#super genius marinette

[nobodyfamousposts]

This ask might be late since today is October 29, but who do you think would win? Your dolls vs. Slappy from goosebumps

Perfect timing for Halloween though!

It was rather odd for a commission, but Marinette was nothing if not dedicated and honest. If she accepted a job, she would make every effort to see it through to its completion.

She admittedly wasn't expecting the requestee to send her the puppet he wanted her to make clothes for, though.

"It does make sense." She reasoned, pulling the puppet out of the box he was shipped in. "This way I can make sure the clothes fit him."

She looked him over, curious.

"Slappy, huh?" Strange name for a puppet. But she supposed it was probably part of his routine, right? Slapstick humor or whatnot?

She laid the puppet out on her desk and looked him over. Taking a few measurements. Noting what color and fabric would suit him best.

It wasn't until the call for dinner that Marinette realized how much time had passed.

"All right, I'm going down for dinner. Littlebug, Chaton, play nice with Slappy while I'm gone."

With that, Marinette left the room, knowing that everything would be in good hands.

==================================

Slappy couldn't have planned this any better.

Mailing himself to the designer girl was a stroke of genius! He would get new duds AND a new slave to torment.

France was a bit far from his previous "new home", but at least this would be far enough from anyone who would be aware of him or could pass along word about him. Seriously, the advent of super heroes would really be the death of him.

Slappy pushed himself off the desk and began looking around the room in distaste.

Still, he'd known she was a girl but did her room really need this much pink? And what were those names? Littlebug and Chaton?

Sure enough, there were two dolls seated side by side on the trunk. Curious, he approached them.

They looked almost like super heroes, too. One doll had black hair in pigtails while wearing red with black spots. The other had yellow thread for hair and an all black suit with cat ears. Both with pasted smiles and blank stares as they sat in place just like any old dolls.

If he was a sap, he would say they were cute. But then he might as well be called "Sappy" instead of Slappy. And that would certainly be less fun.

Speaking of, he raised one hand and slapped the red doll off the trunk. Might as well get to work. Had to start on the torment sooner or later to let the kid know who was boss.

"Sorry kiddos," he jeered, "but there's not gonna be enough room for all of us."

Maybe he'd stuff one of them in the trunk? Or use scissors, since designer-girl had to have some in her desk somewhere...

He gave the red doll a grin and reached for the cat doll to see what to do to it next.

He wasn't expecting the hand that grabbed him instead.

"What?" He jumped, startled and looked back.

The cat doll was still there.

But he was standing now.

And he wasn't smiling anymore.

"Uh...hello?"

Before he could do anything else, he heard a whip sound before something wrapped around him, tying his legs together. The cat doll took advantage and pushed him, causing him to lose his balance and fall flat on his back on the floor.

Looking up, he saw the black doll staring down at him from the trunk.

And sure enough, the red doll was standing as well. Specifically standing over him and looking down on him, holding...was that a yo-yo?

She pulled, and his bonds tightened. So clearly she had control over what was holding him, and prevented him from moving.

And for what was supposed to be a cute plush toy, she looked...rather angry.

The cat doll hopped down to stand over him as well, not looking happy either.

He simpered.

"Hey, let's talk about this?"

The two glared at him.

==================================

"Littlebug! Chaton! I brought you dessert!" Marinette called as she entered her room.

She had expected the dolls to have been active.

...she had not expected the activity.

She looked around the room in confusion.

"Why is Slappy tied up? And missing his arms?"

Chaton held up one of the puppet's arms and waved to Marinette with it.

"Well that's one. Where's the other?"

Littlebug looked away, refusing to answer.

Ooooooh, Marinette saw what was happening here.

"Did you two get jealous?"

They didn't deny it. Chaton continued to play with the arm while Littlebug just gave the puppet a nasty glare.

Slappy was sorely regretting his life choices.

Note to self: the dolls don't like to share.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Curious, but do you know of anything Marinette is bad at? I didn't realize this until before, but Marinette always seems to be presented as amazing at everything. Like, I can get baking and designing, since they're things she's had personal experience in, but everything else? She's either super amazing or she needed five minutes of instruction and she's incredible.

Gaming? Absolute pro. Art? Amazing. Fencing? Just a little help from Adrien, and she's so good. So far, the skills she's presented to be absolutely amazing at: gaming, fencing, art, fashion, costume design (surprise surprise, fashion and costume design are two different avenues), baking, DIY, mechanical engineering (Miracle box hiding place and snapping diary box), fighting, leadership, decision-making, Guardianship, school (somehow straight-A student despite her tardiness and Ladybug issues).

And that's all I can get off the top of my head. I'm scared that there might be more. The only things I can think of that she's bad at is ice skating (which feels like a plot device for the Frozer episode, since she adapted so quickly to ice-skating as Icebug) and talking to Adrien.

I have a character (non-MLB) with the kind of genius that lets her master anything if she's seen it two or three times, but that genius has limitations itself that later compels her to actually think and work hard to master said subject. But Marinette is never even implied to be similiar to this, and everything she's good at is just passed off as "Amazing Marinette" and then left alone.

What do you think? If there's any other examples of things she's bad at, clumsiness nonwithstanding, please tell me, because this thought is driving me bonkers.

Nothing comes to mind, though I will say that Marinette wasn't a very good fencer. Then again, the show is actually laughably bad at portraying fencing, so I guess we just have to take Adrien's word for it that she was good. (I fenced for several years. May even have my old meddles somewhere as proof, though I doubt it.)

This isn't unique to Marinette, though. Most of the teen characters are absurdly talented. Kitty Section was so cool XY stole their music and their look. Alya runs a blog that's so successful that she was interviewed on national TV (end of PrimeQueen). Nino got to be on that TV competition in Simon Says. Max has tech in a literal space ship. The list goes on and on. Marinette just has more than most because she's the main character.

This isn't necessarily a flaw. It's normal for kids shows to have kid/teen characters who are super cool and talented because the goal is to inspire real kids to try things. The only reason it feels like a flaw in Miraculous is that this type of super-cool can-do-anything character is usually reserved for low-stakes episodic shows. Serialized shows (aka, shows with an overarching plot) will still have kid and teen characters who do the things adults usually do because that's what the target audience wants to see, but these kid and teen character will be a lot more nuanced and flawed. They're allowed to fail because their stories can take multiple episodes to resolve whereas characters in episodic shows have to have everything figured out and wrapped up in 20 minutes, allowing for way less nuance to their characters.

Because Miraculous is trying to be both an episodic and a serialized show, you get a lot of awkward characterization and writing. Sitcom drama with prestige TV stakes. We want Miraculous' cast to feel like they belong in a serialized drama because Miraculous has a serialized plot, but the individual episodes must stand alone, so the characters can't have the depth they need. It's messy, ugly writing.

[princess-of-the-corner]

That "Lila believes her own lies" idea is super fucked up and genius cos like.

From her perspective she & Ladybug were close & then her friend humiliated her for no reason.

From her perspective, Marinette is the horrible bully harassing a disabled girl for no reason.

From her perspective, Adrien is her boyfriend who doesn't seem to even like her, for no reason!

God that's terrifying actually

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Lila remakes the universe. She is now the Ladybug Hero. Unbeknownst to her, Adrien and Marinette are the new evil wielders of the Butterfly and Peacock, but they aren't reclusive like Gabriel in their civilian lives.

Wisher's Remorse

-Through a genius Plan that involved Manipulating Gabriel/Monarch. A double knock out of Monarch and Ladybug+Chat noir.

-Lila danced across the field and scooped up the Ladybug and Cat miraculous. A smile on her face as she goes to make her wish

-Marinette and Adrien unable to respond. Gabriel unable to stop her. Lila made her wish.

___________________________________________________________

-Lila Rossi, Billionaire daughter, Movie Star Actress, Top of her Class, and above all, Super Heroine of Paris.

-Lila crafted a world where she was the center of everything. And Her Heroine Identity, The Incredible Signora Rossa.

-Lila was loving it! Her Parents showered her in attention and gifts whenever she wanted. Everyone wanted to hear her talk. Interviews, lavish lunches, and the best part was she didnt even need to put effort in.

-Marinette was basically her Sabrina. Loyal and obedient. (Lila had apparently helped save her parents failing bakery)

-Adrien was her boyfriend, sweet and attentive. (His father had it arranged.)

-She also had some hero side kicks that would help with all the grunt work of heroing, so that she could go in and take the good parts.

-Lila was enjoying her life, until there was a super villain attack.

-Lila thought it would be easy, since this was her world now. Though her Kwami Tikki was trying to warn her about something.

-It wasnt just one villain, it was two. The Butterfly Miraculous and The Peacock. And both of them were... Incredibly competent.

-Signora Rossa called on all her Allies (Side Kicks) for help.

-But the duo was Decimating them. The fighting skill easily outclassed her. And Signora's lucky charm only helped her escape. (Because her mindset is not on protecting people, but getting what she wants.)

-After Signora Rossa Fled, The peacock villain was annoyed. "She escaped. "

-The Butterfly Villainess smiled. "Dont worry my Lovely Feather, she left us a gift."

-The Peacock Villain smiled as he picked up the villainess Bridal style before leaving.

-Unfortunately for Rossa, two of her side kicks were captured. The Tiger and the Pig. Both their miraculous taken as trophies. Content for the time they left.

-Lila detransformed yelling at tikki what went wrong.

-"This is my world! I should have won."

-"The wish doesnt work like that. Your selfish wish changed so many things, the universe created a counter balance. You are a 'Hero' in this world that may have a great life, but there has to be a counter. Those villains that beat the stuffing out of you without even using their powers. Thats your counter balance. Its fitting, I hope you lose."

-Lila growled at her kwami before telling tikki to shut up. She was not going to lose to these villains. This was her world, and they were just living in it.

[overworkedblorbobattle]

The full list of characters in the Bracket!

The full list of characters who made it into the tournament are listed under the readmore.

Ada Paige- Rhythm Doctor

Adam Parrish- The Raven Cycle

Adora- She-Ra

Aki Hayakawa- Chainsaw man

Alfred Pennyworth- Batman

Almond Cookie - Cookie Run

Angela- Lobotomy Corporation

Anthy Himemiya- Revolutionary Girl Utena

Arthur Lester- Malevolent

Aymeric De Borel- Final Fantasy

Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce- MASH

Bucky Barnes- Marvel

Buffy Summers- Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Burgerpants- Undertale

Carmen Sandiego- Carmen Sandiego

Carol Hathaway- ER

Charlie Magne Morningstar- Hazbin hotel

Chip Revvington- Toontown: Corporate Clash

Cliopher "Kip" Mdang- The Hands of the Emperor

Commander Peepers- Wander Over Yonder

Dana Scully- The X Files

Danny Fenton- Danny Phantom

David Jacobs- Newsies

DC/GOV- Welcome to the table

Dean Winchester- Supernatural

Dick Gumshoe- Ace attorney

Doppo Kannonzaka- Hypnosis Mic

Dot Campbell- The Wilds

Dr Charlotte Dubois- Falsettos

Emma Perkins- The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals

Five Pebbles- Rain World

Ford Pines- Gravity Falls

Fu Hua- Honkai Impact 3rd

George Karim/Cubbins - Lockwood and Co

Gilgamesh "Gil" Wulfenbach- Girl Genius

Gordon Michael Schwinn- A New Brain

Gregor Samsa- The Metamorphosis

Guillermo de la Cruz- What We Do In The Shadows

Harrowhark Nonagesimus- The Locked Tomb

Hera- Wolf 359

Homura Akemi- Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Hunter- The Owl House

Isabelle - Animal Crossing

Izzy Hands- Our Flag Means Death

Jaehee Kang- Mystic Messenger

Jafar- Twisted

Jamil Viper- Twisted Wonderland

Jean Gunnhildr - Genshin Impact

Jeremie Belpois- Code Lyoko

Jess Jordan- Succession

Jonathan Harker- Dracula

Jonathan Sims- The Magnus Archives

Jotaro Kujo- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

Keito Hasumi- Ensemble Stars!

Kento Nanami- Jujutsu Kaisen

Kevin Kandy- Spooky Month

Kim Dokja- Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

Kim Kitsuragi- Disco Elysium

Kiyotaka Ishimaru- Danganronpa

Kunikida Doppo- Bungo Stray Dogs

Kurapika- Hunter x Hunter

Kusuo Saiki - The disastrous life of saiki k

Laerryn Coramar Seelie- Critical Role

Lamplighter/plight- OneShot

Larry- Pokemon

Larry Needlemeyer - The Amazing World of Gumball

Ling Wen- Tian Guan Ci Fu (Heaven Official’s Blessing)

Link- The Legend of Zelda

Lisa Cuddy- House M.D

Lisa Wilbourn- Worm

Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre- The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Loid Forger/Twilight- Spy x Family

Lucifer- Obey Me!

Lucretia- The Adventure Zone

Luisa Madrigal- Encanto

Maedhros Feanorian- The Silmarillion

Mafuyu Asahina- Project Sekai/Colorful Stage

Marinette Dupain-Cheng- Miraculous Ladybug

Marsh- Mistborn

Matthew Venn- The Long Call

Merlin- BBC Merlin

Miles O’Brien- Star Trek

Miss Pauling- Team Fortress 2

MK- Lego Monkie Kid

Molly Blyndeff- Epithet Erased

Mrs Doyle- Father ted

Munkustrap- Cats 1998

Nicholas Benedict- The Mysterious Benedict Society

Nishida- Yakuza

Obi-Wan Kenobi- Star Wars

Olruggio- Witch Hat Atelier

Pandemonica- Helltaker

Parsley Botch- Smile for Me

Peppino Spaghetti- Pizza Tower

Percy Jackson- Percy Jackson

Peregrine Mendicant- Homestuck

Ponder Stibbons- Discworld

Raphael Walt/Sirius Dieke- My Next Life as a Villainess

Ratchet- Transformers

Reagan Ridley- Inside Job

Reim Lunettes- Pandora Hearts

Retsuko- Aggretsuko

Riza Hawkeye- Fullmetal Alchemist

Robin- Smash Legends

Rory Williams- Doctor Who

Ryotaro Dojima - Persona

Sara Chidouin- Your Turn To Die

SecUnit- The Murderbot Diaries

Shang Qinghua - Scum Villain's Self-Saving System

Shota Aizawa- My Hero Academia

Sips- Fool’s Gold

Squidward Tentacles- Spongebob Squarepants

Stanley- The Stanley Parable

Steven Alen Starphase- Blood Blockade Battlefront/Kekkai Sensen

Steven Universe- Steven Universe

Super Mario Bros.- Mario Series

Susan Taxpayer- Susan Taxpayer

The Cabbage Merchant- Avatar the Last Airbender

The Captain- BBC Ghosts

The Elsen- Off

The Manager- The Hotel Podcast

Touta Matsuda- Death Note

Trafalgar Law- One Piece

Twilight Sparkle- My Little Pony

Vera Oberlin- Monster Prom

Walter Pensive- Hello from the Hallowoods

Will Graham- Hannibal

William T Spears- Black Butler

[echoing-gravity]

MLB X MCU AU in which Marinette gets revealed as Multimouse to the entire world

Because Alya cant be trusted to be responsible with a camera.

Every-fucking-one knows now. hawkmoth. her PARENTS. Hell even TONY fucking STARK knows she was a hero.

and then her parents make/force her to take Style queens offer to intern in NYC, because, from their perspective she is not safe in paris. and like- the AVENGERS are in new york so surely it must be safe there. so they pack up and move their entire bakery business.

and she ends up going to midtown high-school, where not to her knowledge, fellow teenage superhero Peter parker aka "Your friendly neighborhood SPIDER-MAN" goes to school.

Cute adorable shipping commences.

peter is all like "omg another teenage super hero???!!! like me???? i thought i was the only one???? transferring to MY school?!!! SO COOL!!"

"marinette is super smart, marinette is pretty, she was one of THE Miraculous Ladybug's sidekicks how cool is that??!, marinette is COOL!! maybe we can be friends? how am i gonna talk to someone that cool though?? i cant tell her my secret identity!!!"

insta-crush. peter is a marinette SIMP

(and yo, dont get on my case about marinette being super fucking smart, this is the girl who figured out she was getting a birthday party from just seeing one of her friends holding a bike pump. that girl is a tactical genius! she just has self esteem issues. they are both nerd, their just nerds about differnt things, let the nerds date!!!!)

of course Marinette still has the ladybug miraculous -even tho everyone thinks she doesn't have the rat miraculous anymore- and the miracle box. so she can still fight hawkmoth because the horse is basically fast travel irl, Space miraculous super conveintent.

(also concerning the mirsacle box, im going with my headcanon/Unlucky 13 AU on what that looks like post "ladybug becomes guardain" because that egg thing from canon? fucking lame

These ones^^^)

It would be canon compliant till season 2 and most? of season 3? but like fuck miracle queen, season3 finale + truth made me stop watching the show. so like in this au, lets just assume Fu is dead, and ladybug has had the miracle box for some time now. and that they got the miraculous when they were 13, and are currently 15? yeah? okay.

(also prolly chat salt, it doesn't HAVE to be chat salt, but like- He. Keeps. Trying. To. Quit. And leave all the work to marinette!!!! its happened like 3?? times now? Marinette CANT quit!!! its literally "do this or lose all your memories!!!" she is being held hostage by a fucking magic box full of responsibilities no 15 year old should have to deal with.)

I headcanon that marinette stress-bakes, so like cute scene number #1 after peter and marinette become friends, could be something like "marientte stresses for a test, and then bakes to much food so her parents make her take it to school to share with her peers, and she ends up giving like- 1/2 of them to parker, becuz of his super high metabolism.

and how marinettes got her whole "i'm RESPONISBLE!!! for the whole fucking universe now, omfg i'm the reason fu is basically dead" angsty shit going on which kinda parallels peters whole "i have super powers, and if i dont do something to help then its my fault if someone gets hurt, like how my uncle died. With great power, comes great RESPONSIBLITY!!!" angst. maybe they could trauma bond. who doesn't like a good hurt comfort trauma bond fic?

marinette likes designing fashionable but also functional clothes.

peter likes designing gadgets and techy things. let them be nerds together!!! in love!!

i feel like they would be the kind of couple/friends to just ramble on about their passions and they would listen to each other even tho they dont know much about each others interests yet. (also hey what if marinette and peter co designed one of peters early suits pre-stark suit??? the fucking writing potential this ship has omfg c'mon ppl!!! why are we sleeping on this??)

oh! and maybe peter figures out that marinette is also ladybug -but later on- cuz like, he has superhearing? and tikki isn't as subtle as she thinks she is.

and then he's all in awe like "Wow holy shit!!! she made her ladybug secret identity FOOLPROOF!!!! no one would ever fucking suspect!! maybe she can help me with mine???"

Fox miraculous shenanaigans insue????? The daily Bugles next headline be like: "SPIDER-MAN SAVES SI INTERN PETER PARKER FROM ETC ETC"

( the media thinks Ladybug and Chat are 1000+ years old due to that thing alya found in that museum that one time. and the fact that people know that Thor and Loki are super old.

Ladybug's excuse to the public for letting a teenager, Nay! for letting a THIRTEEN YEAR OLD CHILD use an extremly dangerous magical artifact for a little over 2 years, goes something like this: "Marinette was the ONLY person in france- maybe in the whole world! that was compatible with the Rat miraculous, it takes a very smart person to be able to multitask like that, and marinette has a photographic/phonetic memory."

i headcannon that marinette photographic/phonetic memory, and that the Rat Miraculous is the math miraculous that was mentioned in the comics that one time, and that if an incompatible person were to try and use it they would at BEST develop a severe case of split personality disorder/ or schizophrenia, and at WORST their brain would- just- melt out of their ears. )

Also he calls her "Spots" or "LuckyBug" when shes in hero mode.

(i cant think of cute nicknames for peter, ugh "web head" is just something i cant picture marinette saying. what's the french word for spider? what's the french word for cobwebs??)

She prolly just calls him "Webs" or "Spidey"

[new-kit-on-the-block]

Miraculous may have perfected the Sherlock Holmes trick, by not hiding the fact that it's a trick

After all the posts of me shitting on Miraculous, I figured I'd cover something that I really like and respect about it. Just to prove that I am, in fact, being critical of this show and not just pointlessly mean.

Now, a majority of you might be wondering "What the hell is the Sherlock Holmes trick?"

The Sherlock Holmes trick is the name that I like to use to refer to Arthur Conan Doyle's secret to making Sherlock Holmes seem so smart.

It's worth noting that Arthur absolutely hated how popular Sherlock Holmes became, because of just how simple of a trick it was.

In essence, here's what the trick was: He would hand Sherlock the cards under the table.

Did you ever consider how weird it is that Sherlock can piece together the right puzzle simply by viewing all the necessary clues? Probably not. Because it doesn't seem weird when you phrase it like that.

Of course Sherlock can quickly piece together the puzzle by looking at all the clues, that's what a detective does!

But the overwhelming majority of real-world detectives can't put the pieces in the correct order nearly as quickly as Sherlock does. The main conflict in the original stories isn't "Can Sherlock figure it out using all the clues available?", it's "How will Sherlock find the clues that lead him to the correct conclusion?"

As soon as Sherlock has all the necessary clues, he's already figured it out. He pretty much always jumps to some big accusation using all the previous clues as evidence, and he's correct.

But as Arthur Conan Doyle himself went on record to point out, there are any number of conclusions that Sherlock could jump to using the clues alone. So how can Sherlock always land on the correct one, and so quickly too?

Simple. Because he has to. Because that's what the story is. Most importantly, because it makes him look smart.

This is a really great trick for writing a character that's smarter than yourself. Give them what they need in order to figure it out, and then have them jump to the correct assumption super quickly as though it were obvious. Put them in a situation that most people would never be able to figure out, and have them figure it out.

It's an extremely simple, but extremely effective trick.

Now, how does Miraculous come into play here? How can I claim that Miraculous "perfected" a trick that needed no perfecting?

Writing this sentence right now, I don't know if 'perfected' was the right word to use.

It's more like Miraculous destroyed the trick. It perfectly deconstructed the trick, exposing it as a trick, through its excellent use of said trick.

Two words. Lucky. Charm.

The Lucky Charm is every writer's wet dream. It literally gives Marinette exactly what she needs in any scenario.

It's the Sherlock Holmes trick, but instead of handing her the cards under the table, it just gives her the cards right out in the open.

It's such a simple use of such a simple trick, but it manages to show the audience exactly what the trick is by acting as a sort of hand of god.

I really have to applaud the creators of Miraculous for the idea of the Lucky Charm, because they've effectively made it so that they can make Marinette seem like a genius, all without needing to hide what writing trick they're using.

[ao3feed-ladynoir]

Operation Moth Zapper

Operation Moth Zapper by Aboyandhisstarship

on Earth there is exactly one Organization that handles the Paranormal world, and well a Super Villain and Super Heroes certainly counts. The Psychonauts Accept the Mission there sending there Top Agents, the mission Locate the Person known as Hawkmoth and stop him.

Words: 3064, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Psychonauts (Video Games), Miraculous Ladybug

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/M

Characters: Razputin "Raz" Aquato, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Sabine Cheng, Sasha Nein, Milla Vodello, Morceau Oleander

Relationships: Razputin "Raz" Aquato/Lili Zanotto, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Razputin "Raz" Aquato & Sasha Nein, Razputin "Raz" Aquato & Milla Vodello, Razputin "Raz" Aquato & Morceau Oleander, Sasha Nein/Milla Vodello

Additional Tags: Cross Over, Lili is only mentioned so far, none of the ships are on screen really yet, Psy Powers, The Pyschonauts are not exactly public knowledge, Messing round with the idea, Morrie is an engineering genius, and the gadget guy, Also I decided his Codename is Dishsoap

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/44915947

[raspberrycatapult]

All such wonderful fics and definitely some of my favourites, too!

Alright, mine...let's see.... I've only written 9, and half are one-shots!

Hamburger Ladybug

I'm really happy how this one turned out. I got really creative with all the descriptions, and I still think the pun in the title is genius.

The Hardest Things Come After

My most successful fic so far, and the first one I wrote for the fandom. Even though I think there's a lot that needs improving now, two years later, there are so many bits I'm still pleased with. I'm proud that I was able to maintain a regular posting schedule and finish the story in 6 months.

The Adrien and Marinette Show (Truman Show AU)

One of my favourite premises. I'm happy with most of it. I'm going to be quite proud (and relieved! and sad) when it's finished. More than most of my other fics, it reflects a lot of my emotions and worldview.

Those We Leave Behind

Another one of my favourite premises. It's still early days, but I'm super excited to see how the story continues to pan out. There are so many parts I can't wait to write. It's proving to be really challenging already, but I'm determined. It's the story that's closest to my heart.

All That Is Necessary (Gone AU)

Co-written with @uptoolateart! It's SO much fun to write. I love the premise. I love how we're developing the characters and their relationships. I love how hilarious and crazy it is despite the horrific situation the characters find themselves in. I am giddily looking forward to so many scenes.

Alright, I'm also tagging: @kuromori4 @cardiac-agreste @mysticraven20 @trinketsinthesun @hamsteriffic, and @wehadabondingmoment :))

Thanks to @hailqiqi for tagging me about ten thousand years ago. I just have so much to do 😩 Anyway! The original post said:

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers (except me because obvs I have done it). Spread the self-love ❤

Here we go!

Breaking Free - the whole series

I'm cheating here, because I'm listing a multi-book series, but I can't help it. I'm super proud of it. It started as a one-shot of Adrien and Marinette finding Gabriel's basement, and then it spiralled hard. It begins right after Strike Back. From there, it's a complicated, twisted and very bumpy ride.

'How did you think this up?' my BF beta has asked me many times. I don't know, guys. It just seemed obvious at the time 😆

This was my 'getting back into writing' book, after a lengthy creative hiatus / identity crisis. I churned out chapters because I needed to get back in the game and rediscover myself artistically. Then I went back and edited the whole thing a couple years later, to make it better (and expand it by about 20k words).

It became a series because I had requests for sequel scenes. Again, a couple one-shot ideas spiralled, and I merged them with another premise that had been kicking around in my head - Adrien, years later, trying to heal from everything as an adult and find himself as a father with his own teenage son.

That then spiralled again, and I ended up exploring Felix in depth, too, and pushing all the sentibeing stuff to extremes. The whole concept for Book 4 intimidated the hell out of me as soon as I thought of it. I was so worried I wouldn't be able to do it justice. Writing it was sometimes physical torture. But in the end, I think Book 4 contains what might be the best chapter I've ever written for anything in my life.

Still, the saga continues! Book 5 starts posting in 4 weeks. I've set myself another crazy challenge with that one, but I am determined to pull it off. I also have ideas for a few one-shots to collect in a volume I'm calling Book 6. The series is going to be like 700k words by the time I'm done. Maybe more. Will I ever truly finish this thing? I don't know. I fell so hard into the universe I created, and it's going to be hard to let it go. I fully expect to cry when I post the epilogue to Book 5.

Book 1 was also how I really got into this fandom and started making friends. Honestly, that book changed my life. Yeah...I'm gonna cry.

Dreaming Wide Awake

This was my follow-up to the S5 finale. The show is now going its own way, but I'm still so proud of how all the tension and emotions turned out in this fic. Again, the story is complex. It's also really surreal, and I think the battle scenes are some of my best. I was soooo nervous about the reader response to one of the big moments in it, but the unanimous reaction was everything I'd hoped for.

How the Heart Learns to Beat Again

A backstory from Nathalie's POV. It starts with her at age 25, as the sole survivor of an old magical order, going on extraordinary adventures seeking legendary artefacts. Then she meets the Agrestes, loses her magic, and gets roped into a new crazy world.

The story also explores Gabriel and Emilie, Colt and Amelie, and Adrien and Felix's creation / infancy. Book 2 (covering Emilie's death and how Gabriel and Nathalie start using the butterfly and peacock) starts posting on Monday. I think these fics are possibly the most mature writing I've ever done. There's a certain 'voice' to them that stands out from my other writing.

Finding a Way (Jurassic Park AU)

This is my most successful fic, so far. It's half goofy / romantic and half tense / action - with a lot of gore. I thought it would be total crack, but it took on a life of its own and became much more serious. There was something magical about how it all came together. I'm planning a sequel, but I need to get through a few other big fics first.

Voyage! Tales of the USS Miraculous (Star Trek Crossover)

This is so far from finished, but I'm having a blast writing it. It's basically all planned out and going to be mammoth when it's done. There's a little of everything in it, and you don't need to know Star Trek to understand it. I'm loving the reader speculations over what might be going on.

Okay! That's my list. Tagging @raspberrycatapult @kuromori4 @cardiac-agreste @mysticraven20 @trinketsinthesun @hamsteriffic @jigglypuff1994 @fandomofone

[agentofscifi]

Super Genius Marinette Ch. 5

Washington D.C.

Marinette’s POV

I wave off another tech businessman as they move on to the next table that had caught their eye. My Dad moves over next to me, throwing an arm over my shoulder. “Well, you seem to be doing well.”

“I am doing well. The judges were enthusiastic, and so have all the Tech gurus that have been by. I’m feeling pretty great.”

“Well, I’m glad. The rest of the kids have gotten some pretty good feedback.”

“Any potential business that will invest in their ideas? I’ve had at least 6 companies leave me business cards for when I put my device on the market.”

“That’s my girl. Keep up the good work, I want to visit a few more kids. Maybe get a few more summer interns for the company.”

“What’s your plan? Conquer the science world by brainwashing the next generation?”

“Viva la revolución!”

Washington D.C.

Alya’s POV

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Marinette was in the same building as us for the Tech convention, showing off some kind of watch thing to a whole bunch of adults. In the short amount of time, I’d been watching her all kinds of people had stopped to see her stand. Several had asked her questions in a variety of languages. I had blinked at that. I knew Marinette learned German in school, as well as some Spanish, and that her mother was teaching her Mandarin. But, I never knew that Marinette spoke Japanese, Italian, English, and Portuguese.

She looked absolutely in her element, switching between her languages as she pointed to the watch, glove-thing, next to her, or to the poster behind her. I couldn’t squash the rising jealousy as Marinette just kept smiling. I’d been unable to come up with anything for the showcase, and my parents almost didn’t pay for me to come on the trip because of this. I barely managed to convince my parents to let me come so I could cover all of this for the Ladyblog. This would bring in the views, I just knew it. Genius inventions by kids would be an amazing story. Especially when I wrote all about Lila’s accomplishments. Ladybug’s best friend winning a prize at this competition would be an excellent story for my university applications.

I turn away as yet another well-dressed person comes to speak to Marinette. I turn away with a growl as I push back to the collection of class projects. It took me a few minutes to get there, between all of the other competitors and visitors. When I finally make it take to Nino’s table, which held some scientific layout for some music, I all but fall into Nino’s chair.

“What’s wrong, babe?” Nino looks down at me with a concerned gaze.

“Marinette’s here. Marinette is here, showing off some stupid design, and everyone seems to love it. People are constantly over there talking to her, in multiple languages. Since when does Mari speak Italian!” “Babe-”

“And, where was all of this in class? Where were these languages, where was this brilliance, where was this confident side of Marinette that we have never seen before?”

“Babe, we didn’t really know Marinette before you arrived. She was the super young girl in class with good grades, baked goods, and not a lot of free time. Not to mention, befriending her meant getting on Chloe’s bad side. I knew she took classes for Spanish and something else, but I never knew of her speaking more than those languages. As for her newfound confidence,” Nino shrugs. “I have no idea.”

I groan. “I just can’t believe that-”

“WHAT!” Nino and I jerk our heads to the sound of the scream. We exchange a look before getting up. It only took a few seconds of crowd maneuvering to get to the scream. Lila was standing in front of her table, her face red with what I thought was either anger or embarrassment.

I reach out to my bestie, placing a hand on Lila’s shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

The judge briefly glances at me, then fixes his gaze back at Lila. “You are banned from this competition and we have blacklisted you from future tech competitions.” The Judge’s french was cold and hard.

I move to look at the paper. My ability to read English was passable. I was able to pick up every few words. However, I could pick out “banned”, “stolen”, “copyright” and “Stark Industries”.

“What! That’s not possible! Lila’s done so much! Why would she need to steal someone else’s design?” I’m practically screaming in french.

Lila jerks up to look at him. “Your project,” he switches back to English, which was just as cold and unforgivable. “Is not yours. We knew this the moment we came to your stand as we recognized your project. Stark Industries announced the production and eventual sale of the product over two weeks ago.”

Lila starts to pale fast. “I-she stole it from me. Marinette must have stolen my project and told everyone that it was her’s!”

“We have video footage of you breaking into the inventor’s house and taking photos of her projects. Now, please stop lying to everyone here. You are wasting valuable time.” The man turns on his heels and leaves.

I look back at the sheet, then at Lila. Lila’s face was contorted. Her jaw clenched, her brow furrowed, and a red face. The paper was crumpled up in her hand. “Lila, are you alright?”

Just as quickly as the anger came, it disappeared. Lila’s eyes fill with tears, her lips were quivering, and then she gives a wretched sob. “It’s-It’s all Marinette’s fault! She must have told them I was stealing!”

I wrap my arms around Lila. “It’s ok Lila. We’ll get this all straightened out. I’ll make sure you get the credit. Marinette can’t be this smart anyways and no way does she know Tony Stark!” I suddenly gasp. “Lila, you could tell Tony Stark and his daughter about Marinette! He helped fund our trip, you told us how close you and his daughter are. I bet if you explained everything, they’d drop Marinette in a second.”

Lila freezes before a smile fills her face. “Of course, how could I forget. I’ll call them!”

“No need dudette!” Nino gives the pair of us a big smile. “I just saw Tony Stark a few rows over. He’s looking at student projects.”

Lila’s eyes go wide. “That’s not necessary! I wouldn’t want to disrupt him during the convention.”

I give my bestie a wide smile. “It’s fine! I’ll get him right now!” I wave my hand. “Mr. Stark!” Dozens of heads turn towards me. I was only interested in the man with dark hair, sunglasses, and an expensive suit. “Mr. Stark!”

The man pulls off his sunglasses and raises an eyebrow at me. “Can I help you?”

I give Tony Stark a big smile. “Yes!” I point down at Lila. “It’s Lila Rossi! Your daughter’s friend! They meet several years ago in Italy!”

Tony Stark’s eyebrow rises. “I know all of my daughter’s friends. They’re currently planning a rebellion against me.”

I blink. “What?”

Tony Stark turns to Lila. “Would you spend 6 days in front of a TV?”

Lila scoffs. “No. I have way better things to do.”

“Then you’re definitely not one of my daughter’s friends, because they all just spent over 128 hours watching 12 Star Wars movies, 7 seasons of Clone Wars, the Bad Batch, all 4 seasons of Star Wars Rebels, and both seasons of the Mandalorian.”

“I-what?” Lila is blinking rapidly. “She’s your daughter? Why wouldn’t she go shopping or take a vacation, or something actually fun?”

Tony Stark shrugs. “She’s a fashionista nerd. Some days she wants to go shopping, other days she wants to obsess over Star Wars, or build a wireless charging device.”

Lila’s head snaps up at the same time as mine. “What?”

Tony Stark gives a small smile. “Maybe you should be more careful of who you steal from.” He puts his sunglasses back on. “Maybe you should stop making up lies about my child, I have excellent lawyers.”

I stare at the billionaire. What was happening?

Lila’s mouth opens and closes. “It’s Marinette’s fault! I don’t know what she told you, but she’s lying!”

I start nodding. “Lila’s right. I thought Marinette was super sweet when I meet her, but she’s nothing like that. She’s a bully, a thief, a liar, and she’s selfish!”

“Selfish?” Tony Stark crosses his arms over his chest. “What, she won’t give you free, handmade clothing? Or plan elaborate class trips she’s eventually excluded from, despiting doing all of the work? Or because she won’t babysit three rowdy children, last minute, all night, with no pay, so their sibling can have a date night on their parent’s dime.”

“I-” My mouth drops open. “What?”

“Marinette has recommendations from the Style Queen, won a contest by Gabriel Agreste, is the personal stylist for Jagged Stone, has regularly designed for Clara Nightingale, graduated from Lycée when she was 14, and will be attending MIT at age 15. You, Ms. Césaire, run a blog. Ms. Rossi is a small-time model for a dying fashion company. Now, who should I believe?”

“Lila’s more than just a model. Her mom’s an ambassador. She saved Jagged Stone’s kitten, does green initiatives with Prince Ali, she knows tons of famous people, half of Hollywood!”

There’s a burst of laughter behind Tony Stark. I shift my eyes to the girl standing there. “You’re kidding me, right? Any real Jagged Stone fan knows that he’s allergic to fur and he has a pet crocodile. Have you people never heard of Google?”

I frown at her. “Who are you?”

The girl shakes her head. “MJ.”

“Why are you here?”

“I’m competing, like most of the kids here. Why are you here?”

I purse my lips. “Moral support.”

MJ snorts and turns her attention to Tony Stark. “Hey, Tony, judges are about to announce winners. You gonna stand with your interns or keeping talking to Lie-la and the blogger?”

“I’m coming MJ. Honestly, no respect from any of you anymore.”

I watch the pair of them walk away, mouth still open.

“Uhhh...dudettes? What just happened?”

Marinette’s POV

My dad comes up next to me as the head judge walks up to the stage microphone. “See any interesting projects?”

Dad pulls off his sunglasses. “Saw a few good projects, gave some applications.”

Uncle Rodney reaches over and hands me a cup of coffee. “Corrupting the next generation. Honestly, Tony.”

Dad rolls his eyes. “Your classmates are here.”

“I figured some of them would be. Max did make an A.I.”

“And Lila Rossi tried to pass off one of your projects as her own.”

“Which one? I know about the app. Lawyers will be serving papers to her mother today or tomorrow. Lila will get the papers after her Mother. The lawyers are waiting for a call from the French team.”

“The wireless charger. Judges disqualified her.”

“Let me guess, I’m at fault.” “Apparently, you’re corrupting and lying to my daughter.”

I roll my eyes. “Of course I am.”

“Ladies and Gentlemen!” The judge nods to us all. “We would like to thank you all for coming to this year’s International Technology Showcase in Washington D.C. We’ve seen many good inventions this year. However, some stood out against the others. As you all know we had 3 main Divisions: High School Student, Undergraduate Student, and Graduate Student. We will also be naming two honorable mentions in each category. These three categories are divided up by education level. Each division winner will receive a $150,000 prize, with the honorable mentions receiving a $50,000 prize. The last Divison is an opt-in group, with no age restrictions, but much higher expectations. They will also have two honorable mentions. The winner will receive a $250,000 prize, with the honorable minions receiving a $100,000 prize.”

“Now, the winner of the High School Division is Cao Xia!” There’s a round of applause from the room. A young woman walks up on stage and accepts a gold-colored award. “The honorable mentions in the High School Division are Matei Stolojan and Adama Ndione.” The applause continues as the two students walk up and accept two silver-colored awards.

“The winner of the Undergraduate Student Division is Penny Foster!” The applause continues as the winner comes up and accepts their award. “The honorable mentions in the Undergraduate Divison are Alvaro Bolívar and Zhang Min.” They both come up and accept their rewards before continuing off the stage.

“The winner of the Graduate Student Division is Yuliya Kozlov.” An older student comes up and accepts the gold award again. “The honorable mentions for the Graduate Student Divison are Ulrich Wächter and Kimura Shika.” Another two older students come up to take their awards.

“Now, the honorable mentions for the Professional Divison are Feza Bashara and Peter Parker.” I give Peter a big smile as he goes up and accepts his award with a student who looks a few years older than him. Both of them walk off the stage. “Last but not least, the winner of the Professional Divison is Marinette Dupain-Cheng-Stark.”

I smile at my Dad as I walk up the stage. The applause from earlier restarts as I take the gold award from the man at the front and progress over to the collection of other winners.

“Congratulations, Mari!” Peter is smiling widely as he holds his award. I give him a wide smile as his Aunt May starts taking pictures.

A minute later, my father is next to me, hugging me. “That’s my girl!” Rodney managed to snag a few family pictures before the reporters that are present.

“Mr. Stark, are related to Marinette? Is this your daughter?”

“Mr. Stark, why is young daughter just now becoming public?”

“Mr. Stark, do you plan to leave your company to your daughter?”

The questions continue for several more seconds before my father sticks a hand up. “One at a time, please!” The Reporters all take a step back and several raise their hands. My Father nods to one.

“Mr. Stark. Is Ms. Marinette Dupain-Cheng-Stark your daughter?”

“She is.”

“Why is this the first time we’ve seen her?”

I smile widely. “I wanted a normal, quiet childhood. Dad tends to attract a lot of attention. However, I’ve recently finished Lycée, France’s version of high school, and I will be starting at MIT in the fall.”

My father nods to a different reporter now. “Ms. Ansley?”

“If I may ask, how old are you, Marinette?”

“I’m 15.”

A different reporter gets a nod. “Do you plan to get involved in your Father’s company?”

“I already am, I’ve given a few invention designs in the past, mostly small things or parts of projects. However, recently I’ve patented a few larger products, like my contactless wireless phone charger and some new ultra-resistant, flexible fabric for firefighters and other first responders. I don’t plan to take a business role anytime soon.”

My father nods to another reporter. The man takes a step forward, holding out his mic. “Marinette, how-

“MARINETTE!”

Before ~~~~~~~ Next

Taglist:

@weirdo-with-no-beardo @demonicbusiness @corporeal-terrestrial @basenikon

[jennrypan]

Marinette gettin akumatized wouldnt do much- like she'd just make people tell the truth and maybe itll take like a few hours or more cuz shes ladybug and theyll need to find a replacement.

Like she wont be op- maybe if Ladybug was akumatized, she would though I dunno...what shed do cuz Chat destroyed the moon so would she...create..a volcano?- or something evil-

[princess-of-the-corner]

the show actually did something pretty genius when it comes to the class siding with Lila this time around, extensively when Chloe and Lila were changing everyone they left Marinette's the same

Oh see that one is at least helpful.

And yeah if theirs are messed up too, then it goes toward the fact that they wanted people to find out and get it fixed.

........

Actually you know what would've been better than filing those and having the uproar happen when they're somehow given next year's schedule before the current school year is even over(seriously what the fuck?)

They have Sabrina do the forgeries. And they talk to the teachers about how they think something's a little odd with the paperwork and would like to have meetings to discuss it. Even citing how their own papers had been messed with! That's not what they put down but it's what's on the forms they got from Marinette! Perhaps there was miscommunication? Or maybe someone's just playing a prank on them, but they should fix this and double check every form!

Then they and the teachers and principal have meetings with each individual student over their forms.

All of them going

Lila/Chloé/Staff: "So why'd you choose X class?"

Student: "What? No, I chose Y class? What the hell?"

And they keep doing that through every student. Lila and Chloé pretending to be sympathetic and encouraging throughout the whole way like 'Juleka I really hope that this was a mistake you're not really hoping to be held back you're a wonderful girl and you're so bright in class!'.

Until they get to Marinette who just.

Lila/Chloé/Staff: "So why'd you choose X class?"

Mari: "Oh well *insert beginnings of a ramble here*!"

Lila/Chloé/Staff: "Wait. You.... actually picked X class? There wasn't a mistake?"

Mari: "Why would there be a mistake? You all know it's what I want?"

and then it's super sus to the /teachers/ before the class.

And ofc the class will talk and they'll ask around and find that Mari's was the only one not tampered with and it's like 'bruh the fuck?'

They'd still find it OOC for Mari but it would point to her a lot better.

[echoing-gravity]

This is basically BrainDead but it's the love square. Where Danny is basically Chat noir in that dynamic.

I assume for some reason the Fenton's move to gotham in this au. Maybe Bruce is interested in ghost tech, maybe the lab blew up becuz someone forgot to clean the portals filter, who knows- unimportant.

Danny as Phantom has a big ass flush crush on Red Robin. "He's so cool! And he's a hero, like me! And we're like- the same age", and whatever.

(and as Fenton too, but like- they don't interact very much. And when they do it's basically ladynoir mutual crush adorableness.)

Tim as Red Robin on the other had just sees Phantom as a friend. He has a crush on this robotics genius in his class that just moved to his high school from some out of way hick town in Illinois. Tim is Marinette in this dynamic. He's super smart, super cute. Too bad the boy you like has a celebrity crush.. oh wait? That celebrity is secretly you?! But your dad won't let you tell him? Tough luck dude.

(At one point I assume Danny saved tim from some type of perilous thing. Maybe he was kidnapped by the joker or somesuch person. And Danny's there too because it happened during school. Jokers all like "blah blah blah evil manical rant, and Danny just pulls like a mini stick out of his pocket which unfolds into a fricking baseball bat and just bashes the clowns head in. Tim's all like- "oh. oh shit! I hope this doesn't awaken anything in me." Kind of like a parallel to the first Adrienette umbrella scene.)

If no one writes a fic like this by like- oh idk, February, I'm going to write it. And I'm terrible at writing characterization well. I've never read the comics.

Um BrainDead but they both don’t know each others identities… discuss.

[soulmate-game]

Daughter of wonderwoman au where marinette finds out her mother is actually Diana and somehow it ends up with her meeting/being introduced to the batfam maybe because she has super strength and is seen yeeting some bad guys who tried to mug her... Or something.

“... you are running from your problems, Mari,” Adrien’s exasperated voice reminded his best friend. Again. She ignored him, and he threw his hands up in exasperation. “Look, you don’t have to do anything about it! Nobody would hold it against you if you decided to just, ignore that you found anything out at all. But you need to actually think about what we just found out and decide whether or not you’re gonna do anything—“ he side-stepped a piece of trash that went flying in his direction. “—or if you’re gonna move on and pretend nothing happened.”

“Isn’t that what I’m doing?” Marinette shot back, pushing her bangs out of her face and tying her hair back with one hand.

“No, you’re currently hiding away in Gotham to avoid your parents while you beat up every random group of idiots who thinks you’re an easy mark,” he retorted. Another wannabe kidnapper went flying in his direction, making him sigh and side step again. She had thrown that one with only her one free hand, showing just how upset she was. “You’re ignoring everything in your life, which is not what we meant we said you should get a little space.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Marinette dropkicked the last criminal into unconsciousness before stepping back and putting her hands on her hips. She looked over at the now seven passed out men in the alleyway, and the one very frustrated ex-model pinching the bride of his nose. “I think I’m coping just fine.”

“It’s better than being forced to suppress all of your emotions, sure,” Adrien reluctantly agreed. “But not by much. Your angry rampage through Gotham has already attracted more attention,” he raised his hand to point at a nearby rooftop. Several shadows lurked there, looming over the building’s edge. “Which, might I add, is exactly why I told you not to come to Gotham.”

“You’re the one who followed me here,” she shot back before turning to the shadowy figures above them. “Go ahead and come down! But it was self defense, and you can’t arrest or beat me up for defending myself!”

The first figure to drop down straightened your just as quickly, revealing the imposing figure of none other than Batman himself. The little white eyes on his cowl seemed to narrow on their own as he looked down at her.

“That might be true, but I’m sure you know my policy on metas in my city,” he grumbled back at her. He wasn’t necessarily threatening, but he definitely wasn’t welcoming either. With all of his limbs hidden behind the cocoon that was his cape, Marinette would never be able to predict his next move if he did decide to fight. Not that she seemed particularly worried about that as she crossed her arms over her chest and met his glare evenly.

“Oh, do you own this city now? I wasn’t given the memo,” she retorted. “And considering I didn’t even know I was a meta until last week? I think I deserve a little slack. I’m angry and if people think the tiny little girl in pink is an easy kidnapping target, then it’s their fault for making themselves into the perfect practice dummies for me to try out my newly discovered strength on.”

Adrien saw the eyes on Batman’s mask narrow even further. Marinette wasn’t exactly at her most charismatic at the moment, and Adrien didn’t wanna get the both of them into a bad relationship with the experienced superhero who always seemed to know things he shouldn’t know. So he stepped up quickly, getting in between Marinette and the Bat and holding his hands up in a placating gesture.

“Okay, Monsieur Batman,” Adrien started slowly, making sure his posture was impeccable and his smile bright. “She’s telling the truth, even if she’s not... the most tactful about it right now. She just found out some very concerning things about her origin and Gotham is the best place for her to hide from her problems and let loose a little pent up aggression. But— well,” he grimaced. “We didn’t intend to run into you guys, but maybe it’s a good thing we did.”

“How so?” Batman was clearly still incredibly suspicious of the both of them and wasn’t giving an inch. So Marinette rolled her eyes (she was still very moody) and leaned around Adrien so she could get a good look at the monochromatic hero.

“I thank my lucky spots that we ran into you, Batman!” She said monotonously. “Me and Adrien are paw-sitively excited at this opportunity.”

Batman. Froze.

Not only were those two lines the very first lines ever spoken to him by two foreign heroes a few years ago (with a few key words changed to protect identities), but they had become their code phrase for whenever they made calls to one another outside of their costumes. All at once it seemed to hit him— the golden hair and bright green eyes on the boy, the blue-black hair and normally super-focused bluebell eyes on the girl that were currently sporting very uncharacteristic frustration. Their heights. Their builds. All of this info flowed through his mind and compared to the information stored in his memory, and it only took the span of two seconds for everything to click.

Suddenly Batman was at full attention, back straight instead of looming over them and eyebrows clearly raised high under his cowl.

He knew Chat Noir and Ladybug would never take a random vacation to Gotham. Ladybug herself had nearly waxed poetic about how much the city depressed her just from the pictures she saw online. If she had willingly come to visit, it was more than to just blow off some steam.

“Batcave?” He asked, earning a relieved look from Adrien and a moody silence from Marinette.

“Please,” Adrien agreed. “You can probably help us, actually.”

—*—*—*—*—*

Marinette leaned back in the metal debriefing chair, legs up on the table and looking for all the world as the picture of pure teenage rebellion and angst. Coincidentally, Red Hood was in the exact same position in the chair next to her.

Batman and all of his other bats and birds were in the cave with the two off-duty Parisian heroes. Everyone except Adrien and Marinette still had their masks on, since the two Parisians were still not privy to their identities. Yet.

To be fair, the bats hadn’t known the identities of the two miraculous users either before today.

“Cha Noir,” Batman started, only to get a head shake from the blond boy.

“Just call me Adrien. Chat’s out of the bag—“ he ignored the groans at the pun and soldiered on, “—so might as well use my real name.”

Batman nodded. “Adrien, then,” he amended. “Why are you and Ladybug really in Gotham?”

Adrien sighed. “I wasn’t lying, before. Marinette,” he gestured to his hero partner. “Just found out some distressing family news. Since HawkMoth is gone, she doesn’t need to repress her negative emotions anymore. But she also didn’t want to be around her parents while she processed everything. I told her to choose any other city— really, I begged— but she insisted on coming to Gotham.”

“The never ending cloud cover and constant rain seem thematic,” she finally spoke up, reaching into her big over-the-shoulder bag and pulling out a large envelope. She threw it to Batman, making the thin package slice through the air like a knife. To nobody’s surprise the seasoned hero easily caught the projectile between two fingers. He looked at the envelope and back to Marinette, silent questions floating in the air between them. Marinette decided to answer at her own pace.

“That’s what we found out. You see, one of my friends is a huge science nerd. A genius. And he wanted to compare DNA samples between us to see if there were any genetic components that determined a person’s suitability towards certain Miraculous or other magical artifacts over others. It was supposed to just be a fun side project that he didn’t expect any breakthroughs on. He mostly just wanted to satisfy his own curiosity. But instead of finding out if our DNA was linked to the miraculous, he found out that my parents are not biologically my parents.”

“Hence the whole just finding out that you’re a meta thing, right?” Nightwing spoke up, fully invested in the story. “Did they never say you were adopted before?”

“It’s not in the system,” she replied easily. “My parents have all the documentation to prove that I’m their biological child, except I’m not. When I confronted them about it, they caved and admitted that they had adopted me in secret and covered it up. Apparently a friend of theirs was involved in something illegal, and,” she waved at the envelope that Batman was now opening. “The details of what we were able to dig up are in there. The summary is this; their friend was part of a secret, illegal experimentation to create clones that could defeat the Justice League—“ the air seemed to get sucked out of the room as soon as those words left Marinette’s mouth. Everyone seemed to know exactly what she was talking about. “—a group called CADMUS. They made me, as apparently one of their early attempts. But I didn’t exhibit any of the powers they were looking for, or any meta traits at all, and my body refused to mature at the rate they wanted. They had no use for a seemingly normal human baby that they managed to clone, so they were preparing to kill me and start over. That’s when my parent’s friend stole me, not wanting to kill an infant, and begged my parents to take me in and pretend I was theirs. Low and behold, it turns out that my DNA just needed a very specific series of emotions to unlock it’s latent abilities.”

“Those emotions being..?” Red hood trailed off, earning a wolfish smile from Marinette.

“Intense anger, betrayal, and confused frustration closely followed by the desire to punch other people’s faces in.”

“That last one is just an assumption,” Adrien chimed in. “And maybe not accurate. But the first three, our scientist friend was able to confirm. The rapid experience of a lot of negative but action-oriented emotions released whatever had been holding back the powers in her DNA from expressing themselves,” he had switched to French so that he could explain everything exactly as Max had told it to them, but he knew all of them were fluent anyway so it was fine. They nodded along, processing the information.

The crinkling of paper drew everyone’s attention back to Batman, who had been flipping through the detailed break down of everything they had found about Marinette’s situation and how she was made by CADMUS.

“Uh,” Red Robin nervously spoke up. “What’s up, Batman?”

“Your genetic donors...” Batman breathed, getting a wink and finger guns from Marinette.

“Yup. Isn’t that just the most fucked up thing you’ve ever seen? They were clearly trying to make someone who could destroy the world.”

“That makes me nervous,” Nightwing admitted, getting up and going to get a look at the papers himself. “It can’t be that ba—“

When even Nightwing was left agape, everyone else who wasn’t in on it found themselves squirming.

“Just tell the rest of us, already!” Robin demanded after the silence stretched just a bit too long.

“The unknowing genetic donors that CADMUS used to make me,” Marinette spoke up, still with her legs up on the table. “Are a very mad-scientist’s-wet-dream combination of Lex Luthor, Bruce Wayne, and Wonder Woman.”

“We don’t even know why they added Bruce Wayne’s DNA,” Adrien admitted. “Although our scientist friend thinks it’s because of physique. His hypothesis is that, in order to support the genes of Wonder Woman, they had to add male genetics that could support the production of a very high muscle mass and would lean towards easy development of a very athletic body. Lex might be evil-scientist smart, but he’s a string bean. But if he added the DNA of another multi millionaire who just so happens to maintain a ridiculously fit body without putting any obvious work into it,” Adrien shrugged. “Then maybe the clone would be able to support Wonder Woman’s genetics and that of two human donors without falling apart.”

“So I’m ‘the clone’ now, huh?” Marinette snarked, earning an exasperated eye roll from her friend.

Batman just stared at the both of them for a moment. He walked away without a word, and came back with a fresh needle and a box. He placed it on the debriefing table.

“Can I do a paternity test myself?” He asked, his voice suspiciously less gruff than normal. “I trust the both of you, but I rather be safe than sorry with something like this.”

The both of them just stared at him in confusion. They traded a glance, and finally Marinette shrugged and moved to sit in her chair properly. Her shirt was already short sleeved, so she just held her arm out so Batman could easily get a blood sample.

“Sure, why not. But do you just have Lex Luthor or Bruce Wayne’s DNA sitting around to compare, or—“ she shut up when she watched Batman take off his glove and roll his own sleeve up. Realization slowly sunk in as he asked Nightwing to take a blood sample from him.

“Holy shit,” she breathed, eyes wide. “You’re— and Luthor doesn’t know— holy shit this is even worse than I thought,” Marinette rambled, not even noticing as Red Hood moved forward and took a small blood sample from her.

Adrien put a hand over his face and just laughed for a moment hysterically. “Oh my god,” he looked over at Marinette. “You could take over the world.”

“I have the blood of Batman AND Wonder Woman on MY side,” Marinette joked back, also hysterical.

When the bat’s high tech equipment was able to come back with a positive result only a few minutes later, Marinette and Adrien had to sit on the floor and just let it all sink in. Which Batman did not at all help by immediately unmasking himself and trying to make a proper introduction.

“I wanna go beat up random thugs again,” Marinette whined, pulling at her hair. “I’ll put on a mask, whatever, but just please let me punch people. I need to punch people right now.”

[mariharem-trash-heap]

About Adrien.

Sometimes I like saltfics. It’s a good outlet for frustration with the issues with ML’s writing, as well as some of the more ridiculous acts the characters are subject to during the series.

Sometimes I don’t like saltfics. While it can be satisfying watching a hated character’s downfall, something we all wish would happen in reality for fuck’s sake Thomas why won’t you just get rid of Lila or give her more depth already--

Ahem.

One of the characters I take issue with is Adrien. Yes, while he’s not given much more depth other than ‘lonely rich boy wants everyone to be friends’ and ‘mischievous inner self that only gets to surface when he’s Cat Noir’, sometimes y’all can really scare me with how downright awful you write him.

I’m not trying to tell anyone how to write Adrien in their saltfics - really, some of the best fics have Adrien as one of the worst kids in the bunch - but a lot of people get hung up on the ‘high road’ line, particularly “she’s not hurting anyone” at the end of Chameleon.

Did any of you notice, at all, that Marinette never went into depth about how Lila’s affecting her?

She never told him, “Lila threatened to take my friends away” and that she was planning on tearing the class apart. All she said was, “Hey, this girl is lying, why don’t you want me calling her on it?”

And honestly? This might be controversial to say, but Adrien has a point.

Keep in mind that this is the first time in what, months? That the class has even seen Lila. The last time we saw her was in the last episode of Season 1, Volpina, and that was supposed to be the very first day she came to Dupont. This is her first appearance in Season 3, one of the very first episodes to boot, and if the timeline in the wiki is correct, there’s about a 25-episode gap between them. These kids don’t know Lila that well.

And let’s pause a moment to think about the rest of Bustier’s class. Marinette, our lead, has not only designed Jagged Stone’s Eiffel glasses and an album cover, but babysits the daughter of a famous show host, has had a documentary filmed of her home, has won a gaming competition, has been in a music video, has a famous chef as an uncle, and unbeknownst to everyone else, is Ladybug. Adrien is not only the son of a model and a famous actress, but is pretty talented in his own right and is Cat Noir. Alya is a hobbyist journalist whose mother is chef at the hotel Chloe’s dad maintains and her father runs a zoo, as well as being Rena Rouge Nino is a DJ and Carapace Rose literally befriended a prince Juleka’s mom was once a famous performing artist (and according to later canon, her dad is literally Jagged Stone) Alix’s father is head of a museum Chloe’s father is the mayor of Paris and her mother is a famous fashion mogul, Sabrina’s father is a cop Mylene’s father is a talented actor And Max is a certified genius who has a personal robot and made a video game.

All by the age of 14-15.

That’s just what we know of at the time that episode was released.

Is it really so much of a stretch for them to meet Lila and think, “Wow, she’s the daughter of a diplomat! She really must have met a lot of famous people! She’s super cool!”

Keep in mind that although we, the audience, and Marinette and Adrien know she’s lying, to the others she just sounds like a larger-than-life girl who’s had enough experiences to make even Chloe seem boring.

I really don’t think he had any bad intentions when he told her to just stay under the radar. At this point he’s seen how she interacts with Chloe, and he’s grown up with Chloe as a playmate. He knows by now how they both operate. He knows Marinette hates injustice, but he knows the others won’t take kindly to what they consider mistreatment to someone who really hasn’t done anything wrong.

Remember, Adrien is not stupid. He’s sheltered, yes, but is it too much of a stretch to think he’s had enough experience with tabloids and people trying to damage the Agreste name to know that calling her out without any evidence is just going to pitch the accuser against the rest of the class? We all saw what happened in that episode. Everyone got super annoyed with Marinette for pointing out Lila’s lies because she just looked like a jealous girl trying to pit them against a newbie. And that’s not even mentioning her open crush on Adrien is making her look worse.

I love Marinette. Really, I do. But even I was cringing that entire episode. And not just from the napkin scene, because seriously, Max should have caught that one from the get-go. But even if he did, nobody else was speaking up about it, because why would they? To everyone there, everyone believes that everyone else will get upset at them if they speak up, much like they do to Marinette. Groupthink and peer pressure is a real thing, y’all.

Let’s not pretend Adrien is this super-weak spiteful doormat of a person who never does anything. Yes, he doesn’t really know how to comfortably say ‘no’ under pressure, yes, he hates conflict enough not to get involved, but does anyone really think he wants Lila to hurt his friends? The very first real friends he’s had in... forever??

I guarantee you that if she broke down and confessed to Lila’s threats, he would not have told her to lie low. He would’ve been right there with her, and he would’ve stood up to her a lot earlier. And hey, maybe Ladybug wouldn’t have happened.

[msweebyness]

Brilliant, brilliant BRILLIANT, I tell you, GENIUS, I say! Wonderful work as always, Sparky! TiAlya’s for that southern strength, you don’t wanna mess with her! Hmmm…maybe JasAustinT. can help with the whole llama fiasco! True love’s kiss always breaks the spell after all! I’ll be dropping Marinette super soon, so hang tight!

Mirrorverse Crossover - Alya

The sorceress spent no time hearing a true introduction from her counterpart. How could this goody-good let that magical impersonator attack her foxy boyfriend? YzAlya marched right up to TiAlya, absolutely seething with anger. “Listen here, you little-” 

“Hold on, sugah!” TiAyla stated. “I know you’re hot and bothered about what happened to your boo, but I like to consider myself a reasonable person, and I’m gonna need you to step out of my personal space before I take the liberty of making you do so myself.” YzAlya gulped and reluctantly backed away. Something in that girl’s tone said she was someone who could do exactly what she said. TiAlya smiled and called for her boyfriend through the bubble.

“Darlin? Could you fix up Foxy Boy?” TiAlya asked. “You got it, Tadpole.” Fairy GodBro replied, before frowning at his counterpart. He pointed his wand at the pumpkin that had used to be the conman, changing the hybrid back into his normal body.

“Thank you, Sugah Dumplin.” TiAlya said to her partner, who began blushing in response. YzAlya gave a look of pure disgust. “Sugar Dumplin? That’s what you call him?! God, there’s so much saccharine sweetness in this room it’s giving me a cavity.”

“Ain’t nothing wrong with a little sugar in ya life. That boy’s always there for me, and I’m always there for him. We don’t need to hurt anyone to get along. I can’t say the same for you.”

YzAlya brushed her off with a handwave. “HA! Just what I would expect to hear from a goody-good like you! MY Nino is the most cunning of scammers! He could swindle that little fairy of yours out of everything he’s got!”

The hybrid puffed his chest out upon hearing his darling’s words. GodBro just rolled his eyes.

“He’d turn that thief into his carriage in a second. And he doesn’t even need his magic. All I had to do was give a little push, and Nino’s cookin’, cleanin’, and fixin’ things with his bare hands. Could Mr. Swiper over there do the same?” TiAlya retorted, pointing at the swindler. YzAlma sputtered and tried to come up with a comeback. “Hmph! We-well, that just PROVES how much of a fool he is! There’s no greater art than magic, only an imbecile would waste a talent for it! MY Nino could make FAR better use of that wand!”

“Well it wouldn’t work for’im. That boy doesn’t have a good bone in his body.” Alya thought to herself. The girl decided to change the subject. 

“So who are you?” TiAlya questioned. YzAlya stared at her as if she were an imbecile. She blinked rapidly and her head tilted to the side.

“Is your brain made of cheese?! I’m you, you moron!” YzAlya hissed, grinding her teeth. TiAlya rolled her eyes. “No, I mean, what makes you special? How are you any different from me?”

“I am Alya, the br-r-r-riliant soreceress supreme! Master of potions and alchemy! My genius knows no bounds!” YzAlya exclaimed, basking in the smell of her own ego.

JeanCo was watching this grandiose reaction with annoyance.

“Leave the theatrics to the professionals, sweetie” He exclaimed, as he took a sip from his drink. It… tasted a little odd. YzAlya got an incredibly creepy smile on her face, her eyes were wide as she slowly turned around. “Something wrong with your drink, prince?” She stated, sounding absolutely ecstatic as she said it. Jean frowned and tried to respond. “What did you-”

He was cut off as his body began to change. He felt himself getting taller, his skin felt… furrier. Were his ears growing?

“Ohohoho, dear sweet arrogant fool… you shouldn’t have left your drink unattended”. She said the last part in a sing-song voice. 

The transformation was complete, and Jeanco had become a llama.

“Wuh… wh…. AAAAAAHHH!!” Jeanco bleated out, running around the room and screaming their head off. “My face! My beautiful beautiful face!”

“Come on now, baby! There’s nothing wrong with having a bit of beast inside you!” Jeanatoa joked, showing off his crab-hybrid body.

Julebeast decided to comfort Jeanco, knowing what it was like to be transformed, even if she had turned into a beast instead of a llama. The villainous classmates cackled as they heard the young emperor’s repeated cries of “llama face”.  TiAlya just stared at her counterpart in horror and confusion. “H-how did ya even-”

“Extract of llama, my dear. It wasn’t poison, but it’ll ruin his day.” YzAlya giggled.

“The hell’s wrong with you?” TiAlya snapped, with her counterpart relishing in the girl’s concerned anger.

“How’s that for special!” YzAlya began cackling madly, overjoyed that she got to show off her villainous genius. She stopped laughing as she got a look at TiAlya’s worried face.

“Oh don’t worry, I’m sure your little nurse’s office has a cure for curses.” YzAlya said. “Why, you don’t even need a nurse. Isn’t it true that you can turn animals into humans with a kiss?”

“It don’t work like that, it only works with frogs. I’m not kissin a llama!” TiAlya explained.

“Hmm… maybe I can do the opposite. Yes… there’s these group of brats always thwarting my plans. I could turn them into slimy little frogs, and I wouldn’t have to waste a potion to do so! Absolutely brilliant! Genius, I say!” YzAlya cackled with glee upon cooking up another insidious plan. TiAlya decided that she had enough, and left the room. 

YzAlya went back to her foxy partner, giving him a smooch, and patting his head. “Wow…your Alya seems like she really cares about you.” Fairy GodBro said, honestly impressed with how passionate this villainous Alya was about her Nino. The hybrid couldn’t help but blush as he tried to act smug. “Yep! I’m her sly fox. What a girl. Yours ain’t bad too, I mean, a bit plain, but whatevs.” Honest Nino said, in an extremely dismissive manner.

This angered the young fairy, who was quick to react. “She is NOT plain! She is one of the most passionate and dedicated people I’ve ever met.” He responded, his wings flaring up as he did so. Looking to avoid being zapped by the wand again, Honest Nino put his hands up in surrender. “Woah, take it easy, Twinkle Toes. She’s your special princess, I get it. You can be goody-goods together.” He said, avoiding his heroic counterpart’s upset glare. “But she’s got nothing on my Alya! Damn, she’s amazing. A real firecracker! She’s like a monster and a genius at the same time!”

Seeing how crazy they were for each other, Fairy GodBro decided to take his counterpart down a peg. “Well she didn’t seem very fiery a minute ago when my “plain” Alya told her to back off. I can’t blame her though, my lil’ tadpole can make ANYTHING happen if she sets her mind to it!”

Honest Nino decided to cut his losses to avoid this fairy’s wrath. He gave a shit-eating grin and offered a handshake to the GodBro. “Look, I’m not gonna try to win an argument against a dude who can turn me into a vegetable. How about we just agree that our girlfriends are awesome?”

Happy that the situation ended without another fight, Fairy GodBro happily accepted the handshake. “Sounds good to me.” Then he noticed the fox taking a peek at his wand.

“I see you eyeing my wand, don’t even try it. It won’t work for anyone who doesn’t have good in their heart.” Honest Nino grumbled and looked away from the wand. “Aw, rats.”

And that’s Alya’s crossover! This was a collab really between me and @msweebyness, who provided the dialogue (which I edited a little) for the scenes where the Alyas and Ninos simp over each other. Don’t go anywhere, because in a little bit, @msweebyness is dropping her Marinette crossover post. Then later, @artzychic27 will be showing off their Nathaniel post. As always, please let us know what you think in the replies, reblogs, asks, and posts. See you soon!