#in which adrien has three major revelations | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

miraculouscontent · 2 years

Text

The Love Square Formula

Had a bit of a revelation and thought I’d share, the TL;DR of it being that the love square is a trap.

Let’s go back to “Origins” for a moment. Here, we’re introduced to the Marinette - the pre-Ladybug Marinette - and she has hints of the Marinette we know. She has bad luck, she’s been bullied by Chloe for three years now, and she doesn’t have anyone to really rely on. As the episode progresses, we’re introduced to Alya and Chat as her civilian partner and hero partner respectively, and the second part of the two-parter ends with establishment of the Adrien crush. Everything sounds fine and good, right?

Except, by ending off the episode this way, it proves and solidifies what we now know about the show and have known for a long while: that Marinette’s “endgame” is Adrien. Marinette’s “endgame” is getting with Adrien. Marinette’s “endgame” is getting over the stammering side of herself so that she can be with Adrien.

Wait, sorry, I mean the stammering part of herself that was created when the Adrien crush materialized. Everything else comes secondary because the “big ending” for her is Adrien/Chat.

And because the stammering/lack of ability to confess is the big roadblock, she’s actively forbidden from doing anything to forward said crush. This means that a majority of episodes where Marinette “makes a mistake” is due to Adrien, to the point where the Marinette with Adrien and the Marinette without Adrien are essentially two different people, with one having far more effort put into caring for her than the other.

They share some similarities, but the development of one will never affect the other. Marinette admitting her mistakes to and/or sharing her feelings with friends will never have impact on what happens with Adrien, as she’s trapped in an endless cycle where she can’t be with him because it’s supposed to be her endgame. The girl who wanted to stop being a pushover, stop being bullied, and change her bad luck? All of those things are irrelevant in the face of the Adrien crush because Adrien/Chat becomes “the one thing” that the writers ultimately want for her in the end, and they will damage whatever part of her they can - to the point of outright traumatizing her - in order to get there while simultaneously keeping her in the exact same place she was before.

How this circles back to the love square being a trap is that, due to the stagnant nature of said relationship, fans of the ship will inevitably be starved for content. The show will dangle the carrot of development to get people excited, then pull it away by the next episode. This unhealthy back-and-forth relationship between the shippers and the show will eventually lead to the release of an episode that finally does something - no matter what it is - and the shock and awe that comes from the carrot finally being put in the mouths of viewers means that less (much less, really) people will care about how the carrot actually tastes; only that they have it now.

This is why Lukanette and Adrimi, the side ships of the show, can be treated by some as “being pointless,” and how the relationships don’t matter because the love square is endgame. Unintentionally, this furthers the point that anything Marinette does with someone else has zero impact to how things go with Adrien. Marinette’s relationship with Luka versus the one she has with Adrien is seen as so separate and different that they’re two entirely different categories of ships.

When the shippers cheer at her not immediately stammering or getting over it for an episode? She started and got over it with Luka in their first meeting.

When the shippers praised her for kissing Adrien’s cheek in “Mayura”? She kissed Luka’s in “Frozer” and then again in “Heart Hunter” (the latter of which being technically after “Mayura” but there are less episodes between the meeting of the character and the actual cheek kiss when it comes to Lukanette; same applies to Luka’s confession versus Chat’s confession, and Chat’s was also “cheapened” due to him saying it to Marinette rather than Ladybug).

Even the barest minimum foundation for a relationship - communication - was already done with Marinette and Luka in “Crocoduel” with the effective bonus that it also focused on other people. It wasn’t only about Marinette’s relationship with a boy, but about how people could all improve together (flaws of the episode itself aside). Yet, when it happened with the love square later, the now-rotten carrot tastes delicious to its supporters anyway, even after the four seasons of denying them of it because the love square is what matters.

Lukanette doesn’t have the starvation aspect to it, and thus it’s “boring”/”unappealing” to one who has been lost in the desert and chasing the mirage of an oasis until they find the real one. Marinette and Adrien are in every episode in some way, shape, or form, and the show’s formula relies - no, hinges - on people getting hooked to the point of desperation, sticking around just for the taste of that next carrot. It’s an endurance test more than anything else, furthered by the multiple different sides of the love square that all have their own form of carrot dangling, to the point where people will favor/long for a particular side of the love square despite all sides being compromised of the same people.

The Marinette with an Adrien crush only exists to cause problems for the Marinette “without one.” Marinette spending time with her great uncle (on the Chinese side of her family) will come back to Adrien acting as a translator between the two (until it’s revealed that her great uncle could speak English all along and thus the writers engineered the misunderstanding to bring Adrien into the plot). Marinette just wanting to help bring more attention to her parents’ bakery and thus welcoming attention from a TV show (a show with her favorite singer as the guest) will come back to humiliating her for her crush. Even Marinette becoming guardian (something she didn’t consent to and happened because of her crush) comes back to Adrien in the end, whether by retcon or the writing having her tell the one person who would push for said crush in her time of stress because “Adrien > Everything Else”.

In that respect, even Marinette herself is a victim of the same thing the writers do to their audience. They’ll give her that emotional high from the umbrella scene, keep her there and dangle Adrien just barely out of her reach, make her desperate to the point of thinking that maybe, if she tried a little bit harder...

and then, when she decides that she’s tired and wants to give up, the cycle repeats.

It’s not her problem, it’s the problem with her crush, and it's all part of the manipulative trap to lure in viewers and keep them there in the hopes of that next carrot. The writers get to do whatever they please in order to keep the status quo - dragging the fandom and Marinette along for the ride - just so that when they do what isn’t even the bare minimum of progressing anything (either because it doesn’t stick or it took too long to get there), they get the pats on the back for a job well done from their audience, who are just happy that they got something and won’t question how mediocre it actually is simply for the fact that they waited so long.

#category: salt #salt: writing #salt: love square #salt: fandom #other: ml spoilers #((Say whatever you want about Lukanette; something HAPPENS TO THEM in basically every episode they're together.))#((I jumped off the love square for many reasons but this is one of them.))#((Marinette ''the fashion designer who likes Jagged Stone and wants to do everything for everyone'' Dupain-Cheng))#((is entirely separate from Marinette ''that girl who crushes on Adrien'' Dupain-Cheng.))#((And I refuse to be jerked around for five seasons when I could go for what works for me.))#((The show has yet to prove to me why I should root for the love square when it causes Marinette so much pain))#((and she could've had a MUCH LESS humiliating life without her Adrien crush.))#((It's a problem prevelant in a lot of media with the ''makes word salad in front of their crush'' trope))#((unless the character is normally very stammer-y and shy))#((their ''flaw'' is MADE by the crush))#((it's not a flaw they actually have.))#((It's just a gimmick to keep things as stale as possible.))

243 notes · View notes

dfcfanfics · 2 years

Text

So, if _I_ was plotting Strikeback...

Some theorycrafting and general noodling around going into Strikeback and Season 5.

First, assumptions:

1) The show is not about to fundamentally change in any major way that would change its overall tone and storytelling dynamic.

Serial episodic continuity is not going to arrive and allow for more complex storytelling. Episodes will continue to air in a haphazard order as they are completed and translated. The main audience targeted by the show will remain ages 5-11, as Astruc has emphasized. The monster-of-the-week formula will remain going forward. And with that being said...

2) The title "Last Attack of Shadowmoth" is something of a fakeout.

Gabriel Agreste is not going anywhere, being captured, being jailed or being revealed to the world at large as Hawk/Shadowmoth. That would fundamentally end the show as we've known it, that would disrupt Adrien's life in a multitude of ways, and given that a large portion of the final 22 minutes of Season 4 will be Our Heroes battling SpikeBot 3000 and his spawns, there simply isn't time to write the series's archvillain out of the picture for good and set up the many, many repercussions -- not to mention that there isn't a secondary big-bad waiting in the wings ready to pick up where he left off!

But "Shadowmoth" is a specific construct, the combination of the Moth and Peacock used by Gabriel Agreste. And that tells me that one of those three elements is exiting the equation.

3) The Adrien that we know and love is a sentimonster.

The clues are there, the behavior that Felix witnessed in Risk is all but confirmation, and Astruc insisting repeatedly on Twitter that "while I am not confirming any theories, a sentihuman is as human as any other human is, so stop calling him 'feather boy'" hints that there's more to that than "don't call him 'feather boy' because he isn't one."

So, what might we see in my fantasy draft of Strikeback?

1) No one dies.

See above: "ages 5 to 11." Not that death is unknown to the Miracuverse (hello, massive flood covering Paris with water, hello, giant volcano in downtown, hello, Chat Noir dissolved by Timebreaker), but it is reversed whenever possible. The only walking, talking characters I can think of that have been permanently banished were sentis (Sentibug, Sentibubbler, etc.) that were explicitly shown being created for a villainous purpose. Even if Felix and/or Adrien are sentis, they've been established as sentient characters rather than as plot devices.

2) Goodbye, Felix.

That said, Feather Boy #2 simply knows too much now to remain. Lila will figure the cousin-switch out rapidly, and she would betray Felix to Gabe for a ham sandwich or any other specified reward. And if Felix continues to remain on the show with what he knows, he's either going to expose Gabe (which changes the show) or everyone will have to start taking idiot pills each morning.

Does Gabe have the testicular fortitude ([tm] Mick Foley) to simply 'turn off' his only nephew, something that would raise just a few uncomfortable questions from many people, especially Amelie? Probably not. He is not a cold killer, much less towards someone in his own family.

I suspect that Felix will get an unpleasant warning, with the corresponding revelation that the Peacock in Felix's bag is a fake (thus, that Gabe is fully aware of what Felix knows and holds Felix's life in his hands). "Get off the train, never come back, never say a word, NEVER tell my son, or the last thing you'll see is your body turning into bubble soup."

3) A half-reveal is possible... but unlikely. Yet.

We have all seen the screencap of Ladybug blushing hard at Chat and giving him eyes of adoration. It is possible that through her mucking about with Fluff and alternate timelines, she'd realize that Adrien is Chat Noir, and that face is the result of that.

Only half, if it happens. Because I could see Marinette realizing that and feeling fifty kinds of love for him in both his forms but also wrestling with the whole "I'm the Ladybug, I'm the Guardian, I have too many responsibilities, I really can't date him" moral dilemma and having that be a big theme into S5.

But Adrien finding Felix's spy tool thingy at the end of Risk hints at something different. I'm picturing Adrien following in Felix's footsteps, figuring things out, then telling Ladybug (as Chat) "I'm a Sentimonster. I always have been." Then insisting that he's staying in the fight anyway, despite the one-snap risk to his life by battling a Peacock host, "because that's what I'm meant to do. To be by your side."

And she just wibbles.

That leaves reveals for later, that leaves questions in the air (how can she fully trust him if he's a senti, what else does he know, how can Adrien work to undermine and expose his father without giving away what HE now knows?), and that adds up decently for a season-ending cliffhanger.

4) Gabriel stops using the Peacock.

I can imagine a near-miss situation, something where he decides to eliminate Sentifelix and finds out at the last possible moment from Lila that that's not Felix, that's Adrien that he's looking at. That as long as it's around, the Peacock poses a mortal threat to his son.

He's not going to quit altogether; his need to revive his wife is too strong. He's not going to give the Peacock to someone other than Nathalie (like, say, Lila) because that puts life-and-death for Adrien in someone else's hands. Nathalie is still too broken to return to being Mayura. And, as previously noted, the Gabe + Moth + Peacock dynamic has to change in some way based on the arc title.

"Nooroo, give me the power to create a twenty-kilometer-long hole in the ground, right here, and to close it up thirty seconds later."

*drops Peacock in*

Or "Nooroo, give me the power to teleport this Miraculous to a moon of Jupiter," or whatever. Something to take it off the playing field, lest someone else obtain it and have complete blackmail material over him. After all, if not for the fakes he'd planted, that would be happening now.

And we enter Season 5 with Adrien aware that he's a senti and that his father is Hawkmoth, but hesitant to simply expose him because then what happens to his mother? The boy is torn inside. Marinette knows that Chat is a senti and Chat knows more than he's saying, which creates major tensions between LB and CN. Hawkmoth returns to normal operating parameters. And Adrien works and plots against his father, trying to eliminate the threat of the Miraculous that his father no longer has.

So... go ahead, tear that apart.

#miraculous #miraculous ladybug #season 4 spoilers #ml leaks #strikeback #strikeback theories #spoilers #old man yells at cloud

9 notes · View notes

dishwater-blondie · 4 years

Text

Why I drink that sweet, sweet Fuck Emilie Juice and you should too

I woke up this morning and immediately wrote this whole-ass essay. At this point, I’m sure y’all are sick of me grasping for evidence that Emilie is gonna be a villain when and if she comes back. I apologize.

But also, if you haven’t already, read To Stand Among Ruins by Windcage, because my conversation with her about this show (which slowly evolved into us writing full essays back and forth to each other) is where all of this speculation originated from.

Anyway, here’s what I manically wrote earlier today:

I present my speculation so confidently sometimes that even I forgot it’s just that - speculation. But evil!Emilie is the one thing that I am convinced about. I’ll don my wig and clown nose if I must when the time comes. I don’t understand wanting/expecting Emilie to be without considerable agency and without a major objective. Here is a woman we know next to nothing about. Of her, we have seen nothing but a motionless body, the beginning of a film where she didn’t speak, and countless depictions of her ranging from family photos to idols. This creates tension that won’t be satisfied by the revelation that she was exactly how everyone expected her to be.

Emilie will be a thousand times more interesting if she is intelligent, ambitious, and the driving force of this miraculous agenda. We already know Gabriel didn’t activate the butterfly until after her disappearance, so unless they were both using the peacock, which I highly doubt, Gabriel was definitely less involved in their goal than Emilie. If Gabriel is the sole “evil” spouse, then either Emilie remains asleep and the audience accepts this use of the fridging trope and determines she had no control (which is boring), or she comes back somehow and attempts to usurp power from her tyrannical husband - a struggle we won’t have time to care for because we haven’t gotten to know Emilie, because we have only ever seen this relationship through Gabriel’s eyes. It’s a relationship framed as his struggle to overcome.

In fact, one can argue that she already has agency on a thematic level despite being hidden away in the coffin. Gabriel is totally responsible for his own choices, but beneath the surface, Emilie permeates everything he does, even the things that have nothing to do with Hawkmoth (his fashion designs on his screen bear a striking resemblance to his wife). She’s not at fault for his decision to terrorize the city, but his unhealthy dependence didn’t spring out of nowhere, and it is not a coincidence that it is her portrait, her eyes that loom over his shoulder in nearly every shot of this man. Gabriel is imprisoned in the past, and though the door is open, Emilie is the cold, dark cell that seems so warm and inviting because it has become comfortable. He’s to blame, yes, but I think it would be naive not to consider that there’s not more to this story that we are deliberately not exploring, three seasons deep.

Also, as much as Emilie made Adrien happy, the audience is not made to root for her return so he can find happiness in her once more. The show makes it evident that a reunion with his mother is not what Adrien wants. He wants to be with Ladybug. He wants to go out into the world and make friends. He wants his father to be happy. This he expresses in Felix, when on the anniversary of Emilie’s disappearance, he doesn’t lament to Gabriel, “I wish mom was here”, or even, “I miss her.” He says, “If Nathalie can make you happy again, then she’s already part of the family.”

If Emilie is coming back, she’s not here to stay. Adrien knows exactly what Gabriel has to learn, that it’s okay to move on, and that moving on will ultimately make him happier. The narrative doesn’t exist to disappoint Adrien.

And everyone has said it already, but Emilie certainly is just as much to blame for Adrien’s isolation as Gabriel. And I know this because Gabriel is disobeyed more often than he is listened to. Adrien, Nathalie, and the bodyguard have all deliberately defied Gabriel’s orders. At least on Adrien’s end, we can’t believe this was a regular occurrence when Emilie was around because he only started sneaking out after she left. Perhaps he had other ways of rebelling when he was younger, but we haven’t been made aware of these, aside for him and his cousin pretending to be the other, but that’s less rebellion and more joking around.

Personally, I refuse to believe that the primary reason for Gabriel’s looser grip on the house is that it’s simply less convenient for him to be a tyrant. That’s a weak writing choice. It’s in every way more interesting if Gabriel is a man trying to maintain power over something that was never in his power to begin with, because it was always in Emilie’s. It’s in every way more interesting that Emilie - the mystery character, the idolized woman - is not just an object for Gabriel to obsess over, but the authoritative and ambitious force at the heart of this plot.

Not to mention, the most recent webisode suggests that Nathalie’s advisements regarding Adrien are genuinely in the interest of helping Gabriel be a better father, and this would include the decision to let him go to school. She helps him be a better Hawkmoth too, but first and foremost, Nathalie is a catalyst of change, not a perpetuator of events that set Gabriel’s development backwards. If she managed to convince Gabriel to let Adrien go to school because he’d have more time to be terrorist, that contradicts Nathalie’s thematic purpose and mars the authenticity of the “affection” Nathalie herself feels her Adrien. It also makes any sort of positive development in Adrien’s life from there on out inherently linked to his father’s inability to be present. And that challenges the optimistic tone of every scene in which Gabriel and Adrien manage to spend quality time together.

All that said, evil!Emilie is not so much a justification for Gabenath as it is the conflict surrounding the damaged father-son relationship, and possibly the means through which it can be repaired. Obviously, none of us can say for certain if Emilie is in any way directly responsible for either the tension or the existence of Hawkmoth, but she does represent a disparity between Gabriel and Adrien’s response to loss and change. I argue that having her be the “evil” one, having her be the character at the forefront of this miraculous agenda, results in a more compelling story and more compelling character development down the road.

#fuck emilie juice #emilie agreste #gabriel agreste #agreste family #adrien agreste

69 notes · View notes

telmes · 4 years

Text

there's no such thing as time to kill

note: did i fact check anything when i wrote this or did i just vomit words that make no sense when strung together?

disclaimer: major character death.

words: 1,945

vi.

You’re dying.

The thought lingers in Gabriel’s still functioning brain. Two minutes have passed since it makes itself known. Somehow, Gabriel knows that it takes approximately four to six minutes before the brain finally ceases to function.

He doesn’t actually know. It’s a random number, a random thought. Two minutes and fifty seconds have passed. It means nothing now, to assume.

Three minutes have passed. That was also how long since his whole body had shut down.

His body is dead. You’re dead.

It’s like, it makes little sense. You were healthy as can be. And then you aren't. You were going to your wedding planner to finalize the whole ceremony. And then you aren’t. You were going to start a new family, build back from whatever ashes you held in your hands. And then you aren’t.

Three minutes and forty seconds have passed.

Dying? Dead? Maybe, maybe.

He is not old and decrepit. He hasn't lived his life. He should be better. Thirty more years, at least. Old enough for another child, maybe. A girl, hopefully, with eyes as bright and as blue as Nathalie’s. Maybe with hair as dark as well, but, you wouldn’t fault your little girl if she gets your blonde instead.

Or another boy. Or whatever they choose to be. Either or.

Maybe grandchildren from Adrien and Marinette, at least. They keep talking about a little girl named Emma and two little boys named Hugo and Louis. They keep saying things like, they’ll call you grand-père and you’ll get to see them, despite the way you treated Adrien during his years growing up under your thumb.

Speaking of his son—

Adrien is, or was, standing at the foot of Gabriel’s bed, watching the slow descent of his supposed-to-be step-mother’s life. Nathalie is, or was, standing by Gabriel’s right, blinking, watching her supposed-to-be husband fading away. The air around them feels so cold, arctic even. They were never a warm family, but this is—

Oh my Nathalie, Gabriel thinks. Regret burns deep in his throat. His numbing fingers long to brush against her cheeks, where her tears are running tracks, prominent and glistening, and where he often kisses her when she least expects it.

Gabriel may have smiled at the thought. Four minutes and thirteen seconds. The crinkle in his eyes is obvious enough to his fiance. Nathalie blinks again, and again, and now there are more tears running down her cheeks. Four minutes and thirty seconds. The action doesn't register anymore because Gabriel's vision has long faded and Nathalie is not even a blur now, not even the bright red of her hair recognizable. He smiles anyway, not feeling the way she grabs his arm, nails digging into his skin, his muscles, his bones.

It should be painful.

It isn't. It isn't and he isn't afraid.

His smile is frozen on his lips. Five minutes have passed.

His brain finally stops.

You know she will have to let go. (She never will.)

When Hawkmoth is found (finally), head bowed in defeat, Gabriel thinks of death.

It is almost a guarantee. You know, they’ll want your head. If not the heroes, Paris will. You’ve spent the better part of three years, vying for jewelry for a quest that won’t see the light of day now because you’ve lost.

It’s over. Emilie is gone.

Emilie is gone.

The thought lingers in the air, stale and predictable. Ladybug and Chat Noir are around, somewhere, looking. Looking for what? What else do they need but the Butterfly, still pinned on your chest, thrumming with Paris’ emotions, equal parts uncertainty and hope?

(The Peacock, maybe.)

Mayura is nowhere to be found. Good news, at least. Gabriel wouldn’t know what to do had she been caught too. But they must know who she is, now that they know who he is. But then again, Mayura has been nowhere since they came for you. She hasn’t been anywhere since you sent her away all those months ago.

Gabriel wonders where she is now— if she’s in Paris at all.

Maybe it’s fear that he catches the scent of, mingling with the air. Thickening. His hands are slicked with sweat beneath his gloves and his chest is heaving with anxiety. He remembers the days spent in the sanctity of his lair, perusing through Paris’ emotions like an open book.

Anger is always the most prevalent one. Fear is always a close second. They go hand in hand, sometimes, and they’re familiar on his tongue.

And right now, he can sense it. Fear. It’s not his own. He knows what his fear smells, tastes like. (Like peaches, oh, but, it’s not like you’ll admit that it tasted like your favorite fruit.)

Chat Noir glances at him and doesn’t say a word. Is it his? He stands there and he stares at Gabriel and everything about this is wrong, wrong, wrong. His eyes are set in a hard glare and his features twisted with disappointment and rage and Gabriel can feel it and it's wrong.

A shadow shields him from the sunlight draped on his pathetic form and when he looks up, it’s his Nathalie. She’s back and now his forehead is wet and his glasses are askew and his mouth is taut and his chest is heaving and emotions are so, so confusing that, if he could just say something—

She takes away his brooch and everything dims into the background, like a faint humming, like static. He inhales. His chest feels lighter already.

The headlines say, Hawkmoth is finally defeated!

The headlines should say, Hawkmoth is finally dead!

iv.

This was supposed to be a victory.

When you think of victory, you think of Emilie. She will be beside you, holding your hand. You will rejoice because a year-long quest will finally be fulfilled. You will have a tearful reunion and Adrien will finally be happy.

But, but, but—

The air shifts into something stifling. Nathalie moans behind him. She struggles to lift her head. He has to hold her (and, oh, her skin feels too cold to the touch, you wonder if you need a new chamber down in the basement prepared).

She breathes in short puffs and, maybe, you imagine that the air around her feels like a noose. The sun hurts her so you put her by the shade. Maybe she will be fine. She says she will be fine.

Gabriel believes her, but only for a little while.

When they arrive home and when he places her on her bed, her head lolls to the side. At least she looks peaceful, asleep. At least there’s no pain. The apologies slosh around his tongue and he tries to swallow them before they spill and wake her.

But Nathalie doesn't wake for two days. Gabriel is beside himself.

If she dies, if she dies, you know.

Her hands feel cold to the touch. She weighs like a feather. He thinks of that joke he heard Adrien tell her before, which is heavier, a ton of feathers or a ton of rocks?

She answers, they're the same, but he shakes his head.

It’s the feathers , and then he laughs at her expression, because you have to carry the weight of what you did to all those birds.

If she dies, you die. It's as simple as that.

(iii.)

“Your son—” Nathalie’s breath hitches. He can taste her regret when he licks his lips clean from the anticipation. “Your son is Chat Noir.”

Gabriel's ears are ringing. His cane has fallen on the marble beneath his feet and the butterflies around him have been startled by the sound.

Chat Noir is Adrien. Adrien is Chat Noir. Chat Noir is your enemy. Adrien is your son.

Victory feels so, so close now. Adrien will want you to succeed. He will want his mother back.

Nathalie’s voice echoes but he is too far away in his thoughts for her to reach, reveling in a would-be future with Emilie and Adrien and him. Perfectly happy and content.

Hawkmoth watches Chat Blanc’s eyes. Can’t help but stare into them. Something akin to despair reeks from his gaze. Or betrayal, or hesitation, or fear, or contempt. In it, he sees nothing but Chat Blanc and not Adrien Agreste, sees the anguish he caused with the clench in Chat Blanc’s jaw, at that wide-eyed desperation as Chat Blanc fervently keeps his power in check.

Maybe that’s where Gabriel realizes that victory (Emilie) is slipping away. Because Chat Blanc (not Adrien, not Chat Noir) keeps on defying him. Because Ladybug is still here, destroy her!, and yet Chat Blanc still persists on holding Cataclysm in his father’s face.

When Gabriel hears it softly said, before everything turns to white, I’m sorry, he knows it’s not for him.

ii.

Gabriel never thinks about the consequences when he is too immersed in an idea. Never does it occur to him that there is something so painstakingly obvious about keeping information that could cost you, from someone that held no loyalty to you.

An idea. Akumatizing a sentient machine. A fact. The Miraculous granting wishes.

Robustus is a sentient machine who wants to be human. A real Pinocchio, that thing. Are you supposed to be his Blue Fairy? You’ve granted his wish but can’t grant your own?

But he’s powerful and that’s enough for Gabriel. He can take back Robustus’ powers. Cut the deal short.

Until, well, until he couldn’t.

Oh, dear.

Nathalie finds him later, the security system disabled and him lying in rubble. His head is on her lap as he dreams of Emilie.

The Miraculous protected him from the brunt of it all, and she wonders how he is so lucky to be alive at all.

Tell me a bedtime story.

You want to start with 'Once upon a time,', but that's a cliche you're trying to avoid. You want to start at the end and work your way down, but you'll spoil the surprise that way. You want to start in the middle, but that'll just confuse me.

Maybe if you say, you’re dying, you’ll catch their attention.

When did it start?

How do you greet Emilie a good morning when she is the epitome of the sun?

You don’t. You never do.

In kneeling in front of her coffin, holding a bouquet of Baby’s Breaths and mourning, he will never know how to say good morning again. In holding the Miraculous in his hand, feeling the burn of magic against his palm, he will never learn what regrets are until he’s faced with them again.

Emilie held everything good in the world. Her pink-stained cheeks and bright green eyes hide her black-ink heart. Just like you, just like you— both the same in that regard, so naturally, you gravitate around her like the Earth does three hundred and sixty-five days around the Sun.

But is it that simple?

She is also his muse. She holds out her hand and he will take it without question. He looks past verdant meadows and sees the faint lines of jagged hills, carved sharp and imposing— and there Emilie stands, as if she’s on Mt. Everest instead of a piece of land even he could climb. But she makes it so enticing that he regards it as a trial to overcome until he stands beside her at the top.

And maybe that’s why Gabriel is adamant. And maybe that’s why he wants her back. And maybe that’s why he loses himself when she succumbs; when she presses the Butterfly to his heart before she leaves; when he promises her return as the Miraculous bites onto his chest, marking their vows.

#gabriel agreste #nathalie sancoeur #gabenath #tw character death #i forgot what the emilie x gabe ship tag is again but there #ml fanfic #koeln writes

8 notes · View notes

littlegoodietwoshoes · 5 years

Text

You guys ready for this Miraculous Hot Take™

So we all know Miraculous is a flawed show, and we all love it despite all of the frankly terrible writing decisions it sometimes makes because the characters and concepts are so interesting. But you know what makes me the most upset about the show?

Adrien.

Adrien Sunshine Cinnamon Roll Agreste. Here’s the hot part of this take: If this was a more well-written and interesting show, Adrien would be a main character.

“But, he IS a main character!” you may say. I respond though....is he really? Is Adrien/Chat Noir ever really shown as more than just a love interest for Marinette? Is Adrien ever really allowed to take control of the narrative? Is Adrien ever given focus and plot to carry alone? With the possible exception of Weredad, no, he never is. And that is a goddamn travesty.

Now, I know to a degree why he isn’t a main character. He’s a boy. The show doesn’t trust its demographic enough to relate more directly with a boy as a title character. Instead, they wanted to brand more as a show about a brave, heroic teenaged girl (who is a POC to boot), something that Adrien doesn’t really fulfill. And I am all for that! Do not read this as any complaint about Marinette or about the fact that this show is giving representation and all that jazz. I’M ALL FOR THIS.

THIS IS NOT WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT.

What I’m complaining about pointing out is that Adrien deserves more. He is the most interesting character in the series by far, and yet he is relegated to “side character” in episode after episode even though the show continues to try and present him as the second main character when every episode is completely centered around Marinette and her perspective. Let’s look at our two “main” characters:

Marinette:

Marinette is cute and a little shy/klutzy around her crush Adrien Agreste. She is a competent and talented designer with two loving and supportive parents and lives in an adorably cozy home above her parents’ bakery. She also moonlights (or really daylights in most cases lol) as a superheroine, Ladybug, who fights Paris’s supervillain Hawkmoth with her “partner” Chat Noir. She is well-liked by all of her classmates, with the obvious exception of Chloe, and almost always keeps a positive attitude.

Adrien:

Adrien is boy with a heart of gold who also happens to be the model for and face of his father’s fashion brand. While his public life is seemingly perfect, he is actually very sheltered and confined by his cold and distant father. His mother has disappeared been cursed who knows is not in the picture, and his home life is practically non-existent as he is driven relentlessly to master a plethora of skills that he doesn’t show any overt passion for in an empty and stark mansion. He is also a superhero, Chat Noir, who hosts the literal power of destruction but he mainly uses his abilities to escape his father’s oppressive thumb and make dumb puns to his “partner” and crush Ladybug. Oh yeah, also his dad is Hawkmoth. Ya know...the person Chat Noir actively fights against on the daily. That’s a thing.

Please tell me it’s glaringly obvious who has the more interesting life. Who has the most material from which to pull all sorts of driving plot?

Yes, Marinette has stories to tell. Yes, I love to see her interactions with Chat and Adrien, not knowing they are one and the same. Yes, I want to see the ladybug dynamic and watch her save the day.

But dear god, I want to see Adrien’s life and perspective.

All the things I listed above make Adrien such a complex and interesting character. The contrast between the view and reality of his public life? The absolute dichotomy of his freedom as Chat Noir? The pining of his fans parallelled with his pining for Ladybug? The fact of two/three double lives under the same roof and unknowingly(?) actively fighting against each other? Is none of this worth exploring?

I know this show is aimed at young children; I am not a part of their target demographic. But just because your audience is young does not mean you can’t present thought-provoking ideas. (*cough cough* Avatar *cough*) I’m not even saying Adrien needs to take mainstage. But his part in the show is unequal at best (don’t even get me started on the ladybug/chat noir imbalance - that’s a different rant).

The best example of this, in my opinion, is when we, the audience, find out Gabriel is indeed Hawkmoth (The Collector, Season 2). The dynamic duo starts to suspect this and investigates, but do we shift to Adrien’s perspective and see the shock and possible horror this revelation would instill? Do we take even the shallowest of dives into what this would mean for him? What he might be going through? His own father the supervillain of Paris who he’s been fighting an entire season? NOPE. It’s all “oh no, Marinette’s favorite fashion designer, she’ll be devastated if it’s him!” SHE’LL BE DEVASTATED?!

In a storyline that has everything to do with Adrien’s life, the show still doggedly refuses to give him his moment, it refuses to give him true depth or emotion, it refuses to let us empathize with him when I don’t think anyone would argue, the episode should be ABOUT him.

Marinette has held the reins in every. single. episode. yet the show is resolute in pushing Chat as Ladybug’s partner and continues to set him up as if he is a major player. It’d be nice to hand the reins to Adrien every once in a while and treat him like the main character you keep claiming he is.

After all, it’s Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir.

173 notes · View notes

quicksilversquared · 7 years

Text

The Pun Book: Part 2

Every time Adrien goes to renew his favorite book, The Big Book of Puns, someone else has requested it. Who could it possibly be? And why do the librarians keep trying to set the two of them up?

(Part 1)

(AO3) (FF.net)

Despite all of the practice Marinette was getting in with Adrien, she wasn't actually doing much better in her pun war with Chat Noir.

In fact, she was doing worse.

It wasn't that her jokes and pun delivery was suffering at all. In fact, it was the opposite. Adrien was an actual master of pun delivery and he was endlessly helpful with hints on how to stick puns into words smoothly. She was a fast learner- after all, she had been doing some low-key punning pretty much her whole life and she had been around serious punners the whole time- and soon she and Adrien were having entire punny conversations, much to the combined confusion and amusement of Nino and Alya. She had gone to every patrol and battle with a spring of confidence in her step.

This time she would definitively crush Chat Noir with the sheer number of puns she was going to spout. This time she would use Adrien's original jokes that he had shared with her and Chat Noir couldn't cut off her punchlines.

It would be great.

Except it wasn't. Not at all.

Somehow Chat Noir was impossibly more on top of his pun game, and he still anticipated her jokes. He looked startled every time she used Adrien's jokes, and he had even used some of the jokes that Adrien had sworn up and down that he had made up himself.

It was, for lack of better words, really weird.

"I know that Adrien wouldn't lie about making up those jokes," Marinette told Tikki as she sat back, momentarily abandoning her design homework. "I mean, one of the jokes that Chat Noir told last night was one that Adrien came up with right in front of me. It just doesn't make sense."

"Do you think that Adrien just thought that he made the joke up?" Tikki suggested. "Maybe he read it in a book once and forgot that that was where he saw it."

"That would make sense," Marinette agreed. "If it had only happened once or twice. But Chat Noir knows all of Adrien's jokes."

They fell silent, puzzling over the whole situation. Marinette could believe that Tikki might be right about one or two of Adrien's jokes, but even if she was right something still didn't sit right. It was something about Chat Noir's reaction, how he was just as surprised about her knowing the jokes as she was about his knowledge. It suggested that he thought that the jokes weren't common knowledge.

...like he knew that someone had made those jokes up just recently and hadn't shared them with many people.

"Oh!" Marinette realized, sitting up straight as realization hit her like a lightning bolt. "I know! Adrien said that he has a modelling friend that he punned with a lot. His friend must be Chat Noir!"

Tikki blinked up at her, puzzled. "What makes you think that?"

"Everything!" Marinette threw her arms out, thrilled to have finally figured out the puzzle that had been bothering her. "Adrien must use the same jokes he tells me with his modelling buddy, who is Chat Noir! So then Chat memorizes the jokes because of course he would, the dork." The pieces were falling into place now, so fast that they were making her head spin. Chat Noir kind of walked and posed like a model a lot- he almost always looked ridiculously good in their press photos- and he must have started young, just like Adrien. For as long as she had known him, Chat Noir had walked and posed the same.

She had just assumed that it was the cat influence from his Miraculous and Chat Noir's over-the-top personality. Him being a model made so. much. sense.

Adrien wasn't entirely sure what in the world was going on with his pun war with Ladybug. He had come up with a whole slew of jokes that he could have sworn he had come up with, ones that Ladybug couldn't possibly know already...but she did.

He couldn't figure out what was going on.

"I've only told those jokes to three people," Adrien complained to Plagg, who was studiously ignoring him in favor of a large round of warm, gooey Brie. "Nino, Alya, and Marinette. And Nino and Alya really aren't the kind to go around telling jokes like that. Like, they joke around and all, but they aren't the kind of people to go around telling jokes where others would hear them."

"Mhmmm."

"So that just leaves Marinette," Adrien said, flopping back on his bed. "Normally, I would say that she doesn't tell jokes either, but clearly that isn't true."

It had been a pleasant surprise to find out that Marinette was the other person checking out The Big Book of Puns, because now they could share instead of passing the book back and forth. He definitely enjoyed spending time with Marinette, and he had been thrilled to find a new excuse to hang out with her. Marinette was such a cheerful person to be around, and while she groaned and rolled her eyes at Adrien's jokes just the same way Ladybug did, she couldn't hide her amusement. He had to laugh at how disgruntled she looked whenever she mentioned the pun war she had gotten caught up in.

Really, what were the chances that both he and one of his friends got caught up in a punning war at the same time? It was a rather amusing turn of events.

Punning war.

The revelation hit Adrien like a bus, and he sat up so suddenly that he nearly fell off the bed. Of course! Marinette was in a punning war with a classmate, so it made sense that she would be using some of the jokes that he shared with her.

If it was only a couple jokes of his that Ladybug knew, then he would probably suspect that Ladybug overheard Marinette and her mystery classmate punning away. But it wasn't just a couple jokes, it was a lot of jokes...

...which meant that Marinette's punning opponent was Ladybug's civilian identity. Which, in turn, meant that despite all of her grumbling about puns, Ladybug didn't mind them enough to freely enter another punning contest without being bugged into doing it.

Hah. So much for her apparently feigned disinterest in all things punny. Clearly it was just a front.

Adrien snickered as he thought about it. He couldn't believe that Marinette apparently knew Ladybug- well, civilian Ladybug. What were the chances of that? It really was a small world after all.

And then another realization hit Adrien, and this time he groaned. He had been hoping to meet the classmate that Marinette had been having a pun war with (after all, he never turned down the chance to meet potential new friends and someone else with an interest in puns? Sign him up!), but now, knowing that it was Ladybug?

He couldn't. He couldn't ever meet Marinette's classmate, no matter how much he wanted to, because he and his Lady still weren't supposed to share their identities with each other. If Adrien had been younger, he might have ignored that rule. But he was older now, and better able to understand the risks that would go along with them knowing each other's identities. He had seen firsthand the kind of variety in powers that Hawkmoth could give to his akuma, and if they ever had one that had the power to make them tell secrets...

Well. Needless to say, Adrien was all too willing to wait until after Hawkmoth was taken care of to find out his Lady's identity if it could help keep her safe.

"Why did you tell Adrien that you couldn't come to his photoshoot?"

Marinette sighed as she slumped into the chair in front of her sewing machine. Tikki swirled around her for a moment before landing and perching on the machine, head cocked to the side in puzzlement. "I can't. I wish I could, but now that I know that Chat Noir is one of Adrien's modeling buddies, I can't risk it. I know a lot of the other models working for Gabriel rotate, but since I've been using Adrien's newest jokes and Chat Noir already knows them, that makes me suspect that he and Adrien regularly work together."

Tikki frowned. "But Marinette-"

"And theoretically I could ask him if the other person he's been punning with is there, but then if he said yes, I would have to say no right away and that would look weird." Marinette carefully started threading her machine, tongue sticking out for a second as she slid the thread through the needle. "It's too bad that he isn't doing the individual shoots anymore, because then I could actually tag along to those. But now that his schedule is more flexible his father has him doing shoots with the rest of the models." Before, she had appreciated the change. It had meant that when she tagged along, she could see more normal working conditions for photoshoots compared to the individual shoots that had made up the majority of Adrien's modeling gigs when he was younger. She had enjoyed being able to see how the photoshoot team worked together with the designers to keep everything running smoothly as possible.

Now, though? She couldn't, because she wasn't supposed to know who Chat Noir was until after they defeated Hawkmoth for once and for all.

Beside her, Tikki still looked puzzled. "But if Chat Noir is there, don't you think you would have noticed before?"

Marinette shook her head. "Before, Chat Noir could have been any number of blond, green-eyed boys in Paris. But blond, green-eyed male models around my age? There's not as many of them." In fact, she couldn't think of any other male models that met those descriptions besides Adrien.

Huh. Perhaps Chat Noir's Miraculous changed his eye color. She had wondered about that before, since obviously there was some change already- no human had naturally green sclera, after all- so really, it wasn't a reach to think that maybe his eyes were a different color completely.

Still, she was 97% positive that if she saw her kitty as a civilian, she would recognize him, especially now that she knew he was a model friend of Adrien's. Even if he didn't have naturally green eyes, the punning would probably give it away right off the bat.

"Really? You're that sure?" Tikki asked a bit dubiously. "But you've interacted with Chat Noir when you weren't transformed before- you even worked with him for a while, and he didn't catch on! What makes you think that it would be different for you looking at him?"

"I was purposefully acting ridiculous and over-the-top," Marinette shot back. She had been really concerned about that whole ploy, especially since Chat Noir knew her so well, so she had gone out of her way to act as awe-struck as possible when he was paying attention to her. She had slipped a few times, of course- when they were with the Evillustrator and she had to get them out of the box before the ship sank was the most obvious example that came to mind- but by then she had hopefully thrown him so far off the scent that he wouldn't suspect her. "And I knew that I was talking to Chat Noir. If I go to one of Adrien's photoshoots as myself, then Chat Noir 's civilian self would probably just be his normal goofy self, and then that would give him away."

Tikki didn't look convinced. "Really? You don't think that Chat Noir might tone it down a bit while working?"

Marinette had thought of that, too. "Even then, I would just have to spot the blond male model on set that Adrien's joking around with. There can't possibly be many of those."

Tikki had to concede there.

"Chat Noir and I will just have to defeat Hawkmoth soon before either of us can slip up," Marinette decided as she picked up a half-complete dress and started carefully arranging it on the sewing machine. "Since he's Adrien's friend, I'm sure he would fit into our group well." She sighed and pressed her foot down, beginning to sew. "It's a pity we can't meet each other now. I bet he and Adrien are complete dorks together."

What followed was several months of Adrien and Marinette dancing oddly around each other, each trying to make sure that they didn't accidentally discover their partner's civilian identity. Marinette realized a week in that she might accidentally have pictures of her partner as a civilian, since she had all sorts of pictures from various Gabriel photoshoots, both men and womens' lines (after all, she now gathered the photos for inspiration, not (just) to ogle Adrien, so it wouldn't make sense to only have photos of one Gabriel model). She panicked and had Tikki gather up all of the photos and hide them, so she wouldn't accidentally figure it out or give in to temptation and peek.

"There wouldn't be the personality clues, of course, but if Adrien talks to him as often as I think he does based on Chat Noir's pun knowledge, then he's probably in a lot of Gabriel photoshoots," Marinette told Tikki as the kwami carefully pulled a page out of Marinette's inspiration binder. "And I would probably notice that, even if I wasn't trying on purpose." She cringed as she saw the number of pages Tikki was pulling out of the binder "...I guess it's a good thing I'm not really all that into menswear."

"Can I leave photos with just Adrien in them?" Tikki wanted to know, floating away from the binder to inspect the pile of pages she had pulled. "And what about pictures with guys in them if the guys aren't blond?"

"That's probably fine," Marinette decided. "Chat Noir hasn't ever dyed his hair, as far as I know. I just don't want to see pictures of blond Gabriel male models other than Adrien."

Tikki nodded and went back to shuffling her way through the modelling photos, putting pages that passed inspection back into the binder before continuing paging through. As she finished, she frowned.

"Marinette?"

Deep in a designing kick, it took a few more calls for Tikki to get Marinette's attention. When she did, Marinette looked up with a start. "What is it?" She noticed the lack of pages pulled out of the binder and frowned. "Did you hide the pages already?"

"There weren't any, Marinette!" Tikki exclaimed. "There aren't any blond male Gabriel models besides Adrien! They all have brown or black hair. I checked every photo."

That made Marinette frown. "But Adrien said... Do you think Chat Noir does dye his hair and he decided to do it brown instead? Mr. Agreste might just not hire other blond guys for modelling since he has Adrien, so maybe Chat Noir dyed his hair so he could get hired by such a large company. Could the Miraculous make his hair color show up as the natural color instead of the dyed color?"

Tikki frowned as she thought. "I don't know, Marinette. I've never had a Chosen who dyed their hair before. It's possible."

"So that could be a possibility, then," Marinette decided. "Or maybe Chat Noir could be someone who works on set who used to be a model when he was younger. A photographer, maybe, or something. That would explain the model walk and why there aren't any blond male models other than Adrien and how Adrien sees him probably every photoshoot." She groaned. "So now I can't go to any of Adrien's photoshoots without having to worry about accidentally recognizing Chat Noir. Great." She huffed in irritation. "I liked going to Adrien's photoshoots and seeing how they were run. Drat Hawkmoth and his stupid coward self. If he ever came out of his stupid lair, Chat Noir and I could have defeated him by now."

Curiosity was slowly killing one certain black cat in Paris. Now that Ladybug's identity was so close, he really wanted to know. He tried to talk himself in both directions alternately, one minute arguing that he shouldn't even venture close to Marinette's university out of fear of spotting her with a petite, blue-eyed girl with gorgeous black hair pulled back into pigtails, the next minute arguing that there were probably plenty of girls like that on campus and really, what were the chances that he would spot Ladybug right off the bat even with the additional clue of her being one of Marinette's friends.

"Or she could be just one of Marinette's classmates too, I suppose," Adrien told Plagg, who was So Very Over the entire discussion. "I don't remember if she specified or not. So maybe I wouldn't be very likely to see her anyway even if I visited Marinette over there." He paused. "Or maybe I shouldn't risk it, I don't know..."

As it turned out, the decision was taken out of his hands. Nino and Alya had teamed up with several of Marinette's friends from university to throw her a surprise birthday party. They invited all of Marinette's old friends from lycée and collège, which Adrien did know about, as well as all of Marinette's friends from university.

Adrien wasn't aware of that part until he walked into the door and nearly ran over a blonde girl he didn't recognize. As he apologized, he spotted several other people that he had never seen before. All of a sudden, his gut clenched.

He might be meeting Ladybug in her civilian form for the first time tonight.

I should go, his logical side argued. I need to go before I see her, because it's not safe to know! Besides, she doesn't want me to know right now! It's not safe for us to know yet!

But he couldn't. Now that he was at the party, there was no way to gracefully bow out. Besides, he had been looking forward to the party for quite some time, both because, well, party, and because he always enjoyed seeing Marinette. He would just have to hope that Ladybug wasn't coming.

Adrien was on edge as more guests showed up, praying with each new arrival that they wouldn't be his Lady. When the last guest arrived, he breathed a sigh of relief. While Marinette did have a couple friends with black hair, their hair was either too long or too short, and their eyes were brown instead of blue. In fact, Marinette was the only one at the party with the combination of black hair and blue eyes, though she had switched out her usual pigtails for a bun.

"Ladybug must not have been able to make it," Adrien told Plagg as an update when he stepped out to use the bathroom. Plagg didn't appear to care. "I guess that's for the better, but..."

But there was a small part of me that just wanted to know, he finished mentally. A small part that sounded very much like his fourteen-year-old self. He knocked that part of him over the head and sent it off to bed, then headed back out to join the party.

There was no point in dwelling too much on it now. He had a party to enjoy.

Besides, they needed to defeat Hawkmoth before they could share their identities with each other. He could only hope that it would happen sooner rather than later.

"Wow, another generic akuma," Chat Noir taunted as he dodged the Grocer, an akumatized grocery store employee who had gotten frustrated with customers asking about a sale item that was out of stock. "Hawkmoth really doesn't have enough backbone to face us himself, then, does him? No change there."

The Grocer scowled and Hawkmoth's glowing purple butterfly outline flashed over his face. Chat Noir smirked, unable to resist taunting a bit more. "What, is the Big Bad upset with the truth? He's never come out to fight us himself. All he does is send one lame akuma after another."

"Well, obviously he doesn't want to fight us on his own, he sees what we do to his akumas every other day," Ladybug chimed in, catching on to Chat Noir's plan. They had both been talking about needing to lure Hawkmoth out of his lair more and more often recently, and clearly taunting the supervillain out was the plan of the day. "So he hides in his sad little lair and sends out minions to try to do his dirty work for him- try being the key word here."

"That's it!" the Grocer finally announced loudly. "You're going to regret saying that soon! Do you really think you can take on both of us at once? He's coming out, and then you will lose! Mwahahaha!"

"Time to end this fast, then," Chat Noir said quietly to Ladybug. He was completely serious, jokes and puns completely gone for now. "Take down the akuma, then retreat and recharge fast before Hawkmoth gets here."

"Done." Ladybug nodded sharply as she eyed the akuma. "The corrupted item is his apron. I'll call a charm, and then we need to move."

They moved. A minute later, the Grocer was defeated and Ladybug had moved her Lucky Charm out of the way so they could repair the damage after the fight with Hawkmoth. She didn't want to tip Hawkmoth off to the fact that his akuma had been defeated before he arrived.

Hopefully he would be too distracted to notice via his link with the akuma.

Ladybug detransformed as soon as she landed in the alley. Tikki already knew what was going on, and she made a beeline for the cookies in Marinette's purse and started scarfing them down faster than Marinette had ever seen her do before. While Tikki ate, Marinette pulled out her phone to check the Ladyblog. If there were any signs of Hawkmoth being out, they could make a beeline for him and catch him before he discovered anything wrong. With any luck, they could take down Hawkmoth today with enough time for Marinette to do the reading for class that she had put off in favor of calling Adrien up and trading puns for nearly twenty minutes before the akuma had showed up.

"Ready to go, Marinette," Tikki told her, wiping some smudges of chocolate off of the edges of her mouth. "I'm super-charged up, so I should be able to hold your transformation for longer after you use Lucky Charm. Only up to ten minutes, though."

"All right." Marinette pocketed her phone, squaring her shoulders. "Let's do this and finish it for once and for all. Tikki, transform me!"

As Ladybug bounded back onto the rooftops to join Chat Noir and head over to meet Hawkmoth before he could retreat back into his lair, she couldn't help but smile. Even though the fight was bound to be one of the hardest ones they had ever done, she couldn't help but look forward to it. It would be great to no longer have to deal with akuma attacks, of course, no longer having to miss class or be late to get-togethers. It would be fantastic to work their frustration out on the man actually responsible for the years and years of attacks, and at the end of the fight know that it was finally over, not just another chapter in an endless battle.

And best of all, Ladybug mused as she and Chat Noir raced over the rooftops, it would be amazing to be able to hang out with Chat Noir as their civilian selves and be able to introduce him to her friends. He was one of her best friends, and being able to see him more often would be amazing.

She couldn't wait.

#Miraculous Ladybug #My writing #Adrien Agreste #Marinette Dupain-Cheng

159 notes · View notes

crypticcravings · 7 years

Text

Memories Remain, Chapter 2

Prev. Chapter<< >> Next Chapter

Also on AO3

Ladybug swung through the streets of Paris--which were fairly quiet, even for a weeknight--and nearly whooped with joy. It was a good day, and she was celebrating with a patrol--which was really just an excuse to don her spots and swing above the rooftops with the lack of crime in her city.

Marinette had turned in the preliminary designs for her capstone project that morning, then that afternoon, she'd put the finishing touches on three commission projects before dropping two of them in the mail, and emailing the third client about a pick-up. It was her day off from the bakery, and she had run out as soon as she could, loving the feel of the early February air whipping through her hair. The only thing that would have made the day better would be seeing her partner, though that was unlikely.

Marinette shoved the pang of loneliness aside and landed on the top of one of Notre Dame's towers. She looked over her city and relaxed for the first time in what felt like forever.

Yet as she sat down, stretching her arms over her head and extending her legs out in front of her, her brain nudged at her with a tiny anxiety. It was the feeling she typically got when she had a major assignment coming up, but she knew her next draft of designs and fabric mock ups weren't due for another week, and she didn't have any pending commissions. The source of her anxiety could only be one thing: she was worried about her cat.

What was that saying? Absence makes the heart grow fonder?

That couldn't have been more true. Over the years, seeing Cat Noir less and less had made her miss him more. She was worried that she was losing him as they grew apart. Her life was becoming so routine--get up, help prep the bakery, get a morning coffee, go to class, work, commissions, sleep, then do it all over again the next day. She was so busy with everything that she hadn't even noticed how….normal things had become since Hawkmoth's defeat.

Not that normal was always a bad thing, but considering the majority of her childhood/teen years had been spent as a spotted super-hero defending Paris from supervillains of various affiliations, normal was, well, abnormal. She loved that her city was peaceful. Crime was at an all-time low, and the super villains had been quiet for a few years. It was a good thing for everyone.

But Ladybug couldn't help but almost wish for at least a little excitement. Something to break the monotony of her daily life. Something that would let her see Cat Noir for even a little bit…

Ladybug must have fallen asleep up there, because the next time she opened her eyes the sun had moved to the horizon. It was almost setting.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes. She'd never get to sleep after napping for so long. Maybe she should swing by that coffee shop, then prep some dough for her parents after the bakery closed…

"A little late for a cat nap, isn't it, My Lady?"

Ladybug was on her feet in an instant, hand already on her yoyo.

"Woah, there, LB, it's just me!" Cat Noir held his hands out in the universal sign for "I'm unarmed" and grinned at her. "Long time no see, Bugaboo."

Ladybug's face split into a huge grin as she relaxed her stance. She tried to ignore the fluttering in her stomach, but she couldn't ignore the slight heat rising in her cheeks. "Chaton!" She threw her arms around him in a tight hug. She felt his hands come to her waist and she realized once again how much taller than her he had become. The top of her head was barely above his shoulder. Yet even with the height difference, she never felt more at home than when she was in his arms. Years of tumbling around together in battle would do that to a person. "What are you doing out and about?"

"I could ask the same of you. It's been a while since I've heard about a streak of spots flying through the city."

Ladybug laughed as she reluctantly stepped out of Cat Noir's embrace. "I had a good day and wanted to enjoy my freedom a little bit."

Cat Noir sat down on the slope of the roof and Ladybug followed. "I'm glad you had such a good day. I was flipping TV channels and saw some footage of you out patrolling. I wondered if I'd catch you out and about still."

"Well, you caught me."

Cat Noir pointed out, with humor in his voice, how dangerous it was for her to fall asleep on top of a tower. She told him that, compared to all of the reckless stunts he had pulled over the years, she was entitled to one or two of her own.

The pair shared jokes and told vague stories from their civilian lives to catch each other up on everything they had missed in the past few months apart. Cat Noir had gotten a new job--his last one hadn't been giving him enough hours. Ladybug was in her last semester working towards her masters degree. He'd gotten a haircut. She was considering one. The weather was awfully nice for this time of year, wasn't it?

It wasn't until the sun had nearly set over the horizon that the pair considered parting ways.

Ladybug was feeling uncharacteristically shy as their rare meeting drew to a close--like a middle schooler with a crush trying to form her words around the guy she liked.

"So…uuum. I guess it might be a while before we see each other again, huh," Ladybug murmured.

Cat's eyes filled with regret. "I guess you're right."

Ladybug cast out her yoyo out and prepared to swing off, but turned back to give Cat Noir one last one armed hug. "Take care of yourself until next time, okay? You've gotten really skinny lately. Make sure you're eating enough."

His eyes crinkled with mirth at her concern. "Thanks, mom. But try not to stay away for so long this time."

"Back at you, kitty. Let's not wait until summer to see each other again." Ladybug winked before leaping off the building, the rush of the wind and the remaining exhilaration from seeing her partner/best friend again ran through her.

Adrien didn't return to his apartment until after dark. Seeing Ladybug had to have been the highlight of his week--maybe even his entire month.

"She hasn't changed at all, has she Plagg?" He sighed and flopped down dreamily at his kitchen table.

The tiny black Kwami rummaged around in the cabinets. "What are you talking about? She's totally different from that awkward kid back in the day."

"That's not what I mean. I haven't seen her since…what….Before Christmas? Maybe longer? But every time I see her, she takes my breath away." He sighed, tapping mindlessly on the small pile of bills that called for his attention. "She has this…air, this essence about her that never changes. Like, the atmosphere around her is charged with her aura. Like she carries the light with her, you know?"

Plagg made a disgusted sound and tossed something to the floor. "The only thing I know, kid, is that no matter how many years go by, somehow you get sappier with each one." There was more rummaging about in the cabinets. "At least you used to talk about real things. 'Oh, your bluebell eyes. The way she smashed that Akuma's face in. Blah blah blah'. But now you're obsessed with her aura?! The air around her? Blegh."

"I don't care, Plagg. You know what they say: Absence makes the heart grow fonder."

Finally, the clattering stopped. Plagg, having apparently found what he was looking for, floated over to Adrien's side with a box of cheese crackers. "You really need to get laid, kid."

Adrien whacked at his Kwami, but missed.

"Face it kid, you've been pining over LB for years now. You either need to do something about it or move on."

Adrien sighed and slumped down, head hanging over the back of the chair. "Maybe you're right, Plagg."

"Come on, kid, I mean you've been whining about--wait. Did you just say I was right?"

Adrien winced. He should have known the words would come back to bite him in the ass. "Don't let it go to your head."

Plagg's grin could have rivaled the Cheshire Cat. "Too late for that." Adrien rolled his eyes and chose to ignore the gloating black cat.

Plagg really did have a point.

Maybe it was time for him to quit pining and take action. After all, he wasn't a fourteen year old kid anymore. Neither was Ladybug. Plus, the danger was out of the way with the absence of super villains lately.

Maybe he needed to grow a pair and finally do something about this pining heart of his.

Marinette walked home from the coffee shop, macchiato in hand, and reflected on her day.

She hadn't expected to run into her cat, but the fact that she had…

Marinette felt heat rise in her cheeks. She pressed a hand to the side of her face to feel the warmth of her own skin. She closed her eyes and sighed, reveling in the sweet feeling of butterflies in her stomach, almost like a giddy anticipation of things to come. Seeing Cat Noir again had settled her resolve. It was time for her to meet him--the real him. With all of the danger gone, she could finally and safely reveal herself to her partner.

What would it be like to be able to call him whenever she wanted? To finally text him all of those memes she had saved on her phone?

And sure, things might be awkward at first, but seeing the man under the mask, getting to know him for real, maybe they could be something more…

Marinette wiggled a bit in her excitement, and danced in place, not caring about the stares of pedestrians around her.

She was ready. It had only taken ten years, but she was finally going to tell her partner everything.

#Memories Remain #Ladrien #Marichat #Adrienette #Ladynoir #Adrinette #miraculous #miraculous ladybug #Adrien #adrien agreste #Marinette #Marinette dupain cheng #Marinette dupain-cheng #Cryptic fic

11 notes · View notes

wikitopx · 4 years

Link

It is fair to say that Limoges was always good with his hands:

First with luxury enamel paints in the middle ages, and then when the city became one of the world's porcelain centers. Fine Arts Museum and Adrien Dubouché will help you face this special heritage. Limoges The Quartier du Château has enchanting history bags, like the Rue de la Boucherie, home to the old butchers’ guild, and the Cour du temple, a pretty renaissance courtyard. Spend a day in the New Episcopal City, linger in the botanical gardens, look across the Vienne River, glide through the Fine Arts Museum and walk past the silent church. Discover the best things to do in Limoges.

[toc]

1. Musée National Adrien Dubouché

Limoges is one of the world's porcelain capitals and is the legal home of the French National Museum for this craft. The appeal is a paradise for fans, with around 300,000 ceramic items, many of which are incredible elegance.

The newly renovated galleries chart the history of ceramics, with examples from all the major stages of its development. The first works produced in the Limoges kiln, here, dating back to the 1770s, and the local porcelain exhibition went to the pioneering creations performed by the 21st designer.

2. Limoges Cathedral

Limoges has the kind of gaudy gothic church that you normally only go north of the Loire. And even though it was started in the 1200s and not completed for another six centuries there’s a satisfying consistency to the building.

The interior’s most valuable decorations are from the renaissance. First, you've got a rood screen, a decoration that can separate chants from the nave, dating back to the 1500s. It is sculpted with images from the Book of Revelation and commissioned by Bishop Jean de Langeac, the tomb carved in another mosque of precious artwork.

3. Jardin Botanique de l’Evêché

After leaving the church, you can wander in the 5-hectare park arranged on the terraces on Vienne's steep right bank. The views from the rooftop walls are beautiful and you'll pass an hour or two to investigate the various gardens.

With more than 1,000 species the botanical gardens are laid out by theme, so you’ll see plots of plants for food coloring, medicinal plants, a vegetable garden and plants used in traditional trades like tanning and dyeing.

There is also a French florist with precision-trimmed lawns, fountains, boxwoods, sculpture gardens for the Museum of Fine Arts and plenty of places to sit and think for a few minutes.

4. Cour du Temple

Connecting Rue de Temple and Rue du Consulat is a fabulous 17th-century public courtyard that you have to enter through a dim passageway. This soon opens out onto a lovely cobblestoned space enclosed by four-story timber-framed mansions.

On the ground floor, there is an entertainment area, with the capital carved, linking each building, now full of shops. And then on the first floor, on the Rue du Consulat side, is a fine renaissance stone gallery with a communal stairway.

5. Musée des Beaux-Arts

Every French city has an Art Museum, but a few are indispensable as in Limoges. First of all, the scenery is interesting, in the old palace of the Church next to the cathedral. Galleries have also been updated and have a layout that appeals to you and fascinates you for hours.

You’ll get to see one of the world’s richest collections of enamel, which was a Limoges specialty from the 1100s onwards. Then there were paintings by Matisse, Renoir, and Fernand Léger, to name three of the most famous painters.

For ancient history, you have 4,000-year-old funerary artifacts from the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, donated by a local industrialist, and all of the major finds from the Roman city of Augustoritum, which became Limoges.

6. Rue de la Boucherie

A street filled with the medieval atmosphere is the Rue de la Boucherie (Street of Butchers) in Quartier du Château. You won’t need telling that this is where the butchers’ guild used to be, but you may be interested to know that the entire guild was descended from just six families.

The Maison de la Boucherie will show you how they went about their jobs, with a slaughterhouse, livestock enclosure, cabinets for knives and saws and a large chopping block.

7. Musée de la Résistance

Limousin was a hotspot of the Resistance during World War II, and the massacres at nearby Tulle and Oradour-Sur-Glane were sadly charged for this rebellious spirit. It is therefore desirable to have a museum in Limoges dedicated to Maquis du Limoges, one of the largest groups of French Resistance fighters.

There is plenty of information about the invasion and the Vichy government to give you some context, and then all sorts of antiques related to Morocco.: An Underwood typewriter, temporary torture device At the same time, a Weirod gun was used by the British SOE and uniform expelled by the réististante captives, Thérèse Menot.

8. Chapelle Saint-Aurélien

When this shabby chapel in the Butchers district, sold out as a national property after the Revolution, it was bought by a member of the old butcher's guild (disintegrated during the Revolution) and still in hand. surname.

The chapel was built in the 1400s, and though it is so small you can easily miss it passing by, there are some valuable liturgical decorations inside. There’s a 15th-century statue of St. Catherine, and a composite sculpture of St. Anne and the Virgin with Child, from the same time.

9. Gare des Bénédictins

OK, so a railway station may not usually be high on your itinerary, but the Gare des Bénédictins is one of the most beautiful places in Europe and has a few unique characteristics.

One is the entire structure built on a giant platform of 90 × 70 meters suspended just above the ten railway lines.

Its halls and towers were completed in 1929 with artistic and neoclassical features and were designed by Roger Gonthier, who equipped Limoges with several other art deco buildings in the '20s. Inside, check the stained-glass skylight in a copper dome restored after a fire in 1928.

10. Église Saint-Pierre-du-Queyroix

This modest-looking church in the Quartier du Château was built between 1200 and 1500 and has many interesting features to look for. The steeple has a format that is replicated across Limousin, with a square base and an octagonal design at the top.

Then you have to pause by stained glass windows, made in the 1500s by Léonard Pénicaud, one of the Limoges Renaissance enthusiasts. Inside are gilded wooden statues in the baroque style from the 1600s and 1700s.

More ideals for you: Top 10 things to do in Levallois Perret

From : https://wikitopx.com/travel/top-10-things-to-do-in-limoges-708899.html

#Wikitopx #Wikitopx - Feed

0 notes