#some kind of hawk moth i think

[vioyume]

The Eclipse is here!

Thought it would be fun to draw all of the moths in the game, and by all I mean 80% of them because thinking about how to draw M.M. and the Zomoth as well as Kali already makes me tired.

But undercut is very rough sketches of Kali I did for reference for the Kabbu fight drawing I did a bit ago. (She would've been the tallest out of everyone.)

I'm going to briefly go over their designs now.

I thought Neolith was just a generic moth, though after looking up "striped moth" he could be some sort of hawk moth, or its just a design choice. Either way I think I want to change his wing patterns later.

Not very seen well, I think Mothiva would have fake lashes. She has a cute design though.

I don't have much to say on Yin, she looks polite and I think I achieved that here.

I think I referenced the wrong hawk moth for Hawk, but the red accents really does make him look cooler. Gave him a honeycomb pin too.

Screw you all, Tod has gynandromorphism now. Realistically, the change in speices will be defined by a clear line, but I decided to be dotty with so I can still be true the original design.

Wanted to give Muze a more kind motherly vibe in contrast in what I have in mind for Muse.

I don't know how to draw old people, let alone old bugs. Gave grandpa some loose hairs here and there.

Was aiming for Muse to look more like a fighter, and she's leaning for towards the magenta side than pink. Overall wanted to differentiate her from Muze while still looking similar to each other.

[mochegato]

Petty Warfare

Part One of the Pretty Petty Series

“Akuma I have no sense of decorum,” Ladybug grumbled as she surveyed the wreckage before her.  It was all quite impressive considering the akuma had only emerged a few minutes ago and had already wreaked more havoc than the last eight akuma combined, but it was easy to do that with a literal sea of lava appearing and disappearing every few seconds.

It was not the look they needed right before their meeting with the Batman to discuss investigative assistance from the Justice League while still keeping them at a distance and allowing the Miraculous team to stay in control.  It was a well-known fact in the hero community, and the general public really, that Batman and his team had a tendency to think they know better and taking over.

“Absolutely no respect for other people's schedules,” Chat nodded in agreement as he stepped up next to her with a twirl of his staff.

Rena hummed as she whirled her flute and got in line.  “It's one thing that's always bothered me about akuma, how rude they are.”

Carapace stepped beside her.  “Well then, let's teach them some manners.”  He looked down and around, for a brief second there was a glimmer of panic in his eyes, but it almost immediately disappeared in favor of a smirk.  He grabbed his shield from its back holster and spun it on one finger before securing it on his forearm.

Ladybug rolled her eyes and shook her head, much to the amusement of the rest of her team.  It was extremely common for her to do one or the other, but both at the same time?  They rarely got her to do that.  “And let's make it quick,” she advised firmly.  “We have a meeting to get to and I for one do not want to let down Wonder Woman.”  She made eye contact with the rest of her team but then rolled her eyes again at their hopeful expressions and twirled her yoyo.

Chat grinned brilliantly, almost bouncing from foot to foot watching the yoyo, but quickly cleared his throat and shook his body before easing into a model perfect pose.  “Or give Batman the idea that we need him to step in more than we want.”

Carapace sucked in a breath.  “Might want to get on that.”

“Oh my god, that's Red Hood!” Rena shrieked, barely able to keep her voice low enough not to echo across the rooftops.  “I need to get a picture of him in the fight for the paper.”  Her excited grin quickly twisted to a contemplative purse.  “I can’t believe they brought Red Hood near Hawk Moth.  That seems like a poor choice.”

“Red who?” Ladybug asked.

Rena pointed to a figure jumping from roof to roof.  “Red Hood,” she enunciated slowly.  “Affiliated with Batman… kind of… he has a bat on his chest so…”

Ladybug followed to where she was pointing, her face scrunching as she watched him.  “But he doesn't have a hood.”

Carapace shrugged.  “You don't have antenna but your called Ladybug.”

Ladybug scoffed and spluttered.  “No, but I have…” she motioned toward her bodysuit. “I'm not called Ladybug and then running around looking like a fox.”  She gestured harshly toward Rena.  “He should be called Red Mask or something.”  She suddenly narrowed her eyes and shot up straight.  “Is that a gun?” she shrieked, not bothering to keep her voice down.

“That’s kind of his thing,” Rena grimaced.

“Not here it isn’t,” Ladybug snapped.  Her yoyo was sailing toward him before Carapace could warn her that she might not want to start a fight with an ally while they were still fighting an akuma, but by that point, she was already gone and it was probably better for everyone involved if he just didn’t say anything.  Except for Red Hood, but he was a big boy.  He could handle himself… probably.

The yoyo hooked over a beam and wrapped around Red Hood’s wrists in the blink of an eye.  He was yanked forward by his wrists, forcing him to drop both his guns over the side of the building and barely keeping himself from following after, as she jumped off the building and swung toward him, using him as her counterweight.  Thankfully, he was heavy enough he barely moved as she swung.  She landed gracefully and silently, but stalked over to him, stomping the entire way until she was almost chest to chest with him.  “What the hell do you think you are doing?” she demanded.

He yanked his arms back and looked her up and down, the surprised look from seconds before replaced with a mask of indifference, eyes calculating and raised eyebrow unimpressed.  “It's called saving the day sweetheart.  Someone had to do it.”

“Oh shit,” Chat grumbled under his breath.  He searched around for the rest of Red Hood’s team.  Surely one of them could help deescalate the situation.  He could calm Marinette down, but not if Red Hood was actively taunting her.  But when he turned back to intervene, his eyes caught on Red Hood’s hands and he had to fight to stop from chuckling.

He was trying to be discreet.  He was trying to be sneaky.  He thought he could trick them.  He really had no idea who he was dealing with.  He could try as hard as he wanted, as long as he wanted, but he wasn’t going to get out of that line.  He was stuck there for as long as Marinette wanted him there.  Chat would know, from personal experience.  If Red Hood had done any research before coming to their territory, he would have known that.

“It's called inflicting major trauma,” she hissed, “which is a bad thing when dealing with a villain who preys on negative emotions.  I fear that's something most anyone could figure out.”

“Seems like getting attacked by an akuma might do exactly that.  So stopping the akuma would prevent it.  I fear that’s something even someone like you could figure out,” he growled back.

“Someone like me has figured out how to mitigate damage as much as possible from years of experience.  Someone like me has learned unnecessary violence will only make everything worse.”  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to recenter herself, when she reopened her eyes, they retained the same blazing frustration, but her voice was steady and calm, disturbingly so for anyone who knew her.  “You can’t shoot them.  That is not how we deal with akuma.”

“That’s how I deal with bad guys, kid,” he snarled back.  He took a step forward expecting her to step back, but she stood her ground meaning they were now physically touching chests and he had to lean back slightly to look down and meet her gaze.  “This here is the real world and in the real world, you have to get a little dirty,” he lectured, not bothering to keep his condescension from his voice.  “You can’t just sing a little song to make the bad guys turn good.  Maybe that’s why you haven’t been able to defeat your villain.”

“That is literally how we stopped one akuma, you pretentious, cretinous brute.  Violence doesn’t solve everything.”  She leaned forward, filling in the space he had created and poking her finger against his armored chest.  “In fact, responding with violence has made a lot of our situations worse.  And I’ll tell you one more thing someone like me knows, that even if they don’t look like one, it is wholly, unmitigatedly wrong to shoot a kid even if he doesn’t look like one at the moment.”

She walked away a few steps, missing the way his entire body tensed at her words.  When she turned back to him, she had a cocky smirk on her face, arms crossed, and hip cocked.  “We fight smarter, not harder.  I would say you should try it, but smarter doesn’t appear to be your strong suit.”

Red Hood stepped forward but before he could retort, another figure landed just next to him.  “Oh good, you met the local heroes,” Nightwing cheered, his voice clearly artificially bright.

“I really need you guys to stay out of our way,” Ladybug stated, her voice commanding, clearly intended for all of the bats, but her eyes not straying from Red Hood.

“Yep, he met them,” Red Robin grimaced.  He took a breath and turned to Ladybug and the rest of the team with a calm, confident expression.  “We don’t intend to get in your way.  We will assist if you need, but we are here for the meeting.  We can just treat this like research.”

Ladybug forced out a breath then another before turning to Red Robin and Nightwing.  Her demeanor completely changing from confrontational to commanding.  “Look, you guys clearly didn’t bother to do your research before coming, so here’s the crash course…”

“You seem like you’d be familiar with crashing,” Red Hood muttered loudly enough for everyone on the roof to hear.

Red Robin glared at him.  This could be a great collaboration, helping not only the Miraculous team but the Justice League as well.  He needed to make clear they were not supporting Red Hood in this.  “Didn’t you crash into a billboard a few weeks ago?”

“I was thrown into one.  There’s a difference,” Red Hood hissed, stepping up to Red Robin who danced just out of his reach along the edge of the roof.

“Focus, children,” Nightwing thundered.  He waited a few seconds, staring down Red Hood and Red Robin before turning to Ladybug and motioning for her to continue.

Instead, Chat stepped in.  “Okay real quick, Hawk Moth uses magic to take over people and make them do things they would likely never choose to do otherwise.  They are given magic powers and the powers vary by person.  The magic is anchored in an item.  Break that item, free the person.”

“Also important,” Ladybug cut in, “the people corrupted can be anyone.  They can be completely innocent people.  They could be children,” she added pointedly.  “And they remember everything.  They remember what they did and what was done to them.”  She met Red Hood’s eyes fiercely.  “Do not give our children, or any of our citizens, any more trauma than they already have.”

Red Robin waited impatiently, his eyes volleyed back and forth between them a few times before he couldn’t hold himself back any longer.  “Is the object always prominent?”

“No,” Rena answered when Ladybug still hadn’t broken her glare.  Plus, it was Red Robin!  She was getting to talk with Red Robin!  “Sometimes it's hidden.”

He quirked his head and let his gaze move past her toward the akuma that had now come out into the open.  “How do you know what it is.”

Ladybug finally tore her glare from Red Hood to redirect it toward the akuma.  “We figure it out,” she answered, almost absentmindedly, her focus now on the akuma as her eyes darted to every part of it.

“We deduce it based on the cause of the possession and context clues,” Chat added.

Ladybug turned back at the loud scoff clearly coming from Red Hood’s direction.  “For example,” she snapped, stepping up to him again, “in this case we know it started from a game of The Floor is Lava, the handle of the drawer he was holding onto broke, so…”  She paused and whipped around, eyes narrowed at the Akuma in the distance for just a moment before looking around, eyes tracing her yoyo, then the line to Red Hood, to Carapace to just past him to the edge of the building, then to Chat, and back to the akuma.   “Carapace," she stated.  Her words were heavily weighted like it there was an entire conversation in that one word.

And clearly there was, because Carapace instantly stood at attention and followed the path her eyes had followed seconds before, nodding in understanding.  “On it,” he reported as he stepped into position at the edge of the building.

“Rena, a bit of cover, if you will.”  Rena nodded and pulled her flute up to her lips, ready to play when the time was right.  “Get ready Chat.”  Her words carried the same weight, communicating everything with her tone and body language.

Chat followed her gaze and narrowed his eyes at an area of the akuma’s chest that was protruding strangely.  “Always m'lady,” he answered with a determined nod.

Nightwing stepped forward.  “Um, do you want to share for the rest of us?  We speak to each other with our eyes not our tone so we’re a bit lost.”

Ladybug ignored him and stepped up to Red Hood with a broad, artificial smile.  “Just want to say thank you so much for your service,” she purred.

Red Hood bobbed his head back and tried to take a step away, he was familiar with crazy, Harley had trained them all pretty well, and he would prefer to have some kind of point of reference to know if it was the fun crazy or someone’s going to die crazy.  Unfortunately for him, he was already standing on the edge of the roof and had no place to go.  “Wha...”

Before he could finish snapping at her, she kicked him hard in the chest.  He tried to flail his arms, but his wrists were still bound together.  Not only could he not flail, he couldn’t try to scramble at the side of the building to slow his descent.  Nightwing jumped after him, but before he could reach him, a green shield appeared beneath him, not slowing his descent, but clearly there to keep him from hitting the lava.

Red Robin watched them long enough to make sure they would be okay before turning back to watch the Miraculous team just in time to see Ladybug, and therefore Chat, who was riding on her shoulders, get launched by the input force from her yoyo line, like taut line snapping and recoiling when the counterweight disappeared.  Just as they reached the apex, there were a few flute notes played and Chat disappeared, but within seconds, ‘Cataclysm’ echoed over and between the buildings and Ladybug was moving smoothly and quickly over the rooftops toward the akuma.

Her yoyo line retracted with a speed that defied physics and was released again.  He was only able to track it due to the glowing light it emitted before she reeled it back in.  Rena whispered something he couldn’t understand before stepping up next to him with a huge grin and looking over the side.  “It’s over now, you can come back up.”

Carapace patted Red Robin on the shoulder.  “That was fun.  We should do that again.  I enjoyed working with you.”

Red Robin peeked over the side of the building to verify Nightwing was giving Red Hood a ride back up with the grappling hook before returning his attention to Carapace with a smirk.  “I agree.  Best collaboration we’ve had in a while.”

Rena turned her attention to Red Robin with an excited grin.  ‘Hey, so,” she continued speaking uninterrupted even as a swarm of ladybugs flew all around them removing the lava, repairing the buildings, returning Nightwing and Red Hood to the roof, and Red Hood’s guns to his holsters.  She motioned toward Nightwing without breaking eye contact with Red Robin.  “He mentioned you guys communicate through looks.  How do you do that when you all have the film over your eyes?”

“Experience,” a gruff voice answered from behind her.

Rena spun around and let out a squeal as Batman stepped out of the shadows to announce his presence.  “That was so cool!”

“That’s why he does it,” Nightwing joked.

“Who does what?” Chat asked as he landed next to Red Robin just seconds before Ladybug.

“Batman,” she acknowledged instantly, her eyes finding him before she’d landed.  Chat, however, screamed and jumped away in surprise, almost ending up in Red Robin’s arms.  She continued without missing a beat.  “It is nice to…”

Before she could continue, Red Hood barreled over to her, not stopping until he was towering over her, his massive body, seemingly even larger due to his armor, looming over her.  “You could have killed me!” he thundered in a dark, cold voice.

Instead of being intimidated as he was used to, she crossed her arms over her chest with an unimpressed scoff.  “I kicked you in the chest plate.”

“You didn’t know,” he accused.

“I felt it earlier.  I knew you would be fine,” she snarled back but then she straightened up and opened her eyes wide in a perfect imitation of the innocence she usually embodied.  “And you were so concerned with helping save the day I just knew you would want to help.”  She almost kept the façade up except for a slight quirk of her lip when Chat snickered.

"Oh, you're starting a war you aren't prepared for, little girl," he growled.

She raised an eyebrow and leaned back like she was contemplating him.  “I just defeated a lava monster.  I think I’ll be just fine with little old you.  And just because you’re bigger, it doesn’t mean you’re older, tougher, or smarter.  It just means you have more capacity for bullshit.”

“Being smaller doesn’t mean you have less bullshit; it just means it’s more concentrated,” he hissed back.

Ladybug opened her mouth to respond but Chat cut in.  “While I think there’s room for both to be true, this is not what is important right now.”

“Hood, we have more important things to discuss,” Batman barked.  “Ladybug, I believe we had some things to discuss.”

Ladybug turned to Batman with a forced smile.  “Sorry, I was distracted.”

“Don’t worry about it.  He can be very distracting,” Red Robin assured her.

“The incompetent ones usually are,” she snipped back without moving her eyes from Batman.

Red Hood took a menacing step forward, but Nightwing put his arm out in front of his chest and silently pushed him back.  “Let’s go somewhere a bit less exposed,” Batman suggested pointedly.

Ladybug nodded and motioned to a rooftop nearby.  “There’s a bit more room over there and Rena can provide cover and Carapace can provide a sound barrier.”

“Perfect,” Batman nodded and grappled after her.

Nightwing kept his hold on Red Hood until she had already landed on the rooftop, far out of his reach.  “You’re going to have to figure out how to work with her,” he warned Red Hood.  “If she’s as good as I think she is, we’re going to be working with her a lot.”

“She threw me off of a building!” Hood hissed at him.

“No,” Nightwing smirked, “she kicked you off a building.  And who hasn't?”

“Me.  I haven't,” Carapace popped up next to them.  “Can I?”

Hood turned to him slowly, pointedly.  Even through the mask, it was clear he was glaring.  “No.”

Carapace took a step back, hands held up.  “Ooookay,” he shrugged.  “Little disappointed, dude, not going to lie.  You guys good to get over on your own or need help?”

Nightwing covered his mouth with his hand to hide his snicker.  “No, we’re good.  Be right there.”

“Rightio.”  He saluted them and was gone.

“We won’t have to work with her if I take her out,” Hood observed, a bit too darkly to be joking.

“You can't kill her.  Wonder woman loves her.  Thinks of her like a little sister because of the whole her mom was Ladybug thing,” he pointed out with a smirk.  “You’re going to have to work with her.

“But I’m pretty positive she's evil,” he huffed.  He shot out his grappling hook to swing over to the meeting.

“Honestly, kinda surprised that doesn't make you like her more,” Nightwing chuckled.  He suddenly straightened up, face bright with excitement.  “Or!  Focus on taking her out… on a date!”  His laughter returned full force, echoing over the rooftops, at the glare he could feel Jason sending him from under his mask as he swung away.  “This is going to be fun,” he giggled to himself before grappling to join the others.

[rikebe]

couple of ladybug redesigns ive been doodling while stark raving mad about how this show for little kids doesnt have more badass outfits for the characters. i basically take a crack at these every couple of months but this is the first time im really pleased w what i came up with!

i def wanna come back to these and tweak them or come up with more designs for the other characters. and i esp wanna do a hawk moth chloe..........

long winded explanation of my design concepts unser the cut

ladybug - this is kind of my brain process here. her canon design (the worst one in the show imo) just kinda looks like a polkadot onesie so i really wantes to give her more bug-like features. i gave her black eyes bc i think its really cool when miraculiur holders change eye colours to something unnatural and i think its pretty neat and comicbook-y, and also insect-like. i also gave her bug-wing hairclips and changed her pigtails to twin buns so they had more of a shape contrast to the clips. for all wing details i added turquoise as a third colour to give it some SPICE.

my first designs (1-4) went off the idea of a short dress/coat with puff sleeves to suggest the shape of bug-legs, and the coat tails serving as her wings. i think its a cute design that fits marinette's girly style, but i wasn't quite happy with it.

i had the idea of her sleeves serving as her wings instead of her skirt or coat tails, and looked a little into chinese styles of clothing with big sleeves like this to lean more into marinette being half-chinese. i found a style called hanyuansu, which is modern clothes modified with hanfu elements and took inspiration from looking at a few outfits, so i tried a couple different takes. i really like design 6 with the big coat, but it seems really impractical for crime fighting :/ maybe its like a formalwear alt look lol.

7 is my final design that i'm happiest with, as it has all the elements i wanted but is still simple enough to not feel overloaded. i made the yoyo black for a little contrast and just bc i think it looks really cool!

queen bee - chloe was robbed of a character arc and a cool design. i will avenge her.

this ddsign came to me muchhh easier. a beehive hairdo seemed like a no-brainer, as well as fur trims both because she's a bee and because she's a bougie rich girl. i wanted the look to scream elegance and be a little retro and 60ies-inspired to go with her hairdo. the shape and tights are like a cute minidress married to a fur coat meets bee stinger, which is the vibe i want! the gloves are full chic and also sort of like black insect legs.

again a light blue wing detail for a pop of contrast and just because wings are fucking cool, and it gave me an excuse for 60ies inspired blue eyeshadow! yellow eyes cause i love weird eye colours, and it just looks a little creepy and jaundiced hehe

no mask because everyone knows its's her anyways, so why bother? plus masks are sort of annoying to design around lol. i kept her feelers because theyre really cute!

queen bee x butterfly - ive wanted chloe to become the new hawk moth since the concept was teased. well now my heart is broken forever, but i can still dream!! so this is like, an au where she has a full epic villain arc, keeps the bee and also gets the butterfly miraculous and becomes the new big bad!

i kept a lot of thw elements from the queen bee design but modified them. the dress changes shape into something less like a stinger and more like a chic mini winter coat to match the giant fur trim she has now! obviously huge moth wings are a must, and more of a staff than hawk moth's cane because, hey. she's royalty.

her queen bee feelers change to fuzzy moth ones, and the colours are a little different to match better with purple! plus a butterfly mask now, and white eyes with solid yellow irises to diffirenciate her from.......

hawk moth - who is a fashion designer and should really have a better look!

i gave him solid white eyes to make him look less human and goofy, and again for that cool comic-booky look.

i based the whole design on wanting his silouette to mimic thw butterfly miraculous, so i kept and exaggerated his canon lapels and added two pointy coat tails for the bottom of the wings.

the long coat is a bit more dramatique and less basic, and i tried to give his mask a little flourish to keep him from looking so much like a silver thumb.

the only place i kept the silver is for the vest, which is segmented to imitatw to look of a butterfly or moth's belly. i spent the least amount of time on this one but i'm pretty happy with it for a rougher draft than the other three designs.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

In regards to what you mentioned in your Kwami's Choice Part 2 Plagg wanting to cataclysm Chloe post, that's the trope we call "Jerks Are Worse Than Villains", in which the jerks are hated more than the actual villains. Now granted, this is an out-of-universe reaction, but it feels like Thomas genuinely believes this in-universe with how he treats most of anyone who's against the heroes, mainly Marinette.

Funnily enough, Gabriel himself is on the list. As stated by TV Tropes, "Hawk Moth/Shadow Moth/Monarch is the subject of an odd variant of this with himself — in large parts of the fandom, his actions as Gabriel Agreste are seen as more detestable than those he takes as Hawk Moth. While Hawk Moth may akumatize civilians into fighting the heroes, he's spared due to a measure of Evil Is Cool and the impersonal scale of his supervillainy. Gabriel, on the other hand, is a chillingly accurate abusive parent to his son Adrien, micromanaging and isolating him since before the show began — and it doesn't help that he's willing to enable Lila in tormenting Adrien's friends (especially Marinette) for his own gain. It's telling that "Cat Blanc" is widely regarded as Gabriel's Moral Event Horizon crossing based on his treatment of Adrien and Marinette, and not for any of his usual supervillainy."

To a lesser degree, Chloe also made the list: "Chloé Bourgeois is a highly divisive character in the fandom, but she at least has a subset of fans who either Love to Hate or just straight-up love her. On the other hand, her parents André and Audrey are widely hated — the former for his constant abuse of his mayoral status, the latter for being an abusive parent and adult version of Chloé without any of her redeeming qualities, and both for pretty much enabling all of Chloé's worst behavior yet never getting called out or punished for it (by contrast, their daughter not only at least gets called out on her behavior, but is usually portrayed as being the sole one at fault for how nasty she's become). This applies more to Audrey, as André does show some sympathetic qualities in later seasons, and eventually faces Laser-Guided Karma after he's forced to resign due to the stress of his corruption and his "friend" Gabriel double-crossing him."

The last point with André is contentious, I know, but going back to my first paragraph, the show really does love treating Chloe, Lila, or anyone who is still less of a threat than Gabriel as WORSE than his supervillain identity because they weren't nice to Marinette, and some of the ones who see the light STILL AREN'T GOOD PEOPLE (Felix, Sabrina, Nathalie) or took way too long to get a Freudian Excuse as to WHY they're a jerk (Again, Felix, but also Alec Scataldi, pretty sure there's some others that can be listed here...), or retroactively aren't good (Jagged leaving Anarka (is Jagged really his birth name, or did they reveal it in supplementary like Placide or offhand like Armand?), Kim unintentionally traumatizing Marinette with his prank and then not feeling remorseful in the present day until after he's de-akumatized (which is actually just "be more empathetic to how people feel about your jokes" than any actual regret last I checked), some others I can't think of right now...). It's pretty bad...

The thing about that entry on TV Tropes is that it's usually the fans who view a character that way. It's never intended for a character who's just an asshole to be seen worse than a homocidial maniac.

With this show, it's like the writers are trying to gauge that kind of reaction out of the audience by constantly telling them that Chloe is this irredeemable monster as if we should hate her more than the actual supervillains who routinely endanger the world.

[flightfoot]

ML Fanfic Recs for Completed Fics 40K-70K Words

Got 16 fics here! More lengthy fics than I would have thought, actually, given that there have been fewer ML fics this year than last year.

All of these fics will be in my Keyseeker's Choices For Best Completed Miraculous Fics Of 2024 Collection, and if you like that, please consider checking out my other collections, Keyseeker's Choices For Best Completed Miraculous Fics Of 2023, Keyseeker's Choices For Best Completed Miraculous Fics Of 2022, and Keyseeker's Choices For Best Completed Miraculous Fics - Misc. Years.

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He Couldn't Remember (Falling For Her) by @purpleautumnvision

"If I was given a choice in who Chat Noir would be, I would've chosen you." "And there's nobody else in the whole world I'd rather have as my little bug." Without secret identities in the way, Marinette and Adrien get to live out their love story and put their heads together to discover the identity of Hawk Moth... but an unforeseen twist puts the Miraculouses in Gabriel's hands. When he makes his wish for a world where his wife never became sick from using the broken Peacock Miraculous, the universe requires someone else to become sick in order to maintain balance. Who better than his greatest enemy, Ladybug herself? Adrien, with his memories rewritten by the wish, wakes up in a world without superheroes, without Hawk Moth, without Marinette, without friends, and without a clue as to why everything feels so wrong. Something's missing, but he's gonna find out what. Then he'll put his world back into place.

So this was a fascinating scenario, with Adrien waking up in a world where Marinette was dead while his mother was alive, a world that as far as he knew had always been the case... but having weird feelings he can't explain. And not just him, I love how much focus Alya gets here as well! Turns out that the memories are kind of hidden, but still present, and since Adrien and Alya never got to meet Marinette in this universe (she died just before the new school year began, at the same time that Emilie did in the normal universe) AND Adrien and Alya were her closest friends in the previous universe, their feelings towards her are closest to the surface and least impacted by the memories from this universe.

The other people in this universe... well, the class isn't taking Marinette's death well. It's fascinating to see just how much her death effects them, to see how it haunts them, and I loved seeing their reactions to Adrien's weird behavior about their dead classmate who he never got a chance to meet, it shows how strange some of this can look to the outside, and it doesn't help that these are grieving kids.

Just... this is a great fic, I highly recommend checking it out!

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this is my winter song to you by katrinette

On the last day of school before winter break, Adrien overhears someone singing in one of the classrooms. By the time he gets there, she's gone. He can't get her out of his head. And he keeps hearing her, wherever he goes, until she's the only thing that he can think about. But Adrien doesn't know who she is. At least... not yet. ––– Set against the backdrop of season 4 before Kuro Neko, Adrien begins to really understand the role that his friends play in his life.

Ah this is a lovely Lovesquare fic! Adrien's smitten with a voice he hears and he just keeps on hearing snippets of her singing, but can't track her down and it's driving him crazy!

There's a lot of cute Adrienette and slice-of-life in here, so if you want a low-key fluffy fic full of Adrien's and Marinette's usual adorableness, you came to the right place!

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Herbs And Steam by @liiinerle

Juleka le Flor Blef, nature witch from near the forest of Couffaine, arrives at Eiffel Castle so she can partake in the Queen's Trials - a contest to determine the strongest witch in all of France. She wants to prove the strength of her magic, but when she arrives, her attention is quickly distracted by two very interesting women: Kagami, the princess, who seems to act nothing like a princess should; and Marinette, the blacksmith, who has created a magic all her own through metal, steam, and ingenuity. Juleka is immediately besotted with both of them, and needs to work extra hard to focus on her magic. Juleka also soon becomes aware that there is stronger magic at Eiffel castle than she had expected. For one thing, there's a tree in the courtyard put there years ago by a witch whose powers seem to surpass hers; for another, there's Alya la Pluvie Versaunt, who must be the most powerful mage Juleka has ever met...

Unusual poly here, there aren't a lot of Juleka/Kagami/Marinette fics! I love the world here, getting to see all these different witches honing their craft, and Juleka making friends with many of them - though especially the nonwitches Kagami and Marinette, of course XD. If you like some femslash or a good fantasy AU, this fic should scratch that itch!

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Under Your Spell by @hazel652

Marinette loves Quidditch more than anything. That is…until a distraction arrives in the form of Hogwarts’ newest fifth-year, Adrien Agreste. When one of their professors organises a magical surprise for Valentine's Day, will Marinette finally be able to confess her feelings – or will it all end in disaster?

So this is an adorable slice-of-life Hogwarts AU, it's mostly Adrien and Marinette dancing around each other, with a subplot about Chloe basically pulling a Draco and bribing her way onto the Slytherin Quidditch team (much to the Slytherins' consternation) playing out in the background.

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a wish come true by Magaritas

"My wish has three parts. First, I wish my love, Emilie, never fell ill to the Peacock Miraculous' wounds." When Gabriel's ultimate wish is granted, he is brought back to a time long before any of his grievances came into fruition. However, he soon realizes that every wish comes with an equal consequence. "The second part of my wish is that I would have never been struck by Chat Noir's cataclysm." The only way for him to solve all of the new problems that arise is to make another wish, isn't it? But since he is no longer in possession of the two most powerful miraculouses, how would he go about getting them back without rising suspicion from his now healed wife? "Finally, I wish that Adrien Agreste never became Chat Noir, and that Marinette Dupain-Cheng never became Ladybug." And how will our two heroes manage to reunite in a world where they never got to meet?

I loved seeing Emilie and Nathalie figuring out what was going on in this world, and taking active steps to help the kids out, especially with how Adrien's hurt. They're not just standing by, nor are they willing to just let Gabriel hurt others.

Of course, Adrien and Marinette are also active, but they have less clue about something being wrong than Emilie and Nathalie do. But they'll manage to find their ways to each other, one way or another...

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In Pursuit of the Uneatable by @nemaliwrites

Who do you trust when your own reflection becomes a stranger? In a Paris where Lila weaves tales that blind the city, Marinette stands accused, isolated. Her parents' trust is shattered, her friends distant, and in battle, illusions blur the line between ally and enemy. As the shadows and uncertainty threaten to close in, Marinette finds herself turning to the last person who claims to be on her side: a boy in a white mask who calls himself a fox hunter.

THIS IS NOT A BASHING FIC. Well, Lila bashing, I guess, but even then she gets a lot more consideration than usual. Anyway, there's no animosity towards Marinette's friends and family here. Instead, the fic has more of this melancholy, contemplative tone, with Marinette feeling boxed in by Lila, and trying to figure out how to navigate her circumstances, especially being around Lila. Even when there isn't any particular threat against her, just having Lila around, knowing that she could pull something else to make Marinette's life worse, and thinking that there's no way to counter her, that she always wins... you can feel how suffocating it is. But she does have a way out, a mysterious boy who she's seen around, who completely has her back as far as Lila's concerned... but she might not want him to, to the extent that he goes.

By the way, this IS a Lovesquare fic, the thing with the boy... well, that'll make sense once you read the fic. But it's not romantic, I can tell you that.

Anyway, it's this interesting psychological, low-key sort of fic. If you want a look at the more emotional consequences of Lila's brand of bullying and isolation WITHOUT any sort of demonization or bashing towards anyone else, but just exploring the effects on Marinette and how to respond to it, then this fic is worth a look.

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Hanahaki by @generalluxun

First fic: Late Bloomer

On what might very well be the last night of her life, Sabrina Raincomprix pulls out a very special scrapbook, pressed between the pages is the past, the past she has never shared with anyone. She relives how she got to this moment one page at a time, preparing herself for the end. A phone call interrupts her self-imposed exile and brings news that could change her life forever. Even if it does though the question looms... change it how?

I love this series, how it shows how both Sabrina and Chloe have changed, how bad Chloe's circumstances are, and how much she needs help. She's not in good shape when Sabrina reunites with her - she's got a pretty severe eating disorder, for one thing - and Sabrina can't just... leave things like they are.

I love the delving into of Chloe's and Sabrina's psychology and viewpoints, and them both growing as a result (this is solely from Sabrina's perspective, but Chloe's the focus of the plot, so you see a lot of her).

---

Bubblegum Soul by @wehadabondingmoment

"The impulse to throw away his ring, to slam it on the ground and watch its metallic splinters chap away at his soul, got more tempting by the second. Maybe, for a moment, he would learn what it meant to be alive." (Or: Hawk Moth has been defeated and Adrien is suffering more than ever. Armed with unhealthy coping mechanisms and the knowledge that he apparently isn't human, he embarks on a journey of self-discovery.) (Except that his father isn't quite ready to give up just yet.)

Poor Adrien. His father's defeated, but that doesn't mean that he's alright. Dealing with finding out that he's a sentimonster via his father attempting to order him around... that's harsh.

And it doesn't help that while he gets one ring back pretty quickly, he doesn't realize that he has a second amok...

If you like angsty sentiadrien fic, this'll be right up your alley! It's M-rated, but I'm not sure why. Maybe because Adrien's just kind of in a bad headspace?

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The Adventures of Babybug and Kitten Noir by @unecoccinellenoire

When Chat Noir gets turned into a baby all seems lost to Ladybug....or is it?

So despite what the name and the summary makes it sound like, this fic is less about Chat Noir and Ladybug, and more about their parents, with Gabriel and Nathalie discovering that baby!Chat Noir is Adrien, and Tom and Sabine finding out that baby!Ladybug is Marinette. Needless to say, neither group are happy about their discovery.

I loved seeing the parents work things out here. While most ML fics are about Adrien and Marinette driving the plot and ultimately, the resolution (for obvious reasons), in this case, we get to see the adults being reasonable and competent, and doing their best with this new situation they've been thrown into.

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Each Hum And Click by @echo-has-queries

Kagami thought her understandably high standards for a match in marriage would mean she could avoid being paired with a man by her mother. That she could keep perfecting her flying-machine skills and eventually take over her mother’s place in leading the Tsurugi steam engine manufacturing company without having to defer to a man. She would have thought that when her mother told her to test the Agreste boy as a marriage match she had been kidding - if her mother ever kid. But she was serious and there truly was no fault to be found with Gabriel Agreste's son - except for the small detail of course, that he was not human. So Kagami must turn to the only fine mechanic she knows in Paris to find a solution to this new dilemma. But perhaps the dilemma could turn out to be the solution itself. Written for the AU Roulette Challenge 2024 with the prompt: Steampunk AU

So this fic is entirely from Kagami's POV, and it is a treat! It's an Adrigaminette fic, which you slowly figure out from reading the fic, if you didn't check the tags - Kagami may have tried not to like Adrien, but he grew on her regardless, and then a few chapters in you find out about hers and Marinette's failed relationship. I loved slowly finding out why the two of them broke up, when there are clearly still strong feelings between them, and how it ties into Kagami's character arc and the overall themes of the story: standing up for yourself, breaking free from those who would control you, and forging your own path.

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Soul Seeker by hislittlelady

After a shooting on her 6th birthday, Marinette Dupain-Cheng died. She was brought to the afterlife by her grandmother. She was content. Until the paramedics did their jobs and suddenly she wasn’t dead anymore. Waking up to find that half of her soul had remained tethered to the afterlife, allowing her the ability to see things others can’t, Marinette grows up an outcast. It isn’t until she moves in with her only friend, a detective she’s known since preschool, that she finds her purpose, solving his harder cases with the help of her spiritual connections. Three years later, she’s thriving. Her own business, two best friends, a K-9 drop out as a companion- life couldn’t get better. Until she meets Chat. A ghost with amnesia and a mask to match, Chat isn’t sure what he needs to move on to the afterlife (and, considering he’s stuck around for another three years, he doesn’t seem in all that much of a hurry to figure it out either!) When Amelie Agreste, a socialite from out of town, comes to Marinette for help locating her missing nephew, Marinette knows her career and her life will be on the line. But even a murderer intent on silencing her forever can’t keep Marinette from seeking the truth.

This is a really fun detective story. You can probably guess one or two of the major twists (not counting the twist of "Adrien is Chat Noir" which I certainly HOPE isn't a spoiler to anyone reading this), but that doesn't make it any less satisfying, especially with how Marinette's and Chat's relationship is developed. Or well, what interactions we see from them, since they've known each other for years by the time the story starts. I adore the "my friend is a ghost" trope, and the identity shenanigans and mystery around what actually happened to Adrien kept me wondering.

It's an M-rated fic, which I'm guessing is mostly due to an attempted sexual assault at one point in the story, though it doesn't get very far before it's stopped. I also want to warn Luka fans that he's not shown in the best light in this fic, though it's not too extreme.

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Through Yellow Eyes by @echo-has-queries

"Nooroo bleeds and Paris drowns in his blood." The day of the Blight, Paris bore witness to a horror too grand to comprehend. Only Chloé Bourgeois bore witness to a miracle. Marinette, Alya and the rest of Paris will need more than faith in Gimmi to survive. As the city's sanity hangs by a thread, bodies, minds, and souls are traded with the unknown in order to hold on to the things they each treasure most. Written for the AU Roulette Challenge 2024 with the prompt: Cosmic Horror AU

If you like Cosmic Horror (Lovecraftian I think? Though this isn't really my wheelhouse), then this is the story for you! I love seeing how Paris copes with the madness seeping through its streets, somehow going about daily life despite it all.

Kwamis here are more inhuman, more separated from humanity. There's no cute little miniature form to help bridge the gap. While humans can still meld with kwami, it's not all quite as firmly in the human's control as it normally is, and the side effects are worse. It doesn't help that the kwamis can't fully understand squishy little humans' wants, needs, or morality.

Like, as Ladybug, Marinette can't remember her human name, and her human concerns are somewhat muted. While as Marinette, she can't remember certain aspects of her time as Ladybug, and only regains those memories when she transforms again. She also has to be careful about restoring everything, as she can't just give Tikki a cookie and call it a day. Instead, she herself needs to eat enough to compensate for the lost energy, which can be a substantial portion of the goods in her parents' bakery.

As for Adrien... well, this is still going off of Sentimonster Adrien, though the ritual to create him went differently... and went wrong. But he is still Adrien.

Chloe's interesting as well, she's this sort of priest, this missionary for the kwamis, but her methods are... well, not the best. She still has a bunch of her canonical hangups, even though she IS somewhat helpful.

I love Alya in here, she's just desperately trying to figure out what's going on so that she can try to fix it, especially since Nino's one of the people who's been driven mad by the Blight. She does find some answers, and even ends up being partially responsible for Ladybug's creation and Chat's and Ladybug's subsequent fight against the worst effects of the Blight, but the risks, danger, and side effects she suffers are still significant. Though some of those side effects can be used to her advantage.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this AU and thought it was an interesting take on the subject, I highly recommend checking it out!

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Phantom Pains (and other hints of you) by @buggachat

She couldn't remember anything. Not where she was going, where she'd been, why she was in this stairwell, or even her own name. But as she watched the blood pool at the base of the steps, she at least knew one thing for certain: the corpse was hers. Getting used to being dead was going to have its growing pains. — “Well, unlucky lady,” Chat Noir greeted with a bow, “Can I get your name?” “Didn’t we just talk about this? I told you, I don’t remember it.” “And I told you,” he reminded, “that you can just pick whatever fits you best.” — Ladybug and Chat Noir may not remember who they once were, but at least the two lost souls can find comfort in each other's company. But as Ladybug starts uncovering more and more memories of her life, letting the past go doesn't seem as easy as Chat Noir claims it to be.

So this is a beautiful, sweet, tragic love story of two lost souls wandering around with each other, yet with Ladybug still desperately wanting to be found, to remember who she was - and wanting to know why Chat so adamantly wanted to stay amnesiac. It's got some neat worldbuilding, and some fantastic prose. It's just a really nice little story!

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Do You Read Me? by @19thsentry-blog

The problem with being a Couffaine was the hereditary bits. The stubbornness. The weird need to pick a fight with authority for no reason besides the principle of it. The way being a Couffaine meant falling in love, fast as a car crash, and just as deadly. It ruined you forever.

So basically, this takes place a few years after Season 5, in the post-Wish world. Luka takes over as the Ladybug Holder, battling Chrysalis in Marinette's place. It's causing him some strain, since it's hard to hold down a job when you need to vanish randomly for long periods of time while on the clock, and it doesn't help that Chrysalis is a lot sneakier than Monarch was.

That's not the core of the story though. No, the real story starts up at chapter 3, when Luka suddenly wakes up in 19th century London, supposedly having always been there, and talking to a 19th century version of Max. From there, he soon gets escorted to Felix, who is a detective around those parts and agrees to host him for awhile.

This is a Sherlock Holmes inspired story, with the setting ripped straight out of those old stories, and I think it does a great job of that! Felix feels natural as Sherlock, with his deductive abilities, and the mystery really does read a lot like a Sherlock story. Though of course, the ultimate cause is more magical in nature.

I love Luka's perspective in this story and his and Felix's dynamic, it just feels very natural and well done!

I was satisfied with how the mystery wrapped up, 19thsentry did a good job of making things make sense at the end, and it felt satisfying. If you want a story with some great characterization for Luka or Felix, or just feel like a mystery, this is the story for you!

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A part of me recognizes you (do you feel it too?) by Nalalaa

In which Adrien leaves Paris to escape the mediatic storm of Hawkmoth’s defeat and forget about the nightmares that crawl along the walls of his bedroom. In which Marinette stays, left caring for memories and a child she cherishes more than anything. Six years later, a string of coincidences has the two meeting again as strangers. Secrets long left untold are revealed and slowly, they work to untangle the lies and misunderstandings that had once kept them apart.

Classic plot here, but that makes it no less good. Ladybug and Chat Noir were a couple, he unknowingly got her pregnant, and when they took down Hawkmoth a few days later, Chat ran off and disappeared without a word to anyone, leaving Ladybug to give birth and raise her child alone. Until Adrien comes back from his sabbatical a few years later, finally ready to face the ghosts of his past, to find that Marinette's a single mom, with the father of her child being unknown. He gradually gets closer to her and her kid, only to eventually find out that HE'S the father... yeah you can fill in the blanks from there.

There's not really any plot twists or surprises to the plot, but there aren't meant to be. It's just a bunch of hurt people who care about each other navigating this fraught situation they found themselves in, trying to move forward towards a better future.

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Methusalenette by @liiinerle

Dear Diary... --- After Lila's defeat, Marinette and her friends realise that something is up with their bodies. Some are aging faster than they should - and some slower. As the realisation sinks in, Marinette worries about what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen in the future. As it turns out, she has a lot more future to look forward to than most... Epistolary fic (journal entries/news clippings/other).

This is a very melancholy, somewhat sad fic, as some of Marinette's friends age way faster than they should have, while others, including herself, age far too slowly. There's a lot of loss and worry and guilt here. No one had any clue that this was going to happen, but they have to live with the consequences - or die with the consequences, in some cases - nonetheless.

[sanctus-ingenium]

I love the moth guy a lot. Such a cool design! He's a photographer, too? What a funky little guy. Do you have more to tell about him?

Patches is a large (about 1.6m long) sphinx moth descended from the family Sphingidae. He is based off of a combination of striped hawk moth and tersa sphinx moth and he is distantly related to both :)

(source) (source)

I have to explain some of the setting - so every few million years, a mountain appears. It appears in the same spot on multiple different parallel dimensions, and it is there for maybe 45 years at a time. During this time is the only time these parallel worlds can touch, intersect, or meet one another. The last time this happened, members of the class Insecta came over, and found a different world with a ludicrously oxygen-rich atmosphere and some extremely energy-dense plants. They were able to develop, in the intervening years between then and the time of the story (think 1910s on earth) into the dominant life forms in this new world, many becoming quite large and developing complex societies and technology of their own.

The mountain reappears. This time, some of our insect characters (Nettle Rove [Staphylinidae] among them, though he is much younger than Patches and arrived at the tail-end of the time window) cross the mountain again, either by accident or on purpose, and find earth there, and human society. There's not enough oxygen there to fly or do much physical activity but they can still survive there and participate in a type of cultural exchange. So we have a First Contact type situation, but that's not what everyone really cares about. See, the humans have climbed the mountain and found at its peak, hidden in the clouds, a city. Completely devoid of life (even microbial), but obviously made by somebody. So the actual premise of the story is the exploration and mystery of this place.

Patches is 18 when the mountain shows up. He has just had a fulfilling caterpillar-hood of territorially murdering everyone he meets (kind of a solitary species! some members of Sphingidae will literally fight to the death if they meet as caterpillars) and, he is naturally extremely curious about the world outside His Tree. he meets his mate/bestie, Rosy Wing and while they do spend a lot of time terrorising everyone they meet, eventually they get interested in what's on the other side of that giant mountain. after meeting up with some humans trying to map the place, a camera-maker has a bright idea to send up Patches, who can hover very still in place, to photograph the strange lifeless city from the air (the humans are in full steampunk swing so obviously they have airships but atmospheric mixing between the different worlds makes it too dangerous to fly them, given that a stray breeze from the insect world might make a combustion engine blow the fuck up). the mixing is also sufficient to allow the insects to fly on the mountain but not for very long, meaning that most exploration of the city is on foot. The development of this aerial photography technique reveals that, from the air, the city appears disproportionately huge, and seems to stretch on for infinity. Because of this, and Patches' part in it all, an entire industry strings up for city exploration, and by Nettle Rove's time twenty years later, it has descended into bitter and violent rivalries between wealthy patrons funding expeditioneer teams. Murder is legal there (it's legal in insect world too. have u met insects? they love murder)

As for Patches himself, he is a barely-socialised semi feral freak with an incredibly upbeat and curious personality who is so so so devoted to Rosy Wing (who is.. similar, but more into people instead of cameras). Until their habit of harassing and thieving from randos goes poorly on a city expedition, and their entire team gets caught in a shootout. There were no recorded survivors. Our guy survived by playing dead but Rosy Wing was not so lucky. With Patches' hindwing in tatters, his only hope of being able to fly again and get of there was to use Rosy Wing's own hindwing as donor material. And that's how he got his name (he didn't have one before) :3

Rosy Wing was similar to an eyed hawk moth in appearance

(source)

In Nettle Rove's time, there is a persistent rumour of some weird old hermit in the city. These claims are dismissed, but something's out there drinking the blood of random expeditioneers, and that thing might know more about what lies at the heart of the city than anyone else...

okay thank you for reading love u

[jellyskink]

Just another Manic Muesday (Sorry I couldn't think of a better title lol.)

"Alright Dr. Pines, I'm pleased to report that your lab results for your bloodwork have finally been logged and updated to our medical system since the last we saw each other."

"H-huh? Oh! I'm certainly glad to hear that Dr. Oleander! Forgive me, I'm afraid my mind was wandering just now."

Sunshine shown through the windows of the medical doctor's office, bathing parts of the room with it's comforting warm rays. Outside, leaves of different colors and types scattered in the breeze with an air of playfullness to them. It was truly a lovely autumn day.

At least... it was as lovely as it could get lately. When it wasn't the occasional inanimate object coming to life to either cause mischief, panic, harm, or all of the above, the slowly randomizing weather definitely made it trickier to enjoy nature. 

Quite literally the other day it was a record-breaking freezing winter, followed the day after by a sweltering summer so hot that not only could you fry an egg on the sidewalk, but you could fry the chicken that laid it as well if you wanted to.

"That's quite alright, I just wanted to let you know that we did find some rather... interesting results."

"What kind of results? A-anything my Muse should be concerned over? I must inform him if there's anything that would cause him to worry over me!"

"Er, it's nothing as dire as that I assure you. I moreso wanted to let you know that in comparison to your first blood test, there's improvement to your overall health! I'm really proud of you that you're making progress."

"O-oh um thanks I suppose? I don't believe it's because of my choices truthfully. If it wasn't for my Muse's instance and kindness about my health I don't believe I could've done it on my own!"

"Dr. Pines I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit, only those who want help can accept it as they always say..."

"No, no! I'm serious! I'm truly thankful he's been stern that I see Stanley on a regular basis!

 I'm quite forgetful with taking care to see him regularly. Stanley's always worried about me, it pains me to see him filled with grief whenever I'm unable to talk to him for a bit due to my Muse and I's busy schedule.

Without him I'm sure my health and relationship with my Brother would be absolutely horrible!"

"..."

"Dr. Oleander? Is something the matter? You aren't speaking to me as much as you usually do."

"Forgive me Dr. Pines, I'm just a bit conflicted right now. I've just got a lot on my mind as well. On a similar subject, I do want to apologize for overstepping my boundaries with talking to you about your relationship with Mr.Cipher."

"..."

"I-it's fine. I know you didn't mean to be so crude on purpose. My Muse and I's relationship is often a subject to many due to it's complex and sublime love."

"Yes I believe you're right... Forgive me Doctor, I have a tendency to involve myself too much in my work."

"You d-don't need to apologize for that! It's a quality my Muse approves of you for! He wouldn't let just anyone treat any medical problems I have, the fact you have his trust is a sign you're great at what you do Doctor Oleander."

"... I appreciate your reassurance, though it still isn't very professional of me to be so casual with my speech with you about my troubles with my confidence as a medical practitioner."

"I don't mind! I swear!! I-I think you're a lot like the plant you share your surname with."

"I'm sorry?"

"Y-you know, Oleander? Also known as Rosebay? It's a perennial shrub and tree known and loved for it's vitality, resilience, and beauty. 

My Muse likes the fact every part of it is poisonous, it's definitely a kicker that's certain!

Personally I love the fact that certain species of caterpillars use the plant as both a food source and a way to defend themselves against predators! 

In particular, there's a species of moths known as the Oleander Hawk Moth, that does this! It's a very interesting and rare kind of Moth to see! I personally consider it to be one of my favorites!"

"Haha! Is that so? W-well thank you Doctor for that compliment and the accompanying fact."

"..."

"Ick are you two nerds just about done being boring together?"

"O-oh! Mr. Cipher! My apologies! We were just about done with Dr. Pine's appointment. It's my fault for taking longer than usual with his appointment..."

"You know Doco? Normally I'd be furious buuut this does mean Sixer finally has a buddy to talk about his more boring nerd things with! 

Congrats! You've redeemed yourself from me needing to find Sixer a new doctor!

This is definitely a blessing in disguise for me as you humans say! Now, be a doll and tell Sixer to hurry on home now? We've got places to be and mayhem to cause!"

"Of course Mr.Cipher. I'll be sure to do that right away."

"Oh and Doco before I forget, just know that I'll be keeping a closer eye on the time in the future. Fordsy's on a pretty tight schedule you know! I'd hate to have to CUT into both you and him over not keeping track of time. 

Although that would mean I'd have the chance to change things up when my pet needs a reminder that he needs to behave... And I would have the chance to really see how your meatsacks work without needing to worry about needing to harm a hair on Sixer's head... 

Whoops did I say that out loud? Haha! My bad! Anyways, pleasure talking with you Doco! Byee!!"

"Ugghh..."

"Dr.Pines! Er, I'm sorry to have to cut this conversation short, but Mr.Cipher has requested I let you know that you've been out for a while and must return back to him as quickly as you can."

*Gasp* "O-Oh no! Please forgive me my Muse! I didn't mean to forget to watch the time! I'll be home soon!! ThankyouforyourtimeDr.OleanderbutIsimplymustbegoing!!"

"Dr.Pines, I'll have your meds refilled and ready by hopefully the end of today!!"

*Sigh* "I really need to think about changing professions..."

(Just as soon as she says this, Mcgucket falls out of a tree very ungracefully, scampering after Ford. 

"???"

"What the-? Okayyy and now cowboy hillbillies are just falling out of trees now. Why am I surprised?? 

I'm going home early today, I deserve it. It's too early for this. I can't wait to just go back to bed and hug Calamari soon..."

(I hope you likes my attempt at some fanfiction! I wasn't sure if I should write it like a book or like a visual novel. The font stuff is probably really wonky because I typed this all around 1am and on my phone so my apologies for that lol.

I'm glad you liked my idea at trying to write some fanfiction about your au's Ford and Irene. Or would it be friendfiction in this case?? Anyways, I think I like the platonic route too. Maybe if Ford and Irene were to be a ship it'd be a friends to lovers thing or something? Idk. I was thinking about writing a more Irene and Calamari focused sequal to this, but I'm not sure if I should? Idk lmaoo.)

THIS ANON WROTE A REALLY CUTE FRIENDSHIPPING FIC OF FORD AND OLEANDER looklooklook it's so cuuuuuute 💕

[ilikekidsshows]

Before Season 2 premiered it was revealed at Comic Con that Mayura would appear in Season 3 as Hawk Moth's "boss". This idea clearly got changed, but I really think they should have stuck with it. Making Nathalie Mayura was a mistake; I personally think Audrey would have worked better, given her personality and connection to Gabriel, while Nathalie remains oblivious to Gabriel's machinations. This way, you can keep Gabriel a sympathetic villain to contrast him with the more power hungry Audrey.

---

Yeah, like, the easiest trick in the book for making your villains more sympathetic is to contrast them against someone worse. Vegeta is the king of this story device. Like, in the Freeza Arc, he only works with the heroes because Freeza’s forces are that much stronger and that much more vicious but, when Freeza kills him near the end of the arc, you feel bad for him.

This is also how you can tell how writers are ranking the redeemability levels of a hero’s rogues gallery. How bad does the other guy have to be for them to team up with the hero? The reverse is of course true as well, if the stakes are through the roof and the villain is still primarily focused on screwing the hero over, you know they’re irredeemable.

There’s also the mook culpability clause to consider. It’s just a given that the mooks are not considered as responsible as the evil mastermind putting the evil plans together. Even in a more amicable villain/boss relationship, people are going to assume at least some level of coercion or manipulation even when none is seen. Like, I haven’t seen anybody screaming about how Nathalie should go to prison and pay for her crimes or make any kind of reparations to people. As the mook in the situation, she is seen as less culpable in the crimes she and Gabriel committed together than Gabriel, the boss/mastermind.

Turning Gabriel into a mook for a worse bad guy would have sold him as the more nuanced character the writers want him to be seen as to parts of the audience. It wouldn’t erase the child abuse, so he still would have been absolute scum to many, including me, but some people would have bought into it. But the writers think Gabriel should get the audience sympathy anyway because he felt bad. Like, of course that's their logic, it's how they logic away everything any character does wrong in this show, but it's still insulting.

[jennagrinsoverml]

Any good fics featuring Marinette or Adrien akumatized?

There sure are! (And wow did I ever get a lot of asks for this!) Now, to be clear, I won't be reccing any Chat Blanc fics, since that's a category in and of itself (and as a result this list favours akumanette). But let's have some akumanette and akumadrien!

Confessions by @spuk-goodness

S04 Alternative beginning where Marinette shares her biggest secret with her partner and where 'We are a team' means 'I love you'.

Or the one where Hawk Moth notices that Marinette is a bit overwhelmed and decides to take advantage. A new akuma appears in Paris the very next day and Chat Noir has to fight by himself. Where could his Lady possibly be?

One-shot. Akumanette. This is a different take on akumanette than we usually see, which I loved. I absolutely think it makes sense for an akuma to target Marinette with how overwhelmed she is, especially in early season 4, and I love the way that it was handled here.

when you weren’t mine to lose by @bugsandchatons

Change is a scary thing, especially when it feels like nothing has stayed the same.

It’s been a year since Marinette became the Guardian of the Miracle Box - a year of struggling beneath a burden she never asked for, a weight that has her leaning on her partner more and more as the hours fly by, of letting him come to her, too, when he needs a soft place to land. A year of falling for the boy who takes on the world by her side with a smile made of sunlight, and fighting the growing urge to tell him what he means to her.

After all, they’ll have time enough for that when Paris is safe.

But when the unthinkable happens, Marinette learns the tragedy of loving someone quietly, and the lines she’ll cross to save him.

Multi-chapter. Akumanette (Akuma!Ladybug, really). This is what happens when Ladybug loses Chat Noir. It hurts in all the best ways and the writing is absolutely gorgeous and somehow we still get a happy ending!

Lovelace by @p-artsypants

Convinced that he's unlovable, Adrien is quickly thrown for a loop when Marinette confesses her love for him out of the blue. An akumatization and reveal later, he changes his mind about being unlovable.

One-shot. Akumadrien. I love when Gabriel is a horrible bastard and that results in Adrien being akumatized, and this fic is aboslutely perfect for that! It's also an original take on akumadrien, which I love.

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. Akumanette. Marinette gives up the miracle box and her memories, and Chat is frantic trying to figure out what happened to his Lady. (And the love square content, including a lot of Marichat, is fantastic!) Meanwhile, Chloe is trying to do better following the events of Miracle Queen.

A Different Approach by ShawnaCanon

Adrien finds out Ladybug's true identity. Since Cat Noir has been thoroughly friend-zoned, he figures maybe he can woo her as Adrien. But that means doing it without his mask. And that's scarier than any supervillain Hawk Moth could throw at him.

Multi-chapter. Akumadrien. It takes a while to get to the akumadrien, but I really enjoyed the journey. This poor boy is so romantically inept, but ultimately that's not what leads to his akumatization. This is a different take than we usually see and it's very much Adrien that is akumatized, rather than Chat (or any kind of Chat Blanc variation).

A Sound of Thunder by Tempomental

“Bye-bye, little… actually, that’s your line, isn’t it? Sorry.”

Ladybug stared at the man in front of her. Tall. Shaggy, but not unkempt blond hair. Oh yeah, and he was wearing a Ladybug costume.

“Who - who are you?”

“Oh, right, sorry.” He drew himself up to his full height and proudly announced, “My name is Adrien Agreste, and I’ve come from the future to rescue you!”

Multi-chapter. Akumadrien. In our time, Adrien and Marinette use their traditional miraculous. However, Adrien also comes back from the future to help out with the ladybug miraculous. It’s extremely intense and well written and every time I thought I had spotted a problem in the writing, it turned out to be a plot element but holy shit I thought I was going to die with how intense this is. If you like plot, you will absolutely LOVE this fic.

some truths are as loyal (as the shadows we lead) by @carpisuns

When Marinette wins a design contest hosted by Gabriel Agreste, it seems like a dream come true. Until everything goes wrong. (A Marichat akumanette fic)

Multi-chapter. Akumanette. This was actually the first akumanette fic I ever read and it gave me a bit of a taste for it! @carpisuns is an amazing writer, and I always enjoy everything she gifts us. This is no exception! My favourite part of this was seeing just how much it took to break Marinette, as well as Gabriel being The Worst.

too little, too late. by @madibug

“Ladybug.” Chat’s voice cuts in like molten steel. It’s a tone that Ladybug hasn’t heard him use with her before and so it surprises her into turning to him and - It feels like smacking into a wall. Chat is no more than a foot away from her but when their eyes meet, it hits her just how much distance has grown between them. Her heart hiccups out of rhythm, as hearts often do when something feels… wrong.

Multi-chapter. Akumanette. I really enjoyed this one, especially all of the different plans and how the crew adapted. This is @madibug's answer to the Ladybug version of Chat Blanc, and it's really creepy and interesting!

fleeting. by @agnes-writes

e·phem·er·al (/əˈfem(ə)rəl/), adj. - lasting for a very short time. But no matter how fleeting Ephemeral's powers may make things, the damage has already been done. And Ladybug pays the price. OR: A drabble based on what I want to happen in Episode 100: Ephemeral.

One-shot. Akumadrien. I really enjoyed this alternate imagining of Ephmeral! It was written before the episode aired, so it's not entirely consistent, but it's still really interesting and well done.

And, for a bit of a self-rec, The Closest Thing to Love features akumanette, if you're interested in fake dating and PRPR 😊

[miraculous-thenextspots]

Years after Ladybug retired forcibly from her role of defender of Paris, her son has know to finally accomplish what she never did: defeat Chrysalis and retrive the butterfly miraculous. However, the young Mike already has enough stuggles with his mental health, his loneliness, and the fact he never met his father (who he doesn’t even know) or his mother (who died a few days after her birth).

Season 1 A's cover is done!

Summin up what this AU is about:

It's a Miraculous Ladybug Next Gen project.

In this AU, Marinette didn't end up with neither Luka nor Adrien.

The reason why is cause the AU has a tragic feeling to it. It's supposed to be a sort of "bad ending" to miraculous. Marinette didn't end up with her main love interests, never defeated the main villain (Hawk Moth) and accomplished her main goal (retrieving the butterfly). And, the worst part, she died soon after giving birth to a son she adored.

However, she left instructions for Mike to be the next guardian/ladybug on a letter she wrote to him dor his 14th birthday.

If you think this is bit questionable, you are both wrong and right! There is an explanation as to why Marinette had faith on her 14-year-old son, but, it's still is questionable.

Marinette in this AU is a morally gray character to some extent. She is mostly a good character, but, she did some questionable mistakes along the way.

Think of this Marinette as Rose Quartz. A woman, who, in general, did good, but also did questionable things along the way.

At the start, Marinette is seen by the narrative and Mike as a flawless kind person, but, as time passes, Mike slowly discovers some mistakes his mother did along the way...

The original characters have some debuts, but only a few have active roles.

Adrien is a bit of a b*tch here in the AU. Not for Adrien Salt or anything, but, because I inspired myself on how Pearl reacted in SU to Rose's death, but made it a bit more angsty for plot reasons.

Expect some OCs by OP to appear as quick cameos, jokes, or just through salt in canon stuff. (like the science kids by @booksrbetterthanpeople and @nerdy-chocomallow , or Nate by @natedogx15 )

Sublime in the AU is Chloe and Luka's daughter. Since I think her role is a bit pointless in canon, I repurposed her here as Mike's best friend.

Mike's class is formed by characters of Danganronpa (I only watched gameplay of the first game... until now, so, avoid spoilers). Mostly cause it was being hard coming up with OCs for the class.

It's also a shared universe with Marvel for... reasons.

There are some minor changes on miraculous worldbuilt and events, but, mostly, the events of seasons 1-5 happened like usual.

The AU has a bit of Chloe Salt.

[boguspearl]

So after finding out just how behind i really am i decided to finally get around to watching the Miraculous awakening movie, and i must admit that when i first watched the trailer a while back i was immediately completely against it, i mean i hated the new animation designs it looked clunky and out of place and then when i realized it was just a retelling of the story i was furious i was certain they would ruin the entire thing.

Boy was i wrong, the animation while at first glance horrible and shoddy stands out and is perfect for miraculous, while in certain points it looks a bit odd but in others the animation is absolutely gorgeous,

making miraculous look even better than it already did, giving it a flair of beauty that it greatly deserves.

The story line while it doesn't hold a flame in comparison to the original show is still incredible in it's own right, the points where they changed story to fit is actually really good like for instance i love that they focused more on Adrien and Gabriel's grief because I think that's something that was always lacking in the series, i mean sure we saw Adrien grieve but it was in small moments where as the movie made it a major focus point, showing how two people who are so close to each other who have lost the same person can grieve in such different ways

One who's lost his anchor and is desperate for someone to connect with, because it feels like he has no one left in his life to lean on.

And the other who closes himself off believing that he is the only one who has suffered this loss, not seeing that he is in fact further hurting those around him in doing so.

But more than that I love the small tweaks we got to the story like the first meeting between Marinette and Adrien

Sure it's no umbrella scene but personally i kinda like this one as well, it's cute and kinda wholesome, and way better than a one episode enemies to friends trope, here we get to see a meeting between two people no outside parties just them two people trying to escape everyone else to be alone only to run into each other in what id quite possibly the cutest way ever, well I think its great anyway.

But they even changed up the ladybug and chat Noir meeting,

from what i remember chat comes off as trying to look cool, but coming off as some kind of player who doesn't take anything seriously and is always hitting on everyone, but here they made him try and look cool but instead some across as pretentious and arrogant and i kinda like this better, i mean im sure it was what they were always going for even back in episode 1 but I don't feel like that came across but here it definitely does and this just makes it better, it gives ladybug a better reason to not like him, and builds an even better foundation for the relationship they end up building as they see through each other's facades to uncover the people underneath

But not only that there's also Hawk-moth choosing to find his Akuma victims in a prison instead of waiting patiently for someone to get upset about the silliest thing

Okay let's face it while this is brilliant for the movie, it wouldn't exactly have lasted long in the series, but still it's brilliant.

But I think one of my favorite changes in the movie from the series has to he Marinette herself, i mean sure we get our lovable klutz of an MC at the beginning but as ladybug grows so does Marinette, sure we see this in the series as well in small ways like her standing up for her friends and to Chloe, but i don't think we got to properly see it, but in the movie we get to see how a little confidence can go a long way,

Like her finally just plain and simply giving Adrien a gift and asking him out, I mean sure we didn't get the over thinking Marrinette from the show but we did however get a shy, anxiety driven Marrinette

Like we get to see her practically imagining people making fun of her, when from our perspective they are mostly friendly, i like this because this is the side to anxiety a lot of shows and movies get wrong it's not just overthinking every decision because you fear the fallout it can even lead to overthinking what people are thinking of you to the point that you imagine them mocking you or you become so scared of making a fool of yourself in front of them that you close yourself off, but the movie shows us an in depth version of how ladybug changed Marrinette's life giving her the confidence to do things her nerves got in the way of before.

but my favorite change will have to be the reveal it was so absolutely stunning, from the lighting to the scenery to her calling out to him and him expecting ladybug, please for the love of ZAG i need to see the real reveal be this incredible

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

I actually thought that Adrien and Gabriel's relationship seemed like it might have been possible to salvage in the early seasons. What do you think?

@tallwriter Starting a new post since this one was getting super long as this is a different topic.

The problem with Gabriel Agreste's character is that they very clearly wanted to write a sympathetic villain - you can tell that from how the show handles his death - but sympathetic villains don't work if you make them cartoonishly evil. You have to handle the situation with nuance and delicacy, especially when one of the main heroes is the villain's son.

Gorizilla is not a perfect episode by any means, but it does showcase how Gabriel should have been written if they wanted him to come across as complex and sympathetic. In that episode, Gabe thinks that Adrien is Chat Noir and, because there's no way to magically force Adrien to reveal himself or confess his secrets, Gabriel has to come up with a situation where Adrien would be forced to transform of his own free will (since that can't be overwritten with a ring or something crazy like that). Which is how we get Adrien hurtling to his death while his father looks on:

Adrien: Always! (jumps out of Gorizilla's hand, and over the side of the building) Yeah-ha! Hawk Moth:(from his lair) No! ... Hawk Moth:(from his lair) If indeed you are Cat Noir, then transform, son. Please. (Adrien continues to fall downward, resolutely remaining as he is) Come on, son! (Ladybug looks down at Adrien, then raises her head, eyes closed.) Ladybug: Cat Noir, help!! Hawk Moth:(from his lair, to Gorizilla) Drop Ladybug!

This is good writing. Yes, Gabe's plan was kind of dumb (you live with Adrien, dude, just bug his room), but if we accept that this was the only way to go about a forced reveal - and that does seem to be the writer's logic - then we see a situation where Gabriel put his son above winning. A situation where he's still very much the villain, but he's not a dastardly, cold-hearted one. He does love his son.

There are actually several of these moments in the first three seasons. Some involve Adrien and many more involve Nathalie. It's why season five's claim that Gabe put beating Ladybug above everything else rings hollow. He never actually did that outside of Evolution (S5E1). He's almost always been loved-ones first when it really counts, a thing that Ladybug uses against him in the final when she tries to crush Emilie. The whole "Ladybug obsession" thing truly feels like something they just made up for that one episode to justify Nathalie "turning sides" aka doing nothing useful beyond maintaining the status quo (hey, they needed someone to keep the senti plot from having consequences and it wasn't like she was doing anything useful anyway!)

The problem is that this "loved ones first" mentality is only used for big dramatic moments, often as a way to keep Gabriel from winning. It's not Gabriel's main characterization even though it needed to be if you want season five's ending to feel even remotely earned. Going into that ending, we should have all thought that Gabe was a messed up dude who truly did love his son. And, if Gorizilla, Style Queen, and Ladybug had all been examples of his standard characterization, then we would have thought that.

But that's not who the writers told us Gabe was.

Instead, his standard characterization paints him as petty, controlling, and manipulative. Which is wild because there was no reason to do that! Gabe could - and should - have been played as stern and removed, but generally loving when he's outside of the mask. In other words, Gabriel Agreste could be well liked while Hawk Moth was hated.

The crazy thing is that this is such a simple change to make. You either removed the episodes where Gabe's awful parenting is the source of the conflict (ex: Bubbler) or you just make a few minor changes to show that he's conflicted about his actions.

For example, take Chat Blanc, the episode that ruined so many elements of this show! In that episode, Gabe is a total bastard. He happily sacrifices his son's happiness to make an akuma in the form of Marinette and then, when Adrien's secret is revealed, does Gabe have any sort of conflict about traumatizing his son? The kind of conflict we'd expect after episodes like Gorizilla? Nope! He straight up delights in showing Adrien Emilie's... corpse? Comatose form? Whatever! Gabe then akumatizes Adrien with a smile on his face.

That gets the writers a solid F for consistent characterization. It's why I highlighted "almost" in red when I mentioned Gabe's motivation. Because in Ephemeral and Chat Blanc, the writing ignores the sympathetic stuff that characterizes the dramatic moments and goes straight for the worst-father-of-the-year, love-to-hate-him, please-let-him-die-now characterization that we get in most episodes.

If you were writing Chat Blanc's Gabriel to fit his intended complex, sympathetic mold, then you would probably drop the breakup plot or you'd have spent all season setting Marinette up as the perfect akuma target, changing the breakup into something that Gabriel felt that he HAD to do instead of opportunistic evilness. You'd also have Gabe drop a line like, "I'm sorry, Adrien. You'll thank me later" before the Chat Blanc akumatization. Or at least don't have him grinning! Do something, ANYTHING to show that Gabe sees using his son like this as a necessary evil and not a fun time! You know, like how he was begging Adrien to transform during Gorizilla? Almost like Gabe had stopped caring about winning and started just wanting his son to live.

Would these changes make Gabe less of a fun cartoon villain? Yes, but that's the point. Cartoon villains are cartoony. They're over the top. They have no nuance. Sympathetic villains don't work with those characteristics.

The normal way to get around this in a cartoon setting is to have secondary antagonists who can be played as cartoonishly evil. And, confusingly, Miraculous has those characters. Chloe, Sabrina, and Lila have been here since season one (Kim could also have stayed a bully and been added to that list, but he's not a teenage girl, so I get why they didn't do that /s.) Felix has been around since seasons three. Nathalie has been an active villain since season two. Any or all of these characters could be the cartoonish, nuance-less villain while Gabriel stays sympathetic.

Instead, they play Gabe however they want to play him in any given episode, making it so that he's impossible to understand from an audience perspective. I personally like the sympathetic take and think that those are the show's best episodes because I like complex villains. It's even how I write Gabe in my stuff because I go for less cartoony takes on canon.

I don't think a redemption was needed, but a sympathetic villain doesn't require one. All that term means is that you can understand the villain and be sympathetic to their plight. Redemption is optional. In fact, the goal is often not redemption, but an understand that, "there but for the grace of the gods go I." I mean, we've all lost loved ones. Wouldn't the power to bring a loved one back tempt you, too?

If they wanted to go for evil, cartoony Gabe, then they needed to drop all of the complexity and go for a Disney villain type character who gets a Disney villain death a la Scar or Mother Gothel. Don't give Gabe the wish. Let him fall to his own hubris by falling into the water of his secret layer and lading as a puddle of ash while a sad Ladybug looks on, having just failed to save him.

If you want to see an excellent look at how cartoon Gabe could have worked, then I highly recommend @zoe-oneesama's Scarlet Lady comic, which is just nearing its end after a multi-year run. I think it's fair to say that Zoe and I largely agree on canon's flaws, she just fixes them by leaning into the cartoon side of things, creating a hilarious story with lots of heart. Canon could have absolutely gone that way too and worked out wonderfully! The issue is not a lack of nuance, it's that they tried to add nuance without ever fully committing to it, making a story that is the worst of both worlds. While a more serious nuanced reboot would be my ideal dream, a reboot that scraps all of Gabe's nuance and just makes him go full evil would be just as satisfying and Zoe proves that.

[mlbigbang]

2023 General Fic Rec List

It’s the end of the year which means it’s finally time for the ML Big Bang’s yearly fic rec lists! We’re really excited to bring you our contributors’ favourite fics started this year to supply you with plenty of reading material while you’re waiting for the Big Bang fics’ publication in January.

drowning (in plain sight) by @buggachat

Everybody had expected Monarch's defeat to be a moment of triumph. Nobody had expected Gabriel Agreste, unmasked and mind frayed from continual abuse of the miraculous, crying out to all who would listen and making Paris certain of one thing: His son, Adrien Agreste, is one of his sentimonsters. And now he's missing. Nobody can find him— not even the superheroes, and not even his closest friends. But Marinette, Nino, and Alya aren't ones to give up so easily. They'll find him, no matter what it takes. (But, geez, would it kill Chat Noir to lend a hand?)

I think most of the fandom already read this fic, but if you haven't, you should give it a try! The angst is balanced by how deeply Adrien's friends (including Plagg and Felix) care for him, and the reunion at the end is so touching.

all of your flaws and all of my flaws (are laid out one by one) by @coffeebanana

Ladybug and Marinette have both been acting strangely since Monarch's defeat, and Chat Noir would give anything to know why—to be able to help them. He just…didn't expect his answers to come when Ladybug drags him to his father's statue in the middle of the night along with a bag full of spray paint.

An incredibly cathartic scene set after the Season 5 finale that is a perfect mix of angst and hurt and comfort! All the emotions are so raw.

Dreaming Wide Awake by @uptoolateart

Gabriel died a hero. He sacrificed himself in the final battle against Monarch. Or so Adrien's been told. At least he has his mother there to help him through the grief. So what is this niggling feeling that this isn't how the story was meant to go? And why does he keep having flashes of another world that lies just beneath their own?

A fantastic follow-up to the Season 5 finale in which Adrien is dealing with the loss of his father, and his relationship with Marinette, in a reality that's not quite right. Incredibly emotional and moving.

All That Glitters by @trishacollins

After - After the dust settles, and things feel a little bit more...permanent. Nathalie thinks back on her mistakes. With Felix as close at hand as he is, she thinks one of them might be fixable.

Every fic should be a Sentibug fic, and that's why I rec this. I love that it runs with the finale of S5 and addresses various characters' feelings about senti stuff, which is the real big question hanging over the end of the season. Well, one of them :)

The moment I knew (I’d no choice but to love you) by @bbutterflies

“He’s dating me,” Nino said, taking Adrien’s hand in his own. Adrien could only stare back at him in shock. “How dare you all force him to come out?” Nino continued, glaring at the reporters. “That was disgusting.” He pulled Adrien over to the car, guided him in, and shut the door behind them. In the relative quiet and privacy of the backseat, Adrien finally processed what had just happened. “So… when were you going to tell me we were dating?”

It's fake dating, but with Adrino!! What's not to like?

The Parable of the Caller by nemali

A week after Hawk Moth’s identity has been revealed, Adrien finds himself with nowhere to go, nothing he can do, and worst of all, strange gaps in his memory he can’t explain. In a stroke of luck, he stumbles upon a burner phone filled with voicemails from one of the Saviors of Paris: Chat Noir himself, who disappeared following Hawk Moth’s arrest. But with each new voicemail Adrien listens to, he’s forced to confront the fact that there might be some kind of connection between himself and Chat Noir — and discovering it might leave him more broken than before.

It's subversion of so much. Adrien is the ex-Guardian. Adrien has lost his memories. There's been no reveal. He has no idea what this mysterious series of voicemails from Chat Noir means. A+++ read.

A Masked Game by @mysticraven20

For almost ten years Paris has been peaceful. No villains. No heroes. No hate. But, as always, peace never lasts forever and as a new threat takes over the city of love, there’s a change in the game where this time death is permanent. Adrien has been living full of hope after the worst years of his life. He’s free. He’s settled. But most importantly, he’s in love. After years of trying to find his calling everything came together the day he married his wife, or so he thought. Marinette still craved the companionship of her partner. It had been a decade since she’d seen him; the dull ache in her heart constantly asking what had happened to him. If only she had the opportunity to speak to him one more time. The chance for a reconnection appears when Paris’ heroes are needed again and as feelings begin to resurface so does the hate, love and lies. Ladybug and Chat Noir will need to find a new dynamic to make this work, saving not only their friends but also themselves, leaving Adrien and Marinette to risk everything in a need to survive.

Whodunit, murder mystery MLB fic from a great author exploring a new genre/style. Not just exploring, succeeding. Acing it. Wonderful story. As each chapter dropped, it really felt like the entire fandom was racing to read it first. Everyone was hooked. You should get hooked, too!

[rosekasa]

“I was going for the cheek/forehead and I missed 😳” kiss for any side of the square ❤️

AHHH ANON THANK U!!!

92. “I was going for the cheek/forehead and I missed 😳” kiss - from this amazing list by @kisspromptsforthelovesquare !

Ladybug hates Hawk Moth for a lot of reasons. But interrupting the first date she's had with her boyfriend after his month away in Verona truly takes the cake.

Coming to a halt at Champs de Mars, she sets Adrien down on his feet. The power still hasn't come back on after the attack; the safety announcement hasn't been broadcasted yet, and no one has been brave enough to come back out and return to their picnic blankets.

"Thanks, Ladybug." He dusts himself off once he's out of her arms. Despite being cornered in an alleyway for two hours, he still looks gorgeous -- brand new white shirt perfectly pressed, not a strand of hair out of place. "You really didn't have to trouble yourself, though. I could've just walked."

She knows that very well -- but she wasn't about to let Hawk Moth win. He can interrupt all her dates as much as he wants, but he cannot stop her from exercising her God-given right of enjoying how attractive her boyfriend is up-close and personal.

"What are superheroes for?" she says with a smile. "I mean, I know Chat Noir is your favourite, but unfortunately you were stuck with me today."

He laughs awkwardly. "Chat Noir? My favourite?" he says. "I'd like to have a word with some of your sources. I've been a Ladybug fanboy since day one."

She rolls her eyes. "Your flirting is even as bad as his."

"You should meet my girlfriend. No one thinks my flirting is as bad as she does."

She can't help but laugh. Of course he wears that like a badge of pride. The thing he'd lamented the most while in Verona was how text messages 'didn't do justice' to his awful lines.

"Maybe you should follow her example more often and I won't have to save you from akumas all the time," she says.

He smiles. "But it's always nice to see an old friend."

She goes in for a casual, habitual side-hug. As if he's just a regular-schmegular civilian she's been saving for months and not the guy she was close to building a shrine for to get him to come back to Paris early.

Just as they begin to pull away, Ladybug leans in and presses a polite kiss to his cheek.

Except Adrien, about to say something, turns his head at the last second, and her lips land squarely on his.

They both freeze.

A beat passes, then two. He hasn't moved yet. Neither has she. One of them probably should, though.

But also... she hasn't kissed Adrien in a very long time.

No. Maybe enjoying how attractive her boyfriend is is her God-given right, but Hawk Moth would definitely have a field day if he found out Ladybug was kissing supermodel Adrien Agreste while his girlfriend was nowhere to be found after an akuma attack.

She leaps back, lips smarting. "I am so sorry."

He blinks a few times, as if she'd just hit him with her yo-yo. "No, I mean-- it's fine."

She opens her mouth to speak. Before she can, he reaches up and wipes a thumb over his chin. Pink gloss comes off. He looks at her, nonplussed. Blush shoots up to her hairline.

"You're not wearing your passion fruit lip balm?" he asks.

Silence passes over them for many seconds.

"...What?" she says.

He rubs his fingers together, pouting. "This is sparkly," he says, as if that's any kind of explanation.

"...What?"

He looks up, and his expression shifts. "Do you not... know?"

Eyes wide, she shakes her head.

More silence ensues.

"...How?" he finally says.

She stares at him. "What do you mean, 'how'?"

"I've seen you de-transform before almost every single one of our dates," he says. "You got to the airport five minutes after class ended to see me off. I thought you wanted me to know you were Ladybug."

Before, at least, she might've been able to convince herself they were talking about different things. Not after that.

"But you-- you said I'm an old friend!" she says. "You referred to your girlfriend!"

"I thought we were doing a bit!"

She sighs deeply, scrubbing her hands down her face. This is Hawk Moth's fault. She doesn't know how, but it is.

"Why were you shocked when I kissed you?" she asks quietly.

His face turns sheepish. He rubs the back of his neck, looking at the grass.

"I missed you," he says. "We haven't kissed in a long time."

Ladybug's heart leaps in her ribcage. No, she's not giving Hawk Moth credit for this.

Flying forward, she wraps her arms around him and brings her mouth to his, kissing him entirely on purpose.

The power comes back on after two minutes. While she's not sure about Hawk Moth, Twitter, at least, certainly has a field day.

[flightfoot]

ML Fanfic Recs for Completed Fics 4K - 7K Words

I've got 20 fics for y'all this time! Several Lovesquare fics, unsurprisingly, but also some nice character studies, AUs, and a handful of less common ships, such a Lukadrien and Kittybella.

All of these fics will be in my Keyseeker's Choices For Best Completed Miraculous Fics Of 2024 Collection, and if you like that, please consider checking out my other collections, Keyseeker's Choices For Best Completed Miraculous Fics Of 2023, Keyseeker's Choices For Best Completed Miraculous Fics Of 2022, and Keyseeker's Choices For Best Completed Miraculous Fics - Misc. Years.

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Two is Company by Shadownoble

Adrien’s father wants him to play for an upcoming party. Only this time he won’t be doing it alone.

This Lukadrien fic's adorable! Luka's got selective mutism, which Adrien takes in stride. I love how their relationship develops, they're smitten with each other! Though of course while Gabriel brought the two of them together, he's an obstacle too. Because he's a dick.

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memtempsychosis by @bittersweetresilience

Félix is always watching Adrien die.

I love time loop fics, and this is no exception. Felix somehow gets trapped in a time loop with Adrien where no matter what he does, Adrien always dies by the end of the day by some manner, and then everything resets. I love how inevitable it all feels, the strange beauty to the prose when going over his deaths, and how you can feel Felix's increasing desperation throughout it all.

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Consequences of Dating Blindly by @mostmagical

Marinette knew she tended to get tunnel vision when she was focused, but luckily her boyfriend Chat Noir was always there to watch her back as they fought Monarch. With their enemy having disappeared, however, they decided together that it was finally time to reveal themselves. In public. Face to face. It's a little silly to have to introduce yourself to your own boyfriend, but after all, it wasn’t Marinette’s fault that she never knew her boyfriend’s name. (Adrien has never been to school, and Marinette doesn't know him.)

This is adorable! The two of them are so smitten with each other, and Adrien's not used to people not recognizing him as Adrien AGRESTE on sight. Marinette's got quite a few surprises coming her way, she didn't expect her kitty to come from this kind of background.

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Chat Noir Cataclyms Hawk Moth's Balls by @a-flaming-idiot

It's what it says on the tin; Chat Noir castrates his unaware father. And at the same time, Gabriel hits a high C to shatter glass, Nathalie realizes she wasted her life, Chloe accidentally outs herself, Adrien becomes homeless, there are no more secret identities, Tikki thinks she's funny, Nino and Alya take what's their's, and Chloe finally respects another human being. And a partridge in a pear tree~

So this is a fun little crackfic! Lots of jokes and absurd scenarios, you're likely to giggle at least a few times (and hopefully several times) while reading this.

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The Only Love We Keep by @nemaliwrites

Zoé is used to wanting things she can’t have — loving people who do not love her back. She’s made peace with that. But as soon as she meets Scarabella, she’s a goner. Or, five times Zoé’s love wasn’t reciprocated, and one time it was.

I love this analysis of Zoe and her circumstances, her mindset, her philosophy based on how she's grown up. How she yearns for her mom to actually love her, but she just... doesn't. And how she finds friends who actually care for her, and someone who actually wants her.

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A Body Without Spirit by @nemaliwrites

“Look, I don’t know much about you guys, but I always hear other humans whining about how they have to listen to their parents or their teachers or bosses or whatever.” “Yes,” says Marinette, “but that’s…that’s different. Usually, when someone tells me to do something, I only do it if I want to. I can think about it, make a real decision. But this…it was like I didn’t even have time to think about it. Like I couldn’t resist, even if I wanted to. And if I did, it would have killed me.” -- Adrien and Marinette swap bodies. Marinette does not have a good time.

I love how this examined how it feels to be controlled by an Amok, especially by someone who's never felt it before, who knows something's not right, that this isn't just psychological, but doesn't know what's causing the inability to disobey orders. And it means that Marinette really, truly understands why Adrien can't disobey now, not just on a mental level, but through experience.

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Blueberry Passion Fruit by @ninadove and @paracosmicat

He walked up to the counter, because he could not think of anything else to do. For all those times he had rehearsed their reunion, he had failed to consider the most obvious scenario: Adrien might want to run away once more.

I love Adrien just having run away, used a fake name, and then start working at a random cafe. Of course Felix still manages to track him down eventually. I loved seeing them talk things out!

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The Music Of His Soul by @rosie-b

Ever since she was born, Marinette could hear piano music in her head. It wasn’t any song that was playing in the world immediately around her; instead, what she heard were the songs that her soulmate was listening to. They came to her as her soulmate heard them, at seemingly random times from early morning to late afternoon, when the golden rays of sunset began to stream throughout Paris. Marinette enjoyed hearing the piano; it was proof that her other half was out there, alive and waiting to meet her. Written for Ladrien June Day 1: Hiding in Plain Sight

If you like soulmate fics and Ladrien, then this is a real treat! I liked this particular take on the soulmate mythos, and the way Adrien and Ladybug had looked for their soulmate, had thought of them, was really sweet!

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i love you to death by @wackus-bonkus-maximus

When Toxinelle vanishes after a battle with Hesperia, Loveybug takes her place.

So this fic takes place from Griffe Noir's perspective, showing his thought process and feelings towards Toxinelle, and his reaction when she just... vanishes and is replaced. I like how, as much as he'd convinced himself before her disappearance that he hated Toxinelle, he finds that he can't stand her being gone.

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love's constant shield kept you safe while you healed by katrinette

When Chat asks Marinette to keep his tree safe for him, of course Marinette says yes. Marinette's got ten green thumbs. She can keep any plant alive, healthy, and blooming. But Chat's tree has hidden damage, and extraordinary actions might be necessary to keep him alive.

I've never seen a tree used as a sort of daemon, as a piece of a person's soul that reflects their physical and mental state, it's very creative! I loved seeing how Adrien's and Marinette's trees acted and what they looked like, and how Adrien's tree reacted to bad circumstances.

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To Have Loved by @trishacollins

Adrien struggles with the loss of children he never had, with a life he remembers living but that wasn't real. The only person who understands him is Ladybug, his wife and his children's mother. Sleeping alone is such an empty feeling. Together, they might make a start at healing. Or they might just make a new disaster.

I love Jubilation angst. Depending on how "real" that timeline felt, waking up could be devastating - and Chat WAS certainly devastated in that episode. It's akin to the Pevensie kids in Narnia growing up, becoming rulers, and then tumbling out of the wardrobe a couple decades later, the same age at which they left. Of course Ladybug and Chat Noir would cling to each other afterwards, the only other person who remembers that imaginary timeline.

That's not all this story entails, however. Gabriel isn't too happy about Adrien sneaking out as much as he has been, and he WILL get answers, one way or another...

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If I'd Met You First by @geek-fashionista

According to Tikki, Chat Noir has always been Ladybug’s partner. “Maybe someone ought to tell him that,” Marinette says bitterly. [An Enemies AU]

So apparently this was one of the earliest enemies AU in existence, with originally being written in early 2016, but it was only just now uploaded to AO3 so I'm still counting it for this list. Despite its age, it holds up remarkably well, the author guessed a lot of things correctly, like Gabriel being Hawk Moth, it being possible to akumatize multiple people at once so long as the same feeling is being used for all of them, and it being possible to reject akumas. Considering that none of that was confirmed in season 1 (granted, most people had guessed that Gabriel was Hawk Moth, even that early), it's pretty remarkable!

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Happily Ever After by 3ggroll

Gabriel Agreste was a hero. Of that, Marinette is sure. So what's with the bitter taste in her mouth whenever she sees his statue?

This is an alternate universe version of Re-creation's epilogue, with Gabriel's Wish actually altering people's memories - Marinette's, most notably - to forget that he was Monarch, and to erase the memory of that knowledge whenever she figures it out. And she keeps ON figuring it out, over and over, but the knowledge is never allowed to stick.

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honesty can only be if there is a lie by katrinette

Ladybug always tells the truth. Chat Noir always lies.

So this is an interesting concept. While transformed, Ladybug physically cannot say anything untrue, while Chat can only speak in untruths. As a consequence, Chat gets good at figuring out how he can lie in such a way as to convey truthful information to Ladybug, and Ladybug learns how to speak deceptively without actually saying anything false.

Unfortunately for them, while they aren't bound by these conditions as civilians, it seeps into their civilian lives. Adrien learns to lie freely, easily, and convincingly, which is empowering at first, but leads to the class avoiding him when he starts being caught in them. Marinette doesn't outright lie, but her tendency to dance around subjects gets on people's nerves and similarly leads to others running out of patience with her or avoiding her. Basically, neither of their social lives fares well.

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No Names In The Stars by @nemaliwrites

Shadybug knows how her story ends: people like her don't get happy endings. She's made her peace with that. Her name on Claw Noir's wrist changes things.

I love Shadybug and Claw Noir talking like this, getting more emotionally sincere than they usually are. I especially liked how Shadybug kept thinking about how her soulmate wouldn't want her, that she's a nobody. It fits what we see of her in the special.

I also really like the reveal of who hers and Claw's enemy is. It's not unexpected, but it's still good.

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in which chat noir comes up with an awesome gift for ladybug by @mixelation

If his Lady wants ultra rare Adrien Agreste merch, then that’s what his Lady will get! Written for the Miraculous Ladybug Secret Santa exchange.

This was really sweet and I love how mixelation wrote Adrien's internal narration! You really viscerally understood his thoughts and feelings. It had some of the intimacy of a first person perspective, but well, in third person.

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Crossed Wires by @torvalvtt

Marinette has taken Adrien up on his suggestion that they share an apartment in university to help cut costs and be closer to school. This would be fine, except they both seem to have a problem with keeping their suits off around the apartment.

This was fun and hilarious. I loved seeing Ladybug and Chat Noir hurriedly try to come up with excuses for why they were in their own apartment, while Marinette and Adrien weren't XD.

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Here is Your Chance (to Understand) by Neonlite

And when he turned back to Adrien, tired in a way he always was when he thought about Belos, at the concern in Adrien’s eyes, and he knew what really unsettled him about the boy. It was like looking in a mirror, at a younger version of himself. A version of him with a responsibility he shouldn’t have had, a version of him with a power different from everyone else. Cat Noir seemed to settle atop Adrien, like a skin he was more comfortable in. (And the Golden Guard’s mask was safe because he wasn’t Hunter in it, he was the strongest witch on the Isles.) -- Where Adrien gets plopped at Hunter's house and he has many feelings about it. (Maybe too much for someone who wasn't stranded in a different dimension.)

I love Adrien and Hunter talking. They don't know exactly how similar they are - Adrien is from the season 5 ending, so Gabriel's regarded as a hero and he doesn't know that he's a sentimonster - but even still, Hunter can see the similarities between his younger self and Adrien in the ways they act, can tell something's wrong, even without Adrien realizing it.

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Blanc Space by @11jj11

Nino awakes to find himself in a strange flooded world...

So this is an interesting concept. Nino wakes up to suddenly find himself in Chat Blanc's timeline, with no idea of what just happened aside from it probably being due to an akuma attack, as most strange happenings are. Of course, he meets Chat Blanc, though the cat doesn't know he's real.

I love how Nino realizes what's going on and empathizes with Chat. He needs company so badly.

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Miraculous: A Lovesquare Dating Sim by @nagisachan1

“Did you hear that, Tikki? A ‘choose your own adventure’ about a romance with Paris’ superheroes. Do you really think there’s people who’d be interested in that sort of thing?” Tikki giggled. “I have a feeling there’s a lot more than you think, Marinette.” What will Marinette do tonight? YOU decide, in this CYOA lovesquare adventure!

This isn't very long, but I really like the way it's set-up, I played through so many CYOA books as a kid. Playing through this simple little Lovesquare fic whets my appetite for something more involved, it seems like it'd be easy to do a multi-writer collaboration for some sort of CYOA fic, and if that happened, I'd like to use this fic as a guide for how to format it. I especially love that at the top of each chapter, there's a link to go back to the previous chapter so you can easily try out the other branches.

[nemaliwrites]

For the directors cut ask game, I would absolutely love to here about ‘none of this is real’ it’s so surreal yet so painfully grounded.

ahhh i love None of This Is Real! i actually wrote this one so fast that i forgot all about it - i got a comment that was like 'i love this passage!' and i was like wait that passage slaps and i reread the fic and went :0

this fic was originally supposed to be for an AU-gust challenge! the prompt was 'case fic' and in the end, i decided not to post it for that bc the trope felt...kind of loose to me. the original idea for this fic was actually much different! it was supposed to be more of a case fic in the traditional sense: once Adrien is trapped in his own head, there's some kind of murder that he needs to solve before he can leave, but why is everyone treating him like he's the murderer?

in the end, i abandoned that idea mostly because it felt kind of wrong. if the point of the fic is that adrien's in his own head, the people he loves can't outwardly treat him like he's done something wrong - also having only ladybug be in that world with him i think made the vibe more like what i was going for. my initial idea was for the victim to be gabriel ofc, but then i realized that i didn't know how to make the monarch identity reveal play into that in a way that wasn't contrived, so i scrapped it.

another initial idea was for ladybug to lead adrien to the eiffel tower and they would find monarch's body underneath, kind of reminiscent of the eiffel tower being 'ground zero' in chat blanc's world. but then i was like...there's no suspence there. it's just a dude on the ground. and it also kind of takes away from the whole 'adrien and ladybug alone in a world of his making' thing if he just...sees monarch.

so that's when the gravedigging idea came along - and i think it definitely aligned more with my vision! then it felt like adrien making an active choice to find the truth rather than...randomly stumbling upon it lol

writing not!ladybug was actually surprisingly fun! she's kind of uncanny valley-ish i think - looks like ladybug and talks like ladybug but acts absolutely Nothing like her. but she still cares about adrien, because she's a part of him! fighting to protect his own mind!

there's a couple lil things i threw in this fic that i can highlight too!

The hand in Ladybug's is bare — he's detransformed, ring on his finger. He's alone with Ladybug, who knows his name. Who still takes his hand. -> the way he thinks the only way Ladybug could take his hand as Adrien is if none of this is real....as though she could never possibly want to otherwise

"I'm real to you," not-Ladybug says, and she sounds hurt. -> just a lil insight into adrien's pov of ladybug....she's always Real to him. she's always a Hero to him.

She smiles, then, and she looks so much like his lady that it makes his chest squeeze. "Not you. Us. Together." We're not together, Adrien wants to say to her. You're not really here. It's still me, alone, just like it's always been. -> more of his pov of ladybug! proof of how deeply her abandonment hurt him, even when his brain is actively fighting against it!

Why, he wonders, does a man like Monarch have such a beautiful coffin? A man who no one even bothered to give an epitaph? Did he pick it out for himself? Did Adrien pick it out for him, from the depths of his subconscious? -> yes. he did. and the fact that adrien never saw his mother's coffin....i like to think he'd think it's beautiful. he'd want his parents in matching coffins :')

There’s something odd about seeing him like this. The villain they’ve spent so long at war with, the most hated man in Paris is still just that: only a man. He can be buried. He can die. -> i think i push this concept a lot in my Hawk Moth reveal fics - i think i did the same thing back in Parable too? but i love the idea of the realization that this villain who has always seemed larger than life is just...a guy. just a dude. someone you could pass on the street. knowing that most of his strength is because you built him up in your head.

A world with no pain and no sadness and no hurt, and this is the requirement. Adrien must have no father. That is the trade the universe demands. -> in a way, exactly what happened in the S5 finale.

“Isn’t the world a better place without Monarch? Without your father?” “He’s my father,” Adrien says quietly. “How can you ask me that question? He’s my father.” -> and this is what it all comes down to.

He would laugh if he weren’t crying. Free? What does it mean to be free? Is it freedom to be a murderer, to know you’re a murderer? To know you’ve killed your own father, just as you’ve so often dreamed of doing — he, who is your worst enemy? He, whose love you desire above all else? Whose love you will never get, because he will die? Because of you? -> this is the passage a lovely commentator highlighted!! made me go damn and reread the whole fic. and this fic doesn't even go into the whole senti!adrien thing but again....what is freedom? is adrien truly free now with his rings in his own hands?

The momentum sends him flying forward and then he's falling, falling. A hand on his back, a clawed finger against his neck, and nothing in his vision but eyes so red he can hardly stand to look at them. So he doesn't. When he finally opens his eyes, he's flat on his stomach, cheek against the concrete. It's quiet. Feet in his vision, then: spotted, familiar. Ladybug.

The sensation of falling; his eyes are screwed shut, his father’s hand is slipping from his own, and then he's falling, falling. A hand on his forearm, ashes in his lungs, and nothing in his vision but eyes so violet he can hardly stand to look at them. So he doesn't. When he finally opens his eyes, he's flat on his stomach, cheek against the concrete. It's quiet. Feet in his vision, then: spotted, familiar. Ladybug. -> i like mirrors in writing.....the same prose to travel in and out of his head....ladybug and not!ladybug's actions mirroring each other.....images of monarch contrasting with the akuma...

“Ladybug,” he says quietly. “I know who Monarch is.” -> this final line was actually the first one i wrote! i was like 'i have NO idea what the fic will be like but this has to be the ending'

thank you for the ask! and for letting me ramble abt this fic! <333