#mild salt
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Dating ‘Prince Charming’ Part 2/3
[ Lila is finally starting to learn what its really like to be Adrien Agreste's girlfriend and finding out its not everything she hoped it would be. But while the liar struggles Marinette works toward her goals and meets someone new. ]
[ Prefer AO3? Link HERE! | Part 1 HERE! | Part 3 Coming Soon | Masterlist Link HERE! ]
Chloe made her grand return 3 weeks after Lila and Adrien’s big dating announcement. The bossy blonde had been away in New York with her mother and it was only in retrospect that Marinette briefly wondered if the entire timing of her and Adriens break up and Lila and Adriens announcement had been planned. After all Chloe had not taken well to Marinette dating Adrien and the class president was positive she would not take the news that Lila had swooped in right after their big breakup any better.
As it turns out Marinette had been right at least about Chloe not taking the news well. She’d walked into class early (for her) only to be met with chaos as Chloe and Lila stood opposed and yelling filled the classroom. Despite the fact that Marinette KNEW Chloe would hate whoever dated Adrien the sight was still enough to leave her mildly stunned after all Lila and Chloe had been tag team harassing Marinette since the second she and Adrien had started dating so to see the once allies now locked in a vicious match each using their unique brand of awful against each other… Well it was something.
Luckily Marinette knew she would not have to lift a finger to fix things. Because this? This was Adrien’s problem. And Marinette had no intention of helping or playing mediator. After all Adrien had let Lila and Chloe stomp all over their relationship when they’d still been dating, heck he’d even asked Marinette to simply deal with it so now he could deal with it and Marinette severely doubted that Lila would be even half as accepting or accommodating as she had been.
So while the two wannabe queens duked it out Lila with fake tears and Chloe with vicious mockery Marinette simply glided past the drama and up to her seat where she pulled out her sketchbook and started adding the finishing touches to a sketch of a brand new rock and roll suit for Uncle Jagged. Now that she wasn’t chasing after Adrien 24/7 and making him gifts and worrying about him or Lila or Chloe not to mention trying to keep up with her school work and grades all while also being Ladybug well Marinette had time on her hands and she’d been using it to study, track down Hawkmoth with Alya’s help, spend time with friends but most of all she’d been using that time on her career.
As she wrote in what materials she would need to get a certain sheen effect on the outfit, Marinette noticed the green eyes looking up at her desperately from the front of the class. Marinette glanced up noting how Adrien seemed to be trying to plead with her to help as he tried to reign in his dramatic new girlfriend and attack dog childhood friend; she only cocked her head to the side, smiled and offered him a little wave before continuing with her work. Yeah no way was she willingly throwing herself into THAT.
Sure enough before class could start Adrien managed to drag Lila out of the room and into the hallway no doubt to give her the same speech he had given Marinette when THEY were dating Lila bursting back into the classroom a few minutes later looking like she’d just swallowed a whole lemon only confirmed Marinette’s suspicions.
What Marinette had not expected was Lila openly complaining about ADRIEN at lunch, hours after the incidents of that morning. Marinette ate her steamed bun as she watched with mild surprise as the Italian wailed and threw a veritable tantrum as she told the girls all about how Adrien had put Chloe first and had asked Lila to simply deal with it. It was so painfully ironic that Marinette struggled not to roll her eyes. Honestly after the breakup Marinette had for a brief time contemplated revenge because truthfully. She was hurt and mad but Tikki had talked her out of it claiming that karma would have its way Marinette hadn’t believed the little god at the time too lost in her grief and her ice cream but now? Well now Marinette was starting to understand what Tikki meant. Because Lila wanted to be Adrien Agreste’s girlfriend no matter what it took, and she was only now starting to see what that really meant.
Sure enough in the weeks that followed Lila and Chloe kept each other busy allowing Marinette to for the first time in years relax at school. Of course Lila tried to redirect Chloe’s hatred back at Marinette by telling the blonde about how it had been Marinette who initiated the break up. But Marinette had easily overcome Chloe’s rage with honesty after all she had only broken up with Adrien because she knew they were incompatible and that Adrien would be happier with someone else, something Chloe agreed with though the way in which the blonde agreed made Marinette’s eye twitch just a little.
And then of course there was Adrien who was still trying to get Marinette to step in and help him handle his childhood friend and girlfriend but Marinette had been able to dodge him for weeks until they were having a class meetup at the park. Chloe was not attending due to wanting to avoid the ‘peasants’ as she so called them and Lila claimed she would be late due to an important meeting with some famous person. Honestly Marinette had not even bothered to pay attention. Adrien had noted the lack of ‘problem people’ and had decided to make a bold move calling Marinette out as they all hung out together to ‘talk to her in private’ yeah like THAT was going to happen.
Marinette knew Adrien’s modus operandi very well. He’d call you out, ask to talk to you privately and then lay on the guilt trip. No way was she doing that anymore she’d endured enough of them while they were dating to last a lifetime.
“Actually I would prefer not to talk to you alone, Adrien. You're publicly dating someone and we never know when your fans or the paparazzi might be around. Besides anything you can say to me in private you can say in front of OUR friends.”
Adrien looked like a kicked puppy at her words. But as their classmates quickly took her side and insisted he tell Marinette whatever he needed with them around the blonde was backed into a corner.
“Well the thing is… I was wondering if you could help? With the whole Lila, Chloe situation?”
Marinette wasn’t even given a chance to respond. The second the words left Adrien’s mouth the entire class bristled, many giving Adrien looks of confusion and shock as if he’d just spoken pure nonsense and honestly in a way he had. Nathaniel however was the one who said it best.
“Wait I’m sorry are you seriously asking Marinette to mediate between her long time bully and the girl you started dating not even an hour after your break up with her? Are you serious?!”
“W-Well I just thought-”
“Thought what Agreste? That Marinette should put herself in the worlds worst situation completely ignoring her own feelings just to make your life easier?”
Oof Kim going straight for the throat.
“B-But shes the class president!”
“So?! That doesn’t make her a genie! She can't just clap her hands and fix everything nor should she have to!”
Marinette had never heard Rose sound so upset in her life, which is when the young fashion designer knew it was her turn to say her piece and get things back under control.
“Adrien.” She ignored the hopeful look he shot her. “Not only do I not want to get involved but I don’t think it would help. Chloe doesn’t like me and Lila’s ‘disease’-” she said the word with barely concealed sarcasm “acts up when I’m around. So I’m sorry but no I will not help you with this.”
“But I’m sure if you just-”
The look the class shot him was enough to end the conversation and Marinette let out a relieved sigh as her heart filled with warmth she really loved her friends.
A month after the conversation in the park Lila Rossi got her second harsh wake up call to the ‘true joys’ of being Adrien Agreste’s girlfriend and it was a two for one deal.
Lila had seemingly been under the assumption that once she was dating Adrien her own popularity would rise to meet his but she was starting to learn that wasn’t the case. Adrien still got plenty more photo-shoots then she did and most were still solo and since they were fast approaching the spring fashion season Adrien was plenty busy with more and more shoots while Lila was left waiting for her turn in the spotlight.
Perhaps it was the frustration at not immediately sky rocketing her way up in fame or maybe it was the snide comments from Adrien Fangirls talking about the lack of couples shoots but Lila seemingly came up with the brilliant plan to force the spotlight onto herself by demanding, manipulating and forcing Adrien to take her on big flashy fancy dates where the paparazzi always conveniently found them Marinette had no doubt Lila was the one tipping them off but she kept her mouth shut. It wasn’t her problem.
However while Lila was enjoying her tabloid paparazzi fueled fame the class and more surprisingly Gabriel Agreste himself were beginning to notice the way it was wearing Adrien down. Between his photo-shoots and busy schedule all of Adrien’s precious free time was being filled up by Lila and her many needy antics and it was starting to show in the way Adrien carried himself and how exhausted he seemed.
Nino was the one who led the charge just as he had when Lila manipulated the class into thinking her ‘clingy’ but where Marinette had gotten some hurtful but well meaning lectures about her Adrien obsession which in retrospect DID help her realize her love was unhealthy. Lila was not given such a kind well meaning speech instead Nino got mad, something he rarely let himself become.
As it turns out Lila had worn Adrien down to the point where the blonde was too exhausted to function and he’d nearly passed out while standing and talking to Nino and that mixed with the fact that it had previously been Lila who painted the faux picture of Marinette as the clingy evil girlfriend isolating the boy from his friends was enough for Nino to harshly call her out. The liar did do her best to wriggle out of the situation trying to claim she only wanted ‘some’ private time with her oh so busy boyfriend but Nino was not having it and the class was too happy to back him up.
The more Lila tried to defend and excuse her actions the angrier Nino got and much to the liars annoyance the young musician had proof and plenty of it. Between his text correspondence with Adrien that revealed the model was constantly being forced to cancel relaxing friend days to take Lila out on flashy dates that always ended with paparazzi and fans swarming the location and forcing Adrien into high stress situations, and an extremely detailed schedule planner that Nino had made to keep track of his best buds work life balance (potential evidence to blackmail Gabriel Agreste if he ever threatened to pull Adrien out of school again apparently). The facts didn’t lie and they were showing that Lila was the real ‘clingy’ girlfriend.
Things eventually got so heated between Nino and Lila arguing that an akuma appeared to try and take advantage of the situation. Luckily for everyone Ladybug had been patrolling and stopped the naughty little butterfly from making things worse. In the end Lila was forced to grit her teeth and apologize to her darling boyfriend. Though perhaps what upset her more was the way the class proceeded to apologize to Marinette after the fact for ever accusing her of being clingy and taking up too much of Adrien’s free time.
However Lila still thought she had one last ace up her sleeve, and so after the class luncheon ended the liar proceeded to contact Gabriel hoping to get her new boyfriends dad to reign him in and do her bidding. Unluckily for Lila however Gabriel had been paying attention to the situation and that fact that it had ALMOST led to an akuma made him look even closer into things.
And he was not happy with what he found. The paparazzi pictures and articles that resulted from Lila and Adrien’s flashy dates had started positively enough with headlines and puff pieces about how cute the couple looked together, how it was nice to see the young Agreste in more casual settings with his girlfriend. But as the dates became more and more frequent and Lila’s constant demands and needs grew the articles slowly began to change soon they were discussing the concerning amount of money Adrien must be spending on his girlfriend, how exhausted and stressed the young Agreste heir looked under his strained smiles and was he eating and sleeping enough?
The akuma he’d sent had only further confirmed Gabriel’s negative feelings toward Lila though it did make him re-evaluate the young Lahiffe boy. Gabriel had originally thought the wannabe musician might just be interested in Adrien for money but seeing the lengths he went to defend his friend had the designer impressed and even a little grateful. So when Lila phoned to try and throw the boy under the bus and get Gabriel to side with her, well she had another thing coming.
Marinette heard later from Alya and the rest of the girls that Lila was ‘devastated’ how she’d wailed sobbed and thrown the tantrum of the century as she ranted and raved about Gabriel putting a 1 date a month maximum limit on Adrien and Lila. The two lovebirds could still hang out of course but it would be in the company of the rest of the class or other friends, or if they really wanted some privacy it would be strictly at the Agreste mansion for studying. Lila had told the girls that it was unfair and unjust that Gabriel was trying to get in the way of their love! Alya had relayed to Marinette that while the girls agreed that 1 date a month was a bit rough they all thought Lila’s tantrum was a bit childish especially when they all remembered how Marinette had rarely if ever got to enjoy 1 private date a month with Adrien and never in public.
Of course just because Lila had been told ‘no’ didn’t mean the liar was going to listen. And so she began trying to find ways to manipulate Adrien into ‘accidental’ dates, bugging the blonde to take her out instead of settling for lunch at school or trying to conveniently separate the two of them from the rest of the group during weekend and after school hang outs. But each time Lila tried Nino thwarted her eventually the Italian had gotten so angry at his meddling that she phoned Gabriel again this time to try and get the musician removed or banned or ANYTHING so that he’d back off, so when she instead learned that Nino had been asked by Gabriel to keep an eye out on for his son and that Adrien knew about it well the liar was furious.
Marinette learned later this time from Rose and Juleka that the Italian had tried to go on another tantrum tirade only to be stopped by Alya who would not tolerate anyone badmouthing her lovely boyfriend. Needless to say, Marinette was quick to notice the following Monday how Lila pouted and avoided the Ladyblogger like the plague. Luckily Marinette made sure Alya didn’t dwell on it too much by inviting the girl over to help her brainstorm some new ideas.
Because while Lila was focusing on leeching the fame and fortune off her boyfriend and being met with endless failures and a very hostile guard dog called Chloe. Marinette had been THRIVING. The suit she’d designed for Jagged had gone viral online and soon Jagged was passing on her contact information to a small selection of celebrities Marinette felt comfortable designing for. The fact that her identity was a secret and she had a very exclusive client list had only caused MDC to soar even higher in popularity with the public making it clear that they too wanted access to MDC fashion. And so Marinette had done her research and with the help of Uncle Jagged and Aunt Penny she’d set up an online store where she would sell ready made clothes.
Of course just because Marinette was seeing success didn’t mean she had forgotten about her friends. In fact the entire class minus Lila, Adrien and Chloe knew very well the true identity of the elusive MDC and that was because while Marinette was taking big steps toward her dreams she was helping her friends do just the same.
After all it didn’t take long for the internet to learn that the mysterious MDC designed Kitty Sections outfits causing the band to have a surge of free publicity that led to many people discovering their music and falling in love with the band.
Then there was Nathanial, Marc and Alya who Marinette or should she say MDC collaborated with while designing her ‘hero hoodie’ fashion collection all of them saw a boost in views with Marc and Nathanial’s comic picking up new readers though it was there brand new all original idea that had really flown off the shelves earning them an online cult following. Alya meanwhile got her blog spotted by Lois Lane herself who was impressed with the young future journalist and contacted Alya for a summer internship the scream Alya had made almost gave Marinette a heart attack.
And it didn’t end there. When Nino made a short film with Mylene and Kim of all people as his lead actors and uploaded it for free to YouTube MDC who was well known for supporting smaller creatives and signal boosting them on her social media was more than happy to make a tweet linking to the short film. Nino’s short film had been impactful and powerful despite being a comedy satire on Hawkmoth and it had quickly blown up earning Nino a summer internship at a film studio and Mylene and Kim several job offers. Kim had never been particularly interested in acting but after seeing the outpouring of love and support not to mention with the encouragement he got from his lovely girlfriend Ondine he decided to accept a few offers surprising everyone as he developed a new passion that he and Mylene bonded over.
Max, and Alix were also boosted in a similar way to Nino, Kim and Mylene when MDC retweeted some of their creative endeavors. Alix a video where she had used spray paint to recreate a few classical paintings though that had only acted as a signal boost that allowed the skater to be noticed for her real passion Extreme Sports! When a very exclusive extreme sports training summer camp contacted Alix about her attending she’d squealed almost as loud as Alya had. Max meanwhile had his demo for his work in progress video games retweeted by MDC and saw a huge surge in interest and a few interested investors and publishers even arrived with offers, though before he could agree to anything his popularity ballooned even further when a video of him showing off Markov surfaced. He had later joked to Marinette that while he appreciated the support he wasn’t sure how he felt about suddenly gaining a ‘nerd cult’ as Kim called it.
Of course all of Marinette’s friends knew she was largely responsible for their sudden surge of fame and good fortune and many of them tried to dismiss their own talents and give all the credit to Marinette. But the young designer simply threw it back at them. Yes she had signal boosted them and given them a helping hand but at the end of the day the only reason they had gotten so popular and stayed so popular after the brief burst from her influence passed and the internet moved on to the next big thing was because they were talented and amazing without Marinette.
The only problem with the classes' new found fame. Was that sooner or later Lila was bound to take notice. And take notice she did when Mylene appeared as an extra in one of Lila’s favorite daytime soaps. The liar had been so focused on Adrien and trying to leech her fame off him while beating Chloe back with a stick that she had somehow missed all the major developments. And she was livid.
She was supposed to be the most popular girl in school! She was meant to be the star, the one people admired and aspired to be like! The one they envied but loved too much to truly hate! And when she’d finally gotten Marinette and Adrien to break up she thought for sure that all her dreams would come true. But somehow while she’d been busy trying to reign in the pesky little blonde her classmates had all gone and gotten famous without her. Most of them wouldn’t even BE in Paris in the fast approaching summer since many of them either had internships, specialized camps, acting gigs, or in Kitty Sections case a whole music tour with Jagged Stone that for some reason Marinette was also a part of?!?
None of it made any sense and when Lila had gone looking for how exactly everything had happened she kept finding herself looking at MDC’s social media. The elusive and private designer was apparently a super sucker or something as every week they would highlight some small time random creator. Honestly it disgusted Lila who just handed out fame like that? Fame and popularity was meant to be exclusive! Earned! Something for only the most beautiful and talented of society. Not for chubby little idiots like Mylene or nerdy freaks like Max.
Of course Lila was nothing if not an opportunist. Sure in her opinion none of her talentless, average, classmates actually deserved their new found fame and popularity but the good thing was they were also a bunch of gullible idiots. And if she played her cards right they would surely carry her to the top. She already had the perfect lie, she would simply claim to be best friends with MDC and tell the class that she had been the one to recommend that the designer boost her classmates.
It was perfect. Genius really.
So then why did it fail immediately?
Lila stood in front of the class, her face frozen in shock as she was stared down by 10 pairs of angry glares. She had expected overwhelming thank you’s and the class bowing at her feet but the second the lie slipped out of her mouth the class instead turned on the liar like a close knit pack of wolves smelling a sheep. Honestly Lila could not understand where she’d gone wrong, and even if she had said something that was an obvious lie wouldn’t the class just normally brush it off as her disease? So why is it that they were acting this way?
It was Alya who broke the silence first.
“You want to run that by us again? Lila.”
The Italian girl swallowed the lump in her throat and ignored the obvious warning sign that was Alya’s sharp tone. Forcing a charming smile Lila brought out her sweetest voice determined that she could salvage whatever THIS was.
“I was just saying that I’m so happy for all of you! I didn’t want to say anything at the time BUT me and MDC are such good friends! So when he-”
“He?” Alix snorted and rolled her eyes. “Yeah that about confirms it.”
The entire class seemed to agree with Alix as they all shook their heads and shot Lila disappointed and annoyed looks before returning to their own conversations and or hobbies freezing her out. Ignoring her.
Oh that? That pissed Lila off like nothing else. Her cheeks grew hot as she stomped her foot angrily, regaining their attention.
“You guys think I’m telling lies again! You all promised that you wouldn’t judge me for my disease but you are!” For added effect she started to sniffle and sob expecting the class to do what they always did and feel guilty about their treatment of her and rush to comfort her.
Instead she was met with even harsher glares.
“Uhh yeah no duh we think you're lying because you ARE. We” Alix gestured to the people currently in class. “Have all met MDC and SHE not ‘he’ is a wonderful person who helped boost our careers because she thinks we're all super cool and talented not because you asked her too.”
Lila felt her face screw up like she’d just sucked a lemon but she quickly worked it to her advantage as she began to loudly sob.
“T-That’s not fair! You know I can't help my disease!”
“Uhh yeah no. I’m stopping you there.” Alya stood up looking down from her perch at Lila with her hands on her hips commanding the room, Lois had been training her well. “We can accept that MAYBE your lying disease makes you claim things when your nervous or scared like how you always accuse Marinette of stuff, and we can MAYBE believe that your disease makes you mix up names and words so you end up giving the wrong information out about charities and celebrities and yes MAYBE we can believe that you sometimes make false claims about yourself when your stressed out like that time with Clara Nightingale stealing your dance moves. Whatever! But Lila that right there? You were not having an ‘oops I lied’ moment you were actively trying to deceive us to make the false claim that YOU are the reason MDC noticed us when we know the truth. And when I gave you a chance to correct yourself you tried to double down. That was intentional. That was malicious.”
Lila felt her mouth fall open, her eyes blinking in shock. Too late she tried to recover. Tried to explain away the situation and make herself out to be innocent. But the class was done with her and they made it clear in how they iced her out. Eventually she had no choice but to suck it up and sit down at her seat. Not long later Marinette rushed into class followed by Chloe who was latched onto Adrien with Sabrina in tow.
Soon enough the school year came to an end and Lila watched bitterly through the all seeing eyes of the internet as her classmates left for their internships, job opportunities, highly specialized summer camps, and more. Meanwhile she was stuck at home. Oh sure she got to go on a few out of country photo-shoots with Adrien but her fame was still nothing compared to her boyfriends, and it was quickly becoming less than nothing as her classmates rose in influence and popularity. Come the new school year Lila would need to find some way to force the class back under her heel.
Marinette was having the best summer of her life! Jagged had taken Kitty Section on tour with him and insisted on Marinette coming with them as their designer. Marinette hadn’t been sure at first worried about the Hawkmoth situation and her own career. But in the end Tikki and her parents had convinced her. Her parents loved the idea of Marinette leaving Paris and going to see the world with her friends for a bit, and Tikki had reminded Marinette that she had the Horse Miraculous and could come home anytime, besides Hawkmoth had been getting lazier and lazier with both his akumas and the amount of them. So in the end Marinette agreed and it had been the BEST decision of her life.
They visited England before eventually traveling overseas to America. The sights and sounds and new foods were filling Marinette with inspiration and she’d never been so busy sketching. Then of course there was the great company. Uncle Jagged and Aunt Penny were wonderful and quickly ‘adopted’ all of Kitty Section + Marinette. They'd act like doting parents one second and then the next they’d be ordering way too much pizza for the teens to share.
Of course everyone missed their friends and family but video call existed and it was only for the summer anyway. Ivan was the one who was probably the worst off pouting over his beloved Mylene but the group was able to cheer him up encouraging him to write a song for his girlfriend, the piece he wrote became a new hit single the second they performed it on stage and Mylene had loved it.
The group stopped by Florida first where Jagged took them all to Disney World and then Universal Park, pictures of the rocker wearing mickey mouse ears and a hufflepuff scarf of all things while being followed by a gaggle of teenagers had soon gone viral, after that it was off to New York, and then Metropolis where they spent a bit of time so Alya could see them and hang out. Her internship with Lois Lane was going well but she’d still been relieved to see her friends and get some down time to just chill. After that they went to Gotham, which was Jagged’s home town. Now most parents might veto a place as dangerous as Gotham but seeing as how Paris was under siege by an emotional butterfly themed terrorist and they were from a class particularly used to dealing with deadly akumas on a regular basis well they were able to convince their parents to let it happen. And to Marinette’s surprise Gotham turned out to be her favorite place of the whole trip.
Sure the city was gloomy but the gothic architecture somehow inspired Marinette, and while the people were not outwardly all smiles and sunshine they were kind in their own way. But the thing Marinette ended up loving most about Gotham was its beautiful parks and famous greenhouses. Thanks to the influence of Poison Ivy and Bruce Wayne the city of Gotham had become the greenest city in all of America and it was a never ending source of inspiration for the young designer. Not to mention it was thanks to all the inspiring greenery that Marinette had met HIM.
She’d been walking through one of Gotham’s older parks admiring the beautiful blooming wisterias that had been shaped into a long hallway arch when she got bowled over by a massive terrifying but very friendly dog. Marinette had been terrified at first until she noticed the fast wagging tail and happy smile on the dog's face. Tikki had warned her that one side effect of holding the Ladybug miraculous would be extra friendly animals a rather ‘tame’ side effect compared to the super strength, increased speed, and occasional urge to hibernate when cold but still the designer had never expected to be attacked with friendly happy dog kisses, not like THIS anyway. As she squirmed and laughed she tried to gently push the dog off. That was when the dogs owner had come to her rescue. Yanking his dog off of her while admonishing it Marinette was finally able to sit up and begin wiping the dog drool off her cheek with a laugh.
“Don’t scold the cutie too much I’m okay I swear he didn’t hurt me.”
“Even if he didn’t hurt you he’s been trained better than that. I’m very sorry, please allow me to help you.”
The boy’s voice was cool, firmly polite and matter of fact leaving no room for argument. To an untrained ear he might even sound annoyed or angry but Marinette could tell that wasn’t the case. As Marinette accepted the hand the boy offered and let herself be pulled up she suddenly came face to face with the most beautiful pair of green eyes she’d ever seen.
Where Adrien’s eyes were bright like a blinding peridot green, these eyes were soft and warm like the green of a pine tree and Marinette could feel herself melt into them. It didn’t help that the rest of the boy's face was also incredibly handsome. The designer quickly shook herself out of her thoughts and glanced away not wanting to stare. Instead she directed her attention to her assailant, the dog was sitting now staring up at her with its tail still wagging wildly. Marinette smiled and reached her hand down letting the dog sniff her before she gave him some soft pets.
“Such a softy for a big guy. What's his name?”
“Titus. And I apologize again. He really is trained better than that. I don’t know what came over him.”
Marinette felt a little bad but she couldn’t exactly say that she was the chosen champion of a god and a side effect of that was very friendly animals so instead she shot the boy a smile.
“Don’t worry I just seem to have that effect on animals. Back home the pigeons and crows have started fighting for dominance of my roof and balcony because they both want my attention.”
The boy gave her a stunned look before he made a sound that Marinette believed might be a covered up laugh. She smiled even brighter and offered the boy her hand to shake.
“By the way my name is Marinette. And it's a pleasure to meet you.”
The boy looked at her hand for a moment before he eventually grabbed it and shook it awkwardly.
“Damian… It's nice to meet you too. Though I can tell by that introduction that you're not from here.”
Marinette snorted at that.
“Really the introduction was what gave it away but not my accent?”
The boy seemed to blush a little at that before he coughed awkwardly. Marinette took pity on him and giggled.
“You are correct in your deduction mr.detective. I’m visiting from Paris, France with some friends and my uncle.”
If Marinette hadn’t been too embarrassed to look him in the eyes she may have noticed the spark of curiosity when she mentioned Paris. And had she known who Damian truly was at the time she would have known that his curiosity came from the fact that Batman and the other supers had recently learned about the situation in Paris thanks to Lois Lane taking on a new intern who ran the Ladyblog. Mayor Bourgeois had been doing a good job hiding the situation but he’d overlooked the civilian journalist.
“Hm. We don’t get many tourists. What brought you all the way out here. If I may ask.”
Naturally without much thought the pair began to walk through the park together as their conversation flowed. Marinette avoided using Jagged's name not wanting her new very handsome friend to take an interest in her solely for her connections. Instead she told him that Gotham was her uncles hometown and that this was the last stop on what had already been a pretty busy summer vacation. That turned into her telling him a bit about her family in general which got him talking about his family, he complained about his adopted siblings of which there seemed to be many but Marinette could tell he loved them.
Talking about family made him admit he’d come to the park to get away from them for a little while which got Marinette talking about the park and all the beautiful nature in Gotham which got the two of them talking about the best parks in Gotham and then Marinette brought up her sketches and suddenly they were talking about art and other hobbies. Before they had even realized it they were sitting at a bench together hidden away in the trees and wisterias chatting away. Marinette didn’t know why but something about Damian made her feel comfortable. Maybe it was the way he gave her his full undivided attention, maybe it was the way he made sure not to invade her space without consent or how he didn’t interrupt her when she spoke. Either way she felt safe, felt warm, almost like she was home. And judging by the way he seemed to relax the longer they spoke, his stiff body unwinding and his gaze softening, she thought maybe he felt just as comfortable with her as she was with him.
Honestly Marinette could have sat there chatting with Damian all day in fact it had already been several hours when the pair were finally interrupted. Both of their phones began to ring, Marinette’s with the tell-tale alarm of an akuma attack in Paris and Damian’s with an emergency as the Riddler had broken out of Arkham. The teenagers regretfully had to go both citing emergencies before they departed. It wasn’t until later that they realized they had forgotten to exchange phone numbers.
The akuma back in Paris had turned out to be Lila Rossi, it seems that Adrien’s fangirls had never truly warmed up to the liar and they had been trying to dig up dirt on the girl for months before finally finding there evidence. Alya may have privated the videos of Lila’s lies after finding out about the ‘lying disease’ but apparently someone had copied and saved them beforehand. And those videos had finally made their way out into the public. Luckily no one criticized Alya seeing as how she’d already had the common sense to remove the videos from her blog it helped that Alya also made a post explaining the situation in more detail which led to the general public agreeing that it had not been Alya’s fault when she had a teacher and a principle telling her to believe in a fake ‘lying disease’ clearly it was the adults at fault here not the young girl who had believed in them.
Needless to say the public ripped Lila to shreds for being a serial liar with more of her lies coming to light each day now that she had been exposed. And obviously the Italian had not taken it well and gotten akumatized.
Marinette knew that she should be happy that Lila had been exposed. Her classmates certainly were, but instead Marinette could not help but mope. Damian had been SO kind she really had wanted to get to know him better. The fact she’d completely missed out on getting his number gnawed at her. Little did she know that Damian was across the city thinking the same thing as he sat on a Gargoyle statue.
But fate likes to play funny games. A few days later Jagged got a call from Bruce Wayne, a few of his sons namely Tim, Jason and Dick had heard about Jagged being in town and tjat the rocker had brought MDC the famous designer with him. Apparently they were huge fans and had bugged, pleaded, whined, and eventually threatened a hunger strike until Bruce would ask Jagged to pretty please introduce them. So Jagged got the go ahead from Marinette and the gaggle of teenagers plus Jagged and Penny piled into a big van and drove over to the Wayne mansion.
Seeing it from the outside, Marinette felt only intimidation and dread. It was so huge and they were so rich. What if they were unimpressed when they found out MDC was just some teenage girl? Letting Jagged guide her and her friends push her forward Marinette nervously knocked on the door and let herself be led inside by the kind old man who introduced himself as Alfred.
Walking through the halls in wonder Marinette slowly felt her fingers twitch with the urge to design. But she suppressed it and focused not wanting to be rude. As the group turned a corner into a large sitting room Marinette’s blue eyes somehow found a pair of familiar green. She gasped, he blinked wide eyed.
“Marinette?” - “Damian?”
They blinked again, shocked. Marinette eventually snorted and laughed. Damian found himself smiling as he approached the small girl. And everyone else? Well they were just confused. Except for Damian’s family they were confused and freaked out.
“Is the demon spawn, smiling Dicky bird? Or am I hallucinating?”
“No I see it too Jason. He looks genuinely happy.”
“So it's official.” Tim added “we're all hallucinating.”
After some introductions and explanations things settled down with Marinette happy to take the Wayne’s on as clients. And the Wayne’s in turn being suitably impressed and amazed by the young girls accomplishments though the part they found most amazing was how she interacted with not only them but Damian. She was genuine and kind, no fake smiles or hidden double meanings, nor did she let their money and fame impress or blind her in any way. Jason soon declared her a little sister and Jagged preened and puffed as he gloated about not only Marinette but Kitty Section as well.
The rest of the summer spent in Gotham was tons of fun with Jason teaching Juleka and Marinette how to shoot guns and ride motorcycles, Rose and Marinette learning some of Dick’s gymnastics moves, Ivan meanwhile got along well with the quiet Cass and level headed Duke. Eventually Stephanie and Bab’s returned home as well and they also took to the french teens with ease they organized girl nights where they taught the girls how to break and enter something Marinette had a natural affinity for go figure. The most surprising development however was Luka. The slightly older boy had seemingly set his sights on the awkward coffee addicted Tim and had spent the remainder of the summer wooing him.
But while Luka was wooing Tim there was one other couple slowly forming. Everyone had seen the spark between Damian and Marinette and soon enough everyone was shipping it. The pair were often ‘conveniently’ left alone or were sent on errands that somehow conveniently became accidental dates. Marinette had been guarding her heart after Adrien had shattered it but Damian made her want to take the risk and fall in love. He was charming, polite, kind, sarcastic, and as she’d learned after telling him about the entire Paris situation akuma’s and all he was protective but without going so far as to undermine Marinette’s strength. He trusted her to be fast and smart and strong enough to defend herself (especially after they did a bit of fight training for fun and she laid him flat on the ground) but he did worry and care about her.
But still there was something holding back both teens. Something that shattered near the end of the vacation. Marinette had been caught by a villain. Poison Ivy to be exact. The plant villainess had taken note of the new frequent visitor to her greenhouse but what had really gotten her attention was how the plant life reacted to her. And furthermore how the plant life SPOKE about her. Ivy’s curiosity eventually grew too large and so she snatched up the young designer and brought her home. Luckily Marinette wasn’t particularly scared of Ivy or Harley, sure she didn’t like being knocked out but she felt no real fear, in the end Ivy, Harley and Marinette ended up having an unprompted girls day complete with junk food, ranting, bad American tv and more. Ivy eventually figured that Marinette was some kind of Meta one who had a strong influence over plant and animal life and that was enough for her to adopt the small half Asian girl and inject her with her special blend the same one she’d given to Harley to keep her safe in a town full of crazies.
But while Marinette was perfectly fine hanging out with 2 of the 3 sirens Damian had not taken it so well. He had scoured the city trying to find the sirens newest abode all while he gnawed his lip until it bled. Maybe it was the stress that made him slip up or maybe it was just Marinette being too smart for her own good. But when the young Robin came bursting in through a window yelling Marinette’s name something had immediately clicked and she knew who he was. After she’d calmed the situation down and made sure no one fought anyone else, Marinette thanked Ivy and Harley for the nice day and let Robin carry her away. After talking with Tikki and deciding to be reckless and selfish for once in her life Marinette confronted Damian the next day, revealing her own identity in the process. There was some freaking out and a LOT of talking with Tikki and the rest of the bat clan but in the end it seemed to work out for the best. Ladybug was certainly happy to accept the help anyway even if Chat Noir wasn’t going to be.
A week later Damian finally asked Marinette out. Two days after that they shared their first kiss on the ferris wheel. And come the end of summer Marinette, Kitty Section and surprise guests Damian and Tim Wayne were all boarding a flight back to Paris.
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Parfum - 1
"A triple quad black eye but make it ristretto," Marinette mumbled with her eyes half closed, thrusting a ginormous tumbler into the hands of the aghast cashier.
She stumbled her way to a counter seat and promptly collapsed onto the marble surface. The chill of it was sharp enough to keep her on the knife-edge of lucidity while waiting for her dose of sweet, unforgivable addiction.
A chuckle rang through the vacant shop amidst the whirring of the espresso machine.
"Didn't think there'd be a free range one of you nutcases out there," a baritone voice said with undisguised mirth.
Normal Marinette would've ignored the weird voice. Normal Marinette was smart, usually. Even Sleepy Marinette knew better than to jeopardize everything. Unfortunately, the only Marinette left running the show was One-Foot-Into-A-Grave-Slash-Coma Marinette.
And this Marinette was a downright idiot.
She opened a striking blue eye for a moment before turning the other way and mumbling, "...Ngh bad stranger."
"Name's Julian. Not a stranger now, am I?"
Marinette's current slower-than-a-turtle brain took a hot second to process the words and string them together before slurring out, "Mah-ree-nettie," squinting at Julian afterward like a satisfied housecat.
"Well, Nettie, what brings you to Gotham? Secret Wayne? You have the looks for it, that's for sure." The barista couldn't help but let out a snort at that. If there was anything Gotham was known for, it must be the gaggle of black-haired blue-eyed children with wildly tragic backstories.
Marinette slow-blinked like a lagging computer at Julian before sluggishly reaching to the top of his head.
"Flatcap."
"It's Paper Boy Day, y'see."
"...Weird."
"Kid, this dude's one of the resident crazies. This," the barista gestured to all of Julian, "is what happens when you live here too long. God knows, the air here reeks of insanity."
"Don't forget the water too," Julian snickered.
He eyed her up and down before adding, "And you, kid, scream visitor. Your outfit is drab enough to pass for a gargoyle here, but your scent— It's a dead giveaway. You smell too nice to be here. All lavender and cinnamon and puppies."
Before Marinette could begin to muster up a response, the barista came back and placed her filled-to-the-brim tumbler down with practiced caution.
Marinette cared not for anything but her preferred dose of insanity, immediately gulping down the still steaming drink to the resigned and amused eyes of the duo.
"Even after all that, not even a hint of hesitation, huh? Just like that Tim kid, I swear."
"Uncannily so, indeed."
Three straight minutes of inhaling the more-caffeinated-than-should-be-legal drink later, Tired-As-All-Nine-Hells-But-Still-Pulling-Through Marinette took the stage.
With scrunched brows, she turned to look at Julian then the barista then back to Julian.
"...Wayne?"
Guffawing, Julian replied, "The growing brood of Bruce, Playboy Prince of Gotham. You one of his? Last name Wayne?"
With the caffeine charge belatedly rebooting her critical thinking skills, Semi-Dead-But-Not-Quite Marinette realized how much shit pre-coffee Marinette could have already landed herself in. Idle chatter with strangers was a privilege not granted to a newbie runaway.
"...No. And I- I think I have to go now."
Marinette rushed out of the coffee shop, tumbler clutched like it was her life, under the indecipherable gaze of the odd stranger.
"Hey, Nettie," the barista greeted, moving to make her drink the moment she walked in.
Over the course of a week, Marinette had kept running into the strange man on her coffee runs. After the second meeting, she indulged in the newfound paranoia her journey had encouraged. Under Tikki's disapproving gaze, she casted no less than thirty-seven different spells to be absolutely, beyond any doubt certain that he was in no way a threat to her. Her actions were morally ambiguous, sure, but that coffee shop was the only place in Gotham that didn't stink of corrupted energy.
Marinette could only either take the plunge or go coffee-free, and she's seen how well that would go.
"Hello again, little bean. Need another death drink already?"
Silently acquiescing to that, Marinette admired Julian's newest garb. "...National Bride Day?" she guessed.
He wore an ivory wedding gown, the skirt billowing out around his seat in heaps of tulle and lace. A white camellia rested on his right ear, pinning back part of his flowing blonde wig, pearls hanging from it like a star-lit waterfall.
"Tsk, tsk, Nettie, close but not quite." He bopped her on the head with a bouquet of fake carnations, eyes gleaming with an odd affection. "World Marriage Day, actually."
"What do you think, I'm rocking this one, aren't I?" he wiggled his eyebrows.
Marinette rolled her eyes at his antics. "Felix put it all together, didn't he? You and Mitch together can't measure up to a pinky of his fashion sense."
"How dare you speak to your father like that, young lady!" he gasped in mock offense.
"Thought you called me a Wayne, Jules," Marinette teased back, brow raised.
"You could be both," he joked. "I don't mind being called father-in-law."
"Ju-"
Her righteous indignation was interrupted by the clink of porcelain on marble and the chuckles the barista didn't bother holding back, much to her dismay.
"You- I- Just- No! You guys, no! Felix and I aren't anything even close to that," she exclaimed. But unfortunately for her, her reddening face hid nothing.
"...Sure, kid, sure. But hurry it up, will you? I've got a hundred bucks on the line."
"You bet on me?!"
"I want in. Twenty bucks Felix makes the first move." The barista held out a crisp fifty, adding, "Thirty Marinette avoids him after."
Julian grabbed the bill, pulling up a purse from his fake cleavage.
Before Marinette could protest more, a loud siren blasted from her phone speakers. Her eyes hardened instantly as if a switch was flicked, and without another word, she left like Cerberus himself was on her heels.
By the time Ladybug had arrived on the scene, half of Collège Françoise Dupont was up in flames. Chat Noir was nowhere to be found, but from a cursory glance, the students stayed a distance away from the burning building, seeming neither harmed nor controlled or otherwise affected aside from the bone-deep fright.
"Marinette! Where is Marinette!" the akuma—Manon—screeched.
"We don't know a Marinette," a student cried out in fear of the looming figure.
"Stop. Lying. To. Me!" She flung around her wand-holding arm in her rage of a tantrum.
Staunchly ignoring the rabbit hole of implications of Manon's demands, the heroine came up with her gamble of a plan. Trying to take the most efficient route, she cautiously approached a pastel pink Puppeteer, hand at the ready on her yoyo. From behind the akuma, she nabbed her wand and broke it in half on her knee.
But, nothing changed. Instead, her move only served to incense Manon, not unlike pouring water on sizzling oil.
"LADYBUG!" Manon yelled. "You remember Marinette, right?"
"N-" Ladybug moved to shake her head, but the akuma was quick to cut her off. "You wouldn't lie to me, right? Not you, the perfect sweetheart of Paris, right? Our darling heroine would never lie to a little kid? Right?"
Marinette weighed her options. It was an innocent child versus the entire world. Faith against fate.
Manon stared at her with the same hope-filled gaze she had once had when she wanted her plush dolls. It plunged her into memories she once resolved to forget. It made her weak.
She bit her lip.
"No. I've never heard of a Marinette."
But not weak enough.
"LIAR," she screamed, flinging tiny pink sparks from her fingertips in all directions.
Spinning her yoyo into a shield, Ladybug managed to repel all but one, the littlest of the bunch. But that was enough to damn her.
With its landing point as the origin, it spread from the soles of her feet to the tip of her waist at an alarming speed. The heroine was protected by the magic of the suit, but even through that, she could feel the burn of the pink flame. It was beyond what words could describe. She felt like she was bathing in a hearth straight from Tartarus. She could feel the conflicting magics tearing her apart and putting her back together, tendon by tendon.
In her haze, she could hear Manon roaring out, "If you won't reveal the truth, then just go reveal everything else. Hmph!"
Manon shot out a pink beam from her index finger, but before it could hit her, someone jumped in the way.
Adrien.
Gritting her teeth, Ladybug aggressively blinked her way into focus. Her former friend was in a similar blazing state. His face was deathly pale and covered with a sheen of sweat. His brows were scrunched tight, but still, he held on.
"S-Storyteller! I- I-" he stuttered out, jaw clenched and eyes shut tight.
Looking closer at the school, the brightest flame within came not from the objects set ablaze but from a group of teenagers—her old classmates—writhing in pain on the ground yet unable to escape from the fires of akuma-delivered retribution. They were beneath a fallen column in the innermost part of the building, crawling like worms to hide from the akuma's line of sight.
"I never wanted to be a model." The confession was pulled from Adrien's throat, word by word. "But it's the only I can do to remember maman."
The heroine had seen plenty of gruesome scenes in her time. From a city drowned and silenced to the screams of young children being beheaded, there was no shortage of such scenes in Paris.
But Manon—Storyteller—was a first. She didn't kill, no. She kept everyone alive in a perpetual cycle of torture.
It was cruel.
And it was her fault that this happened at all.
"I have hundreds of pictures of Ladybug on my phone. My... friend says I'm obsessed. I imagine meeting her, dating her, kissing her." Words spilled from Adrien's mouth like air escaping a punctured balloon, and at that, the flames licking at his torso eased an inch.
A sliver of repulsion shot through her at the admission, but she put that aside at her newest theory.
"Manon!" she yelled, shielding Adrien behind her. "I have something to say."
Her eyes darted around, looking for the akumatized object, but her mouth never stopped.
"You want to hear secrets right? I'm adopted," she said, but there was no change to the pink flames.
"No, no!" Manon stomped her feet. "I don't want your secrets, I want Marinette! I'm not the liar, it's everyone else!"
"Manon..." Ladybug slowly approached, hands held out in appeasement.
"It's a consh-pirah-see," the child screamed, and the flames burned brighter at her rage.
As the child spun in her agitation, a flash of unblemished white caught the heroine's eye. It wasn't visible from the front, but a ribbon gleaming like arctic ice trailed from Manon's hair.
Ladybug's eyes flashed.
"Marinette..." she enunciated slowly, catching Manon's attention. She approached the child at a snail's pace, careful not to startle her. "Did she go to school here?"
Manon's eyes flashed brighter, "Yes, yes! Marinette is real. You believe me, right?"
The heroine inched her right hand to her side, but the motion attracted the akuma's attention.
"Liar! I hate you! Give me your miraculous!"
Faster than the beam could reach her, she moved to seize Manon's ribbon.
Ladybug felt words bubbling in her throat, but she resisted. Who knew what sorts of world-ending secrets could escape her lips? The list was far too long, and the risk, magnitudes too great.
With veins throbbing on her skin while her heart and lungs burned with the desire to reveal, she ripped the ribbon straight through the middle, releasing the akuma and leaving behind a child with stained cheeks and puffy eyes.
Gasping for breath, the heroine caught the akuma before collapsing onto the pavement. Her city burned around her, but for once, she wanted to take a small, selfish break. Even if only for a moment.
Sprawled out on the ground, her chest rising rapidly, she heard the whimpers of a child who couldn't know better. She tasted the flames of desperation in the air, smelled the burnt ashes of hope. She saw Manon's heart break, and she felt her lose her faith in the world.
Marinette closed her eyes.
Another failure.
Preventable, necessary, agonizing failure.
Later, she would get up and be the hero Paris needed her to be. Later, she would be Ladybug. Now, she just wanted to be what she was— a child.
---
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Five Times Lila Lied to Marinette’s Family...
... And the One Time They Decided to Do Something About It.
(Request) Marinette was beginning to lose hope that anyone would believe her about her classmate’s lying habit... until her grandmother turned to her one day and said, “Jagged Stone is in England. What is this child talking about?” And, as they say, it was all downhill from there.
Notes:
I don’t usually do 5+1 fics anymore, but I had a good time reversing the trope that Mari’s family believes a literal stranger over their own blood.
1) Gina Dupain
Despite Grandparents’ Day being squarely during summer break, Dupont decided to hold a party to celebrate. Every student, current and upcoming, was invited along with their grandparents.
As it happened, this year Marinette’s grandma happened to be in town for the week, and when Tom mentioned the party at dinner, she was delighted.
“Oh, Marinette, why don’t we go?” She asked, turning to the teenager with sparkling eyes. “It will be fun! I haven’t gotten to properly meet your friends, either...”
Marinette paused in sipping her water, before setting the cup back down and nodding with a smile. “Sure, why not?”
-0-0-0-0-
The party was going smoothly, or as smooth as it could be, by the time the two walked over from the bakery. Gina had dressed up in her best pantsuit, and Marinette went in a nice blouse and capris.
Almost immediately, Marinette’s face brightened and she made to hurry away, but at the last second remembered her guest and tugged at her arm. “I see Alya. Let’s go.”
“Oh, Alya,” Gina murmured. “That’s your friend, right?”
“Yep, we’re best friends.”
“I see.” A smile spread across the older woman’s face.
“Mari!” Alya seemed to have spotted them too, as her own grin appeared and she reached to hug the noirette.
The two squeezed each other tight for a few seconds before they pulled away. Marinette looked to Nino with a smile, one that he returned.
“Alya, this is my grandma,” she introduced. “Nonna, this is my friend Alya, and her boyfriend, Nino.”
“It’s good to actually meet you properly this time!” Gina chuckled, nodding to the kids. “Dating already, are you? Goodness, you kids grow up too fast.”
“We just started dating this year, actually.” Alya smiled, locking her arm into Nino’s. “It’s nice to meet you, Marinette’s grandma!”
“Oh, please, call me Nonna.” Gina shook her head, eyes twinkling.
Marinette looked around with a slight frown. “Let me guess, Adrien couldn’t make it?”
“You know how his dad is,” Nino lamented with a huff, stuffing his hand in his pocket. “I doubt he even has grandparents to come, anyway, so he would’ve felt weird about it.”
“I suppose.” With a sigh, the girl wilted a little.
“Hey, cheer up.” Alya bumped her with her elbow, a secretive look on her face. “I know something that’ll cheer you up - Jagged Stone is coming to Paris again!”
The girl’s eyes widened as she searched her face. “Wait... really? When?”
“It’s supposed to be a secret, but since you’re my bestie I have it on good authority that he’s scheduling a trip next week.” With a wink, her friend added, “You can thank Lila for that info!”
Gina watched as her granddaughter’s demeanor changed. In an instant her surprise wilted into suspicion, only for a moment, before she schooled her face into a more neutral expression. “Oh, is that so?”
“Yeah, she’s here if you wanna get it straight from her if you want!”
Exchanging a look with her grandma, Marinette forced a smile. “You know what? Sure. Let me hear it from the source.”
She almost felt bad at the way Alya brightened up. Turning to her boyfriend with a murmur, she rushed off, pulling him in tow.
“What was that about, Marinette?” She questioned.
“Oh, just a girl in my class.” She answered halfheartedly with a shrug. “She has all these impossible stories she likes to tell. I’m not sure a lot of them are real, but everyone else seems to buy them.”
With a frown, the woman hummed in thought. Glancing down the hallway to where the girl and boy had run off to, she mused, “Jagged Stone is in England. What is this child talking about?”
Marinette froze, out of the corner of her eye.
“I’ve been meaning to keep it a secret, but for your birthday I’ve been speaking with your parents to take you to a concert of his.” She smiled in amusement at her granddaughter’s surprise. “Unfortunately, he’s going to be in England for another few weeks, so we would have to go out of the country for it.”
“Oh, Grandma,” Marinette breathed, wrapping her arms around her in a tight hug.
“It’s not the surprise gift I wanted it to be, but-- Marinette?” Gina paused, concerned, when she felt wetness gathering on the front of her blouse. “Are you alright?”
“I’m-- I’m just fine,” came a little sniffle from below. “I’m perfect, actually.”
2) Roland Dupain
“Marinette!” Roland greeted happily, opening his arms so that his granddaughter could throw herself in for a hug. “So good to see you. How have you been?”
“I’ve been well, Grandpa,” she answered happily as she squeezed the old man tight before pulling away. “How are you?”
“Much better now!” He stepped out of the doorway, allowing her in. “Apparently Paris is trying a new youth program, calls it the Senior Outreach Program.” He snorted. “I’m far from senior, I’m still in my prime. But anyway, they sent the most charming little girl - she’s been helping me get used to all this confounded new technology.”
“That’s great, Grandpa,” Marinette answered, hanging her coat up by the door as he shut it.
“Yes, I think she goes to your school,” he said next, and it sent a pang of dread through her body. “Lila Rossi, is it? She’s had a lot to say about how welcoming your friends are.”
And there it was.
Marinette tried her best to smile at him, though it came out looking almost constipated. “Oh, really? How nice.”
“I admit, I was a little skeptical at first, but apparently she grew up in the same exact region of Italy that I lived in for a time!” He chuckled. “Very small world, isn’t it? We had a wonderful time talking about our families’ traditions and recipes. Turns out she’s related to the Marianis! Isn’t that neat?”
“She is?” Well, that would be news to her. Marinette gently said, “Grandpa, she’s been telling all of us that she’s related to the current president of Italy. There’s been no mention of the Mariani family or anything - not even when I mentioned having Italian ancestors.”
“Eh? Really?” He squinted. “Marinette, ancestry doesn’t just go one way, you know.”
“Believe me, if she was related to one of the oldest restaurant-owning families in Italy, she would have mentioned it, especially after Alya told her my parents own a bakery.” She insisted with a frown. “Especially since she’s apparently gluten-intolerant.”
This got Roland’s attention. “Gluten intolerance?! She helped me bake a loaf of bread just yesterday! She didn’t mention anything about any gluten intolerance, or whatever you kids are making up these days!”
“She’s a liar, Grandpa,” She answered.
“Well!” He scoffed with a scowl, turning to head for the landline. “I’ll be having words about this with her supervisor! Sending me a child with a supposed ‘gluten allergy’... of all the nerve...!”
All Marinette could do was sigh as he grumbled to himself while dialing, hoping that her time with her grandfather hadn’t been spoiled.
3) Wang Cheng
"Uncle Wang?” Marinette startled in surprise as her great-uncle walked into the room with a smile. “What are you doing here? Where’s Papa?”
“I’m going to be the one giving the cooking lesson today,” he replied, patting her on the head as he passed. Setting down the giant pot he’d brought with him, he asked, “Has your mother taught you how to make xiaolongbao yet?”
“Ah, no, not yet,” she sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. “We’ve both been too busy to try. The bakery got a huge order this week, and I’m trying to plan a picnic day for the class...”
The man seemed a little disappointed, but he shrugged. “Well, that’s alright. Perhaps I can stop in and we can make them together, all three of us.”
“That would be great!” His little great-niece smiled up at him, and it warmed his heart.
-0-0-0-0-
The cooking lesson went on without a hitch - someone had spoken to Chloe, he surmised, because the blonde teenager didn’t so much as look at him the whole time and allowed Sabrina to mix the ingredients into the soup for her.
There was someone new here this time, however - a brunette with long hair and a tanned complexion, one who was chatting amiably with a couple of other girls as they mixed their soup together. Or rather, she was not; her partners were mixing it for her, as she claimed she’d sprained her wrist. Marinette had just rolled her eyes, surprising the man. That was not like his great-niece, or so he’d thought.
Indeed, the girl spent much of her time waving her wrist about, this way and that - but whenever he walked over to inspect their progress, suddenly it was still and limp again on the table, a doe-eyed, innocent look on her face. It was all too suspicious.
By the end of class, he leaned in to Marinette’s ear and whispered, Marinette, who is that girl with the sprained wrist?”
“That’s Lila,” she responded dismissively. “She’s lying about her wrist being sprained. She just doesn’t want to make soup today.”
Oh. Well that was troubling information. “Does she not like soup?”
“I don’t know, but if she’s in a group she’ll find any way to get out of doing work that she can.” She spared a sympathetic glance to the two girls with her. “I feel bad for Juleka and Rose, honestly. Rose is so kind that she can’t bear it if she can’t help someone in need, and Juleka seems to believe her wild stories...”
Most troubling indeed.
“I see,” said the man, gathering up his supplies. “Well. Have a good day, Marinette. I’m coming over for dinner - perhaps then I can help you and Sabine.”
Her answering smile made the troubling clouds over his mind dissipate somewhat.
4) Tom Dupain
Tom hadn’t expecting the volume of middle-schoolers walking into his bakery one afternoon. But the happy chatter and smiling faces of his daughter’s classmates were no unwelcome sight as he fixed a smile on his face and leaned forward. “Welcome! What can I get for you today?”
“We wanted to bring Lila to check out your bakery,” Adrien explained with a winning smile as the girl in question shuffled behind him. “She’s never had proper French pastries before and was curious to try some.”
“Oh, of course! Lila, is it? You’re my daughter’s new classmate.” He nodded politely to the brunette. “What would you like? We’ve got a large arrangement.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” the girl seemed timid, like a fawn, her large eyes looking back and forth across the display case. “I hate having so many choices...”
“Well, might I recommend an éclair?” He gestured to the little plate of custard-filled dough. “We’ve got chocolate, raspberry, and orange as our specialties today.”
“That sounds marvelous, I’ll take orange, please.” The girl flashed a pleasant expression.
“Orange it is!” He turned to pluck one of the pastries carefully, placing it in a liner and setting it on the counter. “Since you’re one of Marinette’s classmates, I’ll give you a discount - just €2.75.”
“O- oh,” here came a disappointed frown. “I, ah, this is embarrassing. I forgot my wallet today.”
“Oh, it’s no problem!” Alya spoke up, raising her own. “I’ll cover for you.”
“You really don’t have to,” she simpered.
“You’re our friend,” she reassured with a wink. “I’ll pay for it, Mr. Dupain.”
“Alright, is there anything else I can get you kids?” He accepted the notes and gave her change before handing the éclair to the brunette.
One by one the other kids spoke up, happily asking for this or that, until Adrien said, “I’d like a gougere, please.”
Tom chuckled, winking at the blond. “Cheese bread? I thought the day would never come. No problem.” As soon as he walked a few steps away to grab it, he heard it.
“Oh...” A tiny murmur from the brunette girl, Lila, he’d noted.
“What’s wrong?” Alya was asking quietly.
“I... I forgot I’m lactose intolerant,” she sheepishly answered. “I didn’t bring my medicine with me. And this is kind of stale...”
“Oh, girl, why didn’t you say something? Why’d you choose the éclair?”
“I didn’t want to cause trouble...”
As he turned back around, Alya straightened up and Lila paused her squirming.
“Is there a problem?” He asked kindly.
“Lila’s éclair is stale,” she stated. “And she’s lactose intolerant.”
“Stale? Already?” His brows raised to his hairline. “I just made them this morning. Are you certain?”
“This is why I didn’t want to say anything,” the girl muttered as she covered her face with one hand. “This is so embarrassing, Alya...”
“Forgive me, but I make my pastries at most a day in advance, and that’s for more complicated things like mille-feuille,” he explained. “Why didn’t you speak up? I’d have gotten you something lactose-free from the back. We always try to cater to customers with food allergies.”
“I forgot,” she said quietly.
“Well,” Tom sighed, “Are you feeling alright? Do you need some Lactaid?”
“I’ll be fine,” Lila insisted, though a troubled expression came over her face.
“If you don’t want it, I’ll eat it,” Nino volunteered.
“A free éclair? Heck no, I’ll eat it,” Kim retorted.
Tom stood there, brow furrowed in thought, as he handed Adrien his bread. The boy looked uncomfortable and apologetic, even as he paid for it.
He would have to speak with Marinette about this development.
5) Sabine Cheng
“Marinette?” Sabine gently knocked on her daughter’s door after dinner with a plate of cut strawberries and whipped cream in hand, brow knit in concern despite the frustration still smoldering in her chest. “Baozi?”
A shuffling from inside, and her daughter’s emotion-choked voice cracked, “What?”
Sabine hesitated. What could she say to make things better? She hated fighting with her - she hated fighting with anyone, at that - and while her head was screaming one thing, her heart was pleading another.
“Are you... are you alright?” She tried instead, her voice dropping into a more worried tone at how desolate she sounded.
There was another pause, before Marinette’s voice answered again, sounding much worse. “No.”
Sabine gave a quiet sigh. “Can I come in?”
Don’t be like your mother, her heart whispered. Talk to her. Be understanding.
At a noncommittal noise, she took a chance. Opening the door a crack, she peeked in to see no Marinette in sight; but when she looked up at the girl’s bed, a head poked up to look.
“I brought you dessert, since you missed it,” she explained as gently as she could, a grimacing smile on her face. “Why don’t you come down so we can talk it out?”
For a moment, the girl didn’t move.
Then, finally, after ducking her head back down and something akin to soft murmuring from above, she slowly slid out of bed, covers retracting to show her mussed hair and blotchy face.
Sabine’s latent anger finally began to flicker out, and her eyes softened as Marinette slowly came down.
“Oh, bǎobèi,” she murmured, setting the plate down on the chaise and opening her arms.
Without a word, her daughter flung herself into them and squeezed her tight, hiccupping as the tears began to flow again.
“I’m sorry,” she whimpered. “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”
“I’m sorry for yelling too, Marinette,” Sabine soothed, brushing back her hair and holding her tight. Her heart ached for her teenage daughter as she began to cry, soaking the front of her shirt. “I would like to understand what’s going on instead of fight you about it. Will you tell me, so I can make things better?”
Marinette shakily nodded and hummed a response. As she pulled back, her face red from her tears, she answered, “There’s-- there’s this girl. In my class.”
“Go on,” the mother encouraged, brow knit in concern.
“And- and she lies, like all the time, and I’m the only one that knows she’s lying.” She sniffled, brushing away strands of hair that stuck to her face. “None of my friends believe me about anything she says, and-- and Adrien--”
“Breathe, sweetheart,” Sabine gently ordered, brushing a thumb across her cheek. “What about Adrien? Doesn’t he stand up for you?”
“No!” Marinette burst, fresh hot tears spilling down her cheeks. “All he said was that she isn’t hurting anyone with her lies, but-- but she’s hurting me! She’s hurting everyone because they believe her about all these things she promises, and-- and I don’t want them to be disappointed and upset when she doesn’t pull through!”
Sabine’s eyes hardened and she nodded, painful memories of her husband’s akumatization fresh in their memories. Tom had been so distraught, worrying about Marinette falling prey to that horrible butterfly-toting villain tonight.
“I’m trying so hard not to say anything about it, but-- but now she’s lying to you, and I can’t stand it!” Marinette sobbed, hiding her face in her mother’s chest. “I’m not bullying anyone, I swear! I’m not like Chloe!”
“I believe you, bǎobèi,” her mother soothed, running her fingers through her hair. “I was shocked, and upset, but I believe you. We’ve raised you better than that.”
“I’m just so tired of being singled out all the time,” she sniffled. “The very first day she came back to school, she threatened to steal all of my friends. And it’s working. I don’t want her lying to my family too!”
Sabine continued to murmur to her, holding her tight. It broke her heart to see her daughter so broken over this, and as she sat with her, listening to her talk about everything that had happened in the past month, the fiery anger in her gut rekindled itself - though not at Marinette.
She had to do something about this. But first, she thought, offering a cream-covered strawberry slice to her sniffling teenager, to comfort Marinette.
+1) They Do Something About It
The next morning, Tom and Sabine, along with Tom’s parents and Sabine’s uncle, marched over to the school, box of pastries in hand. After talking about it for much of the night previously, they had come to the conclusion that something needed to be done about their daughter’s new bully.
Principal Damocles spluttered in surprise as they entered his office. “Oh, well- well hello, Mr. Dupain, Mrs. Cheng, ah - Dupains, and...”
“Wang Cheng,” the man offered. “I’m Marinette’s great-uncle.”
Damocles squinted for a moment, before adding, “Chengs. What, ah, what brings you here this morning? Classes have only just begun.”
“We need to discuss something very important with you, Principal,” Tom answered, extending the box. “But first, would you like a pastry? Freshly baked.”
The bearded man’s eyes lit up in delight. “Don’t mind if I do, thank you.”
Roland and Gina sat down before his desk, the rest standing, as he picked out a croissant with butter glistening along its still-steaming surface, watching as he carefully ate it above the napkin provided.
“Now,” said Sabine pleasantly, “We’ve had some concerns over behavior coming from our daughter’s classroom lately. Perhaps you could lend your thoughts about the situation?”
“Miss Bustier’s classroom?” He questioned, wiping his beard free of crumbs. “Ah, yes, yes, I’ve heard some concerns from her about some developing behavioral problems between a couple of her students. Your daughter has been... acting rather bizarre, as of late.”
“Bizarre how?” Tom questioned. “Bizarre as in being rude and bullying her friends, or bizarre as in coming to class early?”
“Bizarre as in, oh, how to put this gently...” Damocles cleared his throat and threaded his fingers together. “Dupain, Cheng, your daughter has been unfairly targeting another student for perceived wrongs and causing distress on her part.”
Sabine’s eyes darkened for a second, before Tom spoke up. “Principal Damocles, I’m afraid we’ve heard another thing entirely - and it’s not just us, but her grandparents and great-uncle as well.”
“That’s right!” Roland added, a grumpy frown on his face.
“My great-niece would never bully someone,” Wang’s face was pinched with disappointment. “Are you sure you’ve heard correctly?”
“Unfortunately so.” Damocles pressed a button on the intercom. “Madame Bustier, would you please make your way to the principal’s office?”
“The stories we’ve heard at home have been quite different,” Sabine said as soon as his finger left the button. “My daughter was distraught when we told her about the girl she’d supposedly been bullying. She doesn’t have a mean bone in her body!”
“I have had evidence of the girl lying, myself,” Gina supplied, folding her arms across her chest. “This past July, in fact. However long this has been going on, I’m disappointed that it’s gone as long as it has.”
“W- well,” the principal cleared his throat, “surely her teacher will have more to add that I cannot.”
As if on cue, there was a polite knock at the door and he called, “Come in, please.”
Caline Bustier stopped short as she stepped into the office, brow knit in confusion and concern when she saw the group. “Um, you called for me, principal Damocles?”
“Yes, yes, please, come in,” he answered. “I’m sorry for pulling you away from your instructions, but I would like your input on a discussion.”
“Of course,” said the redhead, and as she closed the door and walked in, she smiled at Tom and Sabine. “Hello, Mr. Dupain, Mrs. Cheng.”
“Madame Bustier, it’s come to our attention that our daughter is being bullied right under your nose,” Sabine said bluntly, causing the teacher to startle. “Yet the story we’re hearing from school is that she’s the one doing the bullying?”
“Oh, well- bullying is a strong term,” she answered hesitantly, clasping her hands together. “But yes, there have been some disagreements going on in the classroom recently, involving Marinette and another student.”
“I do hope you aren’t about to tell me my own daughter would cry and lie to me about a girl promising to make her school life terrible.” The woman’s eyes narrowed.
“She- she said that?” Caline stopped short, a shocked pull to her expression. “Who on earth would tell her that?”
“The very girl she’s supposedly bullying,” Tom answered for her, folding his arms across his chest. “A girl named Lila. And nothing is being done to keep her safe from bully behavior? I have to say I’m very disappointed in Dupont. Marinette has been being bullied by Chloe Bourgeois for years now, and not once has anything been done to remedy that. Now another student is bullying my daughter and the report from school is that she’s the one being a bully? Not my Marinette.”
“That’s right,” added Gina with a frown. “My granddaughter is not the type to be a bully.”
“I understand that you may have some contrary opinions, being that it is your daughter, but unfortunately this issue has been going on for quite a while now.” Caline had the audacity to look disappointedly at them. “Marinette is supposed to be a representative for our classroom, but has fallen quite short in being an example.”
“Give me examples of her bullying,” Sabine ordered. Behind her, Wang placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.
“Well,” said the younger woman, “there was an incident on Lila’s first day of school. She was happily making friends, but Marinette tried to dissuade them and paint her in a bad light. I, personally, thought she was jealous, and I tried to stand up for the new student.”
“Jealous, perhaps, but Marinette would never warn others away just because of that. We’ve raised her to be truthful and justice-minded.” Tom retorted. “What else?”
“Well, there is the fact that she continues to be obstinate and stubbornly refuses to accept Lila’s ailments.” Ticking them off on her fingers, “she has admitted to a number of allergies and injuries that Marinette has mocked and called her a liar for, she has refused to help her out when she needs it, and has led a bad example for the other students when it comes to accepting someone different.”
“Well?” Roland demanded next. “Have you verified those allergies and injuries? Because she never told me about any gluten allergy, and I made bread with her! She didn’t look sick to me!”
“Not all allergies and ailments manifest themselves the same,” Damocles reminded.
“She should’ve at least looked sick!” The old man retorted. “Tom told me all about gluten intolerance - not once did she even look it! And now you’re telling me my granddaughter is dismissive of something like that? Not on your life, she isn’t!”
“Marinette goes above and beyond in trying to help others, even when it negatively affects her,” Wang added. “In fact, I distinctly remember hearing that she was a star student in your classroom at the beginning of this year. She’s never once gotten in trouble for bullying, and it’s not like her to suddenly become nasty.”
“W- well,” Caline shifted from foot to foot, unsure, “there is a matter of personal drama between girls, but...”
“Are you telling me my daughter would bully someone else just because they like the same boy?” Sabine’s voice was deadly quiet.
“I’m not saying so, but I am saying--”
“You’re saying that my daughter is so flighty and possessive that she would emulate Chloe Bourgeois just because a new girl happens to have a crush.” Tom flatly accused. “Believe me, Madame Bustier, I’ve been on the receiving end of many, many discussions about this boy she likes, and not once has she ever shown signs of being this person you’re telling me she’s becoming.”
“You haven’t had to teach her for several hours a day almost every day of the week.” The redhead’s face was pinched.
“So allow me to sit in one day, just so I can see what kind of situation my daughter is in,” Sabine pressured. “Let me see what’s happening with my own eyes.”
“That wouldn’t be a very good way of diagnosing the issue, Mrs. Cheng,” Damocles patiently explained. “If Marinette knew her mother was going to be in class with her, she would be on her best behavior.”
“But would the other students?” She pressured, leaning in. “What reason do they have to care about my approval? My daughter’s bully certainly doesn’t - do you remember the time she tried to frame my daughter for pulling the fire alarm and stealing her bracelet? Because Tom and I certainly do. Do you remember when she showed blatantly racist behavior towards my uncle and ruined his soup, getting him akumatized? Because we certainly do. You have done nothing to curtail the treatment she has been getting for years now, and we are sick and tired of having to watch our daughter become this anxious, beaten dog of a person because you don’t feel like doing your job.”
“If we stir up trouble with her father, our school’s good standing would suffer tremendously,” the principal defended.
“You would look the other way on a deviant’s behavior just because of who her father is? You disgust me, Damocles. I thought this school had more integrity than that, but I suppose I was wrong.” Anger finally flashed in the father’s eyes, and he leaned in, towering over the balding man. “If you cannot get your affairs in order and start cracking down on this misbehavior, then we are pulling Marinette out - and you can say goodbye to the extra services we’ve been offering the school. No student discounts on baked goods, no baking lessons, no catering - no nothing!”
Caline and Damocles watched helplessly as the family stood, angry and disappointed with them.
“For a school named after a famous hero of France, you sure are showing how villainous you can be,” Sabine bit out, hands clenched. “We’re taking Marinette home early today, at lunchtime. If I hear one more ill word from her about this bullying situation, we’re reporting you to the Ministry of National Education. And don’t you even think about strong-arming her into staying silent about this - Marinette knows she can trust us, and I will not stand for anyone blackmailing my daughter into suffering in silence.”
“You need to investigate this girl,” Wang scolded. “More than once my great-niece has told me she fakes her injuries to get out of doing her fair share of work. She faked a sprained wrist when I helped your class with their cooking lesson - where is her mother? Does she know her daughter is getting hurt all the time with nobody else to help her but her classmates and friends?”
“At the very least, you need to discipline her,” Tom emphasized. “If she truly isn’t acting maliciously, you need to help her understand what behavior is and is not acceptable at school. You are educators. You need to act like it instead of kowtowing to every last little whim of your children; today’s youth needs guidance, not friends.”
“Of- of course, Mr. Dupain, Mrs. Cheng,” Damocles stammered. “Is- is that all?”
“We’ve said our piece. The rest is up to you.” With a cold smile, the parents added, “Good day to you both, Principal, Madame.”
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SvtFoE Rhombulus Rewrite (Pt. 4)
You know the drill. Go to here if you don’t. So, this post is gonna be a bit different. I was working really hard on the Season 4 rewrite, but it was ridiculously long. At one point, it was twice as long as my previous posts, if not longer, and I was only about halfway through! This was because Season 4 will have the most changes from canon, as well as some new scenes and maybe even new episodes. Some episodes will go through major changes too. In order to get this part out sooner and also not rush myself among other things, I decided to split this post in half. So this post, Part 4 of the rewrite, will be the first half of my rewrite for Season 4 (not including the final few episodes since I have a special plan for those). I will post Part 5 of the rewrite when it’s finished, which might take a few days (though I’ve made a lot of progress on it). So I hope you like this and sorry for the wait. Warning: Super extra long since I am going to add in some new episodes and rewrite other ones completely.
Season 4 (Part 1):
- We start off not during “Swim Suit”, but earlier in the season, because Rhombulus is getting his arc this season and I am promoting him to major character. He isn’t quite gonna be a part of Star’s main friendgroup, but he is going to play a more important role in the story and, as I said, he is having an arc (unlike most people here).
- I will ignore episode constraints and maybe even pretend to take out stuff involving shipping drama in order to throw in the actually important/interesting stuff. Rhombulus needs more screen time and this is his season to really grow, and I will make that happen, no matter how many shippers I have to kill to do it.
- Also, one final thing is that Hekapoo probably won’t be getting her whole poorly done “redemption” in this rewrite. One reason can be summed up in this video, while the other can be briefly explained as: the writers probably only redeemed her because she is a fan favorite and not because it is in character for her. Also, they definitely switched out Rhombulus and Hekapoo’s roles in the story. I am simply switching them back.
- It doesn’t mean that I don’t like Hekapoo or that I’m gonna be completely villainizing her and think that you should hate her. I just think that her role in the story is not the same as the role Rhombulus deserved. One of my endings does give the whole MHC a redemption arc though, so there’s that.
- Anyways, here we go.
- Rhombulus will make a short appearance in “Butterfly Follies” when he and Star accidently run into each other in the palace. Rhombulus is very awkward around Star, mainly due to the fact that they haven’t really had a proper talk since the trial, or even gotten to talk about the trial. Rhombulus is about to ask if he and Star can talk, but Star picks up on this pretty quickly and asks if they can talk sometime later.
- Rhombulus agrees, but first asks her if she can talk with Eclipsa about the whole “no imprisoning monsters” law. He’s not sure how to approach Eclipsa about it, but a lot of the people in his crystals are monsters, and he “can’t free all of them! There would be anarchy!” Star says she’ll try, and they part ways.
- The next episode he’s in is “Swim Suit”, which will be the same as before and yet very different, but mainly, very important. I might rename this one “Crystal Prism Prisoner” as well. The episode will not start out with Star prepping for beach day, as that can happen in another episode.
- Instead, it will start out with her getting ready to take a nap, when she is suddenly woken up by a panicked Eclipsa, who leads her to the room where Globgor is imprisoned. Inside is Rhombulus in hypnoslumber.
- Star also panics at this, and asks what happened. Eclipsa quickly explains that she tried asking him about maybe having him free Globgor, and he denied doing so, and they got into a small arguement. Then he started to leave out of frustration, and she panicked and cast hypnoslumber on him.
- Star, exasparated, tells Eclipsa to undo the spell so she can help them work things out. Eclipsa undoes the spell, and Rhombulus wakes up completely p*ssed off.
- He starts yelling at Eclipsa, saying that that was really messed up and that he thought things were okay between them, but Star cuts him off and says that he’s allowed to be mad, but they would be all better off if they worked things out.
- Rhombulus reluctantly agrees, and Star sits the two supposed adults down to work things out. It’s kinda like preschool. She makes sure Eclipsa says her side, then Rhombulus says his side. Star then asks what they might be able to do to fix this problem. Rhombulus childishly says that Eclipsa can find something better to do then harrass him about freeing Globgor, and they start arguing again.
- Rhombulus ends up saying a few legitimately hurtful things in a moment of frustration, and Eclipsa responds in turn with another spell. This starts a physical fight.
- Star has had a long week, and this isn’t helping. Completely fed up, she drags the two of them into a room in the castle, takes away the wand, locks both Eclipsa and Rhombulus in the room together, and tells them that they can work it out themselves and that they’re not gonna come out of that room until they sort things out. To reenforce this, she puts a spell on the whole room that makes sure they won’t get out any time soon.
- After a few minutes of silence, Eclipsa gets back into the Globgor thing, and this immediately frusturates Rhombulus. They start arguing again, and it eventually turns to whether or not Globgor is actually evil.
- Eclipsa finally shouts “YOU BARELY KNOW HIM! WHY DO YOU THINK HE’S SO EVIL?!”
- Rhombulus snaps back “Because I’ve seen what kind of person he is! The damage he’s done! I was there during his rampage right before I crystalized him! I’ve the ruins of the villages he’s destroyed!” He gets less angry and more sad and upset (and a little bit scared?). His voice gets softer and quieter as his eye starts to stare off, remembering things from hundreds of years ago.
- “I’ve met the soldiers who went to battles against him and didn’t come back. I’ve heard all the horror stories and eye witness accounts. I know that he took no prisoners. I’ve had to defend villages against his wrath. I’ve seen him fight. I’ve fought against him.” He wraps his arms and tails around himself. “It’s terrifying.”
- Eclipsa is slightly shocked that he would open up to her like this, and she isn’t sure how to react. She says that she’s sorry that he had to go through all that when he was still pretty young, and that she understands why Rhombulus wouldn’t want to free Globgor.
- But Eclipsa also finally decides to open up to Rhombulus about why she’s so desparate to free Globgor. She explains that she never felt like anyone ever really understood her as a person, but Globgor was someone who was always willing to listen. He changed and evolved as a person, going from violent and cruel to kind, loving, and well meaning.
- They grew together as people, and he was very important to her. So when she lost him, she didn’t know what to do with herself or how to move on. And now she’s in a whole new time period trying to be a good queen and raise a baby all at once. She begins to tear up, ending with “I don’t think I can do all this without him. I need him.”
- This strikes a cord in Rhombulus, as he remembers losing Lekmet, the grief he felt, and the grief he still feels.
- Eclipsa says that this is the last time she’ll ask, and if he says no, she won’t bring it up again, but she just wants to ask one last time if he will free Globgor.
- Rhombulus becomes very indecisive. After a few moments of thinking very hard, he finally says “I’ll...think about it.” Eclipsa says that that’s all she needs, and Rhombulus, head full of thoughts, leaves.
- He runs into Star, who was waiting outside, and she smiles at him knowingly. She says “sooooo, I’m assuming you guys worked things out?” Rhombulus says yes, and thanks her for her help. He then takes this chance to properly talk with her about the trial.
- He apologizes for lying and says he wants to make up for his past mistakes. Star says that while he and the MHC really messed up in the past, she’s glad that he revealed the truth and he’s clearly trying to make up for it. They agree to become friends again. End of the episode.
- I’ve decided to replace “Yada Yada Berries” with my own episode because it was very easy to add in the important bits and it was also very expendable. Sorry if you liked that episode. I don’t really care about it though. This new episode is called “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” because it fits and I’m basic.
- The first minute will be dedicated to introducing the idea of that episode, complete with the Eclipsa assasination attempt, but we won’t get to see the big mystery solving stuff. This episode is actually about Rhombulus and the MHC.
- Basically, the premise is that Rhombulus is still thinking about the thing with Globgor, and he decides to reach out to the rest of the MHC for advice. This will be used to help explore the different dynamics/relationships Rhombulus has with each member of his whole family.
- First is Hekapoo, who is the one he feels closest to (besides Lekmet but you know...), and she feels pretty close to him, despite their disagreements. Unfortunately, closeness does not prevent a lack of communication.
- In this scene, Rhombulus is clearly trying to talk with his older sister about the Globgor thing, but she keeps on accidentally brushing him off and ignoring what he’s trying to say. Hekapoo clearly cares a lot about him, but has a tendency to be dismissive of his feelings. She also sees him as a little kid (he kinda is, but his concerns should still be taken seriously), and ends up patronizing him.
- Eventually he slightly lashes out at her, saying that she always treats him like a little kid, and Hekapoo immediately gets annoyed, snapping back that outbursts like that are the exact reason she treats him the way she does. They start arguing, and eventually, Rhombulus shouts that he was going to ask her for some advice, but she’s clearly not going to be helpful to him, before he storms off.
- This conversation shows the tensions in their relationship, and a bit of how Rhombulus is ignored even by those closest to him.
- The next person Rhombulus goes to see is Omnitraxus. Rhombulus and Omni aren’t particularly close, but Rhombulus still kinda looks up to him, seeing his older brother as really cool and powerful, but also intimidating.
- There conversation is the shortest, as Omni is pretty dismissive of Rhombulus as well, but less in the way some might dismiss a little kid, and more him trying to redirect the conversation to more bureaucratic stuff.
- They basically have a very distant relationship. But this conversation does tell us a few small things about Omni. First off, he is the most formal, and prefers to focus in on things related to their jobs. He follows protocol and orders to a T, having full confidence that what he and the rest of the MHC are doing is right. This can clash with the others, as some are more focused on emotions and the like.
- Omni also isn’t really a huge bigot, as he doesn’t despise monsters the way some Mewmans do. After all, in the Magic Book Of Spells, he does sometimes advocate for peace. He’s simply more…apathetic and neautral. Still racist, but not super extremist. Honestly, he does express that his main problem with Eclipsa is her use of Dark Magic and how she abandoned he duties.
- He will even say this to Rhombulus, stating that he doesn’t have a problem with monsters, he just wants to follow the system and keep the balance.
- Omni isn’t very helpful to Rhombulus, but the crystalhead doesn’t really say this, he just reluctantly leaves.
- Getting slightly frustrated, Rhombulus decides to visit someone he hasn’t seen in a long time: Reynaldo. This scene is...sad.
- There’s also a lot of pauses and silence in it. I might not even add much background noise. While the other scenes have more movement and white noise in them, this one won’t have much of that.
- Reynaldo and Rhombulus’ greetings to each other are slightly awkward, and as I said, there will be quite a few awkward pauses in the conversation. I’m not going to do rhymes for Reynaldo’s dialouge right now because I don’t feel like writing out that stuff right now.
- Reynaldo asks Rhombulus why he’s here, and Rhombulus says he needs some advice. Reynaldo asks him why he doesn’t just go to Lekmet about it. Rhombulus is quietly forced to admit that Lekmet passed away a few months ago.
- Reynaldo’s reaction is not said, and changes very quickly over the course of a couple of seconds, all done in one still shot, but it tells a bit of a story. He first looks shocked, freezing up with an almost blank expression on his face. Next comes an extreme wave of grief and sadness. He then looks almost angry. Nobody told him. He wasn’t even invited to the funeral.
- He looks almost as though he is ready to lash out, before he glances at Rhombulus for a second and looks sad again. Despite being the youngest, Rhombulus was arguably the closest to Lekmet, and it’s likely he was absolutely heartbroken about his death.
- Lekmet changes the subject by asking what Rhombulus wanted to talk to him about. Rhombulus chooses to be slightly vague, saying that he feels like he might have misjudged someone and really messed up someone else’s life and family by crystalizing certain people.
- He’s considering setting a person free, but he also is wondering if that will make things even worse, whether they deserve it or not. It’s almost like no matter what choice he makes, it will always be the wrong one, and he’ll always end up disappointing someone. Just like all the time. Maybe this is why he’s Glossaryck’s least favorite child.
- He starts getting a little self depricating, when he is suddenly wacked on the head by a paddle. Reynaldo tells him that that’s not true. Rhombulus argues “but Glossaryck-” but Reynaldo tells him that he shouldn’t let Glossaryck’s opinion shouldn’t determine his self worth. Rhombulus grumbles that Reynaldo cares about Glossaryck’s opinion of him, and before immediately regretting this and apologising.
- Reynaldo doesn’t have a response to this, and it’s quiet again for a few seconds as Reynaldo continues rowing down the river. Then he speaks up again and says that giving someone a chance couldn’t hurt, and if it turns out to be a mistake, he can always recrystalize the person later.
- Rhombulus thanks him, and Reynaldo drops him back off. Before Rhombulus leaves, Reynaldo asks him if he could visit again sometime, to at least tell him how it went. Rhombulus says yes to this.
- At the end of the day, Rhombulus really wants the rest of his family to take him seriously, and there’s a sense of loneliness to his character. I was going to add some other scenes to this episode besides the next one coming up, but the scene with Reynaldo honestly spoke more than the others could, and It’s my favorite in this episode.
- Rhombulus then decides to talk to Hekapoo and Omni again, and chooses to call a small meeting between the three of them. He’s about to pitch his idea, when one of the other two interrupts him and tells him they have something they need him to do.
- Hekapoo and Omni have a lot of duties they need to fulfill outside Mewni, and they might not be able to check in quite as often. This will leave Rhombulus as the only member of the MHC still in Mewni. That’s why they would like him to low key spy on Eclipsa for them. End of episode, probably. Unless I feel like extending this final scene. But I don’t right now. So yeah, end of episode.
- In this video by Sarcastic Chorus (at timestamp 8:12), he points out that part of the problem in the later season of Star Vs. is that basically almost all the Mewmans are unlikeable, one particular example being the family in “Down by the River”.
- I decided to remedy this by having the family in that episode not be annoying jerks and instead focus the episode less on some people annoying Moon and River, and more on the flaws in Eclipsa’s new policies. The Mewman family is actually pretty nice, and they start the village with Moon later on.
- But, though they weren’t originally particularly racist (at most, they were ignorant), the family’s experience being kicked out of their home did have an affect on them, and it’s implied that it’s caused them to slightly resent monsters. This makes them easy to radicalize.
- But enough about that.
- I’ve decided to add an episode between “Surviving the Spiderbites” and “Out of Business”. This full length episode will be important not only to the Rhombulus rewrite, but it will add more to Eclipsa and Globgor as well. This is because it is a bit of a flashback episode for both of them.
- The episode is called “What Remains of My Family” and is a flashback to a series of events; Meteora being switched out, Shastican being eaten, and Globgor/Eclipsa being crystalized. These events will be told from 3 POVs: Rhombulus, Eclipsa, and Globgor.
- But they will all be in the form of dream sequences. Or maybe not. I’d need to decide. But I think the dream sequence idea could capture some of the feelings of each event and the hazy POVs. It might be slightly like Beatrice’s dementia sequences from Bojack, in the fact that most of them are technically correct retellings, but also a bit twisted and exaggerated. It will also help us see how each of the characters view things the way they do.
- First, we start out with Rhombulus’ POV, and get to see LITTLE RHOMBULUS. He’s not super little, but clearly a bit more of a child, as he is only about 100 years old in this flashback. He physically and mentally about 7 years old in this. In Rhombulus’ version, he’ll seem a bit more mature, but still pretty young, and act a lot younger than usual. Because it was his POV, he views himself as more mature, but his actual actions say otherwise.
- Rhombulus is outside playing a game with a couple of figurines he made out of crystals. In his power set, he will have some mild control over the shape of the crystals, but he practices size rather than shape, so he doesn’t often make things out of his crystals anymore. Besides, he’s out of practice in the timeline of the show.
- In this episode though, he’s using his figurines to reenact his most recent battle, and it is very cute. At this point in time, Rhombulus has been fighting on the battlefield more than anyone else in the MHC, and never really had a proper childhood. He’s been exposed to the horrors of war, and isn’t completely innocent. But he still has some of that child-like wonder and playfulness.
- Despite the war, Little Rhombulus doesn’t completely understand the nuances of the Monster-Mewman conflict, and will have a very black-and-white view of the world. He also full trusts the adults around him, and only doubts them when it’s extremely obvious that something is wrong. But that doesn’t happen often, and his lack of understanding causes him to half the more impulsive opinions, such as “lets go to war.”
- Lekmet comes over to him and tells him that the MHC is having an important meeting about something. For the first time, we actually get a chance to understand what he is saying, which is through subtitles. Rhombulus quickly melts his crystal toys away and holds Lekmet’s hand. As the two walk towards the meeting room, Rhombulus tells Lekmet all about his day, and how he’s been practicing his crystallizing a lot lately. Lekmet congrats him on this and pats him on the head.
- They arrive at the meeting room, and sit with the others. Rhombulus is seated next to Hekapoo, who he whispers hi to, before asking if she knows what their meeting is about. She whispers back that she has no idea, but that she’s already bored, causing Rhombulus to giggle.
- Yet another sidenote: Because this is a dream and from Little Rhombulus’ perspective, everyone’s features are slightly exaggerated. Hekapoo’s hair is really long and fluffy, Lekmet’s wings are really big, Omni is even bigger than usual to the point that you can’t see his face, and Reynaldo’s neck is just, like, super long.
- Moving on, Shastican comes into the room and says that he has some news. Spies have managed to capture Eclipsa and Globgor’s newborn baby. The MHC are to do three things: 1) get rid of the baby (he doesn’t care how, just get it done), 2) find a replacement heir, and 3) erase any and all traces of the Monster-Mewman baby’s existence from the records.
- The MHC have a variety of reactions to this, but they all say “yes, your highness,” anyways. Immediately after Shastican leaves, Lekmet protests against doing something like this, but only Rhombulus understands him, and in those days, he sometimes forgot to translate. Rhombulus, who is completely confident in the king, tries his best to reassure the goat man that this is the right thing to do, but it doesn’t fully work.
- We cut to an extremely low angle shot (basically looking straight upwards) of the MHC looking down at something. Omni looks neutral, Reynaldo looks unsure, Hekapoo looks very conflicted, Lekmet looks sad, and Rhombulus just looks confused. We cut back up to see that they are standing over Meteora’s crib.
- Reynaldo asks everyone “are you sure we should do this?” and Omni answers with “well, the king ordered us to, so it seems we must.” They all then start discussing who should do what task, except for Rhombulus, who starts entertaining the baby. The adult discussion is slightly muffled in the background as Rhombulus is completely focused on the cute baby.
- Lekmet tells Rhombulus that they are about to leave, and Rhombulus follows him out the door, but not before looking back one last time.
- He slightly wonders what Meteora’s mama must be doing now that her baby’s missing, but pushes it out of his mind and goes into a training room to practice his magic.
- We then cut to Eclipsa’s POV (the changes in POV are indicated via zooming out of the eye of the new POV character). She are walking through the forest, and then we, the audience, get to meet Globgor here rather than in “The Monster and the Queen”, though this is admittedly a slightly romantisiced version of him since it’s from Eclipsa’s POV.
- Eclipsa expresses her concern for Meteora, but Globgor tries his best to reassure her, and it makes her feel slightly better. This smallish conversation is meant to show the audience Globgor’s more soft, caring side, and his more positive traits.
- It also shows a bit of why Eclipsa and Globgor work together so well as a couple. She encourages him to improve as a person and stands by him when he needs it, and clearly cares about him, and he in turn protects her and supports/encourages her, boosting her confidence when she starts to doubt her capabilities.
- The next scene is the two of them spying on the palace and forming a plan to rescue Meteora. This scene also shows them working together, as well as their respective skillsets in terms of planning and strategy.
- In both these scenes, they are clearly very much in love and a power couple and I love them so much together.
- They decide that basically, Globgor will be a distraction while Eclipsa will look around the castle for Meteora. They separate and put the plan into action.
- We then cut to Globgor’s POV, who sneaks into the palace to inact the plan. Globgor’s POV is the most accurate and least dreamlike, and he essentially reliving a memory. Of course, there will be a couple dreamlike, metophorical moments that show how he remembers it and the emotions he was feeling at the time. This is also the part where we see a bit how he sees himself and his internal thought process rather than what others see.
- He starts causing havoc and running around through the halls, and eventually arrives at the throne room, which he barges into. On the throne is Shastican.
- Globgor leaps over the guards and lands in front of Shastican, and with a fierce look on his face, demands to know where his daughter is. Shastican, quite cruelly and with venom in his voice, tells Globgor “I got rid of your little half-breed brat. She’s gone, and you’ll never see her again.”
- Globgor freezes in horror at this, and we see his world shatter around him as Shastican’s words echo around him. The artstyle slowly shifts into one made up of more abstract sketches, very mess and almost frantic. We can vaguely hear Shastican still talking in the background, but his voice is muffled and begins to get completely drowned out by a high pitched noise like a flatlined pulse.
- All color slowly becomes one violent shade of red, and Globgor’s twists into an angry snarl. We see him roar with fury as he pounces at Shastican and menacingly shouts “YOU’LL REGRET THAT!”
- Everything cuts to black, with only the sounds of Globgor’s carnage to be heard in the background.
- We cut back to Rhombulus’ POV, where he is running around the palace, earthquakes caused by Globgor’s stomps shaking everything every few seconds. The halls are dark and everything looks both too big and too small at the same time. As he runs, we flicker back and forth between the hallway and a battle before resettling on the hallway.
- Rhombulus runs into Hekapoo, and he asks her what’s going on. She tells him that Globgor is attacking the palace, before pausing in the middle of her explanation and staring at him with a contemplative look on her face. She tells him to come with her and that they have no time to waste.
- She leads the very confused Rhombulus to the Monster Temple, and they arrive to what is basically a hellscape. Rhombulus looks around in confusion and fear, before he sees it: a giant beast straight from a nightmare. This is how Rhombulus remembers seeing Globgor during his rampage.
- Other members of the MHC are fighting him, but he is getting close to winning. Lekmet flies over to where Rhombulus and Hekapoo are, and Hekapoo goes back out to fight Globgor. Lekmet turns to Rhombulus and tells him that he needs to crystallize Globgor. Rhombulus is unsure, but Lekmet encourages him, saying that they all believe in him, and he is the only one who can do it.
- This empowers Rhombulus, who walks in front of the still rampaging Globgor.
- We cut to Globgor’s POV, which is very hazy and confusing looking, but one figure becomes clear: a little crystalheaded monster type thing. Rhombulus looks much younger in Globgor’s POV, a lot like an innocent little kid with a determined look on his face. He starts flickering back and forth between himself and Meteora, but when he raises both arms and gets ready to fire, he suddenly looks like a shadowy, slightly evil looking figure. Rhombulus fires, crystals appear at the edge of Globgor’s vision, and we cut to black.
- We switch to Eclipsa’s POV, where she is searching through the deepest pits of the castle. A lot like in Rhombulus’ POV, the castle walls are eerie and nervewracking. She opens a door and steps inside another room, which has her wand inside. She grabs it and sighs with relief, when she suddenly feels a presense behind her. She turns around to see Hekapoo standing behind her, dual wielding scissors.
- Eclipsa points her wand at Hekapoo threateningly, and Hekapoo gets into a defensive stance in response. Hekapoo tells Eclipsa she should probably just give up, and reveals that Globgor ate Shastican and has been crystalized by Rhombulus. Eclipsa isn’t quite sure how to process this information, but she decides to suddenly blast one of the scissors out of Hekapoo’s hand and summons it towards herself. Eclipsa takes the scissors and quickly opens up a portal before Hekapoo can even react, and it closes behind her.
- Eclipsa arrives in Rhombulus’ dimension, and starts looking around for Globgor. She stumbles upon two paths, one which leads to crystalized POWs (it’s pretty practical: you don’t need to feed them, they can’t escape easily, they don’t age or really experience their imprisonment, so there’s no trauma or anything, etc.) and one which leads to “Really Bad Guys”. She sighs and goes down the bad guy route, and continues looking around.
- Then, she turns around to see Rhombulus standing behind her. He looks at lot younger in her POV in comparison to his own. “Rhombulus,” Eclipsa says as a greeting, though it isn’t friendly. She then says that he better tell her where Globgor is, or he will regret it.
- He says that Globgor was crystalized at the Monster Temple, but Eclipsa won’t be going back to him, because she has been declared guilty of crimes against Mewni and is sentenced to crystalization.
- Eclipsa says that she’d like to challenge that, and attacks. What ensues is an epic fight scene that shows off more of Eclipsa’s really cool fighting style and the variety of techniques Rhombulus uses to fight.
- Eclipsa’s moves are refined, elegant, almost as though she is gliding or even dancing. Her spells, on the other hand are much more dangerous and sharp. Everything is very strategic and focused more on precise but powerful blows.
- Rhombulus’ fighting style is surprisingly well tuned. Then again, he does have the most fighting experience out of the rest of the MHC, and part of his purpose is being strong and a fighter. His attacks are more blunt and broad, designed to land across a wide area. He also relies on the terrain, which makes sense since he can change the terrain. And in this AU, since he has two pretty long snake tails, he also partially crystalizes the ends of those, then using each a bit like a scorpion tail. The final major aspect of his fighting style is a mixture of defense and capture, using his bigger crystals to both defend himself and trap his enemy.
- The fight ends when Rhombulus manages to get a lucky hit on Eclipsa’s hand and knock it away from her before he quickly crystalizes it in mid air.
- Eclipsa stares defiantly at Rhombulus, and tells him that he and the rest of the MHC won’t get away with all this. Rhombulus doesn’t respond, and in one big, beautifully animated moment (that Tom Barkel will animate hopefully), he crystalizes her.
- There is a short, somewhat concluding scene for the flashbacks. It’s from Rhombulus’ POV in which he is looking at the ruins of Spiderbite Village and watching as some other members of the MHC help out the villagers. Lekmet walks up to Rhombulus and congratulates him on saving everyone. Rhombulus says he feels like he didn’t save anyone. Lekmet is quiet at this, before remembering something.
- Lekmet reminds Rhombulus that, as much as he hates it, they will have to keep the Meteora conspiracy a secret. Rhombulus looks reluctant to do this, but he says okay.
- The episode end with Rhombulus and Eclipsa waking up in the present time, revealing that the whole episode was a dream, though their reactions to said dream, reveal that it was also a memory, just a weird interpretation of the past. They both also tell themselves that all that is over, and they want to forget about it as soon as possible. But then we cut to the still imprisoned Globgor, whose eyes flash omniously. He will not forget, and he is still remembering. Cut to black.
~~~~
Aaaaaannnnd, that’s the end of Part 1 for Season 4! As said above, I had to cut these into parts, since the OG post was getting so long and I wanted to pace myself. Stay tuned for Part 2! Hoped you liked this one!
#rhombulus rewrite#nr rhombulus rewrite#svtfoe rhombulus#rhombulus#svtfoe#svtfoe rewrite#svtfoe mhc#star vs the forces of evil#star vs#star butterfly#svtfoe star#svtfoe salt#mild salt#not too much#globgor#svtfoe globgor#eclipsa#eclipsa butterfly#svtfoe eclipsa#character rewrite#rewrite#svtfoe season 4#angst
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FR players going to put all their dragons on the AH before getting their accounts locked
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anytime a girl on here posts a selfie im like good for you lookin cute but underneath that I’m also like, that’s not fair, why do you get to be a girl?
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Legend has been acting very distinctly off, lately.
He’s not injured, Sky knows that much. There wasn’t a time where he’s been separated from the group. Something triggered him, perhaps? The veteran has more than enough baggage to sift through.
Sky really isn’t sure.
Legend hasn’t been the same since… about a week ago? Something of the sort? He’s been quieter, laughter not so loud, snarks not so present. If it were anyone else, Sky wouldn’t be concerned.
But this is Legend he’s talking about. Legend, who shows a prickly front but is soft on the inside. His facade isn’t prickly right now, though, more like a dull point.
Triggers don’t last that long, right? If they didn’t, he would be better by now, at least outwardly. Then again, Sky doesn’t know much (if anything at all) of the “shell-shock” the veteran, the captain, and even Time seem to describe. What he knows is limited, tales from an era long before Skyloft, when the world wasn’t so peaceful. So, maybe there’s a chance it can last this long?
This train of thought does not change the fact that there is still something wrong, and Sky is very much concerned.
Another day passes, and the Chosen Hero watches his friend. A multitude of notes show up.
One: no one else seems to have noticed the problem at hand.
Two: Legend is acting as he usually does (jabs, rolled eyes, etc.) around everyone in their group.
Third: the veteran is only acting oddly around Sky.
Now, this has raised a very important question in Sky’s mind. Did he do something wrong? While he’s never been one to hold silent grudges (except against the goddesses, of course), maybe Sky had done something to be an exception.
He mulls this over throughout the evening, as they set up camp. Physically, he’s busied by setting out his bedroll, as well as some of the others’. Mentally, though, he thinks, and thinks, and thinks.
If the veteran hadn’t been borderline ignoring him, Sky’s sure he’d make a quip about how he shouldn’t think so much.
“It must get difficult thinkin’ so hard, birdbrains,” he’d mock, and Sky would laugh, and all would be well.
But all is not well. And Sky is growing more nervous by the second.
He thinks over every interaction with Legend in the past week. Nothing stands out to him. It started normally, with pokes and jokes and smiles and giggles. Then, like a switch had been flipped, the pink-haired man had become strangely subdued.
Could it have something to do with that? The whole… pink-rabbit, thing? But that was months ago, and this was so much more recent.
“Sky? Ya ‘ere?” Fingers are being snapped in front of his face.
He jumps, looking into the marked face of Twilight. Sky hides it with a flush and a chuckle. “Yes! Sorry, got lost in my thoughts, there” — and here is where the birdbrain comments should go, yet none do — “what did you ask?”
Twi, ever the worrywart, frowns slightly. “I ‘as j’st askin’ ‘bout watch. Doubleshif’s, you an’ Ledge. But, if yer not up for it—”
“No!” Sky is fast to interrupt. “No worries! I’m alright, truly. That sounds wonderful.” He gives the most reassuring smile he can muster, and it’s honest and true, for once.
Twilight’s frown lifts, a bit, and the slightly older man nods and steps away towards Wild and Wind, who are still cooking dinner.
Watch with Legend, huh? Could this be his chance?
A small bit of him warns that things could go very, very, wrong.
Luckily, the bigger part of him tells him that if he doesn’t say anything now he will run out of time to say anything at all.
So, that is that. Watch is set—blech, the middle shift—and Sky walks over to the rest of his friends before he can think any more of the situation.
“Sky!” Wind waves. “Come sit by us!”
‘Us’, in this case, happens to be himself, Wild, and Twilight, none of whom he’s opposed to being near. Thus, he picks his way to a spot on a ground, settling next to Wind. The smaller melts into his side (a common occurrence), and Sky happily accepts a bowl of pumpkin soup.
It’s not the same as from his home, of course, but it’s still soup and there’s still pumpkins. He’s still satisfied by the taste.
“Thank you, Wild,” he says, setting the now-empty bowl beside him.
Wild grins crookedly. “‘Course, Sky, I’m glad you liked. Seconds?”
Sky shakes his head. “Not tonight.”
The sailor, on the other hand, shoots up, mouth completely stuffed. “‘ll take ‘is s’rv’in’!”
“Calm yerself, sailer, others gotta eat,” Twilight chides.
“Meanie.” Wind crosses his arms with a pout. Sky ruffles the top of his head, a fond look surely on his face, and the smaller does not shy away.
He spares a glance to Legend and Hyrule, across the fire. The former is staring, brows furrowed, but looks away as soon as he notices Sky’s gaze. The latter continues chattering away as if nothing happened (and, in their eyes, nothing did happen).
Overall, the fire is warm and his belly is full. His friends sit around him and talk and snort and sigh, contentment filling the air. Sure, they have double watches set up, the tension is high, and they are exhausted, but they are together and they are (physically) healthy. Sky could not ask for much more.
So, Sky turns in for the beginning of his rest. Wind is sprawled next to him, looking like the starfish they all claim to exist.
Three hours later, Time is shaking him awake.
“You’re up, Sky. Four’s already woken Legend,” he whispers.
Sky nods. This is a song they’ve danced to many times.
Seeing him up and aware, the oldest moves to his bedroll with a soft ‘goodnight’. The Skyloftian echoes it in turn, before advancing towards the dying embers and confusing veteran.
At first, the watch is normal. Sky watches one side whilst Legend watches the other. There isn’t much talking—there never is, on the second watch, what with tired eyes and restless heroes—but the bit that is remains light and regular. For a moment, he can almost forget the anxiety that’d been eating him away earlier.
Then, Sky makes a comment that shatters the glass around them.
“Oh c’mon, vet,” he rolls his eyes. “We both know you use those trinkets of yours quite often.”
The chuckle Legend gives sounds forced, and Sky is hit with a pang of guilt. It was meant as a simple jab—nothing more nor less—but it maybe it was too biting?
Sky takes the second to study Legend’s newfound stance. He’s hunched in on himself, hands hugging knees, and despite not being able to see his face, Sky can assume his expression is that of a resigned sort of scowl.
It’s the same reaction he’s seem many times on multiple others. Twilight when scolded by Time; Wild when scolded by Twi; Wind when scolded by Warriors; Hyrule when scolded by Legend. It is not a reaction he expected to receive from their veteran, let alone one to be stemmed from him.
It spikes a whole new pang of worry.
He turns back before Legend can catch his face. “Sorry, Ledge. I like your items a lot. It’s not a problem to use ‘em, you know.”
From the corner of his eye, he catches the tension release, just a little bit. Enough, though, to know he said the right thing. Good.
Legend doesn’t give a response besides a light bump of the shoulders. The watch continues in a not-quite-awkward but not-quite-comfortable silence.
Creeeeak.
Sky’s head is up in an instant, scanning and pausing and reviewing the treeline in front of him. His ears twitch and try to catch every little thing, from the scamper of a mouse to the rustle of the wind. He’s certain Legend is doing the same, on his end.
A beat passes. Two. Three.
Legend’s breath hitches. “Bokoblin. One o’ Wild’s, reckon.”
“The others?” Sky whispers, voice barely making a sound.
“No. It’s just one. On three?”
Sky nods.
One beat. Two.
“Three!” Legend hisses.
Sky springs up, Master Sword poised to strike and shield up to block. Legend follows in a similar manner, clutching the Tempered Sword and some sort of shield. The ‘blin barely reacts before Sky is moving, moving, moving, slashing at the beast with a ferocity he didn’t realize he possessed this late at night.
The monster bleeds black.
Legend notices too, and lets out a soft string of curses before he’s in on the action. They trade blows, one then the other then both at the same time.
The bokoblin does not back down. It swings its own sword at their ankles, then their waists, then their heads. Wide arcs that make it near impossible to get in, despite the fact that the odds are two to one.
Legend pushes and knocks it off balance, and Sky seizes his chance. He steps into the circle, sword going faster than a blink, and stabs through the head. The Master Sword glints on the other side. The beast dissolves into nothing save a gem and some guts.
Sky lets out a cheer and turns to Legend.
Who’s eyes, suspiciously, are blown wide with fear. Did he get hurt? Had Sky missed something during the heat of the battle?
He stumbles forward—wait, stumbles? Sky shouldn’t be stumbling, he didn’t get hurt, just look down—oh. That’s blood. On his tunic. On his stomach.
Shit.
Pain erupts from the area, stabbing and scorching and hot in a way it really should not be, not on a fresh wound, not unless it’s infected—
“Sky? Sky! Stay with me, hero, stay with me.” Legend is frantic and holding his shoulders, lowering him carefully to the ground. Why is he so panicked? It’s not that bad, right?
Another shot of pain rocks his body, and he bites back a scream with practiced expertise.
Nevermind, it is definitely that bad.
Still, though, Legend is upset, and he can’t have that. Legend shouldn’t be upset, not because of him.
“I’m okay,” he gasps. “‘m fine, Ledge, just needa—” a coughing fit fights its way out and he cant stop it.
“You ain’t fine, you needa potion or sum. Hold on fer me, ‘kay? Hold on, ‘ll get Roolie or, or,” Legend stops, stares, and then darts up and away. Sky frowns, because Legend is still stressed and he can tell because his accent is loose and free and that is not something he often does.
He holds on for as long as he can, though. He can hear shouts and people getting up and running and since when did they get so far? What’s even happening? Is someone hurt?
Ow. Right. Sky is hurt.
His stomach doesn’t feel so good. It feels sticky and hot and gross and bad and he doesn’t like it. Maybe a nap will help? Naps usually help when he’s tired, they always have. Maybe he should nap.
Just as his eyes start to fall shut, someone shakes him, yelling and shaking and yelling and shaking. Bright, violet, eyes meet dull sky blue, panicked and calm and panicked and calm and ow ow ow everything hurts so bad.
The violet eyes have a mouth attached, and it keeps opening and closing but he can’t hear anything. Should he be hearing something?
Something cold presses against his stomach and he hisses. It keeps going, pushing and pushing, but the cold becomes warm and soft and comfortable. Sky could nap, like this.
Despite his eyes fluttering shut, someone grabbed and shook him, yet again. He really wishes they’d stop, he’s trying to nap here!
“—descendant!” They say.
…What?
Now significantly more interested, Sky strains his ears to listen closer. Oh, cool, the warm-yet-cold hands gave some of his hearing back. That’s nice.
“I’m—or—dant!”
They’re… huh?
“I’m royal!”
The Chosen Hero blinks. Once, twice, three times. His vision is so blurry he can’t make anything out besides those glaring eyes and disheveled hair.
The pain is subsiding, a little bit, so that’s neat.
What did they mean… royal?
Oh. Oh! Wait! Him and Sun start the royal bloodline of Hyrule, don’t they? This person could be referring to that! Is it a Zelda? Did one of the other Zeldas come? They’re so sweet, all those young women, and it triggers something in him that’s quite enjoyable. Maybe, once this pain quiets down, he can talk to them? That’d be just wonderful.
He closes his eyes again, humming in contentment when the unknown Zelda doesn’t shake him back. The sharp and burning and horrible ache is nothing more than annoying, now, and he’s slept much worse than this. He falls unconscious, unaware to the trembling hero next to him.
What could be minutes or hours or even days later, Sky opens his eyes again. It’s dark out, and stars shine brightly up above. Trees dot the outline of his vision.
He tries to sit up. His lower abdomen protests vehemently, and he has to abandon such efforts. Something between a groan and whine escaped him, despite his feeble attempts to swallow it whole.
“Sky?” Someone asks. “Sky! You’re awake!”
He looks towards the voice, and is pleasantly surprised to see Legend. He made it out of the fight! There’s no visible bandages, or splints, or anything but concerned eyes and a soft face.
Sky musters up the best smile he can. “I’m okay, Ledge.” He pushes up again, and this time makes it as far as propping his weight onto his elbows. His stomach screams, but he’s alright, truly.
“You damn better be,” the vet mutters, but he helps push the chosen hero up the rest of the way. Sky nods his thanks, before scanning their camp.
It’s still the same place they were last time. A small grove in the middle of uncharted woods, somewhere so random that no one knows who’s Hyrule it is or even if it is anyones. There are six sleeping forms and the outline of Wolfie.
There is no Zelda. He distinctly remembers a Zelda being there, after he was injured. Did she leave? He wanted to talk to her.
“Where did she go?” Sky asks, frowning. That’s unfortunate.
Legend raises an eyebrow. “Who?”
“Zelda,” he says, like it’s obvious. “She was here whenever… I got hurt, I guess.”
“Sky,” Legend looks very confused. “There wasn’t ever anyone’s Zelda here. Why would you think so?”
His words are thought out, slower, deeper than the mess he’d been when Sky was injured. That’s good, it means the vet has had time to breathe and calm down since then.
“There wasn’t? But someone mentioned being of royal descent, did they not?” Had he made that entire conversation up? Something of delusion built from blood loss and poison?
Legend’s expression freezes; a blush creeps across his ears. “You, uh, you heard that?”
“Yes?” How could he not? They were shaking and shouting, for Hylia’s sake!
“Oh.”
Sky is growing quickly more confused, and concerned, and he remembers why he was so nervous around Ledge in the first place. Something was wrong—no, something is wrong—and he wants to figure it out.
“Legend? Did something happen? Are you alright?”
The veteran shakes his head. “You got stabbed, Chosen. Scared the hell outta us.”
But that doesn’t answer about the past week or the mysterious person who he’s very very certain said they were related to him.
“I’m sorry,” he starts. Before the other can object, Sky continues. “What about the Zelda, though? Or whoever it was? Someone said they were my descendant, I thought.”
Legend looks anywhere but at Sky’s face. It’s very suspicious. “That, uh, that doesn’t matter. You need rest.”
Sky uses his own arms to keep him up, despite the insistence of the pink-haired hero to get him to lay back down. The more lucid he is, the less the pain matters. It’s nothing, now. He’s done more on less.
“No, wait, Ledge—”
“It was me,” he whispers, and it’s as quick as the pegasus boots he loves so much.
“Hm?”
Legend flushes, continuing to look away. “It was, uh. It was me. I’m your…” he trails off into something incoherent.
Sky raises an inquisitive brow.
“Don’t make me say it,” Legend scowls.
“Say what?”
“You know what!” And Sky really does. He wants to hear Legend admit it for himself, though.
“Stab wound,” he deadpans instead.
Legend huffs and pouts and crosses his arms, scowl deepening, then softening, then deepening again.
A beat passes. No one stirs except for the two exhausted heroes.
“Fable—my Zelda—she’s my sister. I’m the Prince of Hyrule, technically.” Legend brings his knees up to his chest and hugs them, eyes downcast, stance tense and so similar to how it was by the fire, that night.
Everything clicks into place very neatly.
Legend is not upset with Sky. He is worried about Sky, worried he’s been a disappointment, worried that he’s somehow made a mistake. So he cut back on snarks and rolled eyes, on cocked hips and wide gestures, replaced it with something subdued and a (quite frankly horrid) attempt at being something different.
“Can I hug you?” Sky asks, because it’s the only thing he can think of saying.
The veteran—the teenager, really—all but jumps. But, exactly as he hoped he would, the boy uncurls himself just enough to nod and accept the arms barrelling into him.
Sky represses a gasp (ow ow ow, next time, do not fall into someone’s arms with a scabbed stab wound, good Hylia), and squeezes tight, pouring every ounce of care he can in. This is his descendant, his kid, and it’s such a rush of emotions he’s surely going to have to process later but for right now Legend slots perfectly into his arms and all is well.
“You’re not… you’re not mad?” The boy rasps.
Sky uses one hand to comb through unruly hair. Jeez, did this kid brush it at all while he was unconscious? He’s going to have to use the recently acquired dad-card to fix that.
“Why’d I be mad, Ledge?”
From where he’s pressed the other against his chest (how did he never realize Legend was so small? Has he seriously never hugged him before?), Sky can’t see the expression he’s making. He can well assume, though, that’s something along the lines of furrowed brows and pressed lips, confusion evident with a hint of something else.
“Why wouldn’t you be?” Legend finally decides on, and Sky almost laughs at how absurd the question is.
He pulls back to look the boy in the eyes. “Legend, you are a wonderful person who has done wonderous things. You have faced atrocities that no person should, and come out stronger, better, and you have done it again and again, because you care for people less fortunate than you.” His descendant’s eyes are blown wide, wide, wide, and the deep black spots are all the more obvious; no wonder he’s so open, right now, there is not a single ounce of sleep in that body. “I know I haven’t known you long, but I am so proud of you regardless, Legend, and I have no words for how happy I am that I am somehow related to you.”
Violet eyes stare into sky blue, expression lax in a way Sky has not seen before, details in the starlight that are old to one but new to the other.
Sky is hit with the fact that he has never looked at the veteran before this. Not hard enough to point out the little things, like the freckles or light scars or baby hairs.
“Oh,” Legend murmurs, casting his gaze downwards and caving in on his own body a bit more. “Okay.”
“Legend,” eyes flick up once more, “I’m being genuine.”
“I know.” A long pause. “I know, it’s just not that simple, I guess. Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize, Ledge.”
Legend’s eyes go wide, wide, wide, once more. “The others can’t know I’m Fable’s brother.”
That is definitely something Sky is going to address at a later date.
For now, he hopes that the glint his eyes get is mischievous and his smirk comes across correctly. “Exactly.”
Legend does not look convinced.
“We’ll be like Twi and the champion were, for a while. Imagine how pissed Wars an’ Wind’ll be trying to figure it out,” Sky says, because while he’s seen hell he’s still just barely twenty and the epitome of a little shit.
(Holy Hylia, he’s going to have to address that later. How do Twilight and Wild do this all day? They’re barely a few years apart!)
Legend stares at him, and then lets out a cackle of a laugh. Real and honest, all because of Sky, and hope blooms in his chest. The other is undoubtedly the hardest nut to crack and Sky is finally getting through, after months of work.
Soon, he starts laughing too. He can’t help it! The vet’s laugh is so contagious, and he’s rocking back on his knees, and Sky is wheezing, and they’re both definitely delirious.
They’re also a bit too loud, because even as their giggles subside, the other Links begin stirring. Hyrule first, the lightest sleeper by far, but Wind and Wild and Wars follow not long after. The chain wake to two grinning brothers, and while they don’t understand it, they’re joining in as well.
Sky’s stomach hurts like a bitch, which is not a word he uses lightly, but he feels happy in an odd sense. A lot has happened—too much—but he can ignore it in favor of a good laugh with his brothers.
#linked universe#linked universe fanfic#linked universe sky#linked universe legend#lu sky#lu legend#fanfic#ao3#ao3 fanfic#posted on ao3#fluff#lu fluff#lu mild hurt/comfort#lu sky pov#lu twilight’s accent#it gets its own tag#rest of the chain is there#but they dont have massive roles#first lu fic btw so. yknow. grains of salt.#enjoy
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I havent come across any posts with mcr fans remarking about patrick yet, where did this come from?
it came from this post
i don't know why mcr mains feel the need to be so weird and reductive towards the members of fob but they keep doing it!!
#op is now going on about how this was a joke and we're taking it too seriously etc.#it's just a super weird thing to say about patrick tbh#and the implications are gross and fucking bizarre#there is also my mild salt of being a tai girl and seeing bill referred to as 'that guy' but that's not anything#anon#letters from the inbox
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The thing about being a Spy x Family manga fan is that there are like... 9 different plots.
A) Operation Strix (plan A and plan B)
B) Miscellaneous goofy school stuff (Anya and Becky go shopping, George Glooman chapter. Yes those technically relate to op. Strix but they aren't directly tied to it so I am counting them as subplots)
C) Loid and Yor develop their relationship
D) Loid, Yor, and Anya develop their relationship as a family
E) Twilight missions
F) Thorn princess missions (cruise ship but also when Yor learns to cook)
G) Yuri chapters 😐 (sorry I'm not a fan of these at all)
H) Fiona chapters (I personally don't like these either though they are slightly less bad)
I) Other misc side character chapters (Bond, Handler, Frankie)
This is good because it makes the story feel more real, and alive (other than the Yuri and Fiona chapters 🤪 Everyone else is experiencing character growth and then they're just the exact same every single time they show up)
But it is also bad because we have to wait two weeks for every chapter. So if your favorite plot is the TwiYor plot, you probably have to wait a month or two since all that other stuff is sandwiched in between.
Anyways this is basically just me being an impatient manga fan rather than reflecting an actual problem with the manga lol. I think it requires more patience than being anime only because even though the anime takes longer to come out, the fact this comes out on a biweekly basis means that it is on our minds more frequently, and we also have to wait weeks for important plot points to be resolved instead of just getting it all in the same episode.
#spy x family#spy x family manga#mild salt warning in the next tags lol#slightly tempted to complain about the Yuri and Fiona chapters because 😂#idk they don't even make narrative sense#in my opinion at least#also why does Yuri have a sister complex 🫠#when he could have just... not had that#whatever it's fine I guess#I'm sure at least endo will resolve i in a satisfying way#spy family
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In your opinion you believe Amphibia did a Much better job on the theme of toxic friendships and relationships better than Netflix She Ra has?
I believe YEAH it did!
to some extent, yes. i still have my gripes with amphibia, especially regarding how they glossed over all the trauma in favor of funny lighthearted episodes. however, since neither marcy nor sasha were as bad as catra, the final resolution seemed somewhat satisfying. both of their redemption arcs were still rushed but at least they didn't stay toxic till the end like catra did. i also appreciate that none of them got into a romantic relationship because it would have undercut the theme of the show.
#amphibia#spop critical#spop#spop salt#spop discourse#spop criticism#she ra#amphibia critical#(mild)
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Replaced: She’s a Star Now
Newest chapter in the story for @miner249er
Beginning
Last Chapter Next Chapter
Summary: The girls decided they were overdue for a hang out in their favorite park. Rose was delighted but the park and small things kept reminding her of their former friend Marinette. She knew she missed the girl but she would never admit it to the others and a big part of her hoped the girl missed them. If she did it certainly wasn't enough to set aside whatever she had against Lila. But Rose was an optimist, that is until she saw just how much they were missed.
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The Jardins des Tuileries was truly the Girl Squad’s favorite park to hang out in. It was picturesque and made Rose feel like she was in a fairytale no matter what direction she looked. It always made her feel unbelievably happy when they had the time to visit and just have the day to relax and do whatever they had planned. Though it had been a while since they had been able to go due to Lila’s busy schedule and since they deemed it ‘Their’ spot, none of the girls wanted to go to the park without their sweet Italian friend. To be honest though Rose did feel guilty that they were there considering that said friend wasn’t even in Paris that weekend. Lila apparently had some sort of party to go to that she couldn’t miss considering the host was a close personal friend. They all understood of course but they had been bummed out since they had planned a day in their park, but Lila, ever the kind soul, said they could go without her and have fun since they had already had everything planned. She had looked sad at giving her permission and at first they hadn’t wanted to go without her but Alya had been in a mood lately and they wanted to cheer her up with some good old fashioned girl time.
Their favorite journalist had lit up when they had talked about visiting the park and truly it had been awhile since all of them could hang out and not just in smaller groups. That was why they had all been so excited and put their everything into planning and working around everyone’s schedules, Lila had even been free! But then she remembered that party a little last minute but Rose could never be frustrated with her like she knew some of the girls had been at the news. It wasn’t Lila’s fault she had a bad memory, apparently she used to have a photographic memory but because of an accident that occurred when she saved the lives of an elderly couple, she had lost her photographic memory and had problems remembering things ever since. Rose had helpfully reminded the girls about that before they got too frustrated and just like that they had let it go, not that they had said anything to Lila but Rose didn’t want there to be tension when Lila got back from her small trip.
Rose knew there was tension anyway and the source was Alya. No one knew what was wrong but after the interview Ladybug did on Aurore and Mireille’s blog the reporter had been in a mood. At first Rose had been like most of the class and thought it was because Ladybug and Chat Noir were no longer partners but something told her that was not the issue. Contrary to what a lot of others thought of her, Rose’s head was not constantly in the clouds and she could be observant. Alya had many signs when she was in distress over her favorite hero duo, her hands were either ink stained or still had her compression gloves on them after a long night(s) of writing or typing, she tended to wear worn t-shirts rather than her beloved flannels and she always had this fire in her eye. There was no fire this time. Her hands were still ink stained, but her nails were bitten. She was wearing the worn t-shirts, but it was the same shirt days in a row. Then there were her eyes. Oh her eyes.
Rose loved peoples’ eyes, she knew how creepy that sounded but she was very much a believer of the saying that eyes were the windows to the soul. If she could draw she would have sketchbooks full of her favorite people’s eyes in her life. Her all time favorite eyes were Juleka’s even if she hid them behind her hair, she sighed as she thought about her best friend who seemed to be more busy as of late. She missed the girl’s honey-hued eyes, but she understood that her friend had things to do, but those eyes held everything her shy friend couldn’t say. They lit up with joy, practically sparkling like the amber pieces she hid in her treasure chest in her room on her boat. When Juleka was angry, Rose thought her eyes resembled one lone piece of yellow apatite that was in the same treasure chest as the amber. Honestly Rose could go on and on about Juleka’s eyes, or really any one of her friend’s, the point was she saw how dull Alya’s eyes were and that was never a word she would use to describe Alya’s eyes. Ever.
Even now, they were dull as all of them started setting up their picnic. She pretended well enough though Rose observed, as it seemed like no one else noticed the too-wide smile Alya had painted on or the tense way she held her shoulders. Or maybe they had and they were just like Rose, holding their observations to themselves. Either way, they just wanted to have a nice time and bringing up whatever was bringing Alya down was sure to bring the whole group down. It sounded cruel but that’s just how they operated. They hung out and had fun until the end of their planned outing and that’s when they would bring up anything bothering them, so Rose would be patient and wait till the end of their hang-out to ask Alya and be there if her friend needed comfort. It felt weird to wait because she really wanted to know if her friend was okay and what was troubling her and waiting and not asking made her feel this crushing weight of guilt.
Thinking about it, this hadn’t been how they used to do things in the group. When it was Marinette with them they had no problem asking what was troubling each other or simply bringing up their own troubles because they knew they could talk it out or have the group distract them. Rose could admit to herself that she missed how the group was and she could also admit it was because of Marinette that the group used to be so open and wonderful. Marinette made them all feel like their troubles weren’t as big as they felt they were in a good way, she was a shoulder to cry on and you could always count on that no matter what, and she was always determined to help or fix whatever the issue was. Rose missed Marinette, she would admit that to herself because she could admit it to no one else, she missed those blue-bell eyes. They never spoke about her anymore and to be honest, Rose hadn’t thought about her in a while.
Her heart clenched at the thought. That used to be one of her best friends. They used to gush about the latest romance movies and the latest installments of the C-dramas they followed thanks to Marinette’s Mom's love of them. They used to have sleepovers, one-on-one and with the group that was made all the more fun and cozy by Marinette’s parents letting them bake their own sweets. Marinette used to help Rose pick out the perfect stickers for her scrapbook no matter how long Rose took, she had been endlessly patient with her. Marinette had been one of the first people she wanted to show a finished song or poem to because her excitement and joy were so infectious. Marinette was kind, compassionate, loving, loyal, and overall wonderful. She had been a great friend, one Rose had thought she had known and one she had ultimately lost. No, not lost, Rose and the others had pushed her away, but all the blame couldn’t be put on them. Marinette had been extremely rude to Lila and had continued to do so and make the girl feel awkward and unwelcome so they simply stopped…everything. They stopped talking to her, they stopped hanging out with her or inviting her to hang out and slowly the hole she had left had been filled by Lila.
It’s not like they had meant for it to go on for so long. They had genuinely thought that Marinette would cave and apologize for her behavior towards Lila and that they would all get past it and become friends. Marinette was a lot of things but they had forgotten, she was also incredibly stubborn. She thought she was right so there was no proving her otherwise despite them telling her how good a person Lila was and all her charitable deeds, it was like it went in one ear and out the other. It had been frustrating until eventually they forgot, it sounded awful when Rose thought about it but they well and truly forgot about what they had been doing and in the process they had forgotten about Marinette. They were having so much fun welcoming Lila and then just being her friend! She always had amazing stories to tell and advice to give, she had connections that she graciously promised to make for them, and she was such a strong and kind person despite life making things hard on her with chronic illnesses and such.
“What’s going on in that head of yours Pinkie Pie?” Alix’s voice pulled Rose from her thoughts.
“Oh nothing, just got lost in a stray thought is all. It’s a beautiful day today isn’t it?” Rose deflected as she did best.
“Very! I’m just glad it’s not as windy as it’s been.” Mylène chirped as she set down a plate of cheeses and sandwich meats on their picnic blanket that Alix brought.
“Oh I know what you mean,” Alix said as she popped a grape into her mouth and placed down her own dish of sliced fruits and bread on the blanket. “My dad nearly had a fit the other day because he had the window open and his paperwork almost escaped with the wind.”
“Poor thing.” Alya giggled behind her hand, it was so good to hear her giggle. She too brought something for the picnic, her mom had made the girls some roasted red pepper tapenade that Rose was especially looking forward to with the baguette Alix had brought. Alya also placed down the Quiche Lorraine they had bought from a traiteur on their way to their spot, at first they had had their hearts set on some tomato tarts despite it not being summer, but the smell of the Quiche Lorraine won them over in the end.
Rose smiled as the girls spoke and placed down the lemon meringue tart she brought as well as the juice. She had bought the tart before they had all started gathering to meet as she was assigned dessert for this particular day. They all took turns to bring the dessert ever since…ever since Marinette was no longer part of the group. No one spoke about it but Rose knew, she knew each time they bit into whatever dessert the others brought that it didn’t compare to anything they could have gotten at Tom and Sabine’s. She felt bad saying that about the new boulangerie & pâtisserie she and her parents went to but she knew it in her heart to be true. Ever since the class cut ties with Marinette, it was awkward to go to Tom & Sabine’s and act like everything was normal and Rose really didn’t have the heart to try and do so. That was when Rose had told her mother about Marinette’s change in character and why she hadn’t been going to Tom & Sabine’s to get her pastries and bread.
Her mother had been upset for her and rather down about not going to Tom & Sabine’s for their goods, they were regulars, but her father hadn’t minded much. He had actually been a little happy to try and find a boulangerie closer to home. He had and luckily it was a boulangerie & pâtisserie just like Tom & Sabine’s but what he didn’t want to admit and what her mother wouldn’t voice out loud was that it was nowhere near as good as the treats they had grown accustomed to. Her mother had begun to not so subtly ask her if things with Marinette were better and Rose wanted to cry every time she asked, because goodness did she want things to be better.
Rose wanted Marinette to be part of the group again, she wanted them to all be together. She wished whatever Marinette thought Lila had done or whatever thing she was jealous of could be resolved so they could all be one big group of friends again. Rose just knew that Marinette and Lila would get along if Marinette would just give the Italian a chance, but Marinette was blinded by her love. Where once Rose would have thought that to be peak romance and devotion, now she found it slightly aggravating. Kind of like all the times their Team Adrienette Plans failed because Marinette couldn’t do what was planned. Rose was a believer in True Love but love still took hard work, her parents were a glowing example for her, so every time a plan failed she couldn’t help but feel like Marinette hadn’t been trying hard enough.
Doubting a friend was always an awful feeling
“I wonder what’s going on over there.” Alya mumbled.
Rose blinked her thoughts away as she turned towards where Alya was looking. It was the bit of the park that was closer to the Place de la Concorde, it seemed like people were evacuating the area but not in a hurry so definitely not an akuma, besides they hadn’t heard the Akuma Alert go off.
“Well this might have something to do with it.” Alix announced as she grabbed a paper off a tree and brought it over to them. “Seems like they are going to be shooting a music video of some kind over there. They rented the space, just that space, not the whole park. So like we can watch from a certain distance if we wanted,”
“Oh that sounds cool!” Mylène said as she too looked over at the spot where people looked like they were setting up tables, trailers and other equipment.
“Did you guys want to go over?” Alya asked.
“Nah. We just set up our picnic, we would have to put everything back and then find a new spot and that just sounds like too much work to do on an empty stomach.” Alix groaned before she sprawled out on the grass next to the blanket.
“To be fair we haven’t taken out everything,” Alya teased as she reached into her lunch bag and brought out a small container, “I forgot to bring out the butter.”
“Alix brings up a good point. What if we eat then go see what the music video is about? I mean they are just setting up right now.” Rose suggested.
“Betsy Bubblegum gets it!” Alix said from her spot on the grass which made Rose laugh, she adored the nicknames Alix came up with for her. They had a good mellow time just enjoying their picnic and Rose couldn’t remember the last time they had had such a peaceful day. Lila just made life so exciting and interesting but it was nice to just be once in a while. Though, she did miss Lila and wished she could have joined them on such a beautiful day.
“Hey girls! Surprise!” Rose perked up when she heard a familiar voice and turned to see Lila walking towards them. She was so happy to see her friend that she jumped up so she could embrace the girl.
“Lila! What are you doing here?” Alya asked, her mouth agape.
“Oh it was the darndest thing.” Lila said with a wave of her hand as she sat on the picnic blanket and got comfortable. “The party for my friend got canceled. I can’t say who they are as you guys know, biiiiiig celebrity who didn’t want anyone to know they are vacationing here in Paris, but poor thing ate something bad I guess and got sick.”
“Oh that’s awful!” Mylène gasped. “Where did they eat?”
“Well, I don’t want to say anything. I’m sure the staff was just having an off day or something…but they said they had gone to eat at Le Grand Paris.” Lila confessed. Rose stiffened when she saw Alya go absolutely rigid, the smile on her face froze. Rose hoped she had heard wrong, because if she didn’t she didn’t like the odds of Alya not exploding at Lila for her comment. Especially because Alya had been off for a while so this was not a normal Alya they were dealing with, this was a stressed Alya.
Alya opened her mouth and Rose braced herself but just before Alya could say anything they all heard Mylène’s soft voice, “Is that Kagami?”
All of them turned so fast to see Kagami who strode over to the part of the park that was being used for the music video. Rose had no idea what she was doing over there but she was pretty sure that was not where she was supposed to be. She could hear Alix fill Lila in over what they were doing over in that spot and how the Italian made a sound of interest. It was with that one sound that they all decided to pack up their things and move closer. As they got closer Rose saw Kagami show a couple security guards-who Rose guessed was with the music video crew-a badge of some kind and was let through.
“I wonder what Kagami is doing over there.” Alya mumbled.
“Well, she is rather pretty, maybe she’s a background dancer or something.” Rose suggested.
“Isn’t she a sword person thingy?” Lila asked. “Not to judge or anything, but why would she be involved in a music video? It just doesn’t seem like something she would be interested in.”
“Well maybe-” Mylène had begun but cut off as they saw another arrival of people they knew walking towards the film location of the music video. This time a known duo. Aurore and Mireille this time walked the path towards the security guards, Aurore was shielding the both of them with her parasol and the two giggled about something. They showed the guards badges and Rose watched in shock as the two made their way over to Kagami and gave the girl a friendly greeting and hugs. Kagami hadn’t even looked awkward nor like she wanted to push them away, she actually looked happy. Genuinely happy.
“They know each other?” Alix asked but no one answered.
“This just got weirder because I’m pretty sure that’s Ondine heading over there as well.” Alya said clearly shocked.
And she was right too. Ondine, with the kind of confidence that Rose envied, strutted over to security guards to show them her badge all the while waving at Kagami, Aurore and Mireille. Once she was given the okay she ran up to the trio and pulled them into a group hug which made the small group break out into giggles. It was such an odd little group that Rose was kind of thrown for a loop as she watched them interact and she could tell her friends were as well. She could see Alya’s fingers flying across her screen texting Kim, probably questioning him about Ondine but as much as Rose loved Kim, she knew he probably had no idea what Ondine was doing there. She was trying to guess what the next surprise was going to be but nothing would have prepared her for seeing Luka and a completely different Marinette.
“Mari…” Alya breathed out when she too saw their former friend.
It was a shock, perhaps the most shocking thing that they had seen yet. She just looked so different from their former friend that it was hard to believe that was who they were seeing walk hand in hand with Luka. For one, her hair seemed to be longer since she had it up in loose space buns, the shock wasn’t that it was longer and they hadn’t noticed, no the shock was the fact the underside of her hair was dyed a light pink. Rose heard the girls muttering something about her looking like a punk or dressing in punk fashion but Rose had sat through many of Marinette’s fashion rants and this looked more grunge than punk but really she was no expert so she wasn’t sure. She had on a well-worn cropped Jagged Stone tank top that was most likely Luka’s judging from the size, underneath that was a pale pink tank top to cover any skin that would have been showing from the over-shirt. Her pants were black and high waisted, they were capris and the cuffs themselves had a pink plaid design on them that was also on where the pockets looked to be.
Rose gasped when she realized Marinette also looked taller and her eyes dropped to see Marinette was wearing black platform boots with pink laces. She had one fishnet sleeve that went from her mid bicep to her wrist on her left arm and it was adorned in various kinds of bracelets, one that Rose just recognized that she saw Ondine, Kagami, Aurore and Mireille wearing too. Oh…Friendship bracelets. On her right hand she had a black fingerless glove and a black cuff bracelet on. Around her neck was a matching cuff choker but attached to it was a Jagged Stone guitar pic, one of Luka’s Rose guessed. Marinette completed the look with a pink plaid bandana on her head and some round black sunglasses. It was a very different look but Rose thought she looked breathtaking.
They all watched silently as Marinette and Luka made their way over to the security guards all the while swinging their hands back and forth between them cutely. The guards let them in right away, no badges necessary. The odd group of friends, because really that’s what they had to be, all rushed together to give out hugs and greetings and just talk and laugh and Rose…Rose felt breathless. Marinette took off her sunglasses and Rose watched as her eyes lit up in joy as she interacted with her friends. She saw how her eyes softened when talking with Luka and she absolutely could not ignore the smile she wore the entire time. Rose couldn’t remember the last time she saw Marinette smile or look that comfortable. She missed that. She missed making Marinette laugh and smile and she felt like she wanted to cry just watching the little friend group interact.
“She looks…” Lila began.
“Happy.” Rose cut her off. “She looks…happy.” Happy without them.
It would be a couple weeks later that the Girl Squad found Marinette’s YouTube channel where the music video that had been shot at the Jardins des Tuileries was posted. They had watched it silently like when they had watched the new friend group meet. It was good Rose admitted, and it hurt to admit, because that used to be her friend and one person used to be her bandmate. They had watched other videos they had found on the page, all music videos, and they had been stunned. They hadn’t even known that Marinette could sing! But it was that song from the Jardins des Tuileries music video that haunted them.
It was a song about finding new friends. Better friends.
Next Chapter
#ml salt fic#ml girl squad salt#lila rossi salt#slight salt for all the girls in a way#marinette makes new friends#mild angst i think#rose lavillant#alya cesaire#rose lavillant salt#alya Césaire salt#mylene haprele#mylene haprele salt#alix kubdel#alix kubdel salt#lila rossi#lukamari#lukanette#marinette dupain cheng#kagami tsuguri#ml ondine#mireille caquet#aurore boréale#luka couffaine#I'm tagging the character salt even if it is a slight salt on all the characters#replaced commission#goggles commission#goggles writes#miraculous ladybug
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hi if ur making a dairy-free/vegan pesto and want a creamier finish. blend with a little bit of silken tofu ✌️ instant texture improvment with zero flavor change
#my other tip is to use white miso instead of salt it will boost the flavors of the greens and if u throw in some nutritional yeast too you#can even taste a slight savory cheesy flavor#also its like. super good for you if u do it this way#both protein and the fermentation benefits from miso#also you can use any miso. (chickpea is my fave) white miso just has a more mild flavor for ppl who are worried about the flavor intensity
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(Hate that school frequently throws 500 things at me during festivals or other events. Just annoying)
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i need you to know that i love Xeno with my whole heart, everytime i think of like one of my favorite characters i think about xer. Freaking beloved <3
well now look at what you've done. xe's going to be making that face all day.
#xeno cherenkov#scrapdump#the knowledge of xer (...and i use this term with a grain of salt since im certain it's overstating things) mild fandom is something i#forcibly keep away from xer#i find it. So Funny xe is Hashtag Beloved. xe would be So Confused. Positively Perturbed
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who'd think that seeing snow in the mountains in December would be a notable thing
#grymms spectacular fucking posts#it doesn't snow anymore really. winters just become a long october#cold sometimes wet sometimes but not that cold and not that wet#it used to snow so much. we used to get snow days and below 0 and sledding snow and needed to shovel it and salt the walk#we dont even get icy sidewalks#i haven't seen a snowplow in years#and the worst part is i know I've never really seen winter because what i experienced was already more mild and warm than it used to be
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Story: The Boy in the Castle
I've decided to serialize it over a series of 9 posts. Do you like spies? Pathetic wet cat male protagonists? Original fairy tales? Christian allegories? Yes, everybody these days is doing them I know. My very best attempt at evoking the 18th century? (I try.) This story has not yet appeared in print, but it will (now that I am my own publisher) at some point in the future, but likely as part of an anthology... for now... it is my gift to you.
The Boy in the Castle
Part 1.
It was a perfectly ordinary day for Ilya Severin.
His attacker, a bulky brute with tattoos and tanned skin, brandished half of a broken beer bottle threateningly. Ilya picked up a chair and held it in front of himself, legs out, for defense.
“Watch who you mess with next time, bilge scum!” the man bellowed, before grabbing the legs of the chair and using it to swing him bodily into the wall.
Ilya crumpled to the floor, clutching his stomach. He didn’t bother to get up, but waited for the man to leave.
After the pub had settled down, Dimitri came over and found him. The younger man crouched down. “What happened this time?” he asked in a low voice, looking over his shoulder to make sure everybody was back to minding their own business.
“He called me a coward and a weakling.”
“So you decided to prove him wrong, did you?”
“Gave him a good sock in the jaw.” Ilya accepted Dimitri’s offer of a white napkin, and wiped the blood dribbling from his nose.
“I can’t leave you alone for half a day, can I? You’re already drunk.”
“I come here to find work,” said Ilya.
“You’re not even sober.”
“So what?” Ilya coughed, and pulled himself into a sitting position.
“You’re supposed to be the best smuggler in Rostek.”
“I am the best smuggler in Rostek.” He gave a crooked grin.
“Oh? How will I present you to your client in a state like this?”
Ilya rubbed his nose gingerly. “My client?”
“Yes, your client. I decide to pay back that favor and get you a job, and this is what you give me to work with? Come on, let’s get you back to the inn.”
Ilya splashed his face with water and then rinsed out his greasy, shoulder-length hair in a wooden bucket. Finally he dried off his face with a towel, and with it came the last traces of the blood and grime.
“I need a drink…”
“No,” said Dimitri, standing behind him.
“Of water. Relax.”
“Behind you.” Dimitri pointed to a copper cup on the vanity.
He turned around in the inn’s washroom, found the cup, and sipped it slowly. Then he sat on a wooden stool and started to comb through his hair. “So, you say that you no longer owe me a favor. What have you come up with?”
“Last night a noblewoman, one of those landed gentry it would seem, sent her servant to the pub. He said his mistress would hire only the best smuggler in Rostek. It had a well-paying sound to it, so I mentioned your name.”
“I see. Well then, fine. Count it even. When is my appointment?”
“Half past eleven tomorrow. She’ll meet you at Saint Beska’s Abbey.”
“Did she happen to give a name?”
“No.” Dimitri shook his head.
***
The next morning, Ilya dressed in his best waist-coat and tie. He had brushed his hair and washed it with nothing more classy than a bar of soap. He had bathed well enough to hopefully not stink, although it was hard to fully get rid of the smell of alcohol.
Dimitri met him downstairs in the front of the inn, and wrinkled his nose. “Try some mint.”
“No time.” He waved off the young man, who had been hanging around him like some kind of gnat since they ran the last commission together. (He hated to admit it, but Dimitri’s imagined debt to him was probably actually just pity for his sorry state.) “I’m running late.” It was an hour’s ride to the abbey. For the good smuggler, nothing was more important than punctuality.
“Good morrow, then.” Dimitri gave a wave and retreated to the upstairs rooms.
Ilya went out back to the stable, saddled up, and started off to the Abbey.
Saint Beska’s was outside the city of Rostek proper, to the north, but still within the bounds of the principality of Rostek, which was a small kingdom of the East.
The Abbey sat on a rolling green. There were hedgerows for two miles, finally giving way to trimmed topiary and then the walls of the spreading complex. This was a place for nuns; men did not usually come here, and he wondered if this woman, whoever she was (not a nun, certainly?) was planning to admit him.
When he rode up to the iron-studded gates, he dismounted and approached, wondering if a knock on such a large door would even be noticed.
But as it turned out, no knock was necessary, for there was a shout from above and the gates began to open. He stood back.
The woman came out alone. He understood as soon as he saw her why she had not come to the pub in person. She was in her fifties, and had on a black half-mourning dress, with a purple train. He could not see any jewelry, but mourning clothes could be deceptively simple, and the silk of her dress seemed to exude hidden wealth. She was not wearing a veil.
So then, a dowager whose husband was recently deceased. But not too recently—within the past year or so.
“Madame,” he said, and politely made a small bow.
“Sir.” She did not smile. Nor did she seem terribly impressed. “I sent for a smuggler.”
“Now ma’am,” he said carefully, “All my trade business is of course perfectly lawful.” These naive nobles lacked any sense of the rules of the game. He wasn’t of a mind to incriminate himself before establishing a rapport.
“Then I have no use for you.” She turned around and started to walk back toward the doors.
Ah – he was losing her. “Now, hang on just a moment.”
The woman stopped walking.
“I am… very good at what I do.”
“I sent for the best smuggler in Rostek,” she said, looking back at him. “Are you he?”
“I stay humble.” He scratched at his collar.
Her eyes sharpened. “We may have business, then.”
He nodded. Now they were on. “What do you need?”
He could hazard a guess. He had a burgeoning suspicion about who she was. A noble, yes, but not a noble of Rostek – she was from the kingdom of Belova, toward the south, just like he was. An ongoing civil war there had dethroned the King, and as revolutionaries, called the Vroek Coalition, hunted down and killed the Belovan nobles, they had fled to surrounding countries. This woman had doubtless fled recently, and most likely had left behind some valuable or sentimental personal property that she wished for him to retrieve.
He smiled confidently.
“I wish you to escort me and my son into Belova,” she said.
Ilya took half a step back, stunned. It took him a moment to reply. “To a country fraught with war?”
She raised an eyebrow. “To the capital. Stosla.”
“Surely you must have gone to great pains to escape from there,” he ventured.
She looked at him drily, and he thought her eye twinkled a bit, but he couldn’t be sure. She wasn’t going to say anything.
“You would be heading into great danger.”
“I am aware of the risks.”
“What are you going to do when you get there?”
“I have made arrangements.”
Ilya thought about this. Perhaps she had a cover – and a safe house. She was a spy, perhaps. A spy for the royalist side of the conflict. If she knew what she was doing, this could work. But—
“How old is your son?” he asked.
“He is nine years old.”
“Nine?!” Ilya stepped back, setting his teeth into a grimace. He folded his arms, looking at the ground, and kicked a pebble. “What shall I call you, madame?”
“You may call me… Madame Olga,” she said, as if deciding on the name.
“All right, listen, Madame Olga. I’ll take you anywhere you wish to go, but this isn’t any kind of journey for a child.”
“He must come.”
“With all due respect, Madame, it’s madness to bring a child on a trip like this.” His deferential mask was slipping, and he tried to put it back on, but it was a bit of a lost cause. “Children are… unpredictable. He will be a liability. Such a journey calls for… discretion… and… fortitude. You should leave him here, where he’s safe.” A child of only nine years would certainly get them all killed.
Olga’s lips tightened, but she remained unmoved. “He is non-negotiable.”
He sighed, trying to imagine the journey and the accommodations. Ilya wiped a hand across his face. “Is he quiet?”
“My son is very well-mannered. Will you do it or not?”
“I’d like half up-front.”
She smiled for the first time. “Done. It shall be paid on our next meeting. Come again this time tomorrow.”
Ilya shook her hand, feeling sweaty.
He started turning around back to his horse, then paused. “Expenses also upfront.”
“Expenses?”
“I’ll need coin to rent a stagecoach.”
She reached into her purse. Ah, finally.
Next Part
#read the tags for mild spoilers#writing#my writing#fairy tale#kind of#original fairy tale#uhhhhh#historical fiction#salt and light#blahblahblah#plaaaaaaceeeholderrr#more just to put this under the cut#one more#etc blah blh blah#blahblah#captivity whump
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