express permission of their kwami, to essentially go on forever with their undefined but undeniably strong relationship.

It hadn't been perfect. Things weren't nearly as nice in the past before the world had truly advanced, and the most heartbreaking part about it was that they didn't always make it through together. He'd die, or she'd die and then it was just a matter of waiting until they reincarnated again. Luka vividly remembered times where he'd won the battle but wished he'd lost if it meant they could've gone together, even if they would've inevitably seen each other again anyway.

Yet, even that was far preferable to what had happened in his last life, because the biggest difference between his last life and this one compared to all others was time. It was far too long of a distance even though he knew it wasn't the same for Ladybug.

She'd cut him off from the cycle. He recalled his last moments of laying on her lap as she stared down at him with tears in her eyes. She'd grabbed his wrist, hand wrapping around the bangle as she told him not to reincarnate again, or at least not until the world was safer for them to live together freely in. It would have sounded like an order too if her voice hadn't been so faint and sad.

However, he knew it would be enough to make a dent in their agreement. He opened his mouth to beg her to take it back or let him plead his case, but it was too late. His consciousness had been failing him and he closed his eyes for the last time.

And now, in the present, he opened them back up again to see her once more, different yet the same person he'd loved through multiple lifetimes. At some point, she had moved him to sit while he recovered, but he hadn't been able to pay attention due to the sheer rush the return of his memories caused.

"Are you okay?" she asked, cupping his cheek worriedly.

"I—" Luka took a deep, shaky breath, trying to gather his bearings after the intensity he'd been through. There were too many mixed emotions and he still knew better than to throw all of that on Ladybug when there was still an akuma going around. Instead, he told her simply, "I remember."

"You..." Her eyes lit up in recognition, then became glossy with unshed tears. "Y-you remember? You remember!"

She threw her arms around him, pulling Luka into a tight hug while she buried her face into his shoulder. She kept mumbling incoherently against him, but he still picked up a few "I missed you"s and comments about how glad she was to have him back. He felt torn, finding it hard to resist his partner's hug but unable to help thinking about all the time he'd lost with her because of what she did.

After a moment, he relented to his body's almost instinctive reaction to her, placing his hands on her back and focusing on the tightness of her hug. Gently but urgently, he said, "We should take care of the akuma. It's not safe here."

She slowly pulled back, sniffling but nodded in agreement with him. As conflicted as he was about things, he couldn't sit still at her tears either and reached out to wipe a trail of tears away.

The knowledge that they could talk later kept him going.

——

Ladybug had let him keep the miraculous even after the battle was over, agreeing with Sass that the snake miraculous was "back where it was meant to be." Once they'd safely recharged, they took off for Marinette's house to recuperate.

She hadn't even pretended to hide her identity from him anymore. Not only did she already know his, but they knew from multiple reincarnations that trying to keep their identities secret from each other was a losing game.

While Luka laid back on Marinette's chaise lounge, she fled the room to get them drinks and give him and Sass a moment to themselves.

"I've already talked to her," Sass spoke up from Luka's shoulder, having not left it since the detransformation.

"What?"

"About what she did." His tail flicked back and forth almost anxiously and it was difficult to place the exact expression on his face. "A long time ago, over multiple lifetimes, but it's your own choice for how to handle it."

Luka could only nod, though he was more than happy to be filled in on anything that happened while he was gone.

Roughly a minute later, Marinette returned with two ice cold cups of water in hand. She passed one to him and kept one for herself, pulling her computer chair near the chaise lounge to sit close to him.

Even though he'd thought over exactly what he wanted to say ever since he got the memories of his past lives back, Luka's mind was drawing a blank. Undeniably, it was a complicated situation, because although they were still themselves whenever they reincarnated, it didn't stop them from changing as time went on.

Marinette had changed. She was more fidget-y - more anxious - than he remembered in any of his past lives, and he wondered if it was due to not having him around for so many of her own. He didn't want to assume, but he knew that he at least would've grown restless as well had her cycle been cut off and he'd been left without her. They might not have needed each other to win battles or be heroes, but they wanted each other.

"...I'm sorry about Adrien," Marinette suddenly said, breaking the silence.

Luka stared, both surprised to hear that be the first thing addressed and confused because he'd already forgotten about Adrien's involvement in all of this.

She continued, looking away and elaborating, "I-I didn't think we'd be apart for so long, and I wanted you back so badly. I thought that he was the snake." She paused, then shook her head, smiling bitterly. "That's not true. I didn't really think it, I just wanted to believe it. I fooled myself with the idea that having your cycle broken for so long might've changed you, and since you have green eyes as Viperion..." She shrugged for lack of any excuse for herself. "I almost gave up hope before you remembered."

The reasoning sounded crazy even to her, only further showing her desperation on the matter. He looked down at his drink, taking a long sip while he attempted to collect his thoughts.

"Then why'd you do it?" he asked. It was the only thing he could ask. "Why'd you break my cycle?"

She squinted at him like the answer was obvious. It didn't matter if it was or not, he just wanted to hear her tell him in her own words.

"B-because I didn't want to see you get killed anymore?" she replied. The hold on her glass of water shook and she threw her other hand outwards. "And you didn't like seeing me killed!"

"So you thought you should suffer alone," he finished disapprovingly. Already anticipating her potential replies, he added, "I never blamed you, Marinette, or thought it was your fault when something bad happened."

She hunched in her chair with a wobbly frown, staring silently at her cup. Luka felt Sass's weight leave his chest and looked to see that his kwami had flown off, just barely catching the teal and red lights phasing through the floor to give them privacy. Marinette didn't even notice.

"...Maybe some of them were my fault—"

"Marinette," he sighed, not in exasperation at her but at the kind of people who gave her that kind of mindset. He sat up straighter on the chaise lounge, reaching out to take her hand. "You're so smart, but you can't be perfect. I never expected you to predict everything, and I never wanted either of us to stop reincarnating either."

He was sure that Sass had given her an earful of that already, but still felt it important to say it himself.

"Even when we...?" Marinette pressed, still determined to make her point.

The answer came easily to him. "Yeah, unless you didn't want to keep going. Whenever I died, I knew I'd get to see you again next time." He tried to smile despite the heavy topic. "I always got to look forward to seeing how you'd change."

She blushed, her free hand tightly gripping the fabric of her pants. She opened her mouth, stopped, then stood up from her seat without another word. Seeing what she was doing, Luka offered his cup of water and let her take both glasses away to set them on the table, giving them both an excuse to take a breather in the conversation.

Marinette paused at the table, idly moving the glasses back and forth without any real intent to put them in a particular position. There was the small sound of the glass rubbing against the table as she did so, filling the silence.

Finally, she said, "I'm sorry. I figured it'd be worth it to just—scrape by; that knowing you were safe would let me keep going until we met again." She whimpered, her hands resting on the table to support her and curling into fists. "B-but I kept thinking about you. I kept missing you. I kept wishing I didn't do what I did so you'd still be with me, and then I'd feel guilty about it because I was so sure I did the right thing."

Luka pushed himself up, hurriedly crossing the room to be near her. "You're not selfish for wanting me, Marinette, not when I wanted to be with you just as badly." He reached out to grab her shoulder in a gesture all too familiar to them, when—

"I-I was going to confess."

He froze, his hand moving no closer to her as he repeated her words in his head, making sure he'd heard correctly.

She continued, unaware of his struggle, "That day you died - your last reincarnation - I was gonna do it, but everything went wrong." She bent down, shaking at the memory that was so long ago for her yet so recent to him. "I thought... i-it must've been telling me something, like I was bad luck, o-or that it was horrible for you to be around me."

Luka could hear his heart pounding in his head, slotting in her confession with the context of his last reincarnation's final moments. It took all he had to not stand in shock, forcing his body forward so he could touch her. She flinched when he covered the hand closest to him with his own, her teary eyes darting up to his as his other hand found its home on her cheek.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, voice pained. His chest ached despite the requited feelings.

"W-why are you sorry?" She blinked rapidly from the tears in her eyes. "I thought y-you were upset."

"I am," he began, gripping her hand tighter, "that you were alone for so long, that I missed so many of your lives—" He breathed up, finally saying what he hadn't for multiple lifetimes. "—and that I never told you how much you meant to me."

She gasped inaudibly. "L-Luka?"

"Your pain's my pain." He caressed her cheek, then leaned in to press their foreheads together. "I love you so much, and that won't change no matter how many lives we go through."

Marinette's tears flowed faster, though he knew they were a different variety this time. She tried to reply with what he was sure was an, "I love you too," but it was more noises than coherent words. When that failed, her brows furrowed in determination and she launched herself at him, pressing her lips against his.

Luka staggered backwards, just barely managing to grasp the edge of the table to keep himself from falling over. Marinette's warmth was overwhelming him and all he could do was kiss her back to make up for all the lost time.

He'd never dared to imagine what kissing her could actually be like. There was so much at stake and he didn't want to push her boundaries, so he'd loved her silently. Now, in addition to being her best friend and eternal partner, he was also her boyfriend.

He didn't have the words to describe it, but maybe one day the world would come up with them.

Even when she broke the kiss to breathe again, Marinette clung to him tighter to keep him against her. She inhaled his scent, muttering into his shoulder, "Y-you're back. You're really here. Luka..."

Feeling his own eyes get misty, he ran his hand through her hair to soothe the both of them from the sheer intensity of emotions. "You've always had me, Marinette."

He meant it. His heart had been hers from their first life, their current life, everything in between, and everything that would come in the future. The only thing he hadn't known until this very moment was that it was mutual.

[raeuberprinzessin]

Swapping diamonds for pearls

Maribat, Merfolk AU, Felinette, Fantasy AU, Marinette gets adopted by the Batfam, No Miraculous AU:

The setting is a town on the coast. To ensure the goodwill of the sea gods, the town sacrifices one of their young people to the sea, when the signs show it's time for a sacrifice. It's been a few decades since the last sacrifice when Marinette suddenly feels inexplicably drawn to the ocean. She wakes up at night hearing songs and finds herself at the shore without memory how she got there several times.

One of the things she can't remember, because humans forget their encounters with merfolk, is how she helped a young mer protect a baby seal.

That young mer is Damian, who took a liking to the girl who protected the pup of his favourite seal. So he decided to claim her as part of his pod, not knowing that it starts a transformation process.

Marinette was engaged to Adrien, but she more and more feels that this is wrong and when her behaviour is noticed, the priestess declares it's a sign that it's time for a sacrifice and Marinette has been chosen as the sacrifice. At that point she breaks off the engagement. She gives Adrien the diamond ring back and wears jewellery with pearls which declares her as the sacrifice.

Felix, Adrien's cousin and the young lord of the town starts researching in his library. Secretly he's in love with Marinette, but he also loves his cousin and since Marinette is one of the few people Adrien could be himself around, he didn't interfere, but encouraged Adrien to propose. He tries to find anything to reverse the signs, but he also doesn't wish to evoke the sea gods' wrath. He has to think about his subjects. If they can't fish as much anymore, it would be devastating for the town.

He finds out, that the sacrifices turn into merfolk and the only way to stop this is, to convince the mer who claimed a human to give up their claim. But Felix is too late and Marinette has already been sacrificed.

At sea she is soon found by Tim, who claimed the last sacrifice, Cass. He was once a sacrifice himself and figures out what happened (mainly) and brings her to the pod. Damian confesses he claimed her, not knowing it would transform her. He did it, because he thought it would protect her. Bruce explains, that they usually claim humans who don't have anything keeping them on land. Often orphans or, like in Tim's case, children who are neglected or abused by their parents. But a pod can only claim a human every 15 to 25 years, because the successful transformation takes energy from the whole pod.

Marinette had connections on land and she has a hard time giving up on them. But it's not reversible and she likes her pod and befriends mers from other pods.

One day she finds Felix in a boat suspiciously close to the small island the pod lives around and hears him yelling for her. The pod is a bit annoyed, because although they keep sharks away and help with fishing, sink pirate ships and bring survivors of sinking ships to the shore, invading their home is something they really don't like.

Marinette shows herself, to convince him to leave, but because he forgets the encounter, he's back the next day. This time Marinette drags his boat to a hidden beach and writes in the sand to only meet her here, so even if he would forget their encounters, he could still read the message. They figure out a system. He takes something to write with him, so he can write down, what happend and he can read it again after he forgets what they talked about.

During these meetings they get closer and finally Marinette falls in love with Felix. At first Felix felt conflicted and wanted to tell Adrien, but Adrien didn't want to hear anything about Marinette and after Felix found Adrien and one of his warriors, Kagami, at a tryst, he decided, that it would be better this way.

After they kiss, they find out that now Felix can remember their talks.

Felix starts to wonder if they can have a future when his mother urges him to find a bride, someone to share the burden of reigning over the town with. But either he has to cheat on the woman he loves and his wife or he has to end things with Marinette or he has to defy his mother and sooner or later the court or even his king for the rest of his life. So, he starts to research again, but he only finds out, that the transformation can only be stopped and reversed as long as the person isn't really part of a pod.

Marinette knows it's irreversible. The only option she can see is, if he wasn't lord anymore, but she thinks she can't ask that of him, so she looks into potions to make him forget her entirely.

This is what she's busy with, while her friends band together and find Felix waiting for Marinette at the beach. Felix decided on his own to give the title to Adrien and step down, so he wouldn't have to leave Marinette. He wanted to tell her but only finds mers he only knows of from Marinette's stories. They offer him that one of them could claim him, since Marinette's pod can't do so, but it's not the only pod out there. True, the other pods have their own territories, but they are close enough to befriend each other. They only ask him to be sure this is what he wants. It is.

So, in the end they can still have a happy ever after 😊

[yolowritter]

Lilanette Week: Body Swap!

Hello there everyone, and welcome back to my insanity! I ran into a few technical issues yesterday, hence the delay, but we're back now and you're getting double the Lilanette! It's a Win-Win, really! Anyway, I only have one more complete fic for this event and it's the Free Space on Saturday, but I figured I should still give you all the cliffnotes that @nicodemoon and I came up with! As an aside, this is a future au taking place sometime during their college years.

So, our story begins with Ladybug, and an Akumatized Villain! Do not ask me what their name is, I beg of thee. Naturally, they have the power to swap bodies between 2 targets, because Chrysalis is very smart. She's already forced the Akuma to blast her, and now only needs either Ladybug or Chat to get hit. Ladybug discerns this by the fact that no civilians are being attacked. Anyway, Chat tries to take the hit for her, but unfortunately...the Akuma just bashes him aside and blasts Ladybug anyway. Marinette opens her eyes to find herself in a dark, cramped place. The Parisian Catacombs, of course. Naturally she immediately notices that she's in Chrysalis' body and detransforms, running around to find a mirror. And when she does...Marinette has no idea who she's looking at. Yes this is inspired by that episode Flash and Lex Luthor from the animated series. Of course she asks Nooroo for the girl's name, but since she technically isn't his Holder, the poor Kwami just gets a case of bubble-mouth. Knowing she has limited time and that her own ID is most likely compromised, Marinette wracks her brain to figure out why this girl looks vaguely familiar. And then...she remembers! Because civilian!Chrysalis (lets say one of Lila's other identities) has actually met Marinette before! Where, you ask? In a bar of course, where she half-drunkenly asked her out on a date because she was pretty! At the time, Alya had been with Marinette so she didn't accept, but that's the memory that sticks out to her. Immediately after this, Ladybug blinks, finding herself back in her own body with the Miraculous Cure zipping through Paris. Chat compliments her for being incredible as always (possibly not having seen her get hit at all), but comments that she probably didn't need to take things as far as she did. We can assume that Lila-Bug went in the cartoonish violence direction to defeat the Akuma. Anyway, Ladybug goes home, anxious about Chrysalis possibly knowing her identity. In fact, she doesn't get a wink of sleep because of what happened last time (London Special). But in the morning, at 9am to be exact, her doorbell rings. Marinette isn't expecting anybody, so she holds her Miraculous close and goes to answer. Opening the door, she sees civilian!Chrysalis awkwardly standing there with a bouquet of flowers. She says hi and nervously asks Marinette on a date, which she accepts this time. End Fic!

Why does this entire thing happen? Because Lila wanted to find out Ladybug's identity. She's already developed a crush on Marinette, and this would be a bit funnier if we add a small beginning section with Lila ID #27 somewhere in the background. Something like attending a lecture in college, a coffee shop, you guys get the gist. Naturally, since her identity is compromised, Lila has nothing to lose and decides to shoot her shot with the local superheroine. Lilanette is presumed to ensue, and everyone is happy!

Obviously I didn't have time to write all of this in real fic format, but I still wanted to share what was drafted for this prompt. Shame I didn't get to make a fic because I think it's hilarious, but Saturday is much more important! Anyhoo, I'll see you all...in like 20 minutes with the Spooky prompt rant, similarly to this, but until then, Stay Miraculous everyone!

[jesuis-melodrama]

Thoughts on Miraculous World: London – At The Edge of Time

Miraculous Specials generally have no bearing on the plot. Think about Miraculous New York and Miraculous Shanghai, they could've been never produced and the narrative would've been exactly the same for it. Even the well-written Miraculous Paris have no influence on the main narrative except, perhaps, giving the Adrien and Marinette some perspective which they might never show. I don't think either of them are going to discuss that time their alternate selves came into their world again.

But Miraculous London surprised me. I had a lot of people asking me what I thought of it, because the writing turns out to be quality, and I agree.

I think the writers wanted to start Season 6 off with a bang, they didn't want to deal with all the nitty-gritty and the 'closing up of loose ends' at what is meant to be a fresh beginning. So they created Miraculous London in order complete the first arc of Miraculous, the Gabriel Agreste Arc, even though the story was not set in London. London appeared briefly, as a guest location. The special would've been more suitable named as Miraculous World: Bunnyx's Burrow – Spying on the Timeline.

Firstly, it's pretty lame that Lila cannot change the rules of Akumatisation. Who made up this concrete rule that Akumas have to forget everything they did? I always assumed it was because the people were being taken advantage of without their consent so their memory is purged once the infection is lifted, but even for people who were Akumatised willingly?? Even for the Butterfly Miraculous Holder themselves?? I think this just comes down to plot convenience.

Marinette, who usually goes into hysterics when faced with failure or impossible situations (think the end of Season 4), is disturbingly calm as she goes to free Kagami and Adrien.

This change of attitude, change of reaction, symbolises a growth in her character, a development that is forced upon her. And Marinette demonstrates her ability to lead and compartmentalise by stoically accepting the brutal responsibility.

I will commend the writers for portraying Adrien's grief very well.

Also, I'm pretty sure this pose is meant to reference Evangelion, it's far too close. And we all know Monsieur Astruc is an anime nerd.

The breaking of the background and the colour scale going to black-and-white (left) to represent his numbness and landslide loneliness is quite revolutionary for Miraculous' animation, which, famously, has stuck to the same, increasingly uninventive models and sets.

Lying to Adrien, at this point, however, is also plot convenience.

Bug Noire rationalises it pretty well in the special, explaining to Nathalie coherently why no one should tell Adrien the truth. But it's not a logical thing to do. Do they plan to keep lying to Adrien forever? Never reveal the true identity of Papillon, till the day he dies? Nathalie plans on taking this information to the grave? Marinette intends to marry and have children with a man that she keeps the truth of his own father from?

Marinette thinking that this is the best thing to do – placing everything on her shoulders in a desperate attempt to shelter Adrien – makes sense. She's young, she's self-loathing, she tends to make rash decisions where she takes the brunt of the damage. Nathalie not telling the truth to the authorities so she can continue to act as Adrien's legal guardian, I personally would've advised for to make that decision. But Nathalie agreeing with Bug Noire's hare-brained scheme is implausible. She's a grown woman who should've learned, at this point, that keeping the truth from someone, especially a truth as crucial as this, is not going to work out.

Again, do they plan on lying to Adrien for the rest of his life? How is Marinette supposed to carry on when their children start asking her and Adrien about the late Grandfather Gabriel? The fandom enjoys bringing up Chat Blanc as an excuse for not telling Adrien anything, but I don't think we're all remembering that episode correctly. Adrien wasn't driven to madness by the weight of secrets, he was forced during that episode to act by Gabriel under duress. Given time, space, and understanding, he can absorb this new, hitting truth without world-ending dramatics.

Perhaps Nathalie is lying and reassuring Bug Noire's frayed mental state by pretending she's going to adhere to her plan but is secretly planning on telling Adrien after a few months when things die down. I sure hope so. Because everyone – Nathalie, Marinette, Félix, Kagami – in his life all banding together to lie to Adrien is overkill and plain ridiculous. I fully support Adrien becoming a supervillain when he finds out, because what the hell.

In brighter news, I love the design of 60 years old Alix. The glasses, the fur-lined waistcoat, the black bowtie – gorgeous. They're leaning more into the Alice in Wonderland theme the older Alix gets. I'm pretty sure Fluff is inspired by the White Rabbit. A bunny with time-travelling powers whose Miraculous is a waistwatch? Someone on the writing team reads Victorian literature.

Also, after repetitive seasons of unnecessary fillers, I love how Lila gets started on a plan straight away. Like I said, I'm surprised by how relevant Miraculous London is, it jumps right into the plot. Lila, of course, isn't like Gabriel. She's not going to waste time making grand plans, casting illusions. She knows what she wants and she's heading straight for it.

Chronobug getting a neat little gold finish after wearing Bunnyx's fluorescent vest was fun. I love how yellow she is, and all her spots are illuminated with a diamond glitter effect. It reminds me of the 22-spot ladybug and of the old power-up edits artists created for Marinette post-Season 2.

I do have to wonder – was that fluorescent vest a special material? I doubt it, because at the end of the special, when Marinette de-transforms and casts her healing magic, you like see the vest floating away like a discarded plastic bag. Interesting thing that fanfic writers might want to incorporate into their stories, apparently the colour of the parka your characters wear may determine the colour of their battle-suit.

I really, really liked this shot.

It's the small details that really let you know how much effort the writers put into their story. One of my biggest irks about the negligence of small details in Miraculous comes from this magazine cover in Season 4's Optigami:

Where the subtitles and headings are nonsense Latin. The writers couldn't be bothered to change it to the most generic statement: Adrien Agreste Shocks In Teal was the bare minimum they could've done. They could've described what he was wearing, and they chose to do nothing. This always bothered me, because for all that Miraculous started as a single man's passion project, I'm not seeing a whole lot of passion in it. I can't see soul. The fact that the writers are willing to skip out on small details like this tells me of the lack of focus they're putting into the visual media.

But that scene, where Chronobug slides under her desk – you know those video games where the set are completely untouchable? You're an avatar who always get prevented by a forcefield when you try to go near a desk? That's what the animation of Miraculous always seemed like to me, the characters can't interact with their surroundings, and that only cements the uncanny effect. Chronobug being able to go under her desk is such a small but relieving detail. It make her world feels more real.

Goofy-ahh pose.

Real talk: I love how well-thought out Ghost's power is, especially compared to her more combat-able alternate, Timestalker (? for this name, I had to find it out from the Miraculous Wiki. Really? Timestalker? That was the best they could come up with? To be fair, I was criticising Miraculous for not being literal just a paragraph ago...). Ghost's only ability is to phase through solid objects, and it's perfect for her mission to retrieve all the Miraculous. She can't fight, because she doesn't need to fight. It's her purpose and her defence against any pesky heroes that comes her way, and it highlights Lila's caution and her dedication to her task.

Unlike Gabriel, who's often so lost in his own emotions (think of the many times he insisted on going after Ladybug even though Chat Noir's Miraculous is right there, or in the episode Evolution when he could've saved Emilie but chose to pursue Ladybug in revenge instead), Lila is filled with rage, but she's capable of separating her feelings from her goal. It makes her much more calculating and dangerous than Gabriel.

That being said: what on Earth is Lila's goal? What did she Wish for? Did she already knew about the Miraculous, and that's why she went after? How did she come to uncover Gabriel's undercover identity as Monarque? Season 5 never explained it, Lila just finds out off-screen. Although the special does wrap up loose ends, it doesn't answer everything. I always thought that Lila was just an opportunistic girl who lies to get what she wants, but turns out she has three identities? The theory that she's a time traveller from the future who came back to defeat Ladybug before she reaches her prime still stands, but I can't decide whether or not I want the writers to head in that direction.

Watching the trailer, I thought Félix was Ghost, or that the special would be related to him in some way, seeing that he lives in London, but Félix wasn't even mentioned.

I hope we get to see a lot more of Félix in Season 6, I hope that his relationship with Adrien gets more development. I'm fascinated with sibling (or cousin) relationships, because it's been an integral part of my personal life, and it's a relationship I always zero in on in any media I consume.

This line from Ladybug is incorrect:

"There's nothing I can do [against Ghost]".

She can take all the Miraculous before Ghost gets to them, but the point stands that for the sake of the plot, she has to prevent Ghost from ever discovering her identity.

I can't believe they mentioned Troublemaker, as if Miraculous has a linear storyline. For so long, Miraculous' episodic format has haunted it, all development is wiped away at the start of the next episode and the characters never grow. Miraculous likes to pretend it's linear, but that aspiration is busted when you realise that means twelve days canonically passed between the Christmas Special of Season 1 and the celebration of King's Day in Dearest Family in Season 4. I hope this mention of the past means that there will be less focus on filler and more on telling a relevant story in Season 6.

I don't understand why Ladybug can't take the Butterfly Miraculous when she saw it dangling at the edge of the catwalk over the pool in Gabriel's underground tomb. What set future events is she disturbing? Lila making a Wish is a set future event, but it's okay to disturb that but not okay to prevent her from ever getting her mitts on the Butterfly Miraculous? The story picks and chooses what's allowed and what's not, I can't figure out the rules around it.

Also, Gabriel made his wish to save Nathalie? Wow. I did not expect that. So, Gabriel did wise up a little at the end. Emilie is not going to return for Season 6, she has completely passed away, and it is Amélie we saw at the end of Re-Creation. Season 6 really is going to be a clean slate, none of the major antagonistic figures of the old will have a role in it. I hope this means the writers have paved a well-thought way for Lila, and she truly is going to shine as a villain.

That being sad; how can Lila use the Butterfly Miraculous limitlessly? The special shows her acting two different Akumas on herself without exertion. While she is still proven to be a child? Her ability to utilise its power is also adroit, how is she managing that? How is she literally using the Butterfly Miraculous better in six hours than Gabriel has managed for a full year? This supports the theory that Lila is a future Butterfly Miraculous Holder who came back in time because how else is her familiarity and confidence supposed to be explained?

Tell Adrien the truth. I cannot emphasise this enough. Miscommuncation is a dull, dull plot point. I don't want to see characters fumbling around each other like blindfolded men. I want to see them try their best and still fail. It's more terrifying that way, it's more impactful.

This horror segment is done pretty well:

When Chronobug widens her eyes and the music reaches that low, horror movie-esque strings. The terror that hits her as she realises that the lights are supposed to be off by default. This is a clever way of demonstrating her deductive skills because it's a deduction the audience can make alongside her. We watched at the beginning of the special how Ladybug stepped into the stairway filled with light and we assumed that was the norm with it. It's only until the lights turned off after Ladybug's exit that you realised: hey, that's not right. It means someone entered just before we did!

Real clever. This is a bit of actual intelligence. Miraculous is usually filled with convolution schemes that had no realism, so it makes Marinette's intelligence seem a little far-fetched. How can anyone (adult viewers, especially) buy Ladybug's cleverness when her plans of trapping Akumas with a spoon and a towel is plain ridiculous? But this is real, this is possible. A Sherlock Holmes moment, which Bunnyx even explicitly referenced.

More evidence supporting that Lila is a Future Butterfly Miraculous Holder, her identity as Timestalker more than a fair physical for Ladybug.

Akumas usually fail to get the upper hand on Ladybug when they go melee one-on-one with her, but Timestalker managed to successfully repel Ladybug. The choreograph was really well done.

This shot, where Chronobug and Bunnyx are highlighted as two bright but tiny splotches on a pure white landscape, it really screams This isn't over. You are still puny, you have no idea what you're in for. Meaningful visual storytelling. It's them against the big, wide world.

Lila has such a cute set-out here. I like that she purchased all watches that she used as her Akumatised object, and they seem like pretty expensive watches too, if they came with their own gift boxes. Her brown leather shoulder bag is adorable, and I like that she has a stand for her notebook. This is a sophisticated girl who knows the importance of presentation.

I'm going to lose it. Remember what I said about the writers not caring about the small details? What is the writing at the top of the page supposed to be? Viking runes? They couldn't be bothered to spend ten minutes recounting the story in word form?

I love how angry Lila's voice gets, how it trembles as she says "Why did I write that? Did something go wrong with my PLAN?" We're starting to see elements of her real personality, her quick fury, her violent temper. She's a perfectionist, and despite her low exam scores, meticulous in planning and quite intelligent, enough to be a match for Ladybug, until she had to settle for a stalemate rather than a complete victory.

Neither of them won anything. Ladybug still doesn't have the Butterfly Miraculous and Lila doesn't have her identity.

Whenever we see Lila post-Confrontation, she's always dressed up in some disguise or the other, to fool people. This is the first time we've seen her where she has no need to camoflauge herself. So, is this what Lila actually looks like? She has pale blonde hair and lavender eyes? Her outfit is also super cute, serving private school in a V-neck woollen blouse, white shirt, and pleated skirt. It looks quite similar to the leaked Season 6 concept art of Lila where she looks like she's going to sell me Girl Scout cookies.

So, I think the resemblance in the outfit means that this leaked concept art is genuine, as the eye and hair colour and outfit match (they're even saving money by keeping Lila's tights and re-colouring her boots).

I wonder how Lila's voice actor feels. Did she always knew she was going to have a big role? Lila had one appearance in Season 1, vanished for the entirety of Season 2, and while enjoyed better representation in Season 4+5, it's nowhere close to Gabriel's once-in-a-episode cameo. If the same format plays out for Lila Butterfly, that means Lila will be appearing once in an episode. I look forward to that, I think Lisa Kay Jennings has a beautiful voice for Lila; soulful and sly.

Finally: why does Miraculous Holders have a ridiculous amount of power over the Kwami? It doesn't make sense. Canonically, Kwami are the physical form of abstract concepts. The Miraculous is nothing more than a vessel for their power to be channelled through, so that the Miraculous Holder can wield their abilities. It's not some sort of collar, and it certainly doesn't explain why Gabriel can mute Nooroo and how Lila can just freeze him in a single snap. Why does the narrative keep insisting that these forces older than Earth are childish and incapable and naïve? I feel like the Kwami shouldn't even care about humanity, not because they're evil, but because they don't understand and they don't want to understand. Human civilisation will, after all, pass in the blink of an eye for them. Instead, they're so concerned with little things like secret identities. Yes, I know the answer is because it's a cartoon. It's still not a well-written plausbility.

The London Special does a great job adding facets to Marinette. She cares, but she's short-sighted. She tries her best, but she's still not enough. She's so empathetic, she's selfish. She considers everyone, to the point that it goes back to what is most convenient for herself. I don't like Marinette – I think that anyone who follows me for a length and read my stories can tell – but I still respect her character and give her credit where it's due. And she is wonderfully five-dimensional.

The story goes over-the-top at proving her brilliance sometimes, however. Why does Marinette have the ability to re-make the Miraculous? It took Gabriel Agreste an unholy amount of research, money, privacy, and technology to melt the Miraculous down into his rings. You're telling me that Marinette can undo all that with spare equipment she found around her bedroom? What?

Just in general, the London Special was really good. All my mutuals were right, there are issue, but the writing is quality. This gives me hope for Season 6 (and expectations too, unfortunately), and I hope that the story will continue to move forward.

Also, regarding the animation, I found out from its Miraculous Wiki page that it was done by SAMG which, sadly, we may not be seeing them anymore, as Season 6 is supposed to be animated entirely by Dwarf Animation, a French company, who also produced the Miraculous film. I'm glad that Zag Toon is finally keeping it local. Out-sourcing their animation work to multiple different international companies not only means that the quality is inconsistent and that the episode order is whack, but it also spells some pretty ugly intentions for their corporation too. Mainly that they don't care about art, but keeping things cheap. Miraculous already looks pretty cheap. If I didn't know any better, I would say it seems to be a small indie series; with its uninspiring models, lack of extra characters (featuring a completely empty Paris), but Miraculous is one of the most popular animated shows, shows in general in the world. They're making bank on merchandising and streaming. So, why does none of that profit shows in their animation? What Dwarf did for the Miraculous movie was spectacular, and I can only hope they'll bring that level of quality to its main series.

[flightfoot]

I crave chat blanc fics

please, recs for the angsty kitty?

Sure! Just warning you, but I'll probably have some incomplete fics in here, if I think they're good enough.

---

the last day on earth by Reiaiji

The first time Marinette sees Chat Blanc, she's fourteen years old. The second time, fifteen—the third time, seventeen. The closer she grows to Adrien, the harder it is to save him.

---

been here before by Boogum

The sight of Marinette with her hair down is a slip of ice on his spine. It's the little prickles that creep along his skin, whispering to his soul of familiarity. Of been here before. It's the haze of dreams and echoes of loneliness and ice, and it leaves him frozen. Or, in which Adrien starts to remember the events of Chat Blanc.

---

Blanc Out by @11jj11

They always knew how dangerous it would be if one of them was akumatized, but what Marinette didn't realize was the emotional pain that would come along with that. But now as she faces Chat Blanc she begins to realize just how much she needs and misses her partner. Hawk Moth seems determined not to lose this akuma though, Chat retreating at any sign he might falter, leading one battle to stretch out into many. What pushed him to this state, allowing Hawk Moth to turn him? And what about the times when Hawk Moth is not in control, when her kitty is roaming the streets of Paris, akumatized and alone?

---

Bell The Cat by @heartfulselkie

Ladybug is the Miraculous Hero of Gallia. She has spent the past number of years fighting the minions of the tyrant Hawk Moth, only for the war to come to an abrupt end. News reveals that Hawk Moth was brutally slain by his own champion and captain of his own elite guard - the infamous knight Chat Blanc, known to wield pure destruction itself. With the disintegration of Hawk Moth's army, Chat Blanc is captured and imprisoned until his certain execution. Being a beloved hero and instrumental in the realm's defences during the war, Ladybug is offered a reward of her choosing. Instead of choosing a title or luxuries as expected she chooses...custody of Chat Blanc??? A new threat is rising in the chasm Hawk Moth left behind, and Ladybug believes Chat Blanc's knowledge and skill will be vital in what's to come. And perhaps he could also answer some questions that have plagued her since even before the war with Hawk Moth began..

---

Bathed in White by @coloradopeculiar

Ladybug was vaguely aware of Chat Noir’s worried cry and Sandboy’s victorious laugh. It slowly registered that she had gotten hit. A nightmare of hers would come to life, but which one would it be? Would she lose her powers again? What about her memories? Would Alya show up mid battle claiming her allegiance to Shadow Moth? What if-. Dread ran through her blood, cold and dark. ‘Please, no. Anything but that, anything but him.’ Ladybug pleaded with whoever was listening. No such luck. “Why hello there, My Lady.”

---

Hallucinate by JuliaFC

When the power of an akuma gives Marinette hallucinations, her words open more than one can of worms. And one especially, she would never have wanted Adrien to know about.

---

I hope these are satisfactory!

[kisilinramblings]

Post Wish

Little reminder, but the green and sustainable vision of Paris we see is real and not a part of Gabriel's Wish. It is due to Mayor Bustier's electoral program.

Ivan and Mylène told Marinette that Ms Bustier had incorporated Mylène's ecological suggestions to her program at the beginning of Representation, And during her interview, Caline also specifies this much change was possible because everyone accepted and got involved into making a greener and more sustainable Paris. And the images we see are blueprints for the future. Paris isn't already like that, but they are on their way to building it to become like those sketches.

No, Gabriel's Wish didn't altered the entire world. It altered Adrien's world.

====

Bug Noire : Except you will only have a few hours left to live. So does Nathalie, a victim of your madness. And Adrien will be miserable. That is the sad truth. My power won't be able to remedy it. If you meant what you said earlier, then we both want the same thing. We want Adrien to be happy. And that was also your wife's greatest wish.

Émilie : Don't be sad, Nathalie. You know that I had agreed to it, that Gabriel never forced me to do anything. But he should never try to bring me back. No one should have their life stolen from them because of a mistake that we made. You must continue to be happy, even though I'm no longer here. As long as there is love, it is possible. Adrien will be well surrounded. He'll have you, Nathalie, and he'll have his father, if Gabriel agrees to give up on his madness... and on me. Adrien will have all the love he needs to be happy.

Bug Noire : And that's what happened. Adrien has learned to live and build his own happiness while cherishing the memory of his mother. She would be proud of him.

====

Gabriel's Wish in the end remains obscure. But all we see during the post scene is that Nathalie is still alive weeks later, while Gabriel has died. And Adrien is well-surrounded, free and happy.

Since Gabriel couldn't live in a world without Émilie, it seems to point out that he ultimately made a suicidal wish, therefore allowing himself to be united with Émilie again - just not among the living - while also granting Émilie's wish for Adrien to be happy.

That is my interpretation of it.

[wisteriasymphony]

aw man I still have ideas for SAMAU. (hope you don't mind @dreamer-in-a-far-away-land hehe)

CONTENT WARNING: GRAPHIC VIOLENCE. EYES GET SCOOPED. this too is yuri

It was one of the few nights Marinette was sure she wasn't being watched. Whoever-Was-Up-There's eyes must've all been closed, or maybe (and more likely) tonight was just a different target. Either way, she slipped out through the trapdoor leading to the roof, and let herself fall all the way down to the street, disturbing nothing more than a few smooth pebbles when she hit the ground.

Cerise's hideout wasn't far, if she remembered correctly.

Getting around to it the "odd way", as Adrien had started to put it, carried a subtle, yet rational sense of danger to it. Clipping the walls was less risky and something Marinette hoped she was starting to get the hang of, but when it came to gaps through the ground she needed to be a little more careful. Falling at just the right angle and just the right speed could mean death.

...Well, not 'death' in the way that people made up, where you stop being the second you get too hurt. Death, real death, where you wake up in your bed with freshly pressed clothes and no memory of what you were doing. Sometimes no memories at all. Marinette didn't want to think about what would happen if she forgot everything her and Adrien were working towards.

As the solid blue of the night sky shone both from above and below, Marinette kept throwing and recalling her yo-yo (difficult to use outside of costume, but not impossible), grappling down to the misshapen boxes that made up the Parisian sewers.

"Cerise? ...Cerise..... Lila?"

Marinette's footsteps sound the same against the wet stone of the sewers. While this used to be something she thought was normal, Marinette stops to play with it now—A lighter step here, tiptoe there, two heavy steps one after the other. All the same sound. Something tells her it shouldn't be, though.

In the darkest corner, Marinette sees a figure curled up against the wall. Cerise breaths heavily, shaking, as she raises a spoon to her eye.

The two girls stop to stare at each other when their presence is mutually known.

Cerise looks away—with one brown eye, one green—and mutters aloud to Marinette:

"S-sorry, I... They messed up my eye. I've been trying to get it out forever."

Cerise's green eye is red and bloodshot, which only seems to corroborate this. Despite the darkness surrounding them, the spoon carries the same reflections it had from whenever it was stolen, the glint of a kitchen cabinet on its handle. Cerise keeps it inches away from her lower eyelid, panicked but still determined.

Marinette sits down next to Cerise, and the feeling makes her gut do backflips. Weeks ago, she would've sworn Lila was her biggest enemy, even more so than Hawkmoth. How stupid was she to be giving sympathy to someone so evil? ...That was what the Whoever-Was-Up-There wanted her to think, though. Marinette wasn't keen on trusting her gut anymore.

"If you do it with one hand, Cerise, I can hold the other one."

"...I think I need both," she confesses sheepishly. "You have the other miraculouses with you, right? Can any of them dull pain?"

"Oh! Yeah, the rooster. I can use that." Marinette stood up, shaking out her yo-yo until the thumb ring fell into her open hand. "...You're fine with waiting, right? I haven't found a way around the sequence yet."

"it's fine. ...I like watching it. Yours has always been pretty."

Marinette smiled, fitting the thumb ring onto her left hand.

"Tikki, Orikko, unify!"

Nothing happened. ...Marinette tried again. Still, nothing happened. Darn it—That wasn't written yet either. She probably didn't even have a costume for Roosterbug yet.

Cerise slowly lowered the spoon from her eye, instead dragging the edge of its bowl against her forearm. It was useless to get her hopes up over something so simple anyways.

"...It's fine, I can just keep trying myself."

"No, Cerise..."

Marinette took in a breath, holding it behind her teeth.

"Give me the spoon," she suggests. "I'll get it out for you."

Cerise did what she was asked, and Marinette let her fingers close around the handle of the spoon. Cerise was still up against the wall and floor, and Marinette was still standing. She thought for a moment about what to do, her thumb rubbing the handle as she went through every possible course of action in her mind.

She'd start from below the eye, and dig up.

Cerise was surprisingly calm when Marinette planted her foot right on the girl's chest. With one hand holding the weapon, Marinette used the other to press on Cerise's forehead, pinning it back against the wall. For what felt like hours, the two waited, silently, breathlessly...

Marinette worked in the bowl of the spoon to sit between Cerise's eyelid and eyeball—Cerise thrashed a bit, only on instinct. That was the easy part.

The hardest part came later, as Marinette had to ignore Cerise's cries of pain as she slowly forced the green eye out.

It was a blessing that Paris rarely had casualties during the day, that the world would work around preventing injury and death. To hear screams like this on a daily basis would break Marinette, and she knew it. The metal of the spoon continued to tear at the dry flesh, nothing spraying out of the eye sockets or dripping down Cerise's face—not even a glimmer of tears. And all the while Cerise was howling.

"Cerise, I don't know if I should—"

Cerise latched onto Marinette's wrist with both hands, keeping her from pulling the spoon away. Her deep brown, liquid eye stared up at Marinette with a look of horror—Where their bodies met, they could feel eachothers' heartbeat—and yet she begged her attacker to "just keep going".

Frazzled, Marinette fought herself to continue digging, feeling the weight of the eyeball as it rested in her bowl of the spoon, and as the blunt edge kept cutting up and up and up, the green eye was eventually pried from its socket.

It fell on the floor with a dull, wet slap. It made no sense that Cerise could still see through it, that she could look one way and the eye would still turn.

Cerise kicked it away and let the eye roll, slow and lazy as it fell off the ledge and into the river of sewage. Gone forever, if she had the will to hope such a thing could happen.

Marinette bent down to Cerise's level, dragging a hand across her bone-dry cheek. Her head was completely hollow, and Marinette grimaced as she realized hers was likely the same. Marinette poked her thumb into Cerise's empty socket, and the air inside Cerise felt no different than the air around them.

"A.... Are you okay?"

Cerise couldn't find her words at first, dizzy from the pain.

"Thank you."

"...I'm going to try and hold off on using Lucky Charm as long as I can tomorrow, okay?" Marinette confides. "Just so you're in the know."

Cerise nods, keeping her one-eyed gaze stuck to the floor. Marinette couldn't keep her own off the hollow in Cerise's head, noticing the beginnings of hair strands clipping through the thin dome of skin. It was terrifying, the idea that inside of everyone... was just nothing.

"Do you know who they're going to have you akumatize?"

Cerise shakes her head guiltily. "I won't know until morning."

Marinette takes in another breath, before acquiescing with a "That's fine. Like Adrien always says... We'll know when we know."

She instantly regretted bringing him up. Adrien was a sore topic with the both of them, and always had been.

"...I'm sorry."

"It wasn't something any of us could choose, Cerise." Marinette bites her lip—To admit it disturbs a weight she's kept for some time now, but she does anyways. "It feels wrong to blame you now. For anything."

"I still don't know how I'll make it up to you."

"Just keep playing your part, like all of us have."

When Marinette left, Cerise was still crawled up against the wall, still waiting out the pain. If there was anything consistent about Whatever-Was-Up-There, it was that every morning began the same. She'd have her eye back when she woke up.

[lady-charinette]

Shadows of Chat Blanc

Sometimes, Marinette dreams of going on dates with Chat Noir. Always, Chat Noir is a true romantic, whispering sweet nothings in her ear. Once, Chat Noir promised her something that made the blood in her veins freeze. "I would even give you the moon, princess." Her dream changed. She wasn't with Chat Noir anymore, somebody else greeted her. His smile never reached his icy blue eyes, so unlike her kitty. And yet, all the same. "I did good, didn't I? I gave you the moon, purrincess, I did good, right?!"

It was a cool evening, but his arms around her allowed Marinette to feel none of the chill.

Paris was quiet, a serene city plagued by chaos and nightmares during the day to be granted some respite in the evenings.

Sometimes, Marinette wished this moment could last forever.

The warmth of her kitty left her when he stood up, standing on top of her balcony railing and offering her his hand with a kind smile. “Just say the word princess and I’ll grant you any wish.”

A smile lit up her face and Marinette took Chat Noir’s offered hand. “Silly kitty, what if I ask for something impossible?”

Chat Noir leaned his head down, grabbing both of her hands into his own to pepper gentle kisses on her knuckles. “I would even give you the moon.”

Marinette smiled, leaning in to kiss him sweetly when ice rushed down her spine like lightning.

The moon.

Behind Chat Noir, the image of the brightly shining moon flickered.

Distorted.

Disappeared.

“No.”

Something snapped, a distant image filled Marinette’s mind.

A dream.

A vision.

A memory.

The warmth of her evening date with Chat Noir disappeared, replaced by the rush of harsh winter prickling her skin like sharp blades.

A soft thud behind her alerted her of another’s presence and when Marinette turned around, she swore the cold around her froze her very blood.

Standing before her isn’t Chat Noir anymore, but Chat Blanc.

Striking green eyes became piercingly blue, betraying the pain and anger that consumed him. That plagued him.

Chat Blanc offered Marinette his hand, a distorted mirror image of her kitty from mere moments before. But his smile was pained, drawn tight over the corners, all teeth.

No warmth.

“I did good, didn’t I?” his words struck her chest like a physical blow.

“…What?” Marinette shook her head, the burn in her eyes worsening when she spotted the rising water consuming the buildings. The floating bodies.

A haunting laugh.

“Here purrincess, I gave you the moon. I did good, didn’t I?”

A dull thumping sound echoes in Marinette’s ears and she realized Chat Blanc had grabbed one of her hands, like Chat Noir had done, only he didn’t kiss her hands, he pressed them over his heart. Each pulse a reminder of the agony that coursed through his veins, a desolate existence, where warmth and life have been extinguished, replaced by the unbearable chill that grips him from within.

A chill that threatened to consume her whole.

Marinette wrenched her hand away, stumbling backward.

Chat Blanc’s eyes narrowed at Marinette’s silence and actions. He crawled towards her form on the ground, claws digging into her arms as he gripped her close. “I did good, didn’t I?! Wasn’t this what you wanted?!”

His maniacal laughter drowned out all the alarm bells ringing in her mind, the icy shower covering her body replaced with the white-hot pain of Chat Blanc’s claws digging into her arms.

His shoulders suddenly slumped low, the world was silent until Chat Blanc lifted his head again, stark white hair falling into icy blue eyes.

Hollow.

“I said I did good, isn’t that right, little bug?” Chat Blanc traced his fingers across her jaw and gripped her chin, the claws nicking her skin, a river of blood trailing down her neck.

Chat Blanc licked his lips at that, Marinette swallowed thickly.

“I did everything you told me to, Marinette!” Chat Blanc’s voice filled with malice as it taunted her.

This is all your fault!

When Marinette found her world changing again, she woke up in her room, her bed damp with cold sweat.

When her eyes landed on Tikki sleeping peacefully, her body finally relaxed, evidence that her recurring nightmare didn’t turn into reality.

Again.

Gazing out through her window, Marinette’s gaze stayed transfixed on the source of the white glow that illuminated the dark night sky.

The moon.

Hope you enjoyed! Angsty prompts are welcome :3

[airi-p4]

Spark joy

Hi! I wrote a new short fic. It's the one I shared for this past Six Sentence Sunday.

Enjoy?

Summary:

When Alya and Sabine scold Marinette, she finally cleans up and tidies her room.

…and her heart.

AO3

_____________________________

It all started with her best friend's comment:

"Girl, I have no idea how you plan to find anything in this mess! No wonder you lose and forget everything!"

…Which her mother's scolding seconded:

"Marinette, what's with this mess!? I know it’s summer vacation but you should tidy up your room. C'mon! Clean it up!"

"But-" the girl tried to protest, but was interrupted.

"If you don't, then I'll do it myself. And I'll throw away whatever I feel like. Don't come crying to me if you miss something!" 

Marinette knew from the hands on her hips, the annoyed brows and the threatening tone, that she was being serious.

"No, please! Don't throw anything away! I'll do it!"

"Tomorrow is Sunday. I want to see everything clean and tidy by the end of the day!"

"Okay…"

___

They were both right: her room was untidy. 

A total mess. 

But how was she supposed to tidy up her room? All cupboards, drawers and boxes were already stuffed. Where was she supposed to put all her new staff in these conditions?

A visit to Mylene's house that Saturday afternoon gave her a completely new impression.

Minimalistic. Green. Tidy.

Pretty. 

"Wow, Mylene. Your room is so clean and tidy!" Marinette admired it, looking around. "How do you always keep it so nice?"

"Have you ever heard of 'the life-changing magic of tidying up'? Or Marie Kondo?"

Mylene opened her eyes with a new vision of the world.

___

The main idea of Mylene's advice to tidy up her room was easy: 

You ask yourself a question about a certain item: "does it spark joy to you?" 

If the answer is "yes," it stays, if the answer is "no," it goes away.

Moreover, it is important to take notice of how your body reacts to the object. 

Tidying up with this method consists of repeating this process until only items that spark joy remain.

Simple. 

Even Marinette should be able to do it.

She decided to try it out.

Back at home, she started with the items on her desk.

The sewing machine, the fabrics, the accessories, the glitter, the buttons, the measuring tape, the scissors… all the sewing tools and supplies- they all sparked joy. They were clearly staying.

Her school books and homework… they didn't spark joy. But those were obligations- responsibilities-, just like her earrings. She couldn't throw them away (even if she secretly wished to sometimes).

Her drawing tools and crafting materials; stickers, washi tapes, patterned paper and sketchbooks… They were all surely staying. So much joy in drawing and designing!

She continued looking around when her little friend approached.

"What about this, Marinette?" Tikki asked, carrying a dusty exotic mask around. "I don't think you need this…"

"No! Don't throw it away, Tikki!" She quickly grabbed it. "I got this from one of grandma Ginna's trips! I have to keep it!" 

"Does it spark joy, then?"

"It does! Well, not exactly, but we had a welcome party for her that day, and papa baked a cake that day. It brings back good memories!" She fondly recalled. "The mask stays. And so do all of granny Ginna's souvenirs!"

"What about Ginna's candy…?" 

"Oh- Ugh… I thought I had gotten rid of all of them…" she made a disgusted expression. "Definitely doesn't spark joy. We're throwing them. It's not a secret anymore that I don't like them so…"

"That's true," Tikki nodded, throwing the candy inside the trash bin. 

Marinette moved to her cupboard next.

"All my clothes obviously stay!"

"Aren't these too small for you, Marinette?" Tikki asked at the sight of child sized outfits.

"They are, but I plan to reuse them for creating new pieces of clothing- giving them a second life. There's that '3R: recycling, reuse and reduce' event that Mylene promotes coming soon. We gotta do what we can to save the planet!"

Tikki nodded with a grin, and proceeded to imitate Marinette's arms in a cross shape pose, ready to say a tv program's motto in unison:

"Little changes are powerful!"

They laughed together as they continued tidying up.

___

"My bed!" Marinette jumped, wiggling her legs. "The cat plushie is obviously staying!" She hummed happily. "And the books and the night light too!" She collected and put them back on the shelf.

"Comfy" Tikki muffled snuggling the long cushion. 

Marinette giggled at her cuteness. 

“Should I throw my alarm clock away…?” she asked, cheekily. “Marinette, don’t!”

“I’m joking, Tikki!” She laughed at the kwami’s protest.

"Okay, next is-" 

Her heart skipped a beat, and suddenly, her mood dropped- body tense and mouth turning into a flat line.

"What's wrong, Marinette?" Tikki asked. But then she looked where Marinette was staring at and she understood.

The cork board… and the photos.

"Oh…"

Adrien's photos had been there for a long time. Since that rainy day when he gave her his umbrella and that thunder struck some months ago- and when she (and her friends, including Tikki) had convinced herself that it had been love at first sight, just because of a nice one-time gesture. 

Since then, she had done some crazy things to get Adrien's attention- some on her own and some others encouraged by others- all of them with the same result: a fiasco. Only embarrassment and humiliation from her part. 

It was tiring.

Plus the model boy had never paid special attention to her anyway… 

Well, except-

The lucky charm Adrien gave her for her birthday. 

Right- she hadn't cleaned up that drawer yet…

He did put effort into it, since it was handmade. 

For a "friend," he had said. 

It was so obvious he didn't feel anything more for her. 

The current question was: "Do these photos spark joy?"

She went into deep thought.

"Marinette? What are you thinking?"

"Tikki, I think… I think Adrien's photos do not spark joy"

"What?"

"I can't recall what's good about Adrien anymore, Tikki. All the girls' plans to get closer to him always fail and I get humiliated or embarrassed in front of him and everyone else as a result. People think I’m crazy… Geez- I can't even articulate a single word or talk to him like a normal person at all!" She sighed. "And after the failure with the statue at the wax museum…" that was probably the last straw. Too much. A turning point.

Tikki looked at her in concern.

"I don't know, Tikki. I think loving Adrien doesn't spark joy to me anymore. At all"

"But, Marinette-!" The kwami gasped.

"You've just seen it, Tikki! Whenever I look at these photos, my mood darkens and I get sadder, anxious, uncomfortable-" she took a deep breath. "Yes, both these photos and going after Adrien do not spark joy" she looked at Tikki. "I'm getting rid of the photos"

"Are you sure…?"

"I'm sure"

"What about the lucky charm? Are you going to throw it away, too?" 

"I don't know… I think I'll keep it. At least for now? I hate throwing presents and gifts away, honestly. I even keep all of Manon's ugly drawings and stones or sticks she picked up at the park because I'd feel bad for throwing them away! So I'll keep the lucky charm hidden in a drawer as a birthday present from a classmate, nothing more" 

"You know what, Marinette?"

"Hm?"

"I think this might be one reason why you're so untidy! You can't throw away the presents you've been given!"

"Tikki!" Marinette pouted at the kwami's laugh before joining her. "I think you're right…" she added, remembering a messy little pottery figure Kim gave her many years ago lying somewhere deep inside a drawer. Was it a dolphin? A snake? A monkey? Perhaps a pigeon…? Why did she even keep it if she had no idea what it was supposed to be? 

Yes, Tikki was absolutely right about her incapacity to keep her room tidy…

"Let's get rid of these photos first. I think it's time to tidy my heart as well" 

Tikki didn't question her- she could tell that the girl had set her resolve. Supportively, she helped her remove and throw them away.

___

With Adrien's photos gone (except the one with the whole class), Marinette could finally smile while looking at her corkboard. 

Photos of her with her best friend, Alya, the girls, her friends and classmates, her family, and-

It took her few seconds to realize the extra spark a certain photo caused her: 

Luka

This amazing, patient boy who was always there for her, who had been nothing but respectful and nice towards her and sometimes it even felt like their minds and hearts were completely in sync. A boy who was sweet, caring, that made her laugh and, more importantly, a true friend. Maybe a bit more than that since he… he had confessed his feelings for her some time ago- with the most beautiful words she had ever heard. She blushed at the memory, her heart beating faster. 

That alluring revelation had made her happy. 

Very happy.

And so, looking at Luka's photo felt like-

Joy.

A great amount of joy. 

Fireworks.

He never failed to bring a smile to her face (and redness to her cheeks, too).

"I guess this certain photo does spark joy, then?" Tikki teased her human friend.

"Tikki!" She flustered.

"I guess it stays?" 

"Yes, it stays. He absolutely stays" Marinette smiled warmly at his image. 

That's right, he had been busy lately and barely met up or talked. She didn't want to interrupt his summer music course but… 

She missed him.

Maybe- she could try to give him a call…? Or send him a message?

Yes, that would be nice.

A warm smile spread on her face as she typed.

'Hi Luka'

'I know you're busy with your music course and I hope I'm not disturbing you but I was wondering if you had time to talk…?'

'I mean-!'

'It doesn't have to be now! Just whenever you find the time? If you feel like it?'

Was this okay? What if she'd just disturbed him? She didn't have time to overthink it since a new message arrived on her phone.

'Hello, Marinette'

'You're not disturbing me'

'And for you, I can always make the time'

'What's up? :)'

Gosh- she loved that about him… And his eyes… and his smile..

Wait- don’t get distracted! 

Focus, Marinette!

‘I wanted to tell you something,’ she texted.

Luka: ‘Sure. What is it?’

Marinette: ‘You spark joy’

Luka: ‘???’

Luka: ‘I spark joy?’

Marinette: ‘Yes!’ 

Marinette: ‘A lot of joy!’

Luka: ‘???’

Luka: ‘What’s this about?’

Luka: ‘What am I missing…?’

Luka: ‘I can almost hear you giggling on the other side of the phone’

He wasn't wrong. She was giggling.

This boy lived on the Liberty, a houseboat that was a hundred times untidier and messier than her own room. She didn't expect him to know much about tidying up- even though she knew he and his sister Juleka secretly cleaned when Anarka was out. 

Besides, Marinette really couldn't picture the Captain asking herself if all that junk she had around sparked joy- the image alone was very funny in her head.

Luka: ‘So you're really not going to tell me? I'm curious now’ 

Marinette: ‘Fine, I'll tell you’

Marinette: ‘But only if you agree to go out with me the next day you’re free!’

Gosh-! She did it! She asked him out!

Luka: ‘Sure. I'd love to’

Luka: ‘I'm free on Wednesday’

Marinette: ‘Wednesday it is!’

Luka: ‘Cool :)’

Marinette: ‘It's a date ;) ’

…

There was a long pause. 

Did she break him (hopefully)? Was he squealing like she had just briefly done after sending the message? Kicking his feet as she did too, a moment ago? Or maybe he was more the type to yell at the pillow…? 

She didn't scare him, did she…?

Her heart was beating fast with anticipation. 

And his reply arrived.

It was a short audio with some happy guitar notes. 

Luka: ‘Great!’

Luka: ‘I’m looking forward to it! :D ’

She giggled happily as Tikki hugged her. 

Marinette: ‘I'll bring macarons!’

Luka: ‘Awesome!’

He sent another audio, this time longer, filled with more happy guitar tunes.

Both of their silly smiles didn’t leave their faces for the rest of the day.

By the evening, her room was clean and tidy to Sabine's surprise and delight. 

What Marinette’s mother didn’t know yet was that her heart was also clean and tidy, probably even more than her room. At some point, she should really throw away all these useless presents she still collected… Sooner rather than later, probably. 

It still amazed her how, with just the removal of a few photos, her heart felt much happier and lighter, filled with a great amount of joy towards a wonderful blue-haired boy as she excitedly awaited their date on Wednesday.

Little changes were powerful, indeed.

Fin

[jennagrinsoverml]

Can you recommend some Stories featuring memory loss (not related to Oblivio)?

Absolutely! I have an Oblivio rec list here anyway 😊

For the Last Time by @thelibraryloser

No matter how you meet him, you will love him. You will fall for every version of him, in every world, in every timeline. I need you to know that.

One-shot. This fic is not nearly popular enough for how AMAZING it is!! After losing her memory, Marinette reads her pre-memory loss letter to herself. This is such a beautiful and hopeful take on the memory loss trope with gorgeous prose and such a loving look at the love square relationship. HIGHLY recommend!

you don't even know me at all (but i was made for loving you) by @ladyofthenoodle

They didn’t remember each other. The hospital told them there’d been an accident—brain damage—but Alya had told them the truth, later. Who’d they’d been to each other. What they’d given up, and why. But even with their memories of each other gone, Adrien and Marinette are still inextricably tied together—by law, by their social circles, and by their hearts. And in the apartment they share, there's only one bed.

One-shot. Years later, after Adrien and Marinette are MARRIED, they give up their memories and forget each other. And then there's the painful journey back to loving one another. This one hurtsssss, but it's so good, and the end is amazing!! I don't want to spoil it but the echoes of how they fell for each other the first time are just ahhhhhh!!! READ THIS!

Make This Go On Forever by @coffeebanana

A Finding Nemo Akuma shouldn't be that hard to deal with, right? Clownfish and blue tangs, but nothing life-changing? Adrien didn't expect the accompanying sentimonster to bring to life one of his worst fears: what would happen if Marinette lost her memory. Maybe it's temporary, but it feels very real. And suddenly the things he's been trying to keep hidden from her refuse to stay inside. Or: Angsty emotional hurt/comfort for day 10 of Kiss Prompt November (minnow).

One-shot. This is gorgeous. I love the way the details of what's happened over the past few years are woven into the narrative, and Adrien's breakdown, even after everything, is so sad and fitting. Adrien is terrified of Marinette losing her memory (just like me) and this is done so well.

when push comes to shove by @passionfruitmacarons

Marinette is confused, Adrien is stressed, and Ladybug is nowhere to be found. Or: Ladybug gives up guardianship, and Chat Noir has to suffer the consequences.

One-shot. As usual with this trope, there's some definite angst involved, but I found the ending more than hopeful! It's so sweet, and I really loved the role reversal with Chat being on the other side of an act of self sacrifice.

Your touch is etched into my mind by plikki

She wakes up in a strange room without memories but somehow she knows him.

One-shot. This one is definitely sad and it really hurts, but there's also a sweetness to it that I loved!

new marinette by @rosekasa

marinette may not remember their first kiss anymore, but she has no doubts that adrien is the man she will spend her life with. amnesia has nothing on her love.

Multi-chapter. This is soft and sweet, despite the premise. I love being in Marinette's head as she tries to figure out what she's missing, which of course we already know. And then watching more of the picture come together...it's really well done, and the ending makes up for the angst, though honestly there's not a lot of it!

I Shall Never Know That Second Death by @into-september

Paris has been haunted by a butterfly supervillain and saved by a ladybug superhero, and Marinette has forgotten the last year of her life.

Two-shot. Read this if you want to suffer. Seriously, it's so good, but there is only pain for you here. It's so sad and bittersweet and I legit cried after I finished.

Echoes of You by @kittinoir

In the day time, she's Marinette - a normal girl, with a normal life. A normal girl, with a normal life. A normal girl, with...

Multi-chapter. Marinette’s got giant gaps in her memory she’s struggling to understand while Adrien is desperately trying to figure out just what the hell happened to his Lady. Lots of angst and a mystery and this fic is one hell of a ride from start to finish!

in case you don't know me tomorrow by @thelibraryloser

“We live in a crazy world where pieces of our lives can be erased like they never even happened. I just wanted to memorize this moment so… so I could keep it, if that makes sense.” Adrien's heart gave a little flutter. She wanted to keep this moment, meeting him. She wanted to keep… him. “I understand exactly what you mean." In a world that has created a way to selectively delete memories, no moment is truly safe. So how do you hold on to something when the memory of it is gone? And how do you keep fighting for someone when you're the only one who remembers?

Multi-chapter. AU. I normally avoid AUs, but I'm so glad I read this one! I'm not going to lie--this one hurts and I was terrified to read it. But! It's so well done and we get a happy ending that makes it all worth it!!

Just Give Me A Reason by @coffeebanana

Adrien stopped short when he turned the corner, his breath catching in his throat. Gentle thunder crackled overhead, and the sky split in two just as Adrien’s heart had months before. The clouds cried the gentle tears Adrien tried to fight back, because he knew if he started crying, he wouldn’t stop. He tried to move. Tried to force his limbs to flee. But suddenly, it was him who’d forgotten how to function. He hadn’t expected to see her. Not here, right around the corner from his usual grocery store. Not today, on the anniversary of their first kiss.

One-shot. I'm not going to lie, this one hurts. The ending can be classified as hopeful, but there's a lot of hurting...but it's so well done!

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Hello. I've been binge reading your meta post an I loves all of it. I have one question, though I don't know if you had the same question or not. If you had I'm sorry feel free to ignore this but if you hadn't, this is my question. Many people said Adrien as sentimonster is a good plot and the other said it's also good metaphor for abuse children. But what do you think about the senti plot? Is it necessary? And what do you think the writer is trying to achieve with the plot if Adrien doesn't even allowed to know about what he is?

Thank you! I'm glad that you've been enjoying my rambles! I don't think I've touched on those aspects of the sentiplot, so here goes!

Is it Necessary/What's The Goal?

I don't think that the sentiplot is even remotely necessary. My two cents is that it reads like something that was added relatively last-minute in order to add some cheap drama to draw the plot out because they didn't have enough content to organically fill seven seasons. Part of the reason that I'm comfortable saying that is because we've seen the writers do this type of move many times before. I don't wanna get too into the weeds on this, but a good example is the love triangles with Luka and Kagami.

Luka and Kagami are never treated as real alternate love interests. They're just road blocks on the love square highway that allow for seasons three to end on a cliff hanger. The fact that season four opens on two episodes meant to reassure the audience that Lukanette and Adrigami are doomed to fail is proof of this. No one is actually supposed to ship those ships. There's no Team Luka vs Team Adrien. It's just cheap drama.

The other reason that I feel comfortable calling the sentiplot cheap shoehorned drama is because the sentiplot has no teeth. A big reason why I refused to believe that it was going to be a thing was because it's an extremely serious plot that has no place in a Y-7 show. The wielder of raw destruction can have his free will overwritten at any time! The show has made jewelry theft a common teenage past time! This is bad!

And yet, once it's introduced, it goes nowhere. Gabe gives the most lackluster commands humanly possible and Nathalie undoes every one of them before they have a chance to meaningfully impact the plot. The biggest fallout of the sentiplot was that the Adrienette kiss got delayed a bit. How terrifying.

If the sentiplot had the weight it deserved, then it would have destroyed Adrientte in a big, dramatic fashion. Gabriel would have commanded Adrien to date Kagami and Tomoe would have done the same for Kagami re Adrien. But that's too serious, so we don't even get Gabe telling Adrien to break up with Marinette. He just tells Adrien to not see her and Marinette never has any clue that something went wrong there because Nathalie undoes the command two minutes later.

The Sentiplot's and Emilie

You may have read the previous section and thought, "But wait, doesn't the sentiplot give an explanation for why Emilie used the peacock? Didn't we need that?"

No, we didn't. Felix's little play and Gabe's memory of the night they used the peacock both heavily imply that no one knew that the peacock would kill you. It's why Felix exists! His father did not willingly give his life to have a kid and neither did Emilie. It was an unknown side effect.

Imo, it would have actually been better if Emilie hadn't used the peacock for such obviously selfish reasons. I mean, is anyone really saying, "Oh no, the rich lady used forbidden magic (and possibly killed some people?) to get a designer baby, then faced unexpected consequences! How awful for her! She didn't deserve that!"

Wouldn't it have been a far more interesting and complex story if Emilie used the peacock because she wanted to help someone else? If she was an unambiguously good person who suffered for doing the right thing or even just a morally gray thing? Wouldn't that make Gabriel's quest feel more righteous and less like a temper tantrum by a rich, entitled white guy who used his wealth in a morally dubious manner and paid for it?

The Sentiplot as an Abuse Metephor

I don't think that the writers meant for the sentiplot to be an abuse metaphor. In fact, I sincerely hope they didn't because it's a terrible one! Or, at least, a depressing one.

Abuse - especially childhood abuse - is something that sticks with us. A lot of victims will be forever scared by what they went through. But just because they bare scares doesn't mean that they're trapped by their abuse and can never break free. This is true even if the abuse caused mental health issues like PTSD or CPTSD, conditions that can never be cured because you know what they can be? Controlled and mitigated to the point where the victim is no longer ruled by their condition.

There's also the fact that abuse victims - especially child abuse victims - can and often do reach a point where their abusers no longer have any power over them. I have personally seen a child abuse victim go thought the process of realizing that their parent is just another adult now. All the power that the parent once held is gone. The child doesn't depend on them for food and shelter anymore. If the abuse starts up again, then the child can just get up and walk away.

That's not true for a sentimonster. Sentimonsters don't grow up and get more agency/power. At any point, their abuser can get ahold of their amok and override their free will, taking away the sentimonster's freedom even if the sentimonster is on another continent! There is no means of true escape.

No abuse victim will ever be that powerless. Abuse victims can escape abuse and they do have true free will. Sentimonsters will always be sentimonsters.

Is the Sentiplot Good?

No. It's too serious for a kids show. In fact, now that it's canon, here's my two cents: all of the sentikids are massive liabilities to the team who need to give up their miraculouses immediately because they can never be truly trusted. Felix has shown us time and time again how easy it is to steal an amok and replace it with a fake, so we must always assume that the sentikids are compromised because to assume otherwise is to invite the miraculouses to fall into the wrong hands. It's just not worth the risk to trust a senti.

Along the same lines, the love square should never be canon unless Marinette gives up Guardianship because Adrien is a liability to the safety of the miraculouses even if he didn't wield on himself. The only way to get around this issue is to use the wish to make the sentikids human, but Gabe failed to even do that one kindness for his son, so here we are. Season six will either drive this point home by having Lila use the amoks to mess with Adrien or it will drop the sentiplot forever, proving just how cheap and poorly thought out it was.

Other issues I think I've already addressed in other posts, but that are still a problem that make the plot bad:

a sentimonster's creator defines the sentimonster's worth, thus there being no issue with Felix making sentimonsters and then killing them or the heroes destroying them, but it would somehow be wrong if we did the same thing to any of the sentikids

any command you give a sentimonster can be overwritten and sentimonsters can't resist even if they know they're being controlled, so there's truly no hope to free them

giving your leading lady anxiety issues and a boyfriend whose free will is constantly in jeopardy is cruel and unusual punishment

an insane number of lore issues like why is it impossible to destroy other sentimonsters, but Adrien can be destroyed in akuma fights? Cataclysms are pure destruction! It makes no sense that akumas can do what a cataclysm can't. And is Adrien able to die a natural death? What happens to his amok when he does? Will his children be able to be controlled by his amok too since they're part of him?

the lore around Gabe & Emilie finding the miraculous makes no sense and should not be possible. That's another rant, though.