#n2cats

[erisluna35ocblog]

Shizuke, that's not what "shipping" means...

Later on he'll ask Keagan about this and gets more than he bargained for. His bestie was dying to explain this concept.

[erisluna35ocblog]

Being a single mom of three is hard.

Especially when they either don't take their safety seriously enough, believe their powers should make them capable of handling it or worst of all, both.

Context: This is Erin Liung. For those who've read N2CatS, you may have heard of her as Blair's legal guardian/adoptive mother. The guy on the left is her biological son, Vincent. Neither have officially appeared in that fic, just cameo'd in Volpino's illusion flashbacks. Vincent does not get a Miraculous at any point so he's included here.

Edit: for further context on how Vincent counts here despite not having a Miraculous... this guy is crazy enough to run over an akuma to protect his adoptive twins (happened in the episode Ego Split). What a maniac.

[erisluna35ocblog]

The Story Behind Shizuke and Fashion

I am a sucker for clothes telling a story so my OCs end up changing clothes a lot across my MLB au. Most only have subtle changes like Blair's palette favoring more orange as time goes by or Natalia changes her hair style a lot after getting dumped until she settles on a ponytail... But it's Shizuke who actually has the most drastic shifts as a whole.

Punk Goth Era

Here's something I've been flipflopping over but... What if Shizuke had a punk goth era? Shizuke, the glasses guy who's always dressed like a prep and is the poster child for the Asian nerd stereotype (except not really he ain't book smart enough for that)? He used to wear matching outfits with his delinquent friend Fiona. Their friendship isn't actually that odd.

This isn't just for the fun gap moe contrast or because I really liked dressing reverse!Shizuke as this edgy looking guy in a leather jacket post-quitting the Supreme. I think it can strengthen Shizuke's character and how much he keeps changing to adapt and to be what he feels he needs to be. I happen to like it when clothes can convey something about a character.

It also highlights his dynamic with Fiona. She is his first real friend since he moved to Helios. The one who chases out the bullies, his protector, the toughest person Shizuke knew. The one who didn't turn their back on him when he needed help.

Over the years though, what used to be reassuring became kind of a point of insecurity for Shizuke. He's the wuss hiding under her wing. He doesn't want to depend on her forever. He wants to get stronger. That's why he took up Judo. That's also why he tried to dress like a punk - dress like Fiona.

Fiona was the one who supported him in his efforts, went with him through every martial arts club til he found his niche, and even helped him pick out clothes to look more intimidating. He even knows how to do makeup and paint nails. It has her written all over it.

Preppy Nerd

His main outfit and the one most people are familiar with, in and out universe. The thing that made him switch to nerd clothes is because one day, his parents could no longer afford to keep him in his school. It was one of those highly reputable ones full of scholarship kids and rich kids who bought their way in. As I've said, Shizuke isn't very book smart, so the only way in was for his parents to pay tuition. They only went for it thinking they weren't gonna stay for more than three years in Helios City, might as well get their kid into a good prestigious school that'll look great on his records even with his B-C average. Anyway stuff happened, his parents decided they're gonna have to go back home to Japan and Shizuke can continue his studies there.

Keagan wasn't having it so he pulled strings to get him into his mayor father's scholarship program - who was only willing to do so because despite his academic records not passing his requirements, Shizuke's his son's more responsible friend who at least messages him to reassure him they're safe and where they are whenever his son decides to sneak out, so Mr. Aurelio would rather Shizuke sticks around.

Shizuke is once again on the receiving end of help from his friends. Feeling like he might taint Keagan and his family's reputation for this special treatment, he changes one again. He has to at least look like he earned his way in so he replaced his punk goth clothes with something more "appropriate". The red tie and maroon pants he wears aren't just a reference to Ladybug, they were first a reference to Keagan and his family's signature color, red - which funny enough, loops back to Ladybug cause they're like, showing nationalist pride in their red hued island city made from a ginormous Lucky Charm.

This is made worse by the time Scorched Origins rolls in. He is Ladybug now. And Keagan was the first akuma who was and still is deeply affected by the event. All that red, it's no longer just about the Aurelio's scholarship, it's about his duty to Keagan and the rest of the city. He has to be at his best as he fills the large shoes Ladybug wore. He has to seem more put together, more mature, not a thread out of place and not a wrinkle to be seen. His outfit gets more uptight the worse he feels this.

Dressing for Others

The nerd outfit ties into Keagan the way his old punk clothes ties to Fiona.

There were whispers of envy that came with this though.

“Take off your rose-tinted glasses and see past that ‘nice guy’ façade, Blair! I’m telling you, that guy’s nothing but a social climber who uses everyone around him then dumps them once they’ve stopped being useful!”

“Just look at the people he surrounds himself with! He’s clearly using them for his own gain!”

“Keagan got him a recommendation into the scholarship program. Perks of being the friend of the mayor’s son, didn’t have to fight tooth and nail for a spot here like the rest of us,” Natalia growled, jealousy rolling off her in waves.

“Fiona, the little monster, has gotten into a lot of fights with a lot of other delinquents over the years and has never lost. With her by his side, no one would dare bully him.”

Here's some quotes from Natalia from the Bully Hunter episode as she summarizes Shizuke's rep from the side of the school that doesn't like him or are distant from him. She even nails the thing that bothers Shizuke the most about their friendship:

“But what do they get out of him? Nothing! He’s not even there for them when they need him the most!”

Shizuke's motivation across the main story goes all the way back to his friends helping him out and wanting to pay them back. It's why when asked at point blank on his debut on what motivates him, he searched around the crowd and looked at his friends whole saying he wants everyone to be safe. He wants them to be safe.

It's for them he goes through with being Ladybug even though he feels he is unworthy of it. It's only as Ladybug he's strong enough to be the one protecting them just as they had always protected him.

And just like his nerdy getup and his former punk phase, he wears the Ladybug suit for someone else.

When Will He Dress for Himself?

It'll be the day he can fully accept himself for himself.

The final style for him should still have little elements of both styles but is over all a lot less strict with sticking to a specific style. He's finally wearing the Ladybug earrings on his ears. The main piece is a varsity jacket, a symbol of his greatest achievement in his civilian life where he finally earns his own scholarship through the Judo club by getting into their competitive team.

The first step though is to truly understand he is good enough.

[erisluna35ocblog]

Proof Blair is totally Lila's descendant:

Can't blame Marinette for being so untrusty towards her lol. Blair just exudes Lila vibes, it's ridiculous. This is how I picture her in some of the scenes for my fanfic No Two Cats are the Same at Ao3 and FFN. If people were to imagine my fic in animated format, I'd suggest picturing Blair posing similar to Lila in as many scenes as possible. She has her flair. But there's a different subtext going on despite the similar poses.

On a side note, lmao the way she looks while talking about her bug: constantly obliviously in love lololol she's a clown I'm sorry.

[erisluna35ocblog]

Character Inspirations (Part 1): Shizuke Midorikawa and Blair Crawford

This should more or less explain some things with how canon characters are gonna view my OCs. To help my OCs blend in better within the MLB AU, I chose to connect them to at least four canon characters. The bottom two I listed are the character inspirations that are meant to give them something to stand out from the OG cast.

[erisluna35ocblog]

When you broke up cause you're a superhero now, and so is your sister, and the villain is hunting you down... and your ex-girlfriend is so pissed at you she accidentally chose the most appropriate song to get to you. You'd swear to her it's not her, it's your enemies if you could but secret identity 101.

Oh, and all your friends are watching it to varying degrees of entertainment.

[erisluna35ocblog]

Shizuke is NOT an Adrienette descendant but...

This might explain why Adrien feels more at ease around him. Shizuke reminds him of someone. He is not their descendant but I am a believer of nurture over nature: his grandmother saw Adrienette as her mentors-slash-parental-figures and she picked up some of their mannerisms. And Shizuke is a grandma's boy so... These are some of his scenes for my fanfic No Two Cats are the Same at Ao3 and FFN.

Shizuke took a little longer than Blair to draw because this guy can run through five expressions per scene if he's feeling particularly emotional, so choosing an expression took me a while. Most of those expressions included exaggerated hand movements. He inherited Marinette's rubber face and flailing arms alongside her Miraculous. Pretty sure the public are looking at their generation's Ladybug, believing he is totally related to history's legendary bug heroine but he swears he isn't. Personality-wise, he's got more in common with Adrien, hence the lack of speculation if he's related to Chat Noir.

[erisluna35ocblog]

For context, the woman in both pics is Erin Liung. She's a friend of both the man, Noir, and the woman he's talking about, Bianca. Those two are the parents of the girl below, Blair, who's got a lot in common with her dad, like blaming their love interests for making their aro-spec hearts skip a beat. But their dead and Erin, being their bestest best friend ever, is raising their kids. Life is hard when you're the only normal one in your found family, huh Erin?

Based on this.

[erisluna35ocblog]

The only reason N2CatS's subplot of Blair pretending to be Adrien works is because Gabriel is that neglectful towards Adrien. If it were Marinette who got yeeted to the future and Shizuke needing to pose as Marinette for a week, he'd get caught on day 1. It wouldn't just be because he lacks acting chops. If, say, its still Blair who gets thrown back to the past and has to pose as Marinette, at best, she could hide it for a day or two. Cause let's face it, Marinette's got a huge support network. One of them, especially Alya, is bound to clock either one of them as an imposter.

[erisluna35ocblog]

Timeline for my OC's ML AU:

When it comes to timelines, I prefer to play it lose. No specific dates outside the occassional holidays and character birthdays. Just vague mentions of how it happened in a certain month or season at best. For my fic BTaL, it goes for a 13 episode structure per season, like an anime. Each episode is around 30K words, give or take 5K. I estimated the story to be about a year long. Here's the draft of how the timeline is planned with some explanations for episodes that break the order:

Origins:

Early September, tail end of summer. It's the first day of school. Kept as a separate fic in both ff.net and Ao3 as this is meant to be like a special. An outlier from the seasons.

S1 Episode Slumber:

A flashback episode that happens across October. Shizuke and Blair spent a month arguing. They were super stubborn. Mentioned All Soul's Day/Day of the Dead in one segment of the epilogue. Meant to establish that Shizublair had already been through a fair amount as partners during the 1st half of S1.

S1 proper:

January to May. Holidays that will be covered: Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Japan's Golden Week, which Shizuke's birthday (May 4) falls right in the middle of. Plenty of mentions from Shizubug how he and Blaircat have been partners for four going on five and so on months cause the dork counts the days he's together with his partner. There's also Keagan's aunt getting married to their homeroom teacher which was explicitly said was gonna happen around Spring, and a Spring Beauty Pageant and maybe April Fools gets a referrence.

S2 1st half:

Covers June for Summer Vacation. They end their school year off screen between S1 finale and S2. There's a minor timeskip of about a week or two filled in within the first episode's montage on how the team adjusted to the changes post S1 finale brought - its a slow month of just these guys adjusting to S1 finale dropping a bomb on their lives. The twins' birthday (June 13) acts as a mid season finale.

N2CatS:

Set in late June, a week after the twins' birthday. It's the future side's defining event for N2CatS - set up as the reason behind their status quo shift in this fic that's changed a lot from where I currently left BTaL off. The story is meant to be a week long but each day is packed. I'm planning to slow or speed up pacing depending on the day. Its meant to be a mini series special, and can be read as a stand alone unlike the rest of the series. The only holiday mentioned here is the completely made up Helios City Founding Day.

S2 2nd half:

Set from July to August. I'm seriously considering splitting S2 into two separate stories in ff.net while Ao3 gets a disclaimer to read N2CatS first before reading this half of the season. This half is building up to enrollment as both heroes are confronted with whether they should stay in Xyril Tech or not. The start of senior high is a metaphor for a huge turning point - them deciding to stay or not can change everything. The subplot here will also shift focus to Fiona as her arc sets up S2's finale.

S3 Episode White Knight:

Another flashback episode. Most of it is set on Keagan's Birthday (August 21), over a week before S3's debut episode starts. This episode ends with an epilogue from Keagan's perspective that goes on until a couple of weeks after Heroes Anniversary, wrapping around S3's 1st episode like canon MLB's Multiplication wrapped around Destruction and a special. This explains the shift in Keagan for S3, which happened because of the end of Fiona's arc last season, hence the weird placement. It covers the last week before the 1st day of school properly starts and all the stuff Keagan arranged leading up to it, like how everyone on the heroes team are now on the same class and why Keagan is the class president instead of Shizuke. Much like the S1 finale, S2 finale brought another huge shift in the status quo.

S3 Proper:

Starts in early September. Going full circle from Origins, it's supposed to be the first day of school but that's delayed in favor of their current heroes' anniversary. Establishes that a year has passed since the heroes came to be. The season goes from September to early December. The Day of the Dead will be covered and it'll act as the start of the countdown to the finale. It was snowing in the finale, so it was definitely winter...

Side Notes:

This fic series doesn't have a Christmas Special. I just couldn't come up with anything fun for that besides this one skit I might just draw or write as a drabble someday.

Fiona, Natalia and Damien's birthdays are skipped. Nothing major happened so let's just say they celebrated in peace. Sorry for the other half of the cast.

I keep holidays to a bare minimum or use mostly made up holidays to justify events to avoid the same timeline trap canon mlb has.

Their own take on the Paris Special (Reverse AU Crossover) is considered. I'm not sure, I like it enough as its own thing and leaving it as scattered concepts. But if it were to ever happen in the series proper, I'd place it somewhere in early S3. Its mainly to better parallel the Ladybugs and Fiona. Prime!Fiona got to temporarily be Ladybug for S2 finale 2-parter, it feels more effective if this special happened after that as the Ladybug from the other world is Reverse!Fiona. This special feels more like Shizuke's N2CatS.

I've also considered a future sequel series but ugh at this point I'd just be happy if I could finish S1 and N2CatS at all.

[erisluna35ocblog]

ErisLuna35ocblog Guide:

I started this blog to organize my OC lores for those who are interested and want to get to know them better. It's a little complicated as I tend to put them in AUs, and they end up somewhat different depending on the story they're in yet I try to keep the cores of their characters the same. It will take a while before this blog starts posting original content as I put a lot of stuff on main that I will reblog here for now. I will expand and update this as time goes on.

Main OCs:

Keagan Gerald "Kaji" Aurelio Ashworth

Fiona "Fuyu" Kuznetsov

Shizuke Midorikawa

Blair Crawford

Blake Crawford

Natalia Hale

Damien Guerrero

Zephyr Ryder

AUs:

OG STORY - this is the tag I use to label my original concepts for these characters. Before their better known ML AU incarnations, I pictured them in this fairytale-esque fantasy au with Keagan as the main protagonist. Prince Keagan had a leisurely life as the spare to the throne who's only responsibility is tying down the most powerful knight of their generation to stay on their kingdom's side forever through marriage. Everything was set on a track and he had no intention of fighting it. He likes his hedonistic life as a prince and he gets along well enough with his fiance, it's not worth losing over a thing called "freedom". His destiny was agreeable to him... that is, until he learns of a horrible secret that puts his fiance in danger but she can't know about it lest she dies by her own sword because she is stubborn about protecting everyone like the goddamn knight she is. The prince is forced to take matters into his own hands and run away from the capital, recruiting an unlikely group of outcasts, creating enemies from the shadows and have his fiance and his other childhood friend try to drag him back home.

ML AU - this is the tag I use to lump together all stories set in the show called Miraculous Ladybug.

BTaL - Between Truths and Lies, posted on Ao3 and FF.net. Acronym can be pronounced to sound like "Beetle" lol. The basic premise is its lowkey a future gen fic focusing on the new heroes, Shizuke Midorikawa as Ladybug and Blair Crawford as Chat Noire. Follow their journey as they struggle through superheroing, magic, love, grief and one evil butterfly lady.

N2CatS - No Two Cats are the Same, posted on Ao3 and FF.net. Acronym can be pronounced like "N-2-Cats". It's the time travel story set midway S2 of BTaL that features canon characters and how they deal with being stuck with my ocs for a week. Focused mainly on character study. It jumps off from an alternate end to Ephemeral where Sass's last resort ends up yeeting Adrien and Blair into each other's eras. Can be read as a stand alone despite its references to BTaL, as most references come with an explanation or much context isn't needed to be understood. Though reading BTaL first does enhance some of the references and enhances foreshadowing.

Otome Game AU - You know those manhwas where the protagonist, usually female, wakes up one day into the romfan world of the otome game or novel she was reading before she died? And she's in the body of the villainess, or the heroine or some extra? This AU, that's my entire main cast. A group of tired and stressed college students were working on a game for their thesis. They either worked themselves to death or their kidneys gave out from too much red bull or maybe they were half asleep walking home when truck-kun came for them, who knows. Thing is, they all died. Individually woke up into the body of the character that was modelled after them - which explains how none of them realizes they're not the only one who reincarnated. Chaos ensues. Can they all come to the same page before its too late?

To go directly to the most important notes, go to:

CHARACTER ARTS NOTES AND OTHER INFO

[erisluna35ocblog]

N2CatS Omake idea: Renember how Hisui knew of Adrien's arival in the future because of a book Bunnix was implied to dropped off on her? I'm like, what if Marinette passed on a hundred tips on how to care for her cat like she did with Alya in Hacksan? There's Bunnix giving Hisui some time shennanigan guidelines and there's Marinette, dropping a list of Adrien's favorite foods and allergies and how her kitty at age 14 needed plenty of enrichment so please don't coop him up too much even if its for his own safety. While Adrien dropped a more encouraging note because Adrien remembered his time there but now has more context for the old lady, who, to him, is also a girl he raised and mentored... Just gonna leave this note here before I forget.

[erisluna35ocblog]

Side note for N2CatS lore: gotta tweak some of my notes for the new mechanics the future gen are operating.

MIRAKUNG FU

Mira-kung fu is only named that way due to Su Han's French Translation Charm being outdated, damaged or something. Honestly, the name bugs me and I'm only keeping it as a shorthand to describe Shizuke's fighting style and to point at one of the most obvious lessons Su Han should've taught Marinette and Adrien. Anyway, it has a more dignified Chinese name that should translate to something like "the Miraculous Path". Its more like a focus based technique to sense and read the unique qi a holder emits, hence, allowing the practitioner to predict the wielder's path.

In Chinese, the term kung fu refers to any skill that is acquired through learning or practice. It is a compound word composed of the words 功 (gōng) meaning "work", "achievement", or "merit", and 夫 (fū) which is a particle or nominal suffix with diverse meanings. Wushu literally means "martial art".

It is not necessarily a martial art in and of itself, the monks just defaulted to some martial art, it varies from region to region. Hence why it can be paired with other martial arts like Shizuke's Judo or Kagami's Fencing.

Hell, by this logic, Blair can count as an intermediate master as she can focus enough to sense wielders but isn't good enough at maintaining that concentration to use it in combat. Princess Honey though... she has implied potential as mentioned in her dungeon boss chapter. Honey Cure requires a wielder to have a grasp on the body's qi paths if they were to control its flow to speed up a body's recovery. Honey Cure requires a more advanced knowledge of qi than Mirakungfu. Shizubug did the math on her true potential.

I feel I have to edit my initial notes or even add a mirakungfu notes part 2 for this.

ENHANCEMENT POTIONS

Now, I've given it a basic ass description in the fic notes but here's another aspect I only recently thought of: why they are enhanced from the normal potions. The answer was staring me in the face: Helios City is on an island off the coast of France, created by Ladybug's LUCKY CHARM in her prime. Who knows what freaky shit magic made earth is gonna do to plants growing from that. So some ingredients harvested from that island city are like magically enhanced, hence the elemental buff.

Side note: I'm probably gonna edit the name a bit. Dunno what. These potions make travelling through extreme conditions doable like space or underwater so I thought it should have the word traverse in it but I'm not sold yet.

HONEY CURE

Gotta expand the annecdote section to include how Zoe ended up coming up with it. See, its mentioned in passing that it was used to wake up Marinette from her qi deficiency induced coma (totally drained herself creating a wholeass island). The rest of the heroes were all mirakungfu trained and can sense something is off with her qi. Oh if only her qi would flow thus way instead of that, untangle the mess that is her flow and bolster that... and it hit Zoe, what if she subjugates that?