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adrinoir · 2 years ago

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Headcanon: Adrien Agreste is Trans? (Part 4)

I absolutely love writing about this headcanon. Feel free to read my other sections of the trans headcanon: part one, part two, and part three.

Usual disclaimer: this is just for fun! Obviously cis boys can have these same qualities and traits. Don’t take it too seriously. These are all just things I’ve noticed. Also please keep in mind I haven't watched anything beyond Kwami's Choice: part 1 when I'm writing and posting this (so, I'm using what I currently know).

The incredibly strong dislike of modeling

This relates back to part one where I talked about Adrien’s discomfort in being a model. I had mentioned modeling is all about body - your face and body being everywhere, having to pose in front of a camera all the time, having to walk down the runway. There's a lot of visible discomfort we see in Adrien whenever he has to model.

Anyhow, what I want to add is that this discomfort never eased up for him despite the many, many years he had to model. He was extremely adamant about quitting. Obviously, modeling is a very stressful job as is, especially with the amount of gigs and events to attend and the insane fans who want to know where he's at, plus he said he just wants to be treated as a son by his dad. However, having gender dysphoria is something that can really be heightening this discomfort and desire to quit.

I feel like there are a lot of people out there who would desire to live this lavish lifestyle of being a model, but Adrien can't stand it. So therein lies the question: aside from the normal stress, what is heightening his strong dislike for this job? It could also be the fact that it's keeping him from getting to try out new things he'd enjoy doing, but also consider that his father controls his life as a whole, it isn't just his modeling position getting in the way. And, as I've previously said, there's a lot of visible discomfort, which could easily be what's making him dislike modeling even more.

Additionally, Adrien's face is now not only plastered on billboards, but on almost everyone's Alliance ring. Gabriel scanned Adrien's entire body and created this AI version of him to relieve him of his modeling duties. However, Adrien is still uneasy and doesn't like seeing his face and voice on just about everyone's device (if they have him as their option and not Lila). Yes, it's obviously weird for him to see a fake version of himself saying things he never recorded. But, 1) his face has been all over Paris for years (MASSIVE photos of him), and 2) this should not be incredibly shocking behavior for Gabriel Agreste. So, is there some dysphoric discomfort here, too? Possibly. I know it's a stretch, but it's definitely a small piece to take into consideration.

He often lets people perceive him how they want to

I had also mentioned in part two that he's a people pleaser and melds himself to be who other people want him to be. I want to add, he also lets people define who he is instead of trying real hard to correct them; he lets them think what they want of him.

A good example of this is in Lies when Kagami is trying to draw Adrien. He tries to pose as a cat to try and vaguely show his Cat Noir side; to be silly. But, Kagami doesn't believe this. He even promises her that this is who he really is, that being silly is part of who he truly is. However, Kagami pushes him against a wall, stares directly into his eyes, and says he’s perfect and, "There. This is really you." To which he answers, "Do you really think...?" and just lets Kagami kiss him. Yes, Kagami was being a bit forceful (like, oof. She shouldn't have done that). But, Adrien didn't try to tell her she's wrong. He let Kagami perceive him in her own way.

Why doesn't he correct her? It could be because he wouldn't want people knowing he's trans. It’s a very scary thing. You don’t know how the people who claim they love you will react. Letting them think what they want to doesn’t raise suspicion that he’s hiding something, and clearly his effort on trying to open up to her more didn’t even work in the first place.

You could say he acts like "being silly" is such a big, important part of him that he feel must be hidden at all costs, because it seems that he thinks that him being silly and telling puns would possibly give away that he's Cat Noir. BUT him posing that way for Kagami and him telling cat jokes in the middle of class (in Ephemeral) proves that notion wrong.

One could say he also doesn't want people to know he's dealing with a bad home life, but it's been common knowledge from the start that he has a controlling father. Nino has come up with plans on multiple occasions to free him from his father so they can hang out together. Kagami's mother and Gabriel are friends. It's how Adrien and her met, and Kagami makes it very well known that she's aware of how controlling Gabriel is.

In Elation - one of the most recent episodes - he mentions to Marinette that his fans "wouldn't be such big fans if they knew who was really behind the mask". So, even now, he still feels the need to hide his truer self and that he wouldn't be liked for who he truly is. But, let's think about this for a moment. He has fans both as Adrien and as Cat Noir. He has friends who know his situation and care about him. So then…what is being left out that he feels people won’t like about him? THAT brings us to the next point.

Why does he think people wouldn’t like him?

With all that being said (in the last section), there’s no exact, definable reason as to why Adrien says people wouldn’t like the real him. So, this could mean Adrien is hiding something we as the audience can’t even see.

It’s obvious Adrien has underlying insecurities. But, it seems there’s more than just those insecurities, and this could be him possibly being trans and internally struggling with that gender dysphoria.

People like what they see in Cat Noir - his silly puns and kind heart. People like what they see in Adrien - his kindness and friendliness. So, why will it be problematic once people know they’re the same person? There’s no solid reason.

I had mentioned in my other parts of this headcanon that he’s very closed off which can be pretty common amongst closeted trans people. Adrien thinking people won’t like who he truly is without any definable reason could contribute to that. He doesn’t want people to know he’s trans because he feels they’d think very differently of him and may not like him.

Think about how quickly he believed Marinette in Elation when she said she liked Adrien but doesn’t anymore. It shows that sign of insecurity and dislike for himself. When the girl he likes shows so many signs that she like him throughout the entire show but denies that, he doesn’t believe her. It’s really sad.

The closeness with his mom

So, we aren’t given much background on Emilie, but one thing we do see is that she’s closer to Adrien than Gabriel is. However, what makes them close? We’re never given a reason.

There’s that possibility she’s manipulative like Gabriel but in a different sense, one that makes Adrien like her despite being abusive. But, of course there’s the possibility that she isn’t, which makes her the better parent.

So, if it were true that she never abused Adrien, that leaves the question: what makes them close?

Hypothetically, if my headcanon was actually canon, she could be the one parent who supports Adrien being trans. That reason alone would make them closer, but could also be just one reason amongst many others.

The headcanon still works if I flip it

What if instead of Adrien being a trans guy who already transitioned, he’s a trans girl who hasn’t transitioned yet? I know that might sound like a massive stretch, but I’ve heard this headcanon from other fans and there’s some good back up for this, too.

We all know Gabriel is a very abusive father. We all know Adrien’s childhood dreams were nonexistent because was forced to be who his parents wanted him to be (or he’s forcing himself to please them). What if this is because they don’t support Adrien when he told him he felt like a girl? That’d mean he’s forced to continue living as a boy to please his parents, because his parents don’t accept the fact that he’s trans.

And modeling? That discomfort in having to show the body he has this disconnect from the body he was born in but still has to have pictures taken of all the time.

And him overcompensating his masculinity as Cat Noir? Trans people who are still questioning or don’t have a choice to transition can overcompensate to try being comfortable in the body they were born into. For example, a trans guy who can’t transition might try to be a very feminine girl (makeup, dressed, etc) or a trans girl who can’t transition might try to be a very masculine guy (get real muscular, grow out their facial hair, etc).

Just about every reason I’ve listed in all parts of this headcanon work just the same if Adrien was supposedly a closeted trans girl which makes this headcanon even more interesting imo.

Also, we do see him shirtless in Mr. Pigeon 72 which some people say debunks this whole headcanon that he’s a trans guy. BUT, this isn’t necessarily true. 1) Puberty blockers exist 2) it supports the flipped version.

This flipped headcanon would also be extremely sad if it is true that Adrien is a sentibeing. The ability to change Adrien to be the gender he connects with would be possible, but his parents chose not to recreate another version of him for their own sake. Or, they did possibly try but it’s what ended up wrecking the peacock miraculous, which might’ve made them feel some hostility towards Adrien.

There’s other characters in the show that are canonically queer

There’s absolutely no denying that there are queer characters in the show. Even though it’s not directly stated that Juleka and Rose are dating and that Nathaniel and Marc are dating, it’s made very clear that they are just based on their interactions.

I also heard Marc is based on one of the staff’s gender fluid friends, which is really cool! That’s direct queer representation that they clarified outside the show.

If you know anything about Disney, you’ll know there’s some homophobia and transphobia around the company. For instance, I also watch The Owl House where the main character Luz is openly bi and Amity is openly lesbian. They end up crushing on each other and dating. They directly state in the show that they’re girlfriends, show Luz coming out to her mom as bi, and have scenes of Luz and Amity kissing. There’s also Raine who’s an openly non-binary character - they directly refer to Raine with they/them pronouns. Their VA is also non-binary. And what does Disney do, despite how incredibly successful this show is? They wouldn’t let the creator renew it.

So, other Disney shows such as Miraculous and Star vs the Forces of Evil show queer characters without directly saying that they are. People might refer to that as queer baiting, but with Disney’s proof of being homophobic and transphobic, I can understand why these shows wouldn’t directly say what these characters’ sexualities and identities are.

Anyhow, considering how they massively hint at Rose and Juleka being girlfriends and Marc and Nathaniel being boyfriends, there’s that possibility that other characters in the show are queer, too. That’s why I and many other fans of the show can easily create these queer headcanons for many of the characters. There’s a lot of signs in the show.

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howhow326 · 2 years ago

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Funk Up The Night

Miraculous Ladybug salt fic (Felix salt, Lila salt, Gabriel salt, Nino salt, original character protagonist, Alya sugar, tw: racism, torture, sexism, ableism, teens assaulting other teens, suicide mention, p*dophilia). (This fic is a sequal to another fic I made before that got hidden because it's a reblog and my third fanfic)

Narrator PoV

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In the dark of night at a secret government base, Felix Fathom is using the powers of the stolen peacock miraculous to infiltrate the facility. The boy snaps all of the guards into his Red Moon, a fate that he has no intention of freeing them from. However, Felix can't shake the idea that someone is watching him...

After a few minutes, Felix finds his goal: a safe full of hoards of wealth and confidential information kept secret by his late father. As Felix opens the safe he feels a strong gust of wind move past him, but he pays it no mind. After all, isn't Felix invincible?

Felix takes a few steps into the safe before he senses someone watching him again. This time, Felix catches his stalker standing behind him. From far away, Felix thought the mysterious person was some type of dirty peasant: he was wearing a baggy black shirt, a tattered navy cravat that layed untucked, and a black newsboy cap that covered his coily black hair. But closer inspection made Felix doubt that assumption: the boy in front of him also had black, knee-length boots that covered his black pants and elbow blue gloves. Felix tried to focus on his face, but it looked like he painted himself with grey make-up. The mystery boy also had a trail of floor length blue feathers popping out of the sections of his arms that weren't covered by his gloves. Before Felix could insult his fashion choices, the stalker finnaly spoke:

"Fancy bumping into you here." the boy said while placing his hands on his hips. "Out to find some answers about your father, are we?"

His golden eyes reminded Felix of someone he met in France, but he couldn't place it.

"You have quite the familiar face and I assume you are using the same powers, but you will have to forgive me; do we know each other?" Felix demanded.

"Same powers? Don't make me laugh! Your espionage skills back there looked a bit rusty."

Felix snickered at the peasant's insult. "The only rust on me is from the lack of any real challenge. Perhaps you are up to the task?"

"You already disappointed me." The boy said as he held up Felix's ring between his fingers. Horror dawned on Felix's face as he realized that his ring was stolen. Then he pounced on the assailant.

"Stop." With one word, Felix fell to the ground one foot within the thief. "Quite the peculiar object, this ring. According to my sources, all I need to do is snap my fingers and you would vanish without a-" "What do you want?" Felix asked.

"I love it when people get straight to the point." The mystery boy joked. "What is Hawkmoth's secret identity?" "Gabriel Agreste." "Hmm, and here I was thinking it wouldn't be so obvious."

The mystery boy began pacing around in a circle thinking to himself. "Why haven't you told anyone else?" "I was going to deal with him myself." "Of course. So that's why you've been hiding in Britain for the past month?" "I couldn't let Ladybug take my miraculous!" "The miraculous you got making a deal with Hawkmoth in the first place?"

The mystery boy finished his thinking and turned to face Felix. "Well, let's make a deal since you love making those. I'll give you your ring back in exchange for the peacock miraculous." "NO!" "You are in no position to refuse me." The boy thief used Felix's ring to make him feel intense pain, causing the blond to whimper in agony. "Make no mistake, I won't hesitate to end your existence after you helped the terrorist that tried to cause WW 3. My deal is the only scenario where you walk away alive." "Fine!" Felix spat.

"Fantastic!" The mystery boy took off Felix miraculous and used it to transform himself. He then tossed Felix his ring, giving him back his freedom. "And before I forget... Red Moon, I release you from existence!" "NOOO!" Felix screamed. But before he could stop him, the boy snapped his fingers, killing Felix's 'sister'. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT!" "You used your powers to create a living weapon. You shouldn't had created her." Felix once again tried to jump the murderer, but he knocked the blonde out with a back hand slap.

Having gotten what he came for, the mysterious boy left Felix in the facility where he would no doubt be arrested by the guards... or worse.

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Timothy PoV

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Timothy Cesaire was having an amazing day. It wasn't often that he didn't have to fake being in a good mood, so he made sure to enjoy it as long as it lasted.

Last week, The Raptor annihilated Techno-Pirate during combat. The villain had an uncomfortable amount of civilian hostages during the long battle, so Timothy weighed his outcomes and decided his solution was for the best. The boy thought that making the 'ultimate choice' for the first time would be bad for his mental health, but it ended up doing the opposite; Timothy felt a weight lift off his shoulders as he realized New York was finnaly free of a blight like Mike Rochip.

Of course, not everyone agreed with his actions. While the hostages defended the Raptor and thanked him for saving their lives, the United Heroez used the incident as evidence that the Raptor had to be taken down. A part of Timothy agreed with them, after his fist time he wondered how many problems he could solve using his new 'solution'. But their criticisms didn't matter to him, Timothy was the one who saved innocent people's lives not the Heroez and their dumb sidekicks. Perish the idea that the aggressors life is equal to their victim, Timothy thought.

But all of that is in the past right now. The Raptor is on hiatus, and Timothy Cesaire is in France to visit his favorite cousin Alya. Of course, Timothy is really here to get rid of Hawkmoth before he makes the earth explode on accident, but that dosen't mean he can't have fun!

As Timothy opened the door to his temporary classroom, he was overwhelmed by a massive sense of déjà vu.

Alya, Marinette, and Adrien were all sitting in the back corner of the class. A boy, Kim I think, threw a paper ball at Marinette's head. The raven haired girl's expression suggested that was normal. When Timothy looked to his left, he expected to see the same orange haired witch that he got fired last time. He expected that he was in a nightmare or some horrible time loop.

Instead, Ms. Mendeleiev, the teacher that Timothy planted into this class, yelled "No throwing things in the classroom, dog boy!!!" What the heck just happened??? "My last names not that kind of Chien!" The jock yelled at the teacher. "And now you're talking back to your teacher? Go to the principles office, now!" "Excuse me-"

The familiar voice filled Timothy's heart full of dread. There's no way that b*tch came back here, Timothy thought to himself. Low and behold, that b*tch was sitting right there. The last time Timothy was in France, he broke Lila's reputation, relationships, and her ankle as revenge for bullying Alya. She was supposed to be in jail for working with Hawkmoth. And yet, there she was. Her hair style was different, and her eye color changed, but it was the same girl. Sitting in the front row. A boy in a trashy outfit, Nino?, was currently throwing himself all over Lila, but Timothy could care less.

"-Kim was only trying to give Marinette his notes for class." Lila lied. Timothy expected the teacher to call her out, but- "You can't keep covering for trouble makers, Iris, but I'll let it off the hook just this once." Ms Mendeleiev stated. WHAT THE WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE??? No matter how Timothy tried to rationalize the situation, nothing in front of him made any coherent sense.

After the disastrous class, Marinette filled Timothy in on the situation. At first, everything seemed to go back to normal after Lila was exposed and Ms. Bustier let go. Then Iris Verde showed up. The new girl charmed every member of the class, including the teacher, into thinking she was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Then, just like Lila before her, Iris accussed Alya/Marinette/Adrien of bullying her. The akuma class just got done giving apologies to the three of them for helping Lila, but they all fell back into their old roles after Iris restarted the whole song and dance. Iris even manipulated Nino to break up with Alya and to become her boyfriend days after Alya and Nino got back togather.

"And that's not even the worst part," Marinette exclaimed over lunch, "I caught Iris kissing Kim, Ivan, and Nathaniel outside of school! She's a liar AND a cheater!" The raven haired girl was discussing ways to expose the new Lila, which caused Adrien to sigh. "Marinette, we showed them a recording of Iris threatening us last week and it didn't work. Nothing's working!" The blonde exclaimed.

Timothy shifted at the sound of Adrien's voice. While he hates to admit his opinion was biased, Timothy didn't like Adrien when he first met him. He didn't like that Adrien associated himself with Lila, even though he was forced to by the Italian's manipulations. Timothy always sought to defend the weak, a category that definitely included Adrien, but he was always close to being strong. The friend of an rich idiot, the former boyfriend of Liar Rossi, the cousin of the boy who helped Hawkmoth, and apparently the son of Hawkmoth... but Adrien was different from them. After realizing that taking the high road dosen't work, Adrien began to proactively defend Marinette and Alya. Sure, it had consequences. Adrien became a social outcast along with the two girls, but if being popular meant hurting two of his closest friends, then he would make the same choice every time. If only every rich kid could be that altruistic.

"Your being quiet, Alya." Timothy changed the conversation. "Oh, I'm sorry I-" before Alya could finish her thought, a voice so loud it sounded like screaming shouted into everyone's ears. "HEY ADRIAN DUDE!!! LET'S HANG OUT AND DITCH THESE LOSERS!!!" Nino shouted. "Agh, Nino I already told you that I can't be your friend if you keep being mean to Marinette and Alya. Also, please keep it down." Adrien politely asked Nino. The loud boy looked hurt by Adrien's words, but then his expression changed to one of rage. "Tch, well I don't want to be your friend as long as you keep hanging out with that ho." Nino direct his insult at Alya. Timothy summoned every ounce of his willpower to restrain himself, who the hell does he think he is???

"Nino, we already told you that Alya never cheated on you!" Marinette said in her friends defense. "LIARS!!!" Nino shouted. After a huff, he left the group to go hang out with Iris and her zealots.

When Timothy and Alya made it to her parent's house, Timothy pulled Alya aside for a talk. "Alya, what the heck! Why didn't you tell me that all of these people were bullying you again!!! I could have-", "Could have what? Break people's ankles!" Sh*t. "Uhh, Alya what are you talking about haha?" "Don't play dumb with me, I already know your secret-" Timothy was dreading when this day would come, when someone close to him would discover his secret identity. While The Raptor has the power to move faster than the eye can see, he dosen't have the power to erase memories... Unless, I give Alya a concussion? But doing that could hurt her really badly, Timothy thought. He felt a cold sweat trickle down his back... I have to do what I must.

"-you are in contact with The Raptor!" Alya wrongly concluded. Timothy breathed a sigh of relief and told Alya what she wanted to hear, "You got me... I'm sorry Alya, but I just couldn't stand to see you hurting like that. That's when The Raptor made an offer to help me in exchange for information from the science lab I have an internship at." Timothy wanted to eat his heart out for lying and manipulating Alya. It's for the greater good, Timothy thought to himself... but he knew that his actions barely made him different from horrible people like Lila.

The rest of their conversation became a blur before they both went to off to bed. Timothy still felt guilty that he could even dare think about hurting his favorite cousin in the whole world. Even back in Martinique, Alya was still the nicest, bravest, greatest person he knew. Meanwhile, I'm... Timothy stopped that train of thought. Right now, he isn't important. What's important is helping Alya and her friends.

The day after tomorrow, Timothy managed to convince Alya and her friend's parents to get the principal to switch their homeroom classes. Alya hated the idea, but her parents and Nora refused to let her go back to the class she was being bullied in.

After Alya was safe, Timothy began to work his magic on the class. Kim, Ivan, and Nathaniel all got exposed as cheaters to their significant others, which tanked Iris' reputation. Then, Timothy convinced Rose and Juleka, the two least evil girls in class, of how evil Iris was. Those two especially felt bad that they isolated Mari and Alya twice, and decided they would switch schools to make it up for betraying their friends trust. When those two went, Mylene and Max followed them. Timothy then convinced Chloe and Sabrina that Iris was a threat, which prompted them to begin bullying Iris and Nino. In one week, Iris power had faded just like Lila had. Now there was only a few things left to do...

Nino received a text from a secret admirer that wanted to meet up. Knowing that his girl was always having flings, he decided to try it out for himself. The location on the text led him to an allyway where a boy stood. "Huh? You're a dude, not a girl!!!" "I can't believe you're this stupid." "Wait, you're that filthy cheaters cousin! What do you want!!!" "This."

Before Nino could react, Timothy sprinted up to him and kicked him in the gut. As Nino layed on the ground in pain, Timothy stomped on every part of his body until he became black and blue. "Believe it or not, this is nothing personal." Timothy lied. "I just needed you out of the way so I could get to Lila." Nino tried to speak, but it came out as grunts because Timothy had stomped on his throat. "Oh, and by the way... this is for Alya!" Timothy said as he kicked Nino hard on his forehead on last time. The loud boy fell unconscious, but not dead.

And now, the real fun begins...

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Lila? PoV

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Angela Diavola was surely having the worst week of her life! First, the black kid from America came back to bother her right after she worked so hard to get back into Ms Bustier's classroom. Did he even know how much work she put in to fix the problems he caused??? "Lila Rossi" was in jail, so Angela had to discard that identity along with that girl's mother. Luckily, Angela tricked one of the crazies into thinking she was "Lila Rossi" and escaped from her prison. Now she was "Iris Verde". But when her "Iris" came back home, her dumb cr*p mom started asking too many questions. Angela had no choice but to get rid of her like all the moms that get too curious. So far a missing persons report hasn't been filed yet, but eventually "Iris Verde" will have to take the fall for the murder after disappearing. Ugh, I'm too stressed to plan! Nino was supposed to go out with me an hour ago but he missed our appointment! Right when Angela was getting ready to leave her ultra secret hideout, the lights went out. "I told you that if you tried to bully anyone in your class again I would come back!!!" an invisible voice spoke, but Angela knew it well. The Italian woman ran to the drawer where she kept her emergency handgun. This time, that dumb islander won't walk away from me! As soon as Angela pulled the gun out the drawer, the lights flicked on and The Raptor appeared behind her. Eat lead, Angela screamed at the him. She fired all of her shots at him, but he dodged each one. Angela then threw her handgun at him, but he caught it. "Where did you even get a gun from?" Before Angela could run away, The Raptor threw her handgun at her head, knocking her onto the floor. Im not going to let him ruin me again, Angela frantically thought. She reached into her back pocket to grab her emergency knife, already coming up with a devious plan. "Ohh, what ever will I do with you..." "Wait! I confess, I'm not 15. Im a 33 year old from foster care with a hormon disorder and I just pretended to be younger to feel safe!!! I promise I won't do it again!" Ha, bird brain dosen't even know that when he drops his guard, I'll stab him in the throat! Angela thought. The Raptor didn't drop his guard. "... It all makes sense now. This whole time, you were an adult manipulating teenagers... YOU WERE DATING TEENAGERS!!!" Angela only then realized that the superhero didn't figure out her secret until she told the truth just now. "Oh, uh, I was just lying!"

The Raptor lunged at the woman. She took out her knife to stab him, but he grabbed it from her and tossed it aside. He then knocked her out. The Raptor considered ending her miserable existence, freeing the world from her blight... but he decided there was a better way.

He tied her up and called the police. When Angela Diavola came to, she was in a max security cell for serial killers like herself. During the investigation, it was discovered that Angela had "disappeared" at least seven different woman who adopted her from the foster care system. Additionally, she left a long string of bullying and, in the worst cases, students taking their own lives from the schools she attended.

Ladybug wanted to feel happy that she was finnaly gone, but knowing the evil depths "Lila" sunk to shook her to her core. "M'Lady, there's a note here." Chat Noir's words brought Ladybug back to reality. As she read the note, she felt a chill go down her spine. Lila's exposure wasn't a happy coincidence.

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Ladybug PoV

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"I stole the Peacock miraculous from Felix. Come to the Agreste Mansion if you want it back." Was all that was written on the note. Normally, she would think it's a trap, but her instincts were telling her to follow it's order. Whatever is happening now, is The Raptor's doing.

Ladybug, followed by Chat Noir, made it to the Agreste Mansion. The front door being open made Chat Noir uneasy. Inside, there was a trail of black paint that lead into Gabriel's work room. "Ok, this is clearly a tra-" before Ladybug could finish her thought, Chat Noir made a bee line for the room. Normally, Ladybug would yell at him for being so boneheaded, but something was telling her that Chat was being dead serious right now. "What?" was the only word needed to make Ladybug's skin crawl. Inside the work room was a secret elevator in front of a painting. What Ladybug and Chat Noir discovered at the bottom of that elevator would change their lives forever.

"I see you lot are unfashionably late." The Raptor announced to the duo while facing Hawkmoth. Hawkmoth?! Hawkmoth's here?! Why is Hawkmoth down here?! This has to be some kind of trap or- "Mom?" Chat Noir called out while looking at a casket behind Hawkmoth. "... Adrien?!" Ladybug hid her gasping mouth with her hands. It's happening again. "no." "Adrien, I am your father! Give me Ladybug and your miraculous so I can wish your mother back to life!" "NO!" Hawkmoth then threw out an akuma at Chat Noir. Ladybug wanted to intercept it, but her body refused to move. He's going to turn into Chat Blanc! The world is doomed again and it's all my fault...

At the last second, a hand reached out and crushed the akuma. "Ladybug, now!" The Raptor cried. Without thinking, Ladybug threw out her yo-yo at Hawkmoth's chest, cracking his miraculous. "Nooo-" Hawkmoth collapsed onto the floor coughing. The superheroin ran to the villain and took off his miraculous, which reverted him back to Gabriel Agreste. "Father, how could you do this!" Chat Noir screamed at him. "You ungrateful brat, I could have saved your mother! Saved our family!" Chat Noir slowly walked towards his father, his eyes full of hatred. "Mother's death didn't break our family... you did! You were the one who shut me out! The one that choose not to eat dinner with me anymore! You're the ungrateful one! You don't deserve this house! You don't deserve mother, or me, or Nathile, or anything... cataclysm." "Chat Noir no! Doing that will just make you as bad as he is." Before Ladybug could stop her partner, The Raptor held her back. "It's his choice."

Adrien held his father for the last time.

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ya-what--ya-erster · 6 months ago

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JoJo De La Guerra Likes IFA Country Store

This is an extension of the prev one about Crutchie meaning it takes place almost directly after but it doesn't mean they have to be read in order. Nothing has to be read in order except for the first two In this series really. But I recommend reading these two in order for context.

tw for dead naming (unintentional) and also a brief mention of sex because JoJo is asexual ✨

ITALICS INDICATE MEMORIES

...

"So are you aroace?" JoJo asked Crutchie.

"What? I mean, yes, but what?"

"What you said to Amelia. You didn't use an actual term so I thought I'd ask."

"Oh. Well, yeah I am, actually."

"Cool, cool. You know I'm ace?"

"No? I did not. But what about-"

"Lila from IFA?"

...

"Romeo, let's go to IFA." JoJo said excitedly.

"We went yesterday, what do you need from there this time?" Romeo replied, bored. He didn't even look up from his phone.

"Uh. I wanna go see the bunnies."

"Go by yourself."

"No! No, I need you to come!"

"Why, though?"

"Because you're really good at telling if a person is safe or not."

Romeo turned to face JoJo. "Need to know if the bunnies are gonna hate crime you, huh?"

"Shut up, fine! There's this girl, okay, she's really pretty, and she was really nice when I was being slow gettin' my card out tryna pay for the goat feed cause I was kinda starstruck, but I introduced myself as Josie accidentally and she probably wouldn't get with a girl but she might get with me as a guy if she's not a transphobic piece of shit-"

"Jo. Slow down, yeah? We'll go to IFA. I'll buy some candy and scope out the situation, then I'll let you know and I'll tell you my very grand and romantic plan for you to ask her out."

...

"She's bi." Romeo said, approaching an awkwardly hovering JoJo. "And she also doesn't have a deep hatred for trans people."

"How'd you figure all that out?" JoJo asked.

"She was wearing a bi pride pin and a 'you're safe with me' pin in the trans colors, I think you're all set."

"Those things were not there yesterday."

"Uh-huh. Jo, you are literally the most unobservant person I know. I'm pretty sure they would have been there."

"Shut up. I'm gonna go."

"You have it?"

"Yes, I have it. I'm not a fuckin' idiot."

"Get some, Siwa!"

...

JoJo walked confidently up to the cash register where the girl (Lila) stood, looking somewhat bored until JoJo approached.

"Hi again." She said. "Josie, right?"

"Uh, no, actually, my name's JoJo, uh, I'm a boy."

"Cool. JoJo. Like JoJo Siwa?" The girl smiled smugly.

"Ugh. Not you too. Romeo already gives me enough shit."

"The boy over there that you were just talking to? One who just came and bought like six bags of m&m's?"

"That'd be him."

"He your boyfriend?"

Before JoJo could respond, he heard a laugh from a ways away that was definitely Romeo's.

JoJo looked at his shoes. "No, uh. Absolutely not. He's a piece of shit."

Lila laughed. "I get that. Some of my friends get like that too. Anyways, what can I do for you?"

JoJo placed the singular flower (fake) that he had picked up on the counter. "Can I buy this?"

"'Course you can." Lila smiled. She scanned the tag on the stem of the plastic flower. JoJo paid for it (with haste this time) and Lila handed him his receipt.

He didn't leave though.

He stood awkwardly, his thumbs through the belt loops of his overalls (which kind of hurt because he was wearing a belt).

"Need something else?"

"Here." JoJo quickly shoved the flower into her hands, then dropped his own hands back to his sides.

"Oh. Thank you." Lila smiled.

"I was kind of hoping that maybe you might want to go on a date with me?"

"I'd love to." Lila smiled.

...

"Yeah, Lila from IFA." Crutchie confirmed.

"We're still dating, you know? Nothing happened to her."

"But you guys used to hook up all the time."

"Just because I don't feel the sexual attraction doesn't mean I can't have the sex. It's fun." JoJo shrugged.

"You know what? That is a good point."

"Yeah it is. Now can I please have your Twinkie?"

"No."

Spot Conlon Likes Idiots

Inspired by @lithuaniaseye 's post here

606 words

Farm kid Race written by actual farm kid Albert (hi)

...

It wasn't news that Race was a farm kid.

Race was the ultimate farm kid. He was tall, and skinny, and appeared to have no muscle at all, but he could toss you over a fence like a hay bale. He wore Twisted X shoes and faded boot cut jeans and shirts with American flags and guns on them. He carried his pocket knife around religiously, constantly fiddling with it like it was a toy. He could ride a horse, and he could try (and fail) to ride a bull in a rodeo.

He was also really gay, though, and those two things happened to not go very well together.

Not necessarily because of hate, although sometimes that did occur.

Mostly, being a gay farm boy was a problem for Race because he had a tendency to flirt with his farmer-ness.

"It's gonna work this time, Jack." Race said certainly.

"You look like you're gonna go kick his ass. Which you couldn't do, by the way. Spot's like, ten times stronger than you." Jack replied.

"I just want to ask him to come to the rodeo with us, is it really that bad?"

"What's bad is that Spot's a city kid, and you ain't, and you dress like all those homophobic shitheads over there while Spot's openly bi. Do you understand what's gonna go through his head, Racer?"

"Do you want me to paint my nails or some bullshit? I don't gotta 'look gay,' whatever that means."

"Actually. I'm gonna make a bet with you here. You're gonna ask him out, to the rodeo. If he says no, you are going to paint your nails. If he says yes, which he won't, then I will. Left on for a week. Deal?"

"No deal. If you paint your nails when ya lose, nobody will notice. You are the most obviously queer person in this room right now. If you lose, you're gonna wear my clothes for a week."

"I ain't losing, so. Sure thing."

The two boys shook on it. Race took a breath and turned to go, but...

"Oh yeah, I forgot." Race plucked a barley stalk out of the ground and stuck it in his mouth like-

"One of them damn buckle bunnies, that's what you look like right now. You look like an idiot." Jack was not having it.

"Do ya think Spot likes idiots?" Race asked absentmindedly, staring at Spot.

"You moron. Go, get it over with."

So Race marched up to Spot, loud and proud.

"Hey."

"You know, I'm just trying to have a good time, I don't need any of your bullshit today." Spot said roughly.

"I was wondering if- wait what?" Race stopped.

"So I'm bi? Deal with it."

"Ohh darn, Jack was right."

"Kelly?"

"Yeah, Kelly. He said you was gonna think that- never mind, I ain't here to bully ya or anything."

"Okay, well? What do you want, then?"

"I'm gay."

Spot looked Race up and down, then scoffed.

"Uh-huh."

"For reals."

"Alright. Good to know, bye." Spot took a step away, but Race caught him by the arm and turned him back.

"I was wondering," Race said slowly, "If maybe you would want to go to the rodeo with me tonight? Like, as a date?"

Spot pulled his arm away from Race, and Race worried for a second that he was gonna walk away with a split lip or a black eye.

"Sure thing. Let me text my Ma and let her know I'll be out late, yeah?"

...

"How do you wear this shit?" Jack asked the next day, standing before Race's full-length mirror.

"Cause I like it. And now you have to deal with it for a whole week. Enjoy! I gotta go pick Spot up for school."

...

THE END

...

hi its the author I just realized y'all city ppl probs actually don't know what a buckle bunny is so where I come from we use it to describe someone who dresses like this, or basically like anyone who looks like a fake country person. The whole wheat in the mouth thing doesn't actually happen all that often which is why it tends to fall under the buckle bunny label.

Also, I used barley instead of wheat in this for me being a farm kid purposes so

#JoJo de la guerra #aroace crutchie #trans jojo #newsies #newsies live #newsies farm kid AU #written by a farm kid.#JoJo/OC

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v1nc3nts-b0yfr1end · 2 years ago

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I'm gonna post what the Umbrella Academy characters favorite MCR songs are

Luther- Summertime because he doesn't necessarily like the rock portion of MCR so he likes the more soft songs

Diego- Desolation Row because for one he's a badass bitch who doesn't care and two the song probably reminds him of Lila

Allison- Disenchanted because she's and actress, she loves the crowd despite how much pain it brings her. She feels like nobody understands her and she really resonates with that song.

Klaus- Ghost of You, basically because of what I said in my last post. It reminds him of Dave

Number 5- Kill all your Friends, because he feels alone alot and you can tell. The song also hits his trauma really hard with a lot of the lyrics

Brella Ben- This is how I dissappear, I mean come on just listen to it, of course it's his favorite song

Sparrow Ben- To the End "he's never around he's always looking at men" We all know Sparrow Ben is a little fruity just admit it.

Viktor- Mama, because he's a little trans boy

Sloan- The Jetset Life is Gonna Kill you, I think definitely because it's her favorite book and her trauma of Luther almost dying.

Marcus- Save yourself, I'll hold them Back, guys come on he's the leader and he obviously cares about them.

Fei- S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W because she is a literally so cool. This song is so passive aggressive: just like her.

Alphonso- Headfirst for Halos because he seems all sweet and innocent honestly but he he's not, guys he's really not.

Jayme- Early Sunsets Over Monroeville because she seems all badass and shit, but she's actually just sad. Like she seems to be the only one truly affected by Reggie.

Christopher- Cubicles but only because the name is funny and reminds him of himself.

Pogo- the Interlude from the Revenge album, I'm not sure why but it just felt right

Robot Mom- BulletProof Heart because even though she was a robot she actually loved the kids and would do anything for them.

Lila- Vampire Money because she would get such a laugh out if it. And she would probably peg Diego to it.

Stan- Destroya because he's a child and would think Gerards moaning would be funny.

Harlan- The light behind you eyes, it reminds him of his mom who cared for him, and Viktor whom saved when he almost died.

Delores- The only hope for me is you, I'm saying this because Five is actually a big old softie and he played this song for her. And just told people it was her favorite song

Reginald- would despise MCR and call them satanic or something

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sissytobitch10seconds · 2 years ago

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Dead or Alive, Cis or Trans

Fandom: My Dead Ex Summary: Luke and Ben are both 'real men' even though neither of them are exactly conventional. Warnings: Pre-transition trans character, mentions of transphobia, and outdated gender binaries Word Count: 4,029 Ship(s): Luke Sullivan/Ben Bloom

Archive link!

A/N: Writing another My Dead Ex fic because my bf got me obsessed with this silly little show even though all of the writing is horrible and the plot is half-baked. Hope you like it babe, because I know yo're the only one reading this. Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3

As soon as the fourth period bell rang and released all of the kids to lunch, Lila was out of his seat and barrelling down the hall. It didn't take him long to find the lunch line that he wanted and move through it since almost no one else wanted the weird 'club' sandwiches that the school served. As soon as he had his food he was able to find the back corner table where his girlfriend was sitting. He sat his tray down with a loud 'thump' that caused her to jump and look up from her phone. "Wren, I think there's something wrong with me," he stated. He slipped into the booth across from her and began to pick at the ranch in the container of carrots he had grabbed.

"Oh?" she asked, raising a brow at him. She was ripping at the edges of her home packed sandwich and bringing little bits to her mouth.

"I think I'm a boy?" he said it like a question, but he had never been more sure of anything in his entire life. It was the only thing that felt right in the whole tumultuous time that they were going through. Everyone around them was already figuring out who they were and assigning themselves with labels that they understood whole heartedly.

Wren was quiet for a second, and that second felt like it had taken thousands of years to pass by. Lila's heart was beating up in his ears and he felt like his throat was closing entirely. "Oh thank God," she finally groaned, letting her head fall back so that it was lolling around her shoulders. "I thought that there was something wrong with me, because I don't wanna kiss you and you're like, the hottest not-girl in school."

Lila felt like he was going to cry when he heard his girlfriend (though maybe not anymore) call him anything remotely close to a boy. "You don't want to kiss me?" he asked, trying to avoid talking about the direct issue at hand.

"No, and I thought that there was something massively wrong with me. I mean, I know that I'm a lesbian, and I know that I love hanging out with you, but I couldn't figure out why I couldn't make myself have a crush on you. I've done it before with at least six other girls, not that you're a girl, and I just couldn't with you. If you're a boy then that makes perfect sense and there's nothing wrong with me," Wren shrugged. She tore off a big hunk of her sandwich and then popped it into her mouth.

The other tweenager nodded and then began to stuff his face with his lunch. His stomach had been flopping back and forth between nervously nauseous and ravenously hungry. Now that he knew the girl who was pretty much his only friend in the entire Hell-school they had to attend accepted him as him, he had settled on the latter and abandoned the former.

"So," Wren started when he was about halfway through his sandwich and all the way through his carrots.

"So?" Lila responded, lifting a brow at her.

"You need a new name," she said decidedly. "I can't go around calling you 'Lila' because that's a girl's name."

"I mean, you can," he shrugged. "It's the name on my birth certificate and the one that everyone calls me."

"So? Change it," she shrugged. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and flipped through the half dozen apps that she already had open to get to YouTube. "Here, look, I found someone that made a video on being trans the other day. I thought she was just an artist but it turns out she wasn't."

Lila shifted uncomfortably. He had already done his fair share of research when it came to his gender identity, but he hadn't been as bold as to watch videos where his parents or the school might be able to see what he had been getting up to. He reached over to take the offered device as he asked, "Does being trans mean that you're something else?"

"Kind of like being a lesbain does," she shrugged. "It makes me something more than just a person. Like an extra descriptor."

He let out a small hum and then looked down to the phone that had been handed to him. His eyes flickered over the white subtitles at the bottom of the video so that he didn't have to turn the sound up. It took a lot for his mind to be able to process the information that he was being given while he was still riding the emotional high of Wren actually accepting him.

"Come on, we have STUDY next hour, so we can go to the library and look through books until we find a name that you like. Then we can come up with a game plan for how you're going to come out to your parents," she said plainly. 'STUDY' was the backronym that their school had used for the free period each of the grades had so that they could go and get more one-on-one help with some of their teachers with homework or assignments they hadn't finished. They had good grades, which meant that they were free to go almost anywhere they wanted if it wasn't already full.

Lila just nodded as he handed the phone back over and settled back on eating his meal. He knew that something like this was going to happen when he came out to Wren. She was a force of nature when it came to all things, and when she decided that she was going to do something a certain way, she was going to follow through come Hell or high water. He wasn't sure when/if he was going to be able to come out to his parents or anyone other than Wren, but he knew that it would make him feel better to have a plan at the very least.

Once they had finished eating, they threw away their wrappings and food scraps. They stopped by Wren's locker so that they could deposit her lunchbox inside. The next place that they found themselves was outside of the library where the eighth grade teachers were having their weekly lunch meetings. The conversation turned back to something that they normally talked about, which was a nice break for Lila who was feeling rather overwhelmed about the whole situation.

As soon as the end of lunch bell rang, they slipped into the library after checking in on the STUDY sheet so that the teachers could find them if they were needed. Wren grasped his hand, though it was different from the other times that they had tried to hold hands, dragging him over to the dictionary section. She pulled out a big book of baby names and then sat down right in front of the Encyclopedias. "What kind of name do you want?"

"Maybe something that starts with L? That way I can have the same initials," Lila suggested. He dropped his backpack and then sat down next to her. Their shoulders were knocking together but there were no sparks or warm feelings like he had been trying to imagine there were back when they were dating. While Wren hadn't flat out told him that they weren't together anymore, it only made sense. He was a boy and she was a lesbian.

They began to flip through the book, past all of the girls' names as quickly as they could, and then to the 'L' section. Wren would scan through the huge lists of names and the meanings of them until she found one that she liked. She would point on out and sound it out loud so that they could see what it felt like with Lila's last name as well.

He tightened up when he heard the newest name that she had picked out. They had worked their way all the way down to the 'u' section of the 'L's. "Luke Sullivan," he repeated the words that had come out of her mouth to test how it felt. "I like that! I think that's it!"

---

"How important do you think liking fruit is to Charley?" Luke asked as he flopped down onto the bench beside her.

Wren let out a little groan and turned off the video that she had been watching. She sat up, tucking her leg underneath her so that they could both fit in the same space. "What did you do this time?"

"I was trying, Wren! This time I really was, she's just so fucking dense," he groaned. He placed his elbows on his thighs and then leaned his head forward so that he could bury his face in his hands.

"So what did you do this time?" she pried again.

He let out a long-lasting sigh before he finally worked up the courage to admit it. "So I asked her to come out to lunch with me so that I could talk to her and try to clear everything up. But just like every other time I've tried to do this she mistook it as something romantic. Like I was asking her out on a date."

"I hate to break it to you, but the other times were kind of your fault," she shrugged.

"Why? Because I was trying to be nice to her?" he asked, peeking through his fingers at his childhood friend and ex-girlfriend. Ever since they had dated in eighth grade they had basically been inseparable. She had been with him through every step of his transition process, including holding his hand while he came out to his parents. They had gone to a different high school than one that a lot of the other kids in their middle school had which made his social transition a lot easier. They didn't hang out a lot when they were actually in school because other than their middle school bonding there wasn't a lot that they had in common now, but they were still close.

"You can't be nice to girls like Charley, because they're not going to get it," she shook her head. "I mean, you've tried how many times now?"

"Wren," he said morosely. He was aware calling her name was going to do nothing now that she was on a roll. She hadn't changed all that much since they had first met each other.

"The first time that you really talked to her was when you were at your dead gay crush's wake, and you asked her for her number. I don't know how she was supposed to think that you weren't hitting on her there, that's on you, bud," Wren continued.

Luke let out a small scoff, "She and Ben were childhood friends, I thought that we were going to be able to console each other about how sad we were that he was dead. Excuse me for trying to be nice."

"Then, you texted her within the first forty eight hours even after I told you that you shouldn't do that," Wren continued like he hadn't even spoken. "After that, you asked her to meet up with you after school in the morning for some reason instead of just being like 'Hey Charley, I saw that nifty art on your Instragram, can you do something for the Homecoming dance so that my stupid student council lackeys can steal it?' instead of making it sound like you were going to ask her out to homecoming!"

"In my defense, it was her fault for immediately assuming that I was going to ask her out. I was still in mourning after Ben died and I thought that she would be too," he grumbled.

"Then, after all of that, you pushed her and Ben into going to Homecoming together! This time it's not a combination of you being awkward and her being dense, you literally made it sound like you were going to ask her out. I know that you were trying to find a way that she would feel comfortable going to Homecoming stag so that you could be with Ben but the girl is head over fucking heels for you so that wasn't going to happen," Wren sneered a little bit. The whole Homecoming situation was a little bit of a tender spot for her with everything that had gone down with Bethany.

"Wren," Luke said morosely as he let his head drop back into his hands. He knew that he had made a lot of mistakes when it came to Charley, including getting her alone to talk about Homecoming before Ben did his adorable little dance at the party. He was well aware of every single misstep and miscommunication that he had with the girl when trying to comfort her about the death of someone they both should have been mourning and after he had discovered his crush was still alive. That didn't stop his childhood friend from reacquainting him with every single one of them.

"And after that! You pushed Charley and Ben together so that they were at the dance and you were there stag. Then you let her think that you were asking her to dance instead of asking Ben like you actually were. Then you asked her out to lunch! How was she not supposed to think that was a date after you asked her to dance?"

"Well I didn't do that on purpose," Luke groaned. "I was asking Ben out and then I got too awkward and flustered to tell her that she was the wrong person."

"What did you do this time then? How did you fuck it up more than just making her think that it was a date?" she asked.

"I was trying to figure out a way to explain to her that not only am I trans, I'm into the guy that she's magically tied to with a weird cursed love necklace, and instead I just told her about the fruit thing. She went on and on about it and I couldn't think of a way to redirect the conversation back to what I actually wanted to talk to her about," he grumbled.

"You tried to come out to someone who thought that she could date you and she got obsessed with your fruit issues? Jesus Christ man, I don't think a single person has been as unlucky as you have!" she cackled. She had to bend forward and hold her stomach to stop the ache there from how hard she was laughing. Luke just stared blankly ahead of him at the wall of the school while he waited for her to finish. As soon as she had finished, she folded her arms in front of her chest and rolled her eyes. She was a lot more upset than Luke had realized when he came up to her, but he was also upset about something very similar so he figured that they could be miserable together. "You're absolutely hopeless," she sneered.

"I could go on and on about how you're always chasing after the wrong person too," Luke snapped at her. He sat the way that her face fell and then immediately apologized as he reached a hand out to rub her back, "Sorry, birdie. I know that you didn't want to get hurt when you went after Bethany. Or me."

"Dating you was the best thing I ever did. I regret that a lot less than I regret making out with Bethany at the party," she let out a small chuckle.

They were both disturbed from their quiet moment by the girl that they had just been talking about rushing up to them with the police officer that had been following Ben around the school. There was also a woman with the same kind of chalky white skin that Ben had, which made Luke assume she was suffering from the same spell/curse that his crush was. She had a man in a wheelchair that was heaving for breath and had a full oxygen mask over his mouth. Luke and Wren sprang up from the bench and began to talk with them to figure out what was going on. As soon as they realized that Charley had done something stupid and selfish, again, they began to rush all over the school to try and find their missing undead friend. They finally found him up on the roof, standing while staring over the courtyard of the campus from the couch that was up there. Luke felt his heart hammering up in his chest like it had been back when he came out to Wren and when he had discovered himself.

Charley rushed past the group so that she was standing up beside Ben. He was still wearing the clothes that he had on at Homecoming. "Why isn't it working? We're close together, why aren't the necklaces healing him?" Charley asked. Her eyes were wide and desperate as she looked back to her childhood friend and then over to the other undead she had brought.

"It's too late," the woman shook her head.

"No, no," Luke objected. He walked over to them while holding his hand flat out in front of him. "Take off your necklace and give it to me."

"What? Why?" she asked, her brows furrowed together in confusion.

"Well, the spell first worked when you put the necklace on after he died, maybe it'll work again if someone else does it," Luke glanced back towards the duo that he assumed was also suffering from the same curse.

Charley had already reached up to undo the back clasp of the necklace. She found that unlike when she had tried on the first night of Ben's unlife, it came undone and fell down to the ground. She and Luke both lurched for it, but he was able to pick it up before she did and began to put it around his neck. It had been a long time since he had done anything remotely similar to that so it was a bit of a struggle to get everything to latch.

The undead woman stepped around the man in the wheelchair and walked over to them. Her eyes were soft as she spoke to him, "My dear, what you're doing is very noble, and I can tell that you love him a lot, but this isn't going to work. The spell is only designed to work on one man and one woman because that is what Ben bought them for."

Luke's eyes flickered up towards the rest of the group. Wren's eyes furrowed together with concern and he could see the way that her hand reached down to hold onto Bethany's so she could steady herself. He wished that she was closer so that he could have the reassuring presence of the one person present that knew his secret closer to him. He then flashed back so that he was looking at the duo in front of him instead. "Then it's a good thing that I was born a woman," he snapped the necklace into place and then turned to look at Ben.

The man let out a startled gasp and all of the rot that was covering his face began to recede back so that all was left was the pale chalky color. Luke held his breath as he reached out to take Ben's hand. "Ben?" he asked, his voice full of desperation and fear. If this wasn't going to work then he had just come out to a huge group of people for no reason, possibly outing himself to the entire school.

"Luke?" he asked, his eyes fluttering as he woke up from the weird trance that he had been in.

"You're okay!" he nearly screeched as he flung his arms around the other man's shoulders to bring him in for a hug.

"I am?" he still seemed a little dazed as he returned the embrace after a second. "I am! Holy shit, what did you do?"

Luke pulled back. He reached down and instinctively grabbed hold of Ben's hand so that he could reassure himself that Ben was there and as alive as he could be nowadays. It had honestly been so hard for him to lose someone he considered a friend and had a crush on, but he hadn't quite realized how bad it had been until he had almost lost Ben again. He gave the other teenager a little sheepish look as he explained, "Well, I, um, we came up here and found you because Charley remembered this is where you came when you were upset. We found you up here all covered in rot and not acting like yourself and the lady over there said that it was because the necklaces had been apart for too long, so I figured I would just restart the spell. I know that this was something intimate between you and Charley but I couldn't just let you die again. It was hard enough for me the first time around."

The other teenager blinked at him for a moment, and Luke assumed that he was still trying to come back and realize what had happened. "Why was it hard for you? Charley was barely affected by it and I talked to her the most out of anyone."

"It's not obvious?" Luke asked as he glanced back to Wren. She gave him an encouraging thumbs up which only caused a flush to cross over his face. "I'm in love with you, Ben Bloom."

Ben opened his mouth to say something but then a smile crawled out over his features. "This is what love is supposed to feel like," he whispered. He leaned forward so that their lips continued in a gentle kiss, and it felt like everything in the universe had finally settled into place.

The group, minus Charley and that cop, was cheering in celebration of the couple finally realizing that they were into each other. Luke left their hands held down at their sides but reached up with the other hand so that he could cup Ben's cheek and bring him even closer. Ben reached behind him and placed his arm across the hips of his new partner's back to keep him stable as they kissed.

After a while, everyone else removed themselves from the rooftop so that they were alone. When they broke apart, Luke could feel the nerves and worries he had been struggling with for the last four years bubble back up to the top. "Uh, sorry that you didn't exactly get stuck with a real man."

"What do you mean?" Ben asked, brows furrowed.

"The necklaces only work for a biological female and a biological male. I was only able to bring you back to life because I'm trans," he answered, shifting uncomfortably. He was half terrified that Ben was going to turn out to be transphobic and hate him, which would be awkward now that they couldn't be more than thirty feet apart from each other for more than an hour or two at a time. He knew that it wasn't likely because while Ben was a buffoon, he was widely accepting and did away with most gender norms when he wanted.

Ben let out a little laugh, "I'm still confused, Luke."

"What?"

"You said that I didn't get stuck with a real man but you're right here, wearing my necklace," he reached up and brushed his fingers over the charm resting above Luke's collarbone.

The living teenager felt a smile so wide that it made his eyes water spread over his face. "You really mean that?"

"Of course I do. If you think that you're a real man, then you're a real man. I mean, I'm dead so I'm technically not real either if we're going down that hole," Ben laughed.

"I'm so glad that I chose you to fall in love with," Luke laughed. The thumping of his heart and butterflies in his belly didn't stop as he leaned forward and gave Ben another kiss.

#writing #fanfiction #fanfic #archive of our own #ao3 #oneshot #trans characer #trans luke #trans luke sullivan #trans man #trans #ben bloom #luke sullivan #charley albright #wren #bethany #my dead ex

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purrincess-chat · 4 years ago

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Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s Spite Playlist: Remix CH12

It’s ya boooooy! Malin is here!! Super huge shout out to @salty-french-fry for bringing him to life. I commissioned her to draw all of my OC hero babies, so you can see Malin in all of his anime boy glory here! We stan a trans bicon. And for those who are unaware, Malin is another name for fox in French, but like with the connotation of calling someone sly or tricky. I hope you all enjoy this chapter! I tweaked it quite a bit from the original. ;)

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Chapter 12: WTF Do I Know

“I know our duty is to the city, but I can’t help these feelings stirring my heart. Every time I see her brilliant blue eyes shining in the moonlight, I am overcome with passion and admiration. She truly is Miraculous.” Eliott looked to Marinette sitting cross-legged on the floor for approval. “How was that?”

“Incredible! You really have Chat Noir down,” she said.

Eliott rubbed the back of his neck. “Thanks, but I still feel like I could do better. Opening night is only a week away, and I’m playing one of the leads. Everything has to be perfect.” He paced the length of the stage, adjusting his black mask.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine. You make a wonderfully convincing Chat Noir.” She assured him—and she should know.

“Wonderfully convincing isn’t perfect. This play is a tribute to Ladybug and Chat Noir’s triumph on Heroes’ Day. If I screw up then I’ll be dishonoring them.” He turned and gestured to the impressive backdrop of the Eiffel Tower.

“No, you won’t.” Marinette stood up and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You’re an amazing actor, and I know you’re gonna kill it.”

“Places in five everyone!” The director swept through the stage.

Stagehands rushed around the set. Costume designers made last-minute alterations, and each prop was meticulously tested and placed for ease of access during scene changes. Marinette never realized how chaotic theater was behind the scenes.

Eliott let a deep breath past his lips, and Marinette offered him a smile. “I’ll be watching in the audience. You’re gonna do great.”

“Thanks, Marinette,” he said. “And thanks for coming to watch our dress rehearsal.”

“Thanks for inviting me.”

“Sorry I’m so crazy about everything, I just want to be the best.” He fiddled with his gloves. “I’ve been studying English since I was little because my dream is to perform on Broadway. I know it’s a long shot, but it’s what I’ve wanted ever since my grandma and I watched a play together when I was a kid.”

“You’ll get there, and I’ll be sitting in the front row with Macy, Martin, and Adrien.”

Eliott smiled at that, pressing a soft kiss to her knuckles. “I actually owe you, Marinette. You’ve helped me a lot as an actor since we met.”

“Me? How?”

“You taught me to take risks. Before I met you, I was just coasting through life, staying out of the way, playing it safe, but now I can stand up for other people and speak out,” he explained. “You helped me find the courage to step outside my comfort zone.”

Her cheeks burned, but she smiled at the sentiment. All of her new friends gave praise so easily—something Marinette wasn’t used to. Helping others wasn’t about getting rewarded, and in most cases, the attention just made her squirm. She helped her friends because she cared. Although, even if their compliments embarrassed her, it was nice to know she was appreciated.

“Watch where you’re going!” A nasally voice grabbed their attention.

“Sorry!” A tiny stagehand shrank under the icy glare of her aggressor.

Eliott sprang into action to diffuse the situation. “Margot, is there a problem?”

“She bumped into me! Can you imagine if I had fallen and broken my wrist a week before opening night? How can I play Ladybug with a broken wrist?” Margot shouted.

Eliott stepped between her and the stagehand, holding up defensive hands. “I’m sure it was just an accident. No one got hurt, so why don’t you go cool off? We’re almost ready to start.”

“Ugh, whatever. Just stay out of my way!”

As she stalked off, Eliott turned to the small girl. “Are you okay, Lisette?”

“You know my name?” Her eyes widened.

“Of course. You hand me my props before I go on stage,” he said. “Don’t let Margot get to you. She’s just nervous because the show is in a week, and it’s her first time playing a lead.”

“It was my fault. I wasn’t watching where I was going,” Lisette said.

Eliott tucked a strand of her blonde hair back into place, brushing her cheek with his thumb. “Hey, don’t worry about it. We’re all a little high strung right now.”

“You’re not.”

Eliott flashed her a playful grin. “I’m a good actor.”

“I know,” she said, and when Eliott quirked a brow she fumbled to add, “I-I’ve kind of had to watch you for the past several months. You’re really good.”

“Wow, thanks, Lisette. I’m flattered that a pretty girl like you is a fan of mine,” Eliott said.

Her cheeks flushed, and she gave a small nod before scurrying off to her position at the director’s order.

Marinette couldn’t help the smile on her lips as Eliott found his mark and took a few deep breaths to center himself. He’d grown a lot since they met, and if someone had to play Chat Noir, she was glad it was him. She’d been uncertain at first, but Eliott really was worthy of being a hero, even if his costar was the worst. How could they cast such a brat to play Ladybug?

Taking her seat in the audience, Marinette thought back to her encounter with Gabrielle several nights prior. True to her word, Gabrielle hadn’t bothered them since, but what she was doing out on her own like that? And what was up with the apron in her bag? Something fishy was going on with her, but at least she was keeping her word. It was about time Marinette got some peace and quiet.

♪♫♪ I’m Not Calling You a Liar ♪♫♪

When the school bell rang, Alya remained seated, lips pursed. Her other classmates gathered their backpacks, eager to enjoy their weekend plans. Adrien paid her no mind as he slung his bag over his shoulder and followed everyone else out. They hadn’t spoken since their last encounter, and Alya still wasn’t sure what to think. He sounded so sure of himself. After being friends with Marinette, she knew far more about Adrien Agreste than she ever cared to, and truthfully, Alya didn’t think he was capable of being malicious.

Don’t believe everything Lila tells you. Be a journalist. Investigate.

But how? It’s not like Alya could just call up a bunch of celebrities and foreign princes to ask them to corroborate all of Lila’s stories, and even if she could, what would Lila think if they proved Adrien wrong? Or worse, what would Alya think if they proved him right? If they proved Marinette right…

It had been two weeks since she left. Two weeks since they… Alya had been hurt at first, and her heart still ached thinking about it now. In the grand scheme of things, she hadn’t known Marinette that long—only a few months—so it was possible that there were things Alya didn’t know about her. Dark secrets she kept hidden. But if that were possible for Marinette, couldn’t the same be true for Lila? And why was Alya so afraid to go looking?

“Alya? Did you hear me?”

She blinked out of her trance. “Sorry, what?”

“You’ve been awfully spacey lately,” Lila remarked. “I was just saying that I have an important meeting today with my youth ambassadors committee. Clara Nightingale has promised to sponsor our clean water initiative, and today’s the only day we can meet with her. Is there any way you can take care of that thing Mlle. Bustier needed for me?”

Don’t believe her.

“Actually, Lila, I have to go pick up my little sisters because Nora has practice this afternoon, and Mlle. Bustier did ask you to do it,” Alya said.

Lila’s eyebrows raised, but just as quickly, she puckered her lips into a pout. “Is there any way you could have Nino pick up your sisters? This meeting is really important.”

“Nino promised Juleka he’d help Kitty Section with their sound system today so they can practice before their gig this weekend.” Her heart pounded as Lila’s lip twitched.

“I mean, I guess I can put off my meeting. Those kids in India will just have to go a little while longer without clean drinking water…” Lila eyed her.

“Ya know, if you’re too busy to keep up with your class rep stuff, you can always tell Mlle. Bustier to let us elect someone else. I’m sure everyone would understand,” Alya said pointedly.

“And let Chloe become the class rep again? I couldn’t do that to you guys.” Lila shook her head.

“True, but I can’t cover for you all the time. I have my own stuff going on. Maybe I’m not saving third world countries, but sometimes I have a life to live too,” Alya said. “You were elected to do all of this, you know.”

“No, I understand,” Lila sighed. “I’ve been putting too much pressure on you to do my job. It’s just so hard to juggle going to school and saving the world. I’ll figure out a way to do it for all of you because you’re my friends, and my friends are just as important to me as any starving, third-world country.”

“Good. I’m glad to hear that you’ll be putting in more effort.” Alya stood up. “Have a good weekend.”

“Oh, I’m sure my weekend will be better than those thirsty children in Iran.”

Alya stopped in the doorway. “Don’t you mean in India?”

“What?”

“Earlier you said the meeting was for children in India. Now you just said Iran,” Alya said.

“Oh, yeah, that’s what I meant,” Lila said. “I have a different thing for Iran next week. It’s hard to keep everything straight when you’re so busy.”

“Right.” Alya’s eyes narrowed. “Well, good luck.”

“Give your sisters a hug for me!”

Alya’s hands shook as she headed up the hall. It was probably nothing, just a simple mix up like she said, but… Given the circumstances, it was a little suspicious. One thing was certain: Alya would be keeping an eye on her.

♪♫♪ Thnks fr th Mmrs ♪♫♪

“Your rehearsal was amazing,” Marinette said afterward over tea. “Well, except for Margot’s prop mishap. I thought she was going to have a meltdown.”

Eliott stirred his drink with a smirk. “She’s a great actress until something goes wrong,” he chuckled. “I just feel bad for Lisette. She looked like she wanted to kill her.”

“Speaking of Lisette…” Marinette gave him a knowing look. “I think she might have a crush on you.”

“Lisette? Nah.” Eliott averted his gaze, taking a sip of his tea. “I’m not anyone important. There’s no way she’d be into me.”

“That’s not true. You’re an amazing actor,” Marinette said. “I mean that, you don’t have anything to worry about.”

“Thanks, I guess the thought of someone liking me just makes me nervous.” He bit his lip.

“Come on. You flirt with everyone all the time,” Marinette said. “You flirted with me on my first day of school.”

“Flirting is different. Just because I flirt with people doesn’t mean they have to like me back,” he said, then biting his lip, added, “Do you really think she likes me?”

“As someone who struggles to get two coherent sentences out around the boy she likes, I think she likes you more than you know,” Marinette said.

“Speaking of… You and Adrien sure seem to get along.” He sipped his tea with a satisfied smirk as Marinette’s cheeks burned. He didn’t waste any time flipping the script, but it was her fault for opening that door.

“Oh, do we? I mean, of course we do. We’re just friends, I don’t have feelings for him at all,” she said with a nervous titter.

“I never said you did,” Eliott said.

“Oh, um, yeah, well then I- don’t tell Macy.” She hung her head in defeat.

“Your secret’s safe with me.” He shrugged. “But you don’t have to worry about Macy’s crush. It’s superficial. She fixates on some famous guy for a while, then moves on when something new catches her eye.”

Marinette relaxed. “Good. I’ve just liked Adrien for a long time, and ever since I left my old school, he’s been paying more attention to me, so…I don’t want it to come between us.”

“Nah, I’m sure if she knew she’d back off,” Eliott assured her. “She’s extremely loyal to her friends and would never try to take away something you wanted even if she wants it too. One time she and I argued for twenty minutes because she convinced herself I wanted the last cookie on the plate. We ended up breaking it in half.”

“That’s a relief.” Marinette let out a breath.

“Though I do have to wonder which sounds better, Marinette Agreste or Adrien Dupain-Cheng?”

Marinette nearly choked on her tea. “Eliott!”

“I’m kinda partial to Adrien Dupain-Cheng myself.”

“Stop!” She covered her face, cheeks burning, and Eliott threw his head back with a laugh.

A herd of people stampeded up the sidewalk right before a loud crash sounded a few blocks over. Debris fell from the ceiling, and Eliott tackled Marinette to the ground, cradling her head.

“That sounded close, we should run.” He pulled her to her feet. “My yacht isn’t far from here, we can hide there.”

As much as she hated to do it, Marinette needed to get away. Gradually, she let herself slip from his grasp in the crowd. Eliott turned over his shoulder in an attempt to reach her again, but too many people stood between them.

“Marinette!”

“Go! I’ll catch up,” she called.

His eyebrows furrowed worriedly, but he pressed on without question.

Marinette ducked into a nearby alley and opened her purse. “Ready, Tikki? Transform me!”

Ladybug tossed her yoyo across the street, tugging the slack and launching herself into the rooftops. Racing down the row of buildings, she followed the civilian trail to the scene of the attack. Overturned cars and broken windows signaled that she was on the right track, and she arrived at the same time as Chat Noir.

“Well, well we meet again, m’lady.” His flirtatious lilt echoed between the buildings as he staff-coptered down to join her.

“I would hope so since saving the city is our job.” She flicked his bell. “I think it’s about time we clocked in, don’t you?”

“Ladies first.” Chat Noir bowed as Ladybug tossed her yoyo and shot into action. “Don’t mean to interrupt your tirade, but I’m gonna need to see some license and registration for that car,” he said as they landed. “What’s the matter? Rough break up?”

The akuma turned to them with a growl, tossing the car aside, and Ladybug spotted a small blonde girl cowering underneath.

“Civilian alert!”

“On it.” Chat Noir charged forward, brandishing his staff.

“Ladybug! Chat Noir! I am Showstopper, and I’m about to give Paris the performance of a lifetime after I get rid of her.”

The small girl on the ground cowered under Showstopper’s glare, her blonde buns oddly familiar…

Ladybug gasped. “That’s Lisette which means Showstopper must be Margot! She really was upset by that mistake.”

Lisette attempted to run, but Showstopper served a ball of light at her with the tennis racket—the lucky charm prop from the play and likely where the akuma was hiding. The attack froze Lisette in place, but before Showstopper could make her next move, she blocked a blow from Chat Noir’s staff. A few seconds passed, and the magic faded, sending Lisette toppling forward.

“So that’s it,” Ladybug said, then to Chat Noir called, “Don’t let her hit you, or she’ll freeze you for a few seconds!”

“Got it!” He dodged an orb.

Once Showstopper drove him back several paces, she dashed after Lisette, launching a bus to the end of the street to block the exit.

“Going somewhere?”

“No, but you are.” Ladybug hooked her yoyo around Showstopper’s ankle. Showstopper lobbed several orbs at her before she could pull the slack, and Ladybug backflipped out of the way, diving for cover with Chat Noir behind two flipped cars.

“We need a plan to get that girl out of here.” He peeked over the side.

Ladybug palmed her yoyo. “Lucky Charm!” Her eyebrows raised as a paper lantern landed in her hands.

“Oh great, you can light the way for her to wreck that girl,” Chat Noir said.

Ladybug pursed her lips contemplatively. “I need to go to Master Fu,” she said. “Can you handle things until I get back?”

“Just don’t keep me waiting too long.” Chat Noir nodded before they broke off.

Leaving in the middle of a battle was always risky, but this wasn’t a fight they could win alone. She just hoped that she could find an ally in time.

“Master Fu?” Marinette knocked, peeking her head inside.

“What is it, Marinette?” He glanced up from his book.

“I need to borrow a Miraculous to win this battle.”

Master Fu retrieved the Miracle Box from the phonograph and placed it on the mat in front of her. “Have you found someone you trust to wield it?”

Marinette contemplated her choices carefully, running strategies in her head. After she and Alya split up, she wasn’t sure she’d ever trust someone enough to replace Rena Rouge, but her new friends proved her wrong. Taking a deep breath, she nodded and reached for the fox. “I know exactly who to pick, and I won’t let you down this time.”

Master Fu offered her one of his proud, grandfatherly smiles. “You never have. I have always had faith in you, Marinette.”

Her chest swirled with pride as she stood up. “Transform me.”

Eliott’s yacht was empty when Ladybug touched down on the deck. He told Marinette to hide there, so she’d been certain it was where he’d be. Then again, Eliott wasn’t the same cowardly boy he’d been when they met, and he didn’t turn his back on a friend. She knew where to find him.

“Marinette?” His voice echoed between the buildings of the abandoned street, and he flinched when Ladybug landed behind him. “Ladybug! Thank goodness, have you seen my friend Marinette? We got separated, and I told her to meet at my yacht, but-”

“Don’t worry. She’s safe,” Ladybug said. “Actually, I need your help.”

“My help?” He arched a brow. “I mean, sure, I'll do anything.”

“Eliott Chasse, this is the Miraculous of the fox which grants the power of illusion. You will use it to fight for the greater good.” She extended the box to him.

“Whoa, you're giving me a Miraculous?” he gasped. “But wait, why me? What happened to Rena Rouge?”

“She's...not around.” Ladybug averted her gaze. “Will you help me?”

“I-I dunno. I think my friend Marinette would be way better at this than me.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“Eliott…” Ladybug smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You are the right person for this job. Have courage and believe in yourself. That's all you need to be a superhero.”

Eliott pressed his lips together, then accepted the box with a nod. Shielding his eyes from the bright light, he gaped in disbelief as Trixx materialized. “Whoa!”

“My name’s Trixx. I’m a kwami, and if you want to transform all you have to say is ‘Trixx, transform me!’” she explained as Eliott fastened the clasp of the necklace.

“Alright then. Trixx, transform me!” When the orange light faded, Eliott examined his orange and white suit with wide eyes. “Wait, is this really happening?”

“Do you know how your powers work?” Ladybug asked. There was no time to waste.

“Of course. I studied news footage in preparation for my role as Chat Noir in an upcoming play. I wanted to accurately portray the team's dynamic,” he said.

“Good, then follow me.”

Ladybug tossed her yoyo and shot off. Eliott hesitated only briefly, taking a few steps before leaping over the building after her. He touched down lightly beside her before they shot off again.

“I know it's a lot to take in, but we don't have a lot of time,” Ladybug said. She pulled up the news coverage of the akuma. Showstopper had taken the battle all the way to the Eiffel Tower. She skidded to a stop behind a chimney and closed her yoyo. “Hmm…Lucky Charm!”

“A bottle of soap? At least the villain will be squeaky clean?” Eliott shrugged.

Ladybug turned it over in her hands, a plan forming in her mind. “Okay, here’s what we’ll do.”

- - -

Showstopper held a frozen Lisette over the edge, and Chat Noir held up defensive hands as he attempted to negotiate.

“Hand over your Miraculous, or I'll drop her!”

“Maybe we can come to a compromise,” he reasoned, but Showstopper was in no mood.

“You have five seconds. One!”

“There has to be something else you want.”

“Two.”

“After all this is murder we're talking about.”

“Three!”

“I'm sure she didn't mean any harm.”

“Four!”

“Ladybug, hurry up!”

“Five!”

Before Chat could react, Showstopper released her grip, sending Lisette plunging toward her doom. Chat Noir attempted to dive after her, but Showstopper pitched another orb at him. To his relief, Ladybug swung in to deflect it just in time, but there was no time for gratitude.

“Ladybug! The girl!”

“Already taken care of,” she assured him.

- - -

Lisette unfroze midway down, eyes widening in fear as the ground grew closer. Just as a scream reached her throat, Eliott caught her, carrying her safely back to the Eiffel Tower. Her screams echoed across the bars as she clung to him for dear life, but they quieted the moment she looked into his eyes.

“Falling from heaven, angel?” He set her down gently. “Stay hidden. Showstopper can't see you if we want our plan to work.”

She blinked in shock, cheeks flushing. “Wait!” She caught his wrist as he turned to leave. “W-Who are you?”

“Uh… Call me Malin.” He winked, giving a two-finger salute before leaping up to the rafters.

Malin summoned his Mirage on the way up, cheeks still hot. Now wasn’t the time to worry about what Lisette thought of him. First, he needed to save her.

“You're too late!” Showstopper proclaimed, and Malin cleared his throat.

“Are we?” He clocked a brow.

Showstopper spun around where Malin held his fake damsel. “No!” she growled.

“New friend?” Chat Noir sized him up.

“I'll tell you later,” Ladybug said.

Malin set his illusion free with instructions to run, and as expected, Showstopper gave chase. Ladybug really was a wizard at coming up with plans. When Chat Noir moved to follow, Malin stepped in front of him with a wink.

“Who are you?” he asked, eyes narrowing.

“Name's Malin, and you are one foxy feline in person, Chat Noir.” He looked him up and down.

“Less flirting, more running. Phase two,” Ladybug ordered. “Kitty, follow me and get ready to use your Cataclysm. Malin, you know what to do.”

“On it.” Malin nodded, leaping back over the edge with a whoop.

Showstopper pursued the fake Lisette to the second-floor restaurants, falling right into their trap. She skidded against the soapy floor as Malin's illusion faded before her eyes. A broom perched between two chairs clotheslined her, sending her tennis racket flying from her grasp right into Chat Noir's waiting Cataclysm.

Malin helped Margot up as Ladybug captured the akuma and returned everything to normal. “Seriously, losing your cool over a prop malfunction is so lame.” He chided. “You're playing Ladybug, so my suggestion is: take a lesson from the real thing and let go of that bad energy.”

Lisette peeked up from the stairs timidly, pacing over to join them. “I'm sorry your yoyo string was tangled. I should have checked it,” she said.

“Yeah, whatever.” Margot rolled her eyes. “Sorry I tried to throw you off the Eiffel Tower.”

“Technically, you did throw her off the Eiffel Tower,” Chat Noir said pointedly.

“You were awesome, Malin.” Ladybug nudged him with her elbow.

“It was your plan, all I did was help.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

Ladybug shook her head. “You saved this girl, and we couldn't have done it without you. Be proud. You're a true superhero.”

Malin bit back a smile, surveying his suit and squaring his shoulders with a new sense of purpose. Ladybug was right. He had his doubts when she asked him because he still had a long way to go before he would consider himself an actual hero. If anyone deserved the title without a Miraculous, it was Marinette, and he owed this opportunity to her. He never would have had the courage to accept Ladybug’s offer without her. It was a shame she’d never know how much she truly changed his life. Maybe one day he could tell her this secret, but for now, he’d wear his secret identity like an invisible badge of honor.

“Pound it!” The three heroes said in unison.

Malin turned to Lisette and bowed formally. “Perhaps I will save you again someday,” he said.

Lisette bit her lip before stretching up to kiss his cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Ladybug took his wrist and toted him off as a dopey grin spread across his lips. They retreated to a private corner at the base of the tower, and Malin returned the necklace to Ladybug. Shoving his hands in his pockets, Eliott shifted his gaze to his shoes with a sigh.

“What's wrong?” Ladybug asked.

“Nothing, just… Lisette kissed Malin, not Eliott.” He kicked at the ground.

“You really like her, don't you?” Ladybug asked.

Eliott flinched, rubbing the back of his neck. That morning the thought of falling in love with someone terrified him, but now… Maybe he hadn’t come down from his heroic high, but with Lisette’s kiss still burning on his cheek, he smiled.

“Yeah, I do,” he said.

“Well, Malin is very charming, but I think she might need someone to walk her home. Think Eliott can handle that?” Ladybug pointed to where Lisette was stepping off the elevator.

Have courage and believe in yourself.

On any other day, the fear of rejection would have convinced him to walk away, and maybe tomorrow it would. But today, today he wasn’t afraid.

“Lisette! Wait up.”

#marinette dupain-cheng's spite playlist #marinette dupain-cheng's spite playlist remix #mdcsp #mdcspr #my writing #cats ocs

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mlwritingprompts · 4 years ago

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Submitted prompt: No filter for Marinette.

Ok so.

Someone is akumtised. They're called Revealer. Their pronouns are they/them.

Revealer is really a person called Ash who basically got akumtised because their friend (who I've decided is called Isabelle. She/her.) didn't speak her mind to Ash and they were somehow humiliated.

So Revealer’s whole thing is basically removing everyone's brain to mouth filter, everyone's forced to speak their minds.

Most of Paris gets hit, including Marinette and Adrien.

This bits up to you:

Does Adrien make some comment about Ladybug? Does Marinette yell and get to tell him off? Does she ask him to stop? Or maybe Adrien lets something slip about his home life. Up to you.

Here is a little scenario I thought up for this, skip if you like.

Ash is really fed up. Hawkd*ck won't stop f*cking using their old pronouns. When he came to them he used their old name. Their really f*cking tired of it.

Also Cat Noir is straight up sexually harassing Ladybug in from fo them and Hawkmoth wouldn't let Ash do anything about it! You know what screw this it's not worth it.

"Excuse me, Ladybug. Take this I'm tired of having a transphobic b*stard yapping in my ear." Revealer aka Ash grumbled.

Ladybug blinked at them "Um ok" she said, quickly grabbing the held out object. (Is Ladybug a she? I mean Ladybug responds to she/her but did anyone ever bother to ask?)

"Bye bye little butterfly. Well now would be the time I use my lucky charm but I don't have one." Ladybug said.

"Oh don't bother, no damage was done to the city and the effects should wear off in 24 hours." Revealer, now back to being Ash replied, grinning.

"Ok that's good. This should be interesting." Ladybug mused.

"Well Milady since we've finished pur-fectly early why don't we-" Cat Noir never got to finish.

Ash punched him right in the nose.

"Me-ouch! Ok I can tell when I'm not wanted!" Chat Noir hissed. Nose coated in bright red. He scampered a way.

"Sure ya can...." Ash drawled sarcastically. Turning to Ladybug, as if they hadn't just decked her partner. Ash asked. "By the way Ladybug what are your pronouns? I would ask Chat Noir but they left."

"Uh um she/they works." Replied Ladybug, blushing slightly.

"Ok cool, bye." Ash said turning to leave.

"Wait!" Ladybug exclaims.

"Yeah?" Ash asks, looking back.

"Thank you" Said the spotted heroine sincerely.

Grinning, Ash replied "No problem."

End scene.

I would really like to see the discourse that would happen if everyone was just forced to speak their minds. Especially with Lila involved.

I feel like Marinette would be smart enough to have Tikki erase her memory of being Ladybug and hiding the earrings for the day. Adrien on the other hand.....

Another thing. I kind of like the idea of Ash and Isabelle going to Francoise Dupont and Ash or Isabelle decking Adrien again. After all he can't keep up the perfect boy persona with no brain the mouth filter.

Sorry for spelling and grammar mistakes.

Rules for the blog - send a prompt

You did fine!

This could combine very well with some of the prompts where Marinette is trans :)

#miraculous ladybug #submission #OC prompts #original akuma #Show!Miraculous #Show!Marinette #Show!Adrien

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maxdark158 · 5 years ago

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Daminette Soulmate AU

Okay so when I talked about this with @chloe-bourgeois-is-big-gay @mindfulmagics and @2sunchild2 yesterday we went through a scenario where Marinette went to Gotham so I thought WELL WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER WAY AROUND which was mostly inspired by @let-me-perish ‘s Alternate Beginnings au

I am NOT writing more of this, but anyone else is open to continuing it for me in whatever way they want! Make it a collab!

@realrandomposts @ozmav

Enjoy

oooOOOooo

Soulmates are a thing in this world! Damian isn’t sure why that has to be a stated fact, but they are real. The majority of people have soulmates and that is as much of a fact as is the fact that he doesn’t have one.

Well, Grayson says not to lose hope but Damian doesn’t think he’s missing out on anything anyway. He doesn’t care that he doesn’t have some random stranger’s name on his body Grayson does, and he couldn’t understand it until he met the Tamaranean himself, he is not colorblind Todd is, but he hates it writing on his skin bears no results Drake is always writing on his skin, he and his soulmate good friends despite never meeting, he has no marks that will light up when he and a soulmate would first touch Father’s was on his chest somewhere and it lit up before Damian knew of him, he sometimes wonders who else shares it and he doesn’t feel any pain belonging to another person he and his father had been battling Poison Ivy when her soulbond was revealed by a bloody nose neither of them gave her, though he noticed how her and Harley’s injuries always matched the other after that.

Given that the only other soulbond is incredibly rare, Damian feels safe to assume that he simply does not have one. After all, hearing the thoughts of his soulmate would be a headache – both literally and metaphorically.

oooOOOooo

His class was on a trip to France. Paris, France to be more specific. A plagued with supervillains, much like Gotham. Of course, the mayor made sure to remind everyone that the villains were harmless – he likely didn’t want tourists to stop going.

Which is what, Damian realized, he and his classmates were. Tourists.

Well, sort of. They were actually part of an exchange program that all students who spoke French got to participate in. For one month, they would go to the highest-ranking high school in the area – the same one the Mayor’s daughter went to. Then they’d return to Gotham and write essays in French, and depending on the score they could opt out of finals for any other language classes they took.

Damian didn’t really care for the skipping finals part, and was originally planning to sit it out the trip. But Father insisted he go. Something about living life. And monitoring the situation in Paris to see if it needed any intervention. But living life too. For a month.

They had recently landed in the city of love ugh, gross and he and his classmates were at the hotel now. It was the mayor’s hotel, a lavish one at that. Well, appearing to be lavish, but Damian knew enough to know what was a good knock off and what was real when it came to expensive things. He’s a Wayne after all.

“We get our own rooms?” His classmate Charlette “Scar” Gamble sounded surprised. Damian was too. Their trip may only have fourteen students but even he expected to share rooms.

“Well we have three young men and eleven young women on this trip, and we wouldn’t be able to evenly have roommates, so single-use rooms were the best option.”

Damian saw Scar’s shoulders relax. He was glad their school was open to her situation and didn’t make her share with one of the boys. They weren’t friends exactly, but he didn’t hate her company.

Suddenly, a white-hot and burning pain hit him. He grabbed his head, lips pressed tightly together so he didn’t scream. All he could hear was ringing, high pitched like when someone dropped a microphone on full volume. His vision was spotty.

Oh kwami, that hurt. Ugh. I need to focus on this akuma!

What the hell was going on? Why was there a voice in his head? And why was it French?

Focus on the akuma! It’s probably doing this to you, it’ll go away as soon as you’re done, then you can finish your homewor-

Whatever just happened, it fizzled out. Damian blinked, the pain was gone just as quickly as it had arrived.

“Damian?” He looked up to see Scar holding him by the shoulders. “You okay?”

It struck him suddenly when his frie- acquaintance was shaking him down for an answer. The girl he heard in his head – those were thoughts.

He was part of the 3% that had a thought sharing soulmate.

oooOOOooo

“So are you going to lie to me like you lied to Miss Olivander?” Scar and Damian were sitting in the lobby, away from the mess of excited classmates that had taken over their section of rooms.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Damian replied, trying not to sound too stiff. He was on google, searching for everything he could about thought sharing soulmates. Apparently, there was always a distance limit, usually around 20 feet.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Scar roll hers. “You’re my friend Damian. You can tell me! Though if you want me to butt out, say the word and I will.”

Damian turned to her. “Friend? I didn’t know we were friends.”

He panicked for a moment, worried he upset Scar but she just scoffed. “You’re the first person I told that I was a girl and you think we aren’t friends?”

“I thought it was just because I can keep secrets,” Damian grumbled back. So he’s a little socially inept, sue him!

“We eat lunch together often.”

“I thought it was because the asshats wouldn’t mess with you when you sat with me!”

“You helped me dye my hair and found hair dye that matched the trans and lesbian flag.”

Damian paused. “Okay so I probably should have connected the dots.”

“Yeah,” Scar was grinning. “You should have.”

Damian rolled his eyes.

“That doesn’t answer my question though,” Scar poked him in the shoulder. “What happened to you? Everyone was super freaked out.”

He pursed his lips. “My soulmate connection formed.”

Scar’s mouth dropped open. “Really? You have a thought share connection? I thought you didn’t have a soulmate!”

“I thought so too,” he replied dryly. “But it appears I was wrong.”

“Your soulmate is in Paris,” Scar giggled. “Literally the city of love!”

Damian made a face at that, and Scarlett laughed more.

oooOOOooo

Damian didn’t tell his father about his soulmate connection, resolving to figure it out on his own or leaving it alone. He didn’t want to have attachments like a soulmate connection to weighing him down, the thought scared him. But he couldn’t deny his curiosity.

If he heard her thoughts again, Damian would investigate.

Unfortunately, his fri- acqu- friend Scar declared that she wanted him to be happy and she would help him search for his mystery soulmate.

Damian was just glad she didn’t declare that in front of his other classmates.

Today they were heading to Lycee Francois Dupont. Seven of them would join one class, and seven of them would join the other. He and Scar both got Mlle Bustier.

When they arrived, Damian noticed that an Italian girl was outside the in the courtyard surrounded by her peers. She seemed to be crying about something, but Damian didn’t really care.

They went to the class early, the teacher settling them into their seats. There were a lot more than a typical French room, she explained, to accommodate all of them.

Damian was caring less and less as time went on.

Soon other students, this time ones who went to the school full-time, began to trickle in. A girl with curly red hair was showing a boy with a red baseball cap a video on her phone. A small blonde girl and a tall dark-haired girl were talking quietly to a large boy and another small blonde girl. And the Italian girl from earlier was approaching them-

Wait why was she approaching them?

“Hello,” her voice sounded sickly sweet, and Damian pursed his lips, “I was wondering if any of you could tell me about my Damiboo? He leaves so much out of his letters to me and I know you go to school with him!”

He blinked. He opened his mouth to say something. Scar beat him to it.

“What do you mean, Damiboo?” She asked.

“Oh, did he not tell you?” she put a hand to her mouth in surprise. “My name is Lila Rossi. Damian Wayne is my soulmate! His name is along my spine and mine on his thigh.”

Scarlett narrowed her eyes. “Bull.”

Rossi blinked. “Wh-what?”

“Bull,” Damian repeated. “Don’t you know? Damian Wayne doesn’t have a soulmate. He’s said so in many interviews.”

The girl did a dramatic sigh. “He must be lying to protect my identity! I can understand, but it still hurts.” She looked at them, the fakest of fake tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry for bothering you. I just wanted to know how my darling is doing.”

“You should be sorry,” Scar bit out.

The girl seemed shocked that her tearful act didn’t work. Before she could attempt to further guilt trip them, Mlle Bustier asked them all to go to their seats for roll call.

“She’s a liar,” Scar hissed once Rossi was out of earshot.

“No kidding,” Damian grumbled. “She attempted to lie about me but didn’t even recognize me?”

“Stupid, truly, she is,” Scar snickered.

“It appears Marinette is late again,” Mlle. Bustier sighed.

The French class seemed to mumble among themselves. The things they said were all derogatory and rude. Damian wondered why an entire class was ganged up on a single student.

It was then that Damian felt... Something. It was like a warmness in his head without any physical heat. It was… odd, to say the least. But at least there was no pain this time.

-late I’m late I’m so late! Ugh, I should have just not done some homework and slept more, I’m so-

Late?

Yeah! Wait who are you?

I could ask you the same question, person in my head

YOU’RE in MY head tho- wait are you my soulmate?

It would appear so. You’re still late.

AAAAAAH I’M LATE

Damian winced at the yelling, which made Scar turn to him. She saw him rubbing his temple, the slight squint, and grinned.

“Is it your soulmate?” she whispered.

Suddenly the door burst open, a girl with blue pigtails and bluer eyes having run through it, though she didn’t seem out of breath.

“Sorry I’m late Mlle!” She exclaimed.

She’s going to hate me if she already doesn’t like the rest of them hate me.

Why do they hate you?

Not important. How are you still within six meters of me?

20 feet

Shut up American- wait you’re American

“Marinette,” Mlle Bustier sighed. “In case you haven’t paid attention in my class,” giggled erupted from the French students.

As usual, they all hate me

I’m not laughing

Wait you’re seeing this? Ugh that’s worse

“In case you haven’t paid attention in my class,” Mlle Bustier repeated herself. “Students from Gotham Academy are spending a month at this school as an exchange program. Please take your seat.”

So I guess you’re one of the Gotham students?

Yes. I assume you’re the late girl, Marinette?

Gee, how’d you figure that out. But seriously I can tell you’re a guy from your voice and they’re only two guys in here that are American-

“Is your soulmate the cutie with pigtails?” Scar asked. “Because if not, dibs.”

Wait no you can’t call dibs on my soulmate

Who’s calling dibs on me?

Nothing. Stop listening.

No, you.

“You can’t,” he mumbled, and Scar lit up.

“I am going to be the best wing woman on this planet and possibly other ones too!” Scar said just a bit too loudly.

Wait no too loud Scarlett!

So I’m guessing that’s you then?

He looked at Marinette, who met his eyes. She smirked.

Found you.

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artzychic27 · 4 years ago

Text

Pride Month is right around the Corner! Yay! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Marinette, Kim, and Nino- The Trio of Transcendenceness... Ness 🏳️‍⚧️

Marinette, Kim, and Nino have been best friends since birth, and do pretty much everything together

If some rando were to look at them, they’d think it’s odd that Marinette likes to wear pink and gaze starry-eyed at dresses in store windows while Kim and Nino like to play with action figures and shop for clothes in the boys’ section

And people swore they saw them get teary-eyed whenever someone said their birth names

Tom and Sabine sort of just knew that Marinette was somewhere on the trans spectrum, and let their so- daughter buy whatever outfits she wanted and grow her hair out

Marinette: I wanna be a princess when I grow up!

Rando: Don’t you mean a prince?

Marinette: No! I’m the Princess of princes!

She officially came out when she was seven

Her parents were supportive. Confused, but supportive. They even made her a three layered cake with Trans flags toppers

She named herself after a princess she read about in a book

Kim and Nino did everything they could to help their sister

Nino gave her the makeup kit he never uses and a bunch of his hair accessories

Kim gave her some clothes he doesn’t like wearing

Whenever someone asks what happened to their friend, [CENSORED]. Kim and Nino say their friend went on a long trip and is never coming back

Kim was second to come out when he was nine

He loved how carefree Marinette looked after she had what he and Nino call her “Gender Awakening”

He was confused about some things though, and asked her to explain how she came to the conclusion that she wasn’t a guy

Marinette: Well, I never liked how people kept calling me by my old name, and whenever I had to wear boy’s clothes, my skin crawled a bit.

Kim: ... I’m trans, I wear pants, deal with it!

His parents were very supportive and his mom even threw a one-woman pride parade in the backyard

Kim: Is mom okay?

Kim’s dad: She’s just happy for you. Now let’s go get you a haircut, young man before you look like a hippie.

In Vietnamese, Kim means gold/metal (A little reference to the gold medals he’s one in sports)

Marinette made him a custom binder that’s red with a gold star on the front

Nino cut his hair and is even learning how to contour so he can do Kim’s makeup to make him look more masculine

Finally, Nino came out when he was ten. He just figured it out on his own like Marinette

Nino: Your daughter’s dead, dudes. I’m taking over her room.

Chris: *Stares in awe* That is... awesome!

His parents supported him wholeheartedly

He chose his name because it’s Spanish for boy

Marinette made him a binder and she and Kim took Nino clothes shopping

Since they’re all best friends, they wanna do everything together

When they were ten, the three of them started taking their hormones

On dysphoria days, they’ll get under a big blanket and snuggle up while watching Disney movies until they fall asleep. Nino and Marinette would sandwich Kim in the middle while he wrapped his arms around them

Sometimes they wear matching hoodies that are a few sizes too big and just hide everything

On their first day of collége, all three of them were dead named in one of their classes since the school didn’t update their names

Word spread. Long story short, Kim and Nino beat up a boy who deadnamed Marinette and asked for “proof”

Their classmates were very supportive and always corrected teachers who accidentally say their dead names during role call

Many guys who had crushes on Marinette offered to beat up or threaten anyone harassing her

Nathaniel (Before meeting Marc) almost framed one of her bullies for murder

The swim team wore gender neutral swimwear so Kim wouldn’t feel like the odd one out until he got his surgery

Guys will always put emphasis on ‘Dude’ whenever talking to Nino

Students offered to stand guard whenever they used the bathroom in case anyone tried anything else

When Alya and Adrien came along, they were all so nervous. Sure, most of the school was pretty tolerant, but what if someone outs them and the new students turn out to be bullies in their own class?!

Once again, they were outed by some asshole Damocles won’t expel for some shit reason

Alya beat the asshole to a pulp (Which caused Nino’s crush on her to start) while Adrien treated his three new friends to ice cream

When they started dating and Nino was feeling dysphoric, Alya will say things like: “My boyfriend is the manliest man ever.”

... Ah, fuck it! Bring out the Miraculous!🐞🐈‍⬛🐢

Marinette is Ladybug/Nino is Carapace/Kim is Mèo đen (They all know each other’s identities because they opened the boxes together in Marinette’s room)

Thanks to a little magic, they have the bodies they’ve always dreamed of having

One Akuma they faced was some transphobic dick who they did not go easy on. Carapace and Mèo đen had to reluctantly keep Ladybug from murdering him in front of a bunch of people

Now, Lila? (I can’t go one second without Lila salt) She’s a new member of the assholes club but doesn’t know others know Marinette, Kim, and Nino are trans

She runs into class sobbing like a dumb [BLEEP] and whines about how Marinette assaulted her in the bathroom

The class was not amused and Lila never did become popular

Then the big day came. They were eighteen and they got their surgery together in the same hospital

Doctors and nurses gushed over how sweet it was three best friends were taking this huge step together

Kim and Nino’s first act was to burn their bras. Marinette even joined in even though she needed hers’

🏳️‍⚧️ Okay, onto the Pride headcanons! 🏳️‍⚧️

Some consider them Trans icons

It’s not every day a group of best friends come out as Transgender and get their surgery on the same day

They go to Pride every year, and thanks to Marinette, they’re always the best dressed

Their outfits mainly consist of sleeveless hoodies, crop tops, sandals, and bedazzled shorts and capes

Every time Marinette inhales, a terf gets punched

Every time Marinette exhales, a trans kid gets a cupcake

Mari makes pride capes, bedazzles them, and passes them out at parades

Kim is very popular with the drag Queens.

He is a lip sync god

Children love him and always ask for piggyback rides

He’s notorious for making flower crowns for the kids

Nino takes on the role of the mom friend when they got to pride

He once put Mari and Kim on those baby leashes so they wouldn’t wander off

He also supplies juice boxes and snacks

After their surgery, Nino and Kim pass out their old binders.

Kim’s would definitely look like sports jerseys

Nino’s binders are neon and one even glows in the dark

He wears hoodies no matter how hot it is

Marinette: Nino, take that off!

Nino: *Sweating more than the average person* No!

Marinette once beat up a terf who was harassing Kim and Nino for being “traitors to their sex”

The terf left with bruises and a small crush

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bondsmagii · 4 years ago

Note

(vengeful anon here) yeah that's fair. my boy Eli gets ROBBED. Also, if you don't like Lila Bard and Zoya Nazyalensky, you're going to hate the new character Marcella.

don’t even talk to me about poor Eli I’m so mad they did him that dirty!! I mean go figure, characters like that never get the writing they deserve, but GOD. it’s a fucking hate crime.

and oh no 😩 I wouldn’t say I hate Zoya and Lila’s characters; I really hate how they were written. both of them were so screwed over by the writers, because they each had so much potential but they were let down by lazy development and shoddy writing. Zoya in the Grisha trilogy and the Six of Crows duology? I liked her! Zoya in King of Scars? terrible! actually, quite unironically, cringe! as for Lila oh boy. there were so many moments where she could have undergone so much more development but she just... did not. either it’s bad writing, or Lila is just thick as oatmeal. also she too suffered from Badass Woman* Syndrome, just like Zoya. it’s the name I gave to the phenomenon where writers try to make a strong independent female character, but end up being just as objectifying by making her so perfect that it’s unrealistic, not doing her character/development/story arc justice, and her then character ends up getting hated on for dominating a story or otherwise being annoying as hell. it’s basically where an author seems to think that having a female character who’s sassy and can fight is enough, and they don’t have to do anything more.

(* I use this term reluctantly with Lila, because Lila is trans. like, I’m sorry, but she is. I don’t know if V. E. Schwab meant to write her that way, and I get the impression it was an accident, but Lila is so painfully trans that I actually feel uncomfortable referring to her as female. countless times she talks about hating being perceived as female; about how her body makes her feel terrible; about how she wishes she had a “male” body; about how she feels more comfortable presenting as a man. most of the time Lila does present as a man, wearing male clothing and keeping her hair cut in an androgynous fashion. she gets a thrill when she’s perceived as a man. Schwab has since said that if she had been alive in modern times Lila would probably identify as somewhere on the gender nonconforming spectrum, but I think that’s a cop-out because she was getting so many questions about it. regardless of Schwab’s intentions... she wrote a trans character.)

anyway, I’m hoping that Marcella will be somewhere in the same area, as in a lot of potential and a lot I could have fun with in fanwork, but let down by the writer. I have long since said that for a woman, Schwab writes women terribly 😂

#oops went off a little there #anon #asks

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princess-of-the-corner · 5 years ago

Note

Feel free to ignore, but what do you think would change if Adrien was a girl with optional boy Marinette? (Trans or cis, your preference)

Let's make them both trans just for fun! I'll use the typical gender swap names of Marin and Adrienne. (Also, slight warning: I'm half-asleep and also dumb, so I might accidentally use their Canon names/genders. I'm not trying to be an asshole I'm just dumb and tired)

So both transitioned pre-series. However. There's differences on who knows.

Marin: Other than his parents, its mostly old friends like Nino and Kim remember Marin pre-transition. They still sometimes call him "Nette"/"Nettie" as a nickname, but Marin doesn't mind because it doesn't immediately out him. Rose and Juleka also know because Juleka and Marin both got trans vibes off each other and came out to one another. Other than that, most of the class only remembers Marin as a boy and he doesn't feel the need to tell everyone outright. Some people guess because Marin is very LGBT+ involved, so they know he's somewhere in that.

As for Adrienne, she's unfortunately out to everyone because the Agrestes are well known. Adrienne made her modeling debut modeling boys clothes, but after coming out to her parents she was switched to modeling female clothes(because Gabriel might be a fuck but at least he's not a transphobe!). It was kind of a big PR thing when it happened, and she still sometimes gets misgendered in magazines, but that's what the lawyers are for! As I said though, Adrienne doesn't have quite as much privacy on who she can tell because of that. Though the class doesn't immediately know because they weren't paying attention to the Agrestes before meeting Adrienne, they do find out through articles about her now that they're paying attention.

Onto some changes, let's start with Chloé! She still sees Adrienne as her best friend/almost sibling, and is very protective/possessive of her. But it doesn't come across as a romantic crush because Chloé can't use Adrienne as a "let me pretend I'm straight" crush. She will fight anyone who misgenders Adrienne though. The fact that Chloé can be friends with someone as sweet and kind as Adrienne without any 'crush' to explain her interest gets people looking at her in a new light. Like a "huh. Maybe she's not a total bitch?", and everyone decides to subtly work with her/give her a chance to be nicer.

Marin still befriends Alya in Origins but doesn't come out to her immediately. Adrienne also befriends Nino too.

Marin also still develops a crush on Adrienne. While he didn't pay attention to Agreste Family Drama before, he is aware that Adrienne is trans so that's not an issue in his anxieties.

On the flip side: Ladynoir. Or Lordnoire.

Lordbug and Chat Noire are Paris's Heroes. And they're dynamic is pretty much the same, except Chat Noire is less open in her flirting at the beginning.

The reason for that is because she doesn't know if Lordbug will like her if he finds out she's trans, so she doesn't quite get her hopes up until later. Because Chat Noire tells Marin during a "Marichat Moment", so next "Lordnoire" moment, Lordbug drops a "btw I'm trans" into the conversation.

So a lot of the plots don't change. But some of the crush drama does. Let's start:

Nathaniel in Evilustrator: Nath still has a crush on Marin. Chloé doesn't tease the crush as much in this version because she might be a bitch but outing someone like that is a line she doesn't cross. Nathaniel kind of ends up outing himself because Evilustrator takes Marin on the date and everyone connects those dots.

Nino in Animan: Nino still has a crush on Marin but is having more of a LGBT-related debate within himself. He's like "I have a crush on Marin, which should mean I'm not straight because he is a guy. But as he is my first guy crush will he see it as me being not-straight or will he think I'm still straight but not accepting him? And even worse, is that what I'm subconsciously doing???" By the end, DJWifi still happens and Nino can tell Marin "so I'm not straight and I did have a crush on you but also I now have a crush on Alya and we're dating!". The power of being locked in a panther cage.

Théo in Copycat: Because he's straight, Théo's crush is on Chat Noire instead. She rejects him for several reasons, the biggest being that she's in love with Lordbug. Théo ends up as a Copybug instead, jealous that Lordbug has captured the heart of his crush. Lordbug thinks it was because he didn't come to the statue thing, but after he's defeated he apologizes to Chat Noire about how he reacted to her rejection. Lordbug'a just standing there like "wait, if you were upset she rejected you, why'd you turn into fake me???". Chat Noire helps dodge that by pointing out that they're about to detransform.

Kagami: I'm debating on this. Tbh I want to set it up for my usual polyship as endgame, but That's not the debate. The debate is whether Kagami has a crush on Adrienne and the "oh no I'm gay!" Panic, or Kagami gets the crush on Marin first. Either way, she ends up having a friendship with Marin earlier.

Luka: while I could switch the crushes like I did with Kagami, Luka initially interacts with Marin more than Adrienne. Polyship is endgame like usual, but it's lining up as more of a Mariharem. On the other hand, Adrienne might have a closer friendship to Juleka because transgirl solidarity, which would give Adrienne an excuse to be over more and in the process get to known Luka more too.

Now for the real fun plot: Lila.

Because of Lila's manipulative nature, I wouldn't put it past her to pretend to be gay to get the money/power that would come with seducing Adrienne. Especially because while she would pretend to be accepting, she wouldn't see Adrienne as a 'girl'.

However, let's have a twist in the AU and point out that Lila has other options for her 'meal ticket'. After all, everyone in every salt fic has pointed out how Canon!Mari has the same connections that Lila attempts to lie about!

So, Lila decides to try seducing Marin instead. She doesn't know that Marin is trans and that'll be an issue later but for now it's her plan.

Marin still clocks Lila as a liar because while Lila did enough research to avoid telling lies Marin can easily disprove(like the Jagged's cat one), she still did the 'Lordbug's my bff!' Thing. He gives the half-truth to Lila of "Lordbug was upset you would lie about him and is looking for you to tell you to stop".

Volpina happens as in Canon. Except her Illusion at the Eiffel Tower is Marin instead of Adrien. Though the book plot is slightly different. Marin saw Adrienne with the book, Tikki said "we need to get that!", so Marin managed to start a conversation to try and borrow it. Lila stole it because Marin was interested. Marin does manage to get it back and that goes the same.

Lila then disappears for Season 2, so let's jump to her return in Season 3.

As Marin is her target, she tries to get someone else sent to the back. It ends up being Adrienne, because she's nice even if she thinks Lila's a liar(she can't tell anyone "I know she's a liar because I'm Chat Noire"), and offered to give up her seat for someone who needs it for a disability.(and she was actually asked instead of shoved back there without her input).

Marin tries to call Lila out, but he has less proof than in Canon. As I said, since seducing Marin with lies was Lila's plan, she avoided lies he could disprove. So even without the "jealousy", it's easy to write Marin off as just overly paranoid.

Still, Marin refuses to sit by Lila, and instead goes to the back with Adrienne because she looks lonely. Which pisses Lila off.

Later, Lila decides to threaten both Marin and Adrienne. Though separately, of course.

She tells Marin that she already has his friends under her spell, and it would be so easy to turn them against him if he didn't comply. Not to mention that it'd be hard to convince them that he's not interested. After all, as far as they know, Lila is such a sweet and wonderful girl! She's their friend! Even if Marin is into someone else, why would he be so upset about someone like Lila showing interest?

Marin believes in his friends. But he still panics at the threat.

With Adrienne, Lila tries to play nicer because she thinks that she can manipulate her. Lila plays the "I don't want to let a boy get between us", already planning on painting Adrienne as jealous. When Adrienne tries the nicer "I know you're lying but I think you're doing it because you want friends and I'll be your friend if you stop lying. Also what was that about a boy coming between us because idk what you're talking about?!".

Lila lied and told Adrien she'd try, but of course has no intention of doing that.

The Akuma fight goes about the same.

Afterward, Adrienne talks to Marin about her conversation with Lila. Marin is a little more confident in telling Adrienne about Lila's threats. Adrienne is pissed, and tries to stand up for Marin, but is brushed off because Lila already painted her as jealous.

So neither are believed. For Marin, they believe his suspicions of Lila are tunnel vision of his crush on Adrienne combined with insecurity of "if someone likes me it must be for ulterior motives". Meanwhile, everyone knows that Adrienne likes Marin but is denying it with 'he's just a friend!', and think she's jealous of Lila's interest.

How the turntables.

This would change other Lila-centric episodes like Oni-chan and Ladybug, but I'm too tired to deal with that rn.

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raat-jaaga-paakhi · 5 years ago

Text

(D)Evolution of Rukmini-Harana

This I wrote while brainstorming in the beginning of this month to centre my brain on what we know of Rukmini, so I could write her with (dis)regard to the texts. And what I found out in my Ruk-foray, was simultaneously intriguing and repelling. Tagging my Mahabharata people, if you want to go on Rukmini’s journey through the scriptures and the later kavyas (ancient fanfiction, guys) and don’t mind my snarky commentary in between as I try to be as analytical as possible (Warning: Strong Opinions and Wtf Moments!) – @avani008 @parlegee @incurablescribbler @shaonharryandpannisim @ambitiousandcunning @glyphenthusiast @mayavanavihariniharini @allegoriesinmediasres @walburgablack @jigyask @heyifinallyhaveablog @1nsaankahanhai-bkr from the top of my head. Under the cut, for this is detailed.

Mahabharata

Rukmini-Haran legend is outlined in several places: that Sabha scene we all seem to love unanimously, Krishna-Draupadi in exile, Arjuna describing Krishna’s feats, and in Udyoga parva when Rukmi comes to help in the war. Other times, she is mentioned as mother of Pradyumna (in fact, Pradyumna’s name is mostly replaced by “son of Rukmini”). Only details being: Rukmini was meant to be Shishupala’s, Krishna came, abducted her, fought off Rukmi who had taken an oath to not return without killing him, Rukmi builds Bhojakata due to his defeat. Rukmi is mentioned a few times to have learned battlecraft from a kimpurusha Druma (whose name is often written as Drona, eliciting confusion between Dronacharya of Hastinapur), from whom he gets Indra’s bow which is said to be equal to Gandiva and Sharnga.

- BORI CE Mbh, Translated by B. Debroy.

He comes with an akshauini to Pandavas’ camp where he is welcomed warmly enough, until he opens his big mouth and says, “Dudes, if you all are afraid of the Kauravas, I can help!” Insert big, smug smile. Krishna is present, but silent. Arjuna speaks, reminding Rukmi that he sought no help from anyone at multiple times (he goes harcore here *grins*), and wouldn’t need the same now, esp. from one like him. Disappointed Rukmi goes to Duryodhana’s camp where he’s rejected for, er, being the Pandavas’ reject and for his big mouth. Yeah. He, like Balarama, remains neutral. (Interesting that it’s Balarama who kills him, later.)

- BORI CE Mbh, Trans. By B. Debroy

There is no letter, no mention of a swayamvara, no love, nothing, sticking to Mahabharata’s rather dry style, which if stripped of its mystical elements would be a cold, clean historical narrative.

Apology: I am not giving any more screenshots (except for Bhaagavat, because it has some rather nice parts), for this would become…far too long to handle for even me. I promise you can take my word for it.

Harivamsa

Considered an “appendix” (khila) to Mahabharata, it contains the legend of Rukmini in the greatest of details. @parlegee would love to hear that her fic kalyanakirti, where Rukmini and Krishna have an early meeting before the letter and all, does have some solid basis. The legend in narrated in two separate parts: swayamvara and harana. Sadly, the first part doesn’t get into the BORI CE Harivamsa, but that is made understandable by Dr. Bibek Debroy, who comments the Harivamsa editing is indiscriminate and lacking in quality w.r.t. cutting down events, as compared to the precise and thoughtful editing of Mahabharata proper, at the very beginning of his translation. Thus, the omission, I guess. I am giving a rundown for this is what we will refer back to as we compare the later versions. (For reference, go to Mahabharata Resources online.)

Swayamvara part –

Rukmi arranges for Rukmini’s swayamvara, calling his boys and excluding Krishna (ofc), of which Krishna gets wind and arrives in class with Garuda. He is welcomed—notedly not by the king, as opposed to rules of hospitality—by his relative/father Kaisika, outside of the capital of Vidarbh in Kaisika’s own city.

Quite strangely, Kaisika and his brother Kratha offer Krishna their city; there is even some messenger fanfare with Indra.

Comment: This seems like something of an interpolation to me (it’s politically and intellectually stupid okay – why would krishna need to abduct rukmini with such pains if a part of vidarbha was already his. he could have been more politically subtle and all. it’s just horrible statesmanship), and part of the avatar-vaad or “make Krishna a god so that we can cloak his philosophies and ideas with the veil of god’s incomprehensible lilas so that no one can hope to emulate him and his decidedly non-brahmanical approach, and so they wait for his next appearance while the world burns” propaganda. Shut up, Medha, you’re going to be killed for this. Nah, brain, I will speak my truth.

Meanwhile, Jarasandha and his cronies come to know of Krishna’s arrival, get “afraid” and there is this huge-ass, strange, contradictory conversation. Jarasandha and Sunitha (read: shishupala. yeah, boi had this other, nicer name) are primarily of the view that Krishna is gonna fight them, while Dantavakra (hm, isn’t he another of krishna’s cousins?) opposes that. Shalva and the others also expressed their ideas. The exact point of this conversation is highly inscrutable because, (not) strangely, the conversation is shrouded by them praising and glorifying their arch-enemy as the “lord of the universe” and what-not. (wut? why do you all constantly fight him if you know “who he truly is” and so on? are you masochists, guys – i am seriously concerned. your opponent is apparently vishnu yet you go on fighting him knowing you’re gonna be defeated. what’s the point? medha, stfu) I mean, a professional, grudging admiration for a fellow warrior is fine, good even, but what’s this BS?

The next part is even more laughable, which I didn’t think was possible. They hear of Krishna’s “coronation” and except Rukmi, everyone attends it, even Jarasandha. Huh? Jarasandha who laughed in Krishna’s face in Mbh, called him a coward cowherd (love alliteration) outright so many times in both Mbh and HV . . . I don’t understand any of this. Is it fear for the one person you cannot seem to properly defeat? Are you trying to keep peace, because that’s ridiculous when you have gone on offence so many times. Is it that you are “honoured” to be part of such an important moment in your arch-enemy, who also happens to be “Vishnu’s poorna avatar”?

Then comes a truly interesting part – Bhishmaka and Krishna have a talk. Bhishmaka thinks it’s better to offer Rukmini to Krishna outright and that swayamvara is a stupid thing – whether it is this particular one Rukmi has arranged, or swayamvaras in general, is kinda unclear. For the sake of Bhishmaka, I will go with the first. He apologises to Krishna for not inviting him to the swaymvara for he is helpless against his ignorant son (I guess the ignorance relates to “the true form of Lord Krishna” here) and…hm, this is both exciting and…controversial? Krishna rebukes Bhishmaka quite strongly about letting Rukmi treat him as a doormat and what-not and I would be heart-eyes for he’s technically defending Rukmini in some weird, chauvinistic manner, but . . . is he? His tone is rather peculiar, if you read it. He ends his little tirade with saying that Rukmini is Lakshmi reborn and as such, meant only for him, and technically demands to dismiss the swayamvara. And then, he just…leaves with Garuda. Form your headcanons, guys. This is just too weird.

Bhishmaka is sweet-and-obedient little devotee now and does as he is told. Interestingly, this is before the formation of Dwaraka, for it is here, after the Rukmini’s swayamvara is postponed that Jarasandh and his cronies hatch the plot to use the foreigner Kalyavana to kill Krishna. (just now you attended the boy’s coronation ceremony, usually attended by allies and friends, and praised him as lord of all…make up your minds, guys)

Also, it is here that Rukmini makes up her mind to marry Krishna. Hm, a little meeting, particularly the one you wrote, Maya Di, is extremely likely!

Harana part –

After Kalyavana’s death, Jarasandha’s failure and Dwaraka’s formation, Jarasandha decides to have Rukmini married to Shishupala, just like that. Here is also said that Rukmi had gained celestial weaponry and the Brahmastra (woah!) from Druma and Parasurama respectively. Hm, looks like he was quite the excellent warrior. It isn’t specified if Parashurama only gave him the celestial weapons or taught him as well like he did with Karna – both are different things. But hey, why do people keep going to Parasurama specifically for Brahmastra? I feel bad for the big guy. [Also, here comes this strange issue, Parasurama is, by Karna’s words as well as popular perception, supposed to not hold any sort of guru-ness towards Kshatriyas, which is why the latter had to lie in order to learn from him, considering Suta is an inferior division of the main Kshatriya varna. But that’s topic for another day, Medha.]

Okay, so it is mentioned that Rukmini and Krishna both longed for Krishna, and though there’s no dialogue, it appears that Rukmi knew of this, for the text goes on to say why Rukmi won’t accept this marriage – his enmity with Krishna due to the latter killing his friend Kamsa who also happened to be son-in-law of beloved Jarasandha etc. The text says that with Jarasandha and Shishupala, also came the allied kings Dantavakra, Paundraka, and the kings of Anga and Vanga. [This…is markedly curious. Surely by this time in the epic, Karna was crowned Angaraja? For it not to be so, Krishna would have to be much, much older than the Pandavas, chronologically speaking, which is the headcanon of a popular modern writer Ashok K. Banker. But Yudhisthir and Bhima are considered Krishna’s elders many times in Mbh. There is also this strange friend/frenemy-ship between Karna and Jarasandha as they have a kind of stalemate in a fight and Jarasandha, pleased, offers Karna a city in Anga, Malinipuri, if I remember right. Does it mean that not all of Anga was under Hastinapur’s influence? Again, Medha, to dissect another day.]

Now, “to please their aunt” (Shishupala’s mother Shrutashrava), Krishna comes with Balarama and other Vrishni heroes, all welcomed by Kaisika and Kratha. Upon seeing Rukmini in her journey to pay obeisances to Goddess Indrani, Krishna, er, cannot control himself and decides to abduct her, in consultation with Balarama and others. To note that (i) even though the text expresses both their desires to be with each other, it seems like an impromptu decision to abduct Rukmini, almost as if in lust (at least, that’s what the text makes it sound like); (ii) there’s none of that “coming alone in a hurry after getting her letter” event, as per Harivamsa. He comes quite prepared, and even consults with the other Kshatriyas before going for it.

You know the drill now: Krishna abducts Rukmini as she finishes her prayers and Balarama defeats all the guards. Krishna then puts the responsibility of the war on Yadava heroes like Balarama, Satyaki, Kritavarma, Gada, Prasena (is this that same Prasena of Syamantaka incident?) etc. and sets out for Dwaraka with Rukmini. At all this, Jarasandha and his cronies Shishupala, Dantavaktra, Paundraka, kings of Anga (again!), Vanga, Kalinga and others decide to kill Krishna in a joint attack. There are small descriptions of these following duels – Satyaki vs Jarasandha, Akrura vs Dantavakra, Viprthu vs Shishupala. Shishupala, after being attacked by Atidanta, Gavesana and Brhaddurga (who are these people, gosh) kills Virpthu’s horses and beheads Brhaddurga. Balarama kills the king of Vanga and then attacks Jarasandha. All this results in the defeat of Jarasandha and his cronies.

Hearing this, Rukmi vows before Bhishmaka and if he can’t kill Krishna and bring Rukmini back, he won’t return to the capital Kundina. Note that the next part of his vow, bringing Rukmini back, isn’t mentioned in Mbh proper. He leaves, accompanied by Kratha (that devoted guy?), Amsuman, Srutarva, Venudari and Bhishmaka’s other unnamed sons.

Rukmi sees Krishna-Rukmini standing on the banks of Narmada (aw, what are these two love-birds doing on a riverbank, that’s so romantic… Medha, stop). [Also, as I argued with someone on Quora, had it been a forcible abduction, without Rukmini’s consent in any way whatsoever, considering the letter is not in HV, they wouldn’t be standing there on a riverbank, resting and doing hell-knows-what. It’s a logical fallacy, sorry.]

Seeing them together, he gets even more pissed and wants to kill Krishna in a dwairatha (dual chariot) fight. Cool stuff. Both archers fight. Krishna kills his charioteer and cuts off his chariot-banner. [What’s the thing with this? Why even bother? If you are making a statement then stop, we know who’s gonna win. Even if you didn’t win the fight, the texts would still claim you the winner. Medha, stop, you are supposed to love the man. Yes, the man, not the god men have created as a horrible substitute for the real thing. Why am I saying this now? This is a very normal archery feat if we see Mahabharata’s war parvas.] He defeats all the Vidarbhan warriors and kills many. Rukmi is not a doormat. He retaliates, cutting off Krishna’s banner as well (the garuda one! wow, boi), hurts both Krishna and his charioteer with his arrows. [Aw, and people say Arjuna only won his duels because of Krishna being his charioteer. Dude, look at this. I mean, these people straight out claim him to be God Incarnate and yet, they can’t completely smoothly modify a fight scene to suit their purposes – how sweet. Stfu, Medha.] Krishna then cuts Rukmi’s bow. [The Vijaya one? Surely Rukmi is not fighting such a serious fight without it. If so, wow. You just cut Indra’s prized bow – you really have a strong issue with the guy, don’t ya? Yeah, I feel you.]

Rukmi picks up another (here’s to perseverance), which Krishna again cuts off and crushes Rukmi’s chariot. Now Rukmi rushes at Krishna with a sword (gotta give, guy’s relentless) which Krishna cuts off and uses a sharp weapon called naracha on him which hurts him enough to render him senseless. The remaining soldiers run away. Rukmini’s pity aroused, she pleads for Krishna to spare her brother. Krishna lifts her up and reasures her (awww *waves shipping flag, completely ignoring the falling at his feet part*), then assures poor Rukmi of his safety (who seems to have woken up from his swoon by now, poor boy must have been so tired…why am I feeling so bad for Rukmi? I hate the guy! Btw, I can so imagine Krishna being cheeky here). He returns to Dwaraka with Rukmini, accompanied by Balarama and other Yadavas and his wedding his celebrated there.

There are no later versions of the legend in other texts that tally with the first part (swayamvara) seen in Harivamsa. There’s no love letter, no shaving hair-and-moustache. Let me tell you guys here only, for I don’t want to repeat this, there is no Madhavpur Ghed in the texts I have encountered (and they’re quite a bunch, as you’ll see).

Note: The evolution or composition of Mahabharata and Harivamsa are considered by old and modern scholars alike to have gone parallely, so the insertions of Rukmi’s details, his guru Druma, his bow Vijaya, etc. which seem to exactly match Harivamsa, may have been addded after that part of Harivamsa was written.

Vishnu Purana (about 300 BC-450 CE)

Rukmini-harana is narrated very shortly here, whereas in Harivamsa, it takes up a few chapters, being one of the most prominent parts of the text, as compared to Krishna’s marriage to his other wives. The entire swayamvara part, from Krishna’s “coronation” to the postponement of the swayamvara is missing here. From the harana part as well, Rukmi and his celestial weaponry, worship of Indrani, consultation with Balarama and other Yadavas before abduction, seeing Rukmini-Krishna along Narmada, details of the fights, aren’t present. Again, no love letter (though, even this extremely short version of a few mere verses speaks of Krishna and Rukmini’s mutual love), no shaving. However, it doesn’t deviate from the “original” in Harivamsa as well; it only clips away the details as if deeming them unnecesary in the larger context.

Matsya Purana (about 200-500 CE) mentions her among the Ashtabharya, here listed as – Rukmini, Satyabhama, Satya, Nagnajiti, Gandhari, Subhima, Shaivya, Lakshmana. [argh, we’ll talk about this later. just know for one that this is clearly not a very…right list, and not only in popular perception. jambavati isn’t mentioned; satya, nagnajiti, gandhari and lakshmana are having an identity crisis amongst themselves. basically, the text(s) is (are) only sure about rukmini and satyabhama. pardonable, for they happen to be krishna’s most famous wives. i feel so bad.]

Bhaagavat Purana (about 500-1000 CE)

Oh, yeah, this one is interesting. Unlike Vishnu Purana, Bhaagavat is all about the details. (reminds me of amitabh sir in badla every time i say this word.) There are omissions as well, for Rukmi and his celestial weaponry, Bhishmaka’s lineage, etc. are not mentioned. Let me go by points of difference only, since the main story has been explained in Harivamsa.

We get to hear the names of Rukmi’s younger brothers, only mentioned in HV – Rukmaratha, Rukmavahu, Rukmakesa, Rukmamali. We come to know Rukmini heard of Krishna from bards and decided he would be her perfect match. (Despite Bhaagavat’s devotional fervour that distracts from the main events, I love its version so much better in so many places.) Similarly, hearing of Rukmini’s knowledge and beauty, our boy pines for her. The relatives shipped Rukmini/Krishna as well, but only Rukmi seems to be against it, who arranges her marriage to Shishu. Learning of this, Rukmini sends a faithful old brahmin to Dwaraka with her message, who is received respectfully by Krishna. In her message, she…well, makes me fangirl. Interspersed between what seems to be fanatically devotional love for her “lord”, Rukmini calmly devises a straight and firm plan for him to follow, from the going to the temple of Girija (not Indrani, here) and the Rakshasa vivaha, telling him “not to worry” and all, and also adds a little…threat, in the end, that if he doesn’t do so, she will give up her life by fasting. Neat.

- Srimad Bhaagavat Purana

Krishna, “in love and excitement”, says that he too has been spending sleepless nights pining for Rukmini. Aw.

- Srimad Bhaagavat Purana

Added this to say, here’s the implicit metaphor of Jarasandha and his cronies being the kindling and Rukmini the diew generated by churning them. (Why am I thinking of Samudra-manthan?)

Here, Krishna doesn’t bring Balarama or any other Yadava hero with him, straight going to Kundina on his chariot with his charioteer Daruka and the brahmin, and apparently reaches within one night (which is realistically impossible, except if he had something like Pushpaka, which is not so here). There’s lot of description of pre-wedding things, where the only thing striking me is the phrase “Rukmini with fine teeth”. (I can just imagine her baring her teeth at Rukmi’s back, uff.) As Shishu sets out from Chedi with Jarasandha and his cronies who have developed a “stratagem” to kill Krishna, Balarama comes to know of the plot and sets out after Krishna with the Yadava heroes, moved by his affection for his bro. Exasperated elder brother, here he is.

A despairing Rukmini is informed by the brahmin of Krishna’s arrival in Kundina, she thanks him. Bhishmaka comes to know of Krishna and Balarama’s arrival, whereas in Harivamsa, it was Kaisika who welcomed them. There’s also this huge gathering of Vidarbhans to see Krishna and they decide that only he is fit for their princess. That’s so sweet. After worshipping Goddes Ambika/Girija, asking for Krishna to be her husband, Rukmini returns very slowly from the temple, her beauty so bewitching that a few kings “fall down from their horses, elephants, chariots”. Omfg! Lol. Krishna abducts her in presence of all those kings, who rebuke themselves and shower arrows upon Krishna, seeing which Rukmini laments in fear. Krishna consoles her, the Yadavas march against the kings; Jarasandha, Shishu and their friends have to flee to save their lives. No details are given, as compared to HV. Here, is a very interesting segment, where Shishu laments about having “lost” Rukmini and Jarasandha consoles him in a strangely fatalistic manner:

- Srimad Bhaagavat Purana

Comment: Jara actually doesn’t sound insane or just fatalistic here, imo. He sounds...manipulative af. Don’t think that was the intent of the writers (more likely it was just to forwards the idea of fate and futility as opposed to true action), but that’s what it sounds like to me. Worthy opponent for Krishna, if you ask me.

Now, there’s that drill with Rukmi and his vow, except here, he’s said to have taken an akshauhini of men. When he sees Krishna-Rukmini (no Narmada river here), he verbally insults Krishna unlike prev. versions and then attacks him.

- Srimad Bhaagavat Purana

(Even the abuse here is mild, compared to Mahabharata. I mean, think of the dice game, the Shishupala-vadha parva and so on! But still, Bhaagavat retains class, even as it propounds avatar-vaad, fatalism and fervent devotion.)

The description of battle here is more intense and long-drawn (compared to the main Yadava battle fought against Jarasandha and his cronies), with Krishna cutting down Rukmi’s banner, and then breaking three of his bows. Rukmi uses various kinds of weapons on Krishna – Parigha, Pattisa, Tomara, Camra, Shula, Asi, Shakti, etc. but Krishna remains steadfast in his defence. Rukmi then picks up a sword and rushes at Krishna; there’s no mention of Krishna having killed his charioteer and crushed his chariot. Krishna descends to thebsword-fight and brandishing his own, breaks Rukmi’s sword too. Now you know the drill, falling at his feet and all, our Rukmini. (Don’t roll your eyes, Medha.) Now...it’s in Bhaagavat we see the disfiguring first, Krishna deciding to give him some sort of light punishment, shaving off his moustache, beard and hair unevenly.

There’s another alteration here, that Balarama comes to see this and rebukes Krishna for humiliating a relative. Rukmini is apparently inconsolable and he offers Rukmini a patronising (if sensible philosophically in many places) discourse, starting with a more political note of “the conduct of Kshatriyas is hard and merciless where brother kills brother” and continuing with a lengthy philosophical lecture of the body and the soul, as in in tune with Mahabharata’s Gita, to a marginal extent. Rukmini attempts to calm down, and they return to Dwaraka. The marriage is well-described, with the addition of kings with intimate relations invited – from Kuru, Srinjaya, Kekeya, Kunti races and Vidarbh as well! Hm. Interesting. As is the inconsolable Rukmini, described earlier, which finds no mention in earlier (or a few later versions). Is it so hard to imagine a “difficult woman”, in Nikita Gill’s terms? Does she have to be a wilting flower, even though it breaks off from her prev. characterisation? I mean, she can sure be miffed at it, but for her to be so disconsolate that Balarama out of all people has to offer a huge-ass philosophical advice. Sigh. Basically, Bhaagavat more or less presents it attractively by way of supplying more materials to the story (the greatest and most landmark being Rukmini’s letter), even while it ignores some other details (like Narmada).

Brahmanda Purana (about 400-600 CE) doesn’t delineate the main legend, but Rukmini, the princess of Vidarbha, is mentioned as Krishna’s principal wife, along with the names of their sons and daughter.

Padma Purana (about 400-1600 CE)

Points of difference:

Brothers’ names apart from Rukmi not mentioned.

To fulfil her desire to marry her “lord”, Rukmini worships the gods from childhood itself and keeps sacred vows. Hm, yeah, go ahead.

Here, her brahmin is called the son of a purohita who is received by both Krishna and Balarama. Rukmini’s words in her message are not there anymore (a format which will be followed by every later version except the kavyas) as opposed to the beautiful plan in Bhaagavat and, they both set out for Kundina. No army of Yadava heroes accompany them.

Rukmini goes to the temple by her chariot rather than by foot, at evening, none of which is mentioned in prev. versions. After the abduction, it is Balarama who singlehandedly routs all the kings headed by Jarasandha, using his plough (Langala) and Musala (…the same weapon they use in the fratricidal war of Mausala parva, incidently; so it has some other source than that “curse” where Samva delivers this “new weapon” called musala).

There’s no mention of Rukmi’s vow.

When Rukmi attacks Krishna, he laughs and defends himself with his bow Saranga, a bow presented by Indra. Keeping with both HV and Bhaagavat, dear Krishna obligingly cuts of Rukmi’s bow, his banner, his charioteer’s head and crushes the chariot. There’s Rukmi with his sword, and Krishna with a sharp knife.

Interestingly, there’s no objection or plea or falling at his feet from Rukmini, but Krishna still doesn’t kill him, letting him go by his own free will. That doesn’t stop him from laughing and shaving the hair on his head, though. The beard and moustache are forgiven.

Despite not having taken the vow, apparently the humiliation is enough for Rukmi to built Bhojkata in Vidarbh outside of Kundina, keeping with all prev. versions.

No Madhavpur again. What’s interesting here, is that Nanda and Yashoda and other cowherds are present in the wedding in Dwaraka, unlike popular perception which says Krishna never met his adoptive parents after having left Vrindavana.

Skanda Purana (about 600-1200 CE)

It is narrated to Yudhisthir by Markandeya about the significance of some Rukmini teertha. Points of difference:

Rukmini’s mother is mentioned to be “Mahadevi”. This could also be a title, since queens were also addressed thus. Rukmini is said to be her second child, younger to Rukmi and elder to the other brothers, whose names aren’t mentioned.

At her birth, there is this prophecy about her marriage to this four-armed divine person by a bodiless voice, kinda like Kamsa’s akashvani. Sure, go on. Marry her to Krishna right as she’s born, why don’t you? It’s destiny after all. Can I add that the previous love affair between Rukmini and Krishna is also not mentioned.

Damaghosha, king of Chedi and Shishupala’s father goes to Bhishmaka with a marriage proposal, more in accordance with a marriage as we see it now as compared to the prev. versions (where Jarasandha and Rukmi are instrumental), as also the prevalent nature of marriage of those days w.r.t. Mahabharata.

These two develop attraction to each other just prior to the abduction, in the vein of Harivamsa, but Harivamsa does speak of mutual pining long before the abduction.

The brahmin messenger, the role or even the name of Jarasandha, Rukmi’s fierce vow – nothing finds mention.

Unlike prev. versions, Krishna and Balarama are invited by Bhishmaka to Rukmini’s marriage. No other Yadava hero is mentioned to have accompanied, similar to Padma Purana.

It brings back the river Narmada, where Rukmini and Krishna were resting and Rukmi stumbled upon them, which is only found farther back in Harivamsa.

Now, the battle with Rukmi gets interesting here. There is no archery or even swordfight; rather, Krishna takes his chakra to battle. Fearful, Rukmini asks Krishna to bless her brother with the “divine eye”. Krishna obeys, “pleased” by Rukmini. Rukmi’s ignorance taken away, he offers auspicious prayers to Krishna, who, pleased at the brother this time, blesses him and speaks “blissful words”. Rukmi happily goes back to Kundina. No Bhojkata, no insult, no killing or fighting.

Even the marriage isn’t celebrated in Dwaraka, but on the very banks of Narmada, in the presence of pious sages and other brahmins.

A long explanation of the significance of Rukmini tirtha is given in details, which we don’t find in prev. versions and which I have no energy to go over, for it isn’t significant to either the topic, or even Rukmini in general.

In a nutshell, Skanda Purana takes a decided and marked departure from the martial, the political and the more realistic, to the more mystical realms that have surrounded Krishna and his actions. Do we see a pattern here?

Brahmavaivarta Purana (about 700-1500 CE)

God, I hate this one so much. In a nutshell, guys, it goes several steps ahead of Skanda Purana and goes for a classic social marriage, as is prevalent nowadays. There’s no abduction, no Shishupala, no love, no resistance from Rukmi, no agency from either the bride or the groom. Nothing.

[Instead of Rukmini-harana, or even Rukmini-swayamvara, the headings become “Rukmini Udvaah Prastaav varnan” (description of proposal of Rukmini’s marriage) and then, “Rukmini Vivaahe Yuddham” (fight in Rukmini’s marriage). Credit where credit’s due, I learnt from an online friend about the Sanskrit titles.]

No message is sent by Rukmini, but a brahmin messenger does go with a proposal of marriage. He is sent by Bhishmaka instead of Rukmini. What’s more, the letter was addressed to Ugrasena, and it’s not Krishna, or even Balarama, who receives the proposal. It is Ugrasena, stepping into the limelight where before he had no role to play except that of a figurehead and a tortured father as per the texts.

In Kundina (described in detail for the first time, with the classic mahajanapada-style ditch around it), Krishna and Rukmini have a nice social marriage, presided over by all the elders and kings, with Bhishma, Drona, Duryodhana etc. and the Pandavas in attendance. Again, no mention of Jarasandha, but there’s a fight between Balarama and Shishupala, Dantavakra, Rukmi and Shalva, ending in a sorta mysterious, inconclusive defeat.

How interesting is it, that Brahmavaivarta is a text dedicated to, er, Radha-Krishna, an idea that didn’t exist until the Bhakti movement. So they just decide that no, such a daredevil mariage between lovers won’t do. It has to be society forcing these two together (rather than apart, as we see in Mahabharata et al), because it is Radha and Krishna whose relationship is against society, the rebellion of rebellions in the name of true love nd devotion, blah-blah. Forgive my tone, please, but I am pissed off, ‘kay?

The concerted effort to make everything in Krishna’s life, except Radha (oh, because they are the Supreme in Goloka, which is even above Kailasa and Vaikuntha, and nothing can separate them and all), socially acceptable because he’s their “God” who can do no wrong except if in “true love for Radha” (when the dude clearly rebelled against society any chance he got) is ridiculous. Esp. this! Damn, don’t make my girl into this insignificant little thing. Harivamsa and Vishnu Purana were silent about Rukmini’s letter too, but at least both mentioned clear attraction and interest between Krishna-Rukmini.

Digressing: Also, why is Krishna such a sap here, suddenly? Or why does the Radha-Krishna pairing (which originally symbolises the Jeevatma-Paramatma or devotee-god relationship,) need Krishna to chase her ceaselessly and for all his actions to lead up to her, despite him advocating being a man of action in the real world? I am sorry for being so vocal; it’s probably just my pent-up frustration from that horrible Radha-Krishna serial where this Krishna (gosh, I can’t even call him that!) finds a reason to cry every single time. I would have forgiven it had they cut off the Vishnu’s avatar perspective and kept only the lover boy part, but they keep it and they still make him a crybaby. What’s worse…at the times he should actually feel bad, he’s “calm” af, looking as if he has transcended every human emotion, and just patronises people. Such hypocrisy. Look, I have nothing against men who cry; in fact, it’s heartening to have men strong enough to embrace their emotions, esp. publicly; similarly, there is nothing wrong with suppressing them (apart from the mental health issues it generates, but we are no one to judge). But people, when you are making an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient character…keep the BS consistent at least?! (Sorry, civility.)

Agni Purana (about 800-1100 CE) only mentions Rukmini as one of the eight principal wives.

[Devi-Bhaagavata Purana gives a brief outline sticking to what’s known. It says that in Rukmini’s swayamvara, Shishupala is specifically invited (this is the popular notion, and what I personally believed too, and still find myself going for). Krishna, with Ugrasena’s permission (not mentioned in prev. versions; as opposed to consulting with his fellow warriors in HV), takes Rukmini in Rakshasa vivaha. It also mentions that he later married Jambavati, Satya, Mitravinda, Kalindi, Nagnajiti, Bhadra, Lakshmana. (Satyabhama is not present. She seems to have been confused with Satya, whose other name is Nagnajiti, princess of Kosala.)

Kalki Purana goes for this elaborate Rukmini vrata which grants desired husband to a lady as a fruit of the vrata, where Rukmini is accorded deity status alongside Krishna, seemingly for the first time (not considering the temples dedicated to both). A woman named Sharmistha (strangely similar to Sharmistha of Yayati, Puru’s mother, who too hankered after Yayati) offers oblations to Rukmini-Krishna, saying a prayer: “O Lord, offerer of boons, accept the camphor, molasses and sandalwood with your beloved Rukmini, princess of Vidarbha. O lotus-eyed one, possesor of pitambara and four arms, supreme of gods. Please be satisfied with me and protect me with Rukmini.” It’s far longer, but this is the gist. Is this still Krishna we are speaking of? Huh, all these rituals and Krishna don’t sit well.]

I have only been able to catch hold of so many texts, and of the others, Markandeya Purana (about 250-700 CE) and Shiva Purana (about 1000-1400 CE) do not even mention Rukmini. Mudgala Purana only says Lord Krishna had 16,008 beautiful wives and washes its hands off.

Note: Mathematician and Vedic shastra writer Baudhayana cites Rukmini/Krishna as an example of Rakshasa vivaha.

Sanskrit Literature

So after the Puranas kinda close off the (d)evolution with turning such interesting stuff to the dry social marriage w.r.t. to the parallel evolution of Radha-Krishna, where the concept of Krishna shifted completely from a socio-political persona with mild godlike touch to become a complete love god (as also the lord of the universe)… Rukmini rises again in later literature, of what, by modern standards, would be ancient fanfiction. Lol. There are loads of poetic descriptions (think Kalidasa) that embellishes the narrative – for example, the beauty of sunrise described for paragraphs onto paragraphs. (Yeah, I skimmed those. I was too interested in some Rukmini action. Will appreciate the poetry later.)

References are made to the Rukmini-haran incident in Shishupala-vadham by Magha in around 600 CE, in the 2nd canto, where Balarama, Krishna and Uddhava are in conversation, planning to kill Shishupala. (I hate this.) The entire canto is full of controversial speeches. Balarama refers to Krishna abducting Rukmini from her swayamvara and defeating Shishupala as being the latter’s prime reason for animosity, saying things like “women are the root of all enmity”.

It is referred to in Bhavabhuti’s Malati-Madhav as well, a love story between Malati and Madhav (son of a Vidarbhan minister), where in a convo between friends, a lady says something like “Purushottama Krishna accepted Rukmini, the mother of Kandarpa (Pradyumna being considered Kama’s rebirth), at her self-choice (swayamvara) ceremony”.

There is Bhagavata-Champu (don’t laugh) by Ananta Bhatta before 1500 AD and Sri-Gopala-Champu by Jiva Goswami. Both show their retellings to be derived from Bhaagavata purana (I’m so glad). In fact, in some places, like Rukmini’s letter and Balarama’s consolatory speech after Rukmi’s humiliation, the lines (as per the translated hardcopy in my home) seem to have been picked up directly from Bhaagavata. So it must be that the original Sanskrit lines were as well. The only thing that differs in Sri-Gopala-Champu is the premise of the story. Two messengers from Krishna tell the story to Nanda, Rukmini’s attributes coming up in the conversation. Radha and her fellow Gopis are mentioned as being present and eulogised. (Can no one let my girl have a moment?) But I love these few lines from the convo. The listeners speak thus (not the exact translation, but I don’t have the book rn):

“Although a girl, she is very intelligent and brave.”

“Is she a girl?” (Omfg, I laughed so much at this)

“No, never. She is a tense female elephant.” (The comparison is aimed to be praising of the confident, slow gait of an elephant in Sanskrit poetry, not in the modern way a woman might be called en elephant. Warriors and great women hav often been compared to elephants. There also seems to be an oxymoron as she is described as being tense or edgy, perhaps an allusion to being cautious…Hm, the spy headcanon, @avani008 and @allegoriesinmediasres? *grins excitedly* Oh, we’ll take anything, won’t we?)

“She is fearless, because she is a princess.”

Intelligent, brave, fearless, cautious…oh yeah, all my personal headcanons too.

Other Sanskrit works are as follows, to the best of my knowledge, some gathered from my grandparents and some from friends. I don’t know if their online versions are available, will have to see.

Bhaismi-Parinaya-Champu by prolific poet Ratnakheta Srinivasa Dikshita (South India) around late 16th century. also based on the Bhaagavata version. His son, renowned scholar Rajachuramani Dikshita wrote the Rukmini-Kalyana-Mahakavya (flourished in late 16th and early 17th centuries), possibly one of the most important Sanskrit works on the incident. This one, I unfortunately haven’t read, but have heard about from my late eldest grandfather. Two whole cantos take up Krishna’s mental affliction and pining in a pleasure garden of Dwaraka at the thought of his beloved Rukmini. Aw. Basically, Sanskrit poetry used to be all about elaborate descriptions and comparisons which would veer far, far away from the context, which in these times would be considered redundant and unnecessary. I agree, sort of. I would rather read about political machinations, rather than devotional poetry that distracts us from the issue at hand, thank you very much. Stfu, Medha.

We have Parvati-Rukminiya by astrologer poet Vidya Madhav in late 17th century, which narrates two marriages at a time – Shiva/Parvati and Krishna/Rukmini. Rukmini-Parinaya was written by Ram Varman of Trivancore in the middle 18th century.

Rukmini-Haranam-Mahakavyam, by Kashinatha Sharma Dvivedi, was published first in 1966 AD. (This one, my eldest grandmother straight up read to me, Bengal-ising it while she read. It was arduous, but I was old enough to bear the long hours.) Here, we find a few deviations from Bhaagavat – We find a long description of Rukmini straight up from birth to youth (yikes, that’s what I was attempting to do in my Yugantaram fic). It’s not a lot of characterisation, though – mainly dramatisation, if I remember correctly. (Unfortunately, I don’t know if we have that book any more.) The second canto has a description of Narada, who comes to Bhishmaka’s court bearing Krishna’s tales, which we don’t find in prev. versions, and who appears in the first canto of Magha’s Shishupala-vadham as well. In the third canto, Rukmini, hearing all this, falls in love and is treated by the royal physicians and offered consolation by her friends. (Here’s to one of my best-beloved lines of Hema’s Meerabai, ‘Is love an affliction, that you can cure?’) The next four cantos dramatise and stretch this love-struck Rukmini – with lovely descriptions of the moon, the seasons, the royal garden, etc. The next three cantos describe Rukmini’s marriage being fixed to Shishu by Rukmi, her sending the brahmin messenger to Krishna, a vivid description of Krishna’s beauty (as a young gal, I fell in love with that, yeah, I know, sorry) and an equally beautiful description of the dawn (which may be compared to the description of dawn in Shishupala-vadham by Magha… people are really fond of poeticising political and social issues to hide their significance behind glamour. Medha, stop). In the next canto, Krishna begins his journey to Vidarbha with obeisance to Lord Shiva, which isn’t present anywhere else. It is worth mentioning that the poet also starts his epic poem with salutations to Shiva as well, and states that he composed the entire poem with the grace of Lord Shiva. There’s a lot more descriptions, along with the deviation of Rukmini being guarded on orders of Shishupala rather than those of Rukmi, but the skeleton is all Bhaagavat. Sharma Dvivedi has been inspired heavily by Magha. It stands that his Rukmini-Haranam-Mahakavyam is the most successful rendering of the legend.

It has come to my knowledge that there are other Sanskrit literary works on these two as well but…I just don’t have the energy, sorry. There is a time and place for poetry and devotional fervour. Let me just say, with absolute relish on my side, that it is the Bhaagavat version that is preferred by our predecessors unanimously and all the Sanskrit literature is based on that. Personally, my go-to is Harivamsa and Bhaagavat as well, especially since they have the oldest layers of puranic text. I mean, just imagine, if all later retellings had been based on Brahmavaivarta rather than Bhaagavat. There would be no Rukmini-lovers at all! I mean, the first love does start from the most popular version, after all. It never fails to intrigue me, how legends undergo these modifications, and none of it is a coincidence.

Much love,

Medha

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marshmallowprotection · 5 years ago

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What are your OC’s sexualities? Sorry if you’ve made this clear in the past lol

I don’t think that I’ve explicitly said their sexualities before, apart from Lila but that was a long time ago and it’s probably warranted another mentioning since it’s been so long.

Lila is Pansexual! She doesn’t have an explicit preference but she is prone to choosing more feminine or soft aesthetics in her partner, apart from that, she doesn’t really mind. If someone is pretty then someone is pretty to herself. She is, after all, based on myself and only became her own person when I decided that she could be much more than just a simple self-insert.

Judas is also Pan, as this specific label felt more at home for him when he was thinking about what word could describe who he is and how his feelings for others play out. He loves anyone who thinks at him. He tends to be more attracted to men at the end of the day but he still loves a woman who knows how to shove him down. Don’t PANic at your disco, Judas is here.

Minji is Bi. That’s the label that felt right to her when she was growing up and she’s always been really fluid in her attraction. There are days when she feels more attracted to women and days when she feels more attracted to guys and days where she doesn’t even know what she’s feeling because she can’t make a decision to save her life! She’s had more experience with guys but oh boy, does she love a cute girl in a dress when she sees one.

Bi/Pan is very interchangeable labels and it comes down to which feels right to you. Bi encompasses two or more genders and pan encompasses a more broad saying by simply saying all. It’s a personal choice. I’m Pan myself because that label felt right to me, personally.

Just feel like I have to mention that because Bi/Pan mentions tend to spark debates and lemme tell you, I cannot stand it when people say that Bi means two, that means only attraction to cis men and cis women, and that Pan is the only valid sexuality because the root meaning says all and that means inclusivity to NB and Trans folk. We’re two sides of the same coin and attracted to multiple genders, Bi/Pan solidarity is important and none of that blatant transphobia or other nonsense is something I’ll stand for.

If you’re Bi, you’re valid, and if you’re Pan, you’re valid.

#anon #ask #mod kait #mystic messenger cmc #mysme cmc #cmc #lila lancelot oc #minji cho oc #judas mc2

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the-ronan-cycle · 6 years ago

Text

Diverse Book Recs

I recently typed up a list of books for a friend who said she’d stopped reading because she couldn’t find diverse/queer books. This list is predominately focused on queer diversity but there’s also lot’s of super awesome ladies and poc here too. The list is also in two parts, the first are all books that I’ve read myself and include me trying to give a summary, content warnings (If I can remember, I can’t guarantee they’re all exhaustive.) and a rating. The second part has books on my to read list that, to my knowledge, have queer characters. All of the titles are linked to their goodreads page.

I Was Born For This - Alice Oseman

A Hijabi ace fangirl goes to London on a week long trip to meet her internet friend and go to the concert of her favourite band. Jimmy, the trans, gay, mixed race, mentally ill singer for said band is figuring out how growing up famous has changed himself and his friends. They cross paths and stuff happens. A really interesting look into fan culture, both the good and the bad. Really fun characters and relationships. Written by the same person who does the Heartbreaker webcomic. CW: alcoholic behavior, brief mention of unintentional trans outing 4.5/5

The Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater

Welsh mythology meets small town Virginia. Gorgeous, poetic writing by Stiefvater tells the surreal story of a group of teenagers on the search for a lost welsh king and wish foretold if one wakes him. Along the way they discover the power of ley lines, dreams, and ~friendship~. One of the main characters (my favourite character) is canon queer (he’s into a girl and guy but like, the word bi isn’t explicitly said) and one of the other main characters is canon gay. It’s a difficult story to describe but it’s such a fascinating read. CW: child abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, there’s a scene in the second book that I think the author confirmed was sexual assault 5/5

Shades of Magic Series - V.E. Schwab

Avatar the last airbender meets pirates and royalty and multiverses. In this world there are 4 earths that intersect at London. Kell is one of the only two people who can travel between Londons. Grey London is our world, Red London is Kell’s, full of magic. White London is a wasteland barren of magic and ruled by bloodthirsty twins. Black London is dead. The main cast of Kell, Lila Bard, a pirate thief who gets caught up in the adventure, Rhy, the (gay? Bi? I forget lol) prince of Red London, and Alucard, (also gay? Or bi?) actual pirate have to save the multiverse! Lots of great subplots, written by a queer woman and impossible to put down. If you saw me with my kindle in class after winter last year, it was because I literally couldn’t stop reading. CW: frankly it’s been too long since I read it im sorry 5/5

Leah on the Offbeat/Simon vs the Homosapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli

Simon Vs is the book Love Simon is based on. Simon (gay) has a mystery pen pal, Blue. All he knows is that Blue also goes to Creekwood High and is gay. But Simon leaves the emails open on a school computer because he’s a dumbass and then also an ass but the bad kind, Martin finds them and blackmails Simon. It’s similar to the movie but I prefer the book! There are some scenes and plot points that didn’t make it in. Also his friends don’t suck as much when he’s outed. Leah on the OffBeat is the sequel about Simon’s friend, Leah. She’s bi! Simon thought all his friends were straight but jkjkjk gays flock together. Cute wlw high school story. CW: character is outed against their will, underage drinking SVTHA 5/5 LOTO 4/5

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue - Mackenzi Lee

Main character is a total slut and we support him. Bi and ready to party. But wait it’s the 1800s and that’s not super chill. In a final hurrah before he has to become master of his family estate, Henry Montague takes his best friend (gay and also ready to party) and, reluctantly, his little sister (ace and ready to be a doctor) on a tour of the continent. Along the way they discover a plot and their trip turns upside down. There’s pirates! Period accurate medicine! Characters unlearning their prejudices! CW: Child abuse, period typical homophobia, sexism and racism 4/5

Captive Prince Trilogy - C.S. Pacat

hEAR ME OUT. This is probably my favourite series I’ve ever read. You’ve heard of enemies to lovers? Get ready for enemies to friends to lovers to enemies to allies to lovers! Crown Prince Damianos of Akielos is caught up in a coup lead by his half brother and sent to the enemy nation of Vere to be a pleasure slave for their crown prince, Laurent. Now here you think it’s gonna be some kinky sex romp but it actually becomes the best political intrigue with a thoughtful, loving, very vanilla romance. “If you gave me your heart, I would treat it tenderly”. Dw they only have sex after the whole slave thing is over. Also, they abolish slavery so there’s that. If you don’t like the first book, I get it but just try the second book, the tone changes with the change of setting. The author does some really interesting stuff with her setting. Typically writers will just make society reflect our by default but Pacat threw that out, homophobia? Never heard of her. In Vere it’s actually taboo for men and women to have sex before marriage because of the threat of bastards. So everyone just is gay instead. You want a matriarchal warrior women country? Pacat has got your back. The series does lack in well written women. There are a few women but not enough, Pacat has talked about this and is basically like, u right, I’ll do better in my next series. Written by a queer WOC (kinda? Woc is the wrong word but just read these tweets where she describe it better than i ever could) and I love it, the end. CW: child abuse, child sexual abuse, incest, rape, sex slavery, prostitution, graphic violence, non consensual drug consumption, child death, suicide, torture, animal death (also it should be obvious but none of these things are glorified, the abuser is the worst and he sucks and everyone hates him) 6/5

Carry On - Rainbow Rowell

Based on the Harry Potter parody series from Rowell’s book Fangirl. Simon Snow (doesn’t ever figure out his sexuality but had a girlfriend and boyfriend) is the chosen one, orphaned and brought to a magical boarding school, must save magical britain from evil. His best friend, book smart Penelope and his (possibly evil and a vampire? Also gay) roommate Baz must work together to defeat the humbug. This book has a really fantastic closed magic system and gives the character very clear limits. CW: rat death? 5/5

Queer There and Everywhere - Sarah Prager

A nonfiction book about 23 people throughout history that were both queer and very cool. From Frida Kahlo and Abraham Lincoln to the actual Danish Girl and Kristina Vasa, Prager dives into the lives of many historical figures who were also queer. A really wide gamut of women, men and nb, cis and trans, white and poc. Could have had more historical figures from the east. A fun, easy read. Made me cry, i want lesbian moms. 4/5

Huntress - Malinda Lo

It’s been a few years since I read this so bear with me. Cool magic girl main character and less magic but also cool other girl as well as a misfit group including the prince and a badass lady named shae (hell yeah) have to go into the fae world to right the magical imbalance of their world. Wlw, written by a queer woc CW: I don’t remember sorry 4/5

Outrun the Wind - Elizabeth Tammi

(I’m actually only half way through this) (Also it’s written by a mutual of mine on tumblr so that’s tight) A queer retelling of the greek myth of Atalanta. Atalanta (bi) is taken by the hunters of Artemis and has to help them defeat Apollo who’s being shitty. Wlw, written by a bi lady CW: animal death

Iron Breakers trilogy - Zaya Feli

Bastard Prince (queer), Ren, is happy to be out of the line of succession and just party it up but suddenly is framed for the murder of his brother and on the run along with a prisoner who escaped with him. Ren is faced with realities of y’know, not being a prince and decides to help save his country. Political intrigue with some twists I didn’t guess. MLM CW: slavery, graphic violence 4.5/5

All for the Game trilogy - Nora Sakavic

Think dark, queer, sports anime but with a co-ed team. Neil Josten (demi sexual- “which way do you swing? “I don’t?”) is on the run from his mob boss, murderer father and finds himself on the collegiate exy team of the palmetto foxes. Exy, a violent cross between lacrosse and soccer is Neil’s favourite thing but the team is made up of misfits. Neil has to survive both his father and the Raven’s (another exy team) owner, another mob boss, coming for him and his team. Super fast paced, very intense, after the first book I couldn’t put it down. The characters are all super interesting as are the relationships. Multiple mlm relationships, one briefly mentioned wlw couple CW: (o boy here we go) suicide, graphic violence, graphic torture, non consensual drug consumption, alcohol and drug abuse, prescription drug abuse, non consensual kissing, rape, child sexual abuse, sex work, mention of gay conversion therapy, discussion of self harm and self harm scars, child abuse 4.5/5

The Posterchildren - Kitty Burroughs

It’s been years since I read this so I really don’t remember much. It’s about a school for superheroes. Definitely wlw I don’t remember any else 4/5

Six of Crows Duology - Leigh Bardugo

A misfit group of criminals is hired to travel north to break into an impregnable prison. The cast of characters is lovable and the plot is fast paced. It’s set in the same universe as Bardugo’s first series but you don’t need to read them. (I did and they were ok but six of crows is better). Two of the main characters are mlm. CW: gore, graphic violence, child abuse 4.5/5

The Percy Jackson Series and Magnus Chase Series

I don’t need to describe these lol. PJO has two canon gay characters, the most recent series has lesbian and ace huntresses of artemis, and a bi main character. Magnus Chase has a non binary main character starting in the second book.

On My To-Read List:

Orlando - Virginia Woolf

I love her writing, it’s poetic without hurting my brain to read. This is a classic queer novel. It’s been said that Woolf wrote it as a “love letter” to Vita, her lover. The main character changes gender throughout the novel.

Stars in Her Eyes - Clare C. Marshall

I bought a copy of the first book in this series from the author at a convention last summer. It’s about a school for people with powers. I asked and apparently there’s a queer character but you don’t find out til the second book.

Ash - Malinda Lo

A wlw retelling of cinderella by the same author as Huntress.

The Academy Journals - Garrett Robinson

Apparently there’s trans, lesbian, gay, poly, ace, bi, pan! It’s about a magical school. It has really good reviews on goodreads so that’s promising

The Abyss Surrounds Us - Emily Skrutskie

There’s gay lady space pirates. Actually maybe not space? Idk i got space vibes

Vicious/Vengeful - V.E. Schwab

A story about moral greyness and supervillains. Kinda reminds me of Nimona tbh. I heard the main character is ace?

Our Bloody Pearl - D.N. Brynn

There’s mermaids, and pirates, and it’s gay apparently. The main character uses they them pronouns I think.

Breaking Legacies - Zoe Reed

Fantasy wlw by a trans dude (i think? They went through some sort of gender transition but i can’t find their pronouns)

The Dark Wife - S.E. Diemer

A wlw retelling of Hades and Persephone

The High Court Series - Megan Derr

Fantasy political intrigue mlm and I was told the main character is trans

Btw my rating system was basically:

4/5=i enjoyed reading it and would recommend it but probably wouldn’t read it again

4.5/5=I really liked it and would probably reread it

5/5= i love it, i either have or plan to reread it

#booklr #book rec #captive prince #the raven cycle #percy jackson #all for the game #I was born for this #shades of magic #carry on #iron breakers #huntress #outrun the wind #the posterchildren #six of crows #most are YA or adult #feel free to ask me about any of these!! i love talking about books #theres a lot of schools and pirates on here

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