The Marinette Swap

Adrien version

I should wait for the Paris Special to come out first, but man, I can't help but ponder the potential dynamics and fun there could be just shuffling up the two Marinettes and fun it could've brought being in each other's own reality.

Like, Special!Marinette actually being in the canon world, and she's this way between Chloe's bullying and no one stepping up to help her, so she helped herself. She went punk/goth/emo, largely to piss Chloe off. And she's petty, jaded, spiteful, and cynical. Despite all this, she's still Marinette at the core. She's not going to turn a blind eye to those in critical need.

So she still rushes out to go help Fu, but she tells him off afterwards cause wth was he thinking. But hey, that warrants her getting the earrings. Maybe she just needs a bug to soften her up.

I don't know if Alya will become her best friend, as I don't see this Marinette backing down when Chloe tries to scare her out of her seat. It could be that Chloe begrudgingly backs down, shoos away Alya who goes to sit with Nino (or Marinette, liking her spitfire; though if Alya sits next to Nino that leaves Adrien to sit next to Marinette), or maybe Bustier intervenes and forces Marinette to sit elsewhere. Which maybe she sits either by Alya or Nino (or maybe Ivan?).

Idk, what happens in the classroom is up in the air.

Either way, Stoneheart happens, Marinette nopes out, and finds the earrings and there's Tikki telling her she's got to be a hero!

Only it's a lot harder getting this Marinette going cause no, is she crazy? What the heck even is she?

It takes the damage in the city to get worse to convince Marinette to go out and see what she can do, though she makes it clear she's not going to be a hero. She's going to pass the earrings on. Tikki will take it, desperate and pressed for time. So Marinette heads out a lot more prepared, internally panicking still, but having a better idea what she needs to do. She saves Chat, and gets Stoneheart resolved in just one setting.

Chat likes her efficiency and thinks she's cool, but man is she cold. He does call her Ice Queen or Red Queen occasionally, just to be teasing.

And responsible Marinette wants to pass the earrings onto someone she knows could be a good hero, only there's no one she really knows that she can pass the earrings onto and take this off her hands. So she's kinda stuck with it.

So this jaded Marinette is stuck working off the optimistic Tikki and playful Chat, with the former trying to help Marinette heal and embrace the role to be a hero while Chat is trying to get her to smile and loosen up and have some more faith in humanity. And she does perform her duties and she does help people, even if she's standoffish and doesn't have a lot of patience for people.

And their whole dynamic is just summed up as:

Now, Canon!Marinette in the Special's world is a little harder as we don't have a lot of info or seen much of it yet (outside leaks/rumors, but I don't know how true those are, the few I've seen anyway). So this is a little more creativity/headcanon territory.

But, Marinette's pretty happy in a Paris cared for and protected by the Butterfly hero, though she thinks he kinda looks like a loser, but hey, she appreciates what he does. She'll just keep those criticisms to herself.

So she's surprised one day when a curious pair of earrings show up and a little bug thing is like "Hey, you're chosen to be a hero!" and she's just so confused cause they already have a hero? But, if he needs help, Marinette wouldn't mind lending a hand, cause he's done so much, and it's not like she's going to deal with the heat of things, right? Either way, she's uncertain but she'll give it a shot.

And the hero is surprised, but he's open and welcoming, a tad controlling but she can tell he means well.

And she soon learns why she was out, as the "villain" they face is more powerful than even their Butterfly hero: Claw Noir.

Now, Marinette wouldn't call him a villain. But he certainly liked causing problems and taking his destructive power out on the city. If anything, he was more the city's... prankster. Just with destructive power.

And at worse, he was obnoxious, especially when he wanted to be petty and try and trip her up. It's getting to a point she's now carrying spray bottles, cause she's a busy hero and she doesn't need this. Her mentor has a lot of high expectations and the last thing she needs is Claw Noir turning the sidewalk to liquid cement and making her stuck for a few minutes.

And the biggest factor that assures her that Claw isn't a villain is the pure fact that if she's ever in a tight spot, he literally pops up out of nowhere and helps.

He is a good guy, probably just lashing out for some unknown reason. He just needs a few more squirts in the face.

The Universe is Laughing

the universe is laughing by jennagrins

With the release of her transformation, Marinette's paralysis releases too.

She shrieks, finally able to give vent to the feelings that have been churning inside of her ever since she saw her partner detransform from her place in his arms.

When she'd been paralyzed by Venom, she couldn't so much as close her eyes to prevent seeing that Chat Noir is— is— ------- Marinette was conscious for Chat Noir's detransformation in Passion. What does that mean for our heroes?

(Written for ML Secret Santa 2022)

Words: 2412, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M

Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Plagg, Tikki

Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug

Additional Tags: Half-Reveal, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Knows, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Identity Reveal, Episode: s05 Passion, Canon Divergence, what if, episode rewrite, Episode: s04 Kuro Neko, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Loves Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Ladynoir | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug, Ladrien | Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug, Identity Reveal, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Identity Reveal, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Finds Out First, Episode: s04 Réplique | Strike Back (Shadow Moth's Final Attack Part 2), Romance, POV Marinette Dupain-Cheng, ML Secret Santa, Kwami Swap, Chat Noir Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Lady Noir, Ladybug Adrien Agreste | Mister Bug

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/44143017

Romeo and Ghouliet

romeo and ghouliet by fragileizy

Why does she do this? Lady Noire is always doing this. She's always doing the jumpscare, always staring at him with wide, neon eyes and a devilish smile, like her plan in her life is to get him to an early grave. Knowing his Kitty, that's absolutely what her plans are when she's smiling at him a touch too wide, a touch too sharply, a touch too interested in his screams.

“Why are you doing this to me?” Adrien calls out from his side of the couch, absolutely not hyperventilating.

“Why did that scare you? I'm literally here every day! What, you want me to send you a warning through email? Send a pigeon first?”

“No. Maybe. I just… thought you weren't going to be here today,” he tries, bluffing, terrified out of his mind. “Why exactly are you here?”

“It's Halloween tonight, Sunshine! And you are watching scary movies with me!”

Words: 2558, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 7 of Sharks and Sugar

Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M

Characters: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug

Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug

Additional Tags: Ladrien | Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug, Kwami Swap, Reverse Crush, Short & Sweet, Halloween, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Has a Crush on Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug has ADHD, Actual Cat Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Ladybug Adrien Agreste | Mister Bug, Chat Noir Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Lady Noir, Black Cat Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Lady Noire

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42764733

Saw the new chapter, nice! BTW, how would the various characters celebrate Pride Month?

Apologies, I've been busy with last chapter's reviews!

Wowza, that's a huge ask - I've made a conscious effort to normalize LGBTQIA+ identities in my stories, so there's a lot of ground to cover here! There's also a minor issue in that most of the current stories are set in 2012, which is quite a different landscape in regards to the acceptance of the LGBTQIA+ community compared to nowadays.

With that in mind, I'll try to go for the "ideal" celebration (and I'll throw in the characters' gender identities and sexual preferences, since I've already got those in my ongoing character database). Obviously, this only applies to the characters as portrayed in the Kryptonverse!

(This is a long one, so I'll add a "read more" thingy for the sake of those who aren't interested.)

- I think Luz would take Pride Month as an opportunity to more overtly explore her gender noncomformity; much like was showcased in the Grom episode, she might try on different outfit combinations, different pronouns - whatever makes her feel closer to her ideal self. I think her stint in the Boiling Isles would only make it that much clearer how truly silly it is for other people to try and dictate what she should look or behave like. Luz currently identifies as a bisexual, cisgender woman, but she has found comfort in identifying as nonbinary in the past, and there's really no telling how she might feel in the future.

- Kryptonian society had a great many issues, but a resistance towards gender variance and non-heterosexual preferences wasn't one of them - as long as you followed the strict life path set up for you by the Empire, of course. Kara is still confused about the human attitudes towards this subject, and angry that they affected Alex and Lena negatively in their youth. I think she'd celebrate Pride Month by pushing the Avengers to champion causes that protect the LGBTQIA+ community - not that they need much convincing. Think parades, lobbying for legislation, impassioned speeches, and million-dollar donations to worthy charities - whatever it takes to make sure people know where their heroes stand on this issue. Kara is a pansexual cisgender woman, Alex and Lena are lesbian cisgender women, Tony is a pansexual cisgender man, Steve is a (closeted) bisexual cisgender man, Natasha is an aromantic, bisexual, cisgender woman, Clint is a biromantic, heterosexual, cisgender man, and Rhodey and Bruce are both heterosexual, cisgender men (the Hulk himself is pansexual though).

- Not that Ben was against it before, of course, but I think gaining the ability to swap bodies (and genders, depending on the transformation) at will would give him a much greater appreciation for people who suffer from dysmorphia or otherwise don't gel with the body they were born with. I think he'd champion trans causes specifically during Pride Month - much to the anger of his parents, both conservative politicians. Ben is a bisexual, cisgender man, Julie is a bisexual, cisgender woman, Kevin is a heterosexual, cisgender man, and Gwen is a (currently questioning) bisexual, cisgender woman.

- It's kind of a spoiler to talk at length about Chloé's relationship with her own preferences. Suffice it to say, she would be very much opposed to Pride celebrations initially, but may or may not radically change her attitude as her journey goes on. Chloé is a lesbian, cisgender woman. Adrien is a bisexual, cisgender man (with GNC tendencies as he grows up), and Marinette is a bisexual, cisgender woman.

- Nico obviously didn't grow up in an environment conducive to the acceptance of his being gay. I think there's still a lot of internal self-loathing there, even as his boyfriend and his friends have greatly helped to coax him away from it, and that might manifest as his reluctance to participate in Pride celebrations. I think once he's convinced to attend a Pride parade once, though, it would make a world of difference going forward! Nico is a gay, cisgender man.

- Ellie has never given much thought to her own identity or preferences. She's felt attracted to all kinds of people, but never enough to want to act on it. It's possible that she's aro/ace, or somewhere on that spectrum, but even that feels like an ill-fitting piece of clothing. She is fiercely protective of Danny, though; poking fun or attacking him for being trans is a surefire way to make her go all out against you. She'll happily celebrate Pride with Danny and friends, too. Ellie doesn't currently subscribe to any romantic or sexual preference, but does identify as a cisgender woman. Valerie is a bisexual, cisgender woman. Danny is a heterosexual, transgender man.

- Pidge used to comfortably identify as a straight, cis woman, but her stint as Pidge Gunderson and the subsequent massive expansion of her knowledge of gender identities and sexual preferences due to her travels as a Paladin of Voltron have let her more solidly (ironically) identify as genderfluid and pansexual. She'd have a blast teaching Allura and Coran all about Earth Pride celebrations, and I'm sure she's eager to teach the people of Earth just how little they know about what's out there. Pidge is a genderfluid, pansexual individual (identified as female during Close Encounters, but don't let that fool you!).

- Saiyans have a weird relationship with gender and sexual preference. The average Saiyan is mostly free to do and be whatever the f*ck they want in this regard, but there is definitely a culture of male superiority, and a stigma towards trans Saiyan men, specifically - it's seen by traditionalists as "women trying to rise above their station", much in the same way as marrying between Saiyan classes is scorned. Caulifla and Kale don't have that kind of baggage, though, growing up on Xandar - their dithering about being with each other is just your classic awkward teenage romance, nothing to do with their both being women. Caulifla and Kale both identify as lesbian, cisgender women.

- Dipper may be a straight man, but he's the best damned ally you could hope for - fiercely protective of his pansexual twin and bisexual girlfriend. He's got every opposing argument memorized, and a counterargument ready to go - you do not want to debate him, and he will track your ass down if he catches you trolling/hating online. Mabel becomes even more of a living vortex of glitter and gloss during Pride - sweeping away the more muted Tulip, who'll happily settle for a little bisexual flag pin or sticker on her computer. Hard not to find Mabel's enthusiasm infectious, though! Dipper is a heterosexual, cisgender man, Mabel is a pansexual, cisgender woman, and Tulip is a bisexual, cisgender woman.

That was a lot! I hope it was an enjoyable read, though! @the-literary-lord

#28 Alternate Career (alternate) Note: Kwami Swap AU, Reverse Crush AU (kinda)

When Marinette arrives on set, her favourite model is already slumped in his chair. She greets Adrien with a quick hello and just like that, he seems to light up.

“Hey Marinette,” he replies, straightening.

“You’re early,” she comments as she unpacks her makeup. 

“You’re just late.”

Marinette makes a show of gasping, but shrugs sheepishly because he certainly isn’t wrong. She takes a sip of her latte and nods to the other cup she’d brought along with her. 

“For me?” he asks.

“For you.”

She lets him sip on it while sifting through everything to get his foundation. They’re going to be here for a while she knows. This coming shoot was looking for dramatic eyes, which means fun and experimentation for Marinette. Right now she and Adrien were just going to test out some looks for approval.

She’s in the middle of priming his eyelids when she hears a loud gurgle coming from his stomach. Despite the foundation on his cheeks, Adrien burns red.

“Sorry,” he says, barely moving a muscle. Marinette, always bursting with restless energy, has always envied Adrien’s ability to stay still on command or emote on cue. He’s always seemed to have endless patience and control. 

“No problem,” she replies.

Not a minute later, as she’s setting that primer, Adrien’s stomach releases another restless cry. His eyes are closed, but there’s a furrow in his brow that conveys his misery.

“Miss breakfast?” she asks lightly enough.

“Something like that,” he mumbles back. 

Marinette puts her brush back into her belt and places the palette she was using onto the table. She goes over to her purse, pulls out a protein bar, and then all but shoves it in Adrien’s face.

“Eat this,” she orders. 

He blinks. “What?”

“You’re hungry.” She waves the protein bar around. “You need to eat something. Eat this.”

“I’m fine--”

“Eat it!”

Adrien looks utterly put out as he accepts the protein bar, but like the man he is, he finishes it in barely three bites. He grins at her over the mouthful and Marinette musses his hair affectionately.

“I’ve just been really tired lately,” Adrien tries explaining.

Marinette snorts. “Too tired to eat.”

“Hey, that’s a thing you know.”

Marinette can agree. She works to colour correct those dark bags under his eyes and wonders what keeps him up so late. She knows Adrien is hardly one for partying. Video games perhaps? Did he have a girlfriend? Or, she considers with a short huff, does he participate in any extra curricular activities like hers?

Pausing for a moment, Marinette draws back. She regards Adrien with the red cream under his eyes and honestly considers spreading it around his eyes like a domino mask because Adrien honestly kind of looks like her superhero partner.

What?!

“Everything okay?” Adrien asks, eyes closed and still as a statue.

“Yup!” Marinette squeaks out. 

Adrien smiles softly and Marinette knows that’s the grin her partner wears for her when he thinks she doesn’t see him. 

Biting her lip, she carries on with the rest of his look. When she gets around to applying the bronzer, she gets a good look at the simple earrings he wears that are often covered by his hair.

It’s him. It’s him. It’s--

Marinette’s panic is interrupted when Adrien’s stomach reminds them once again that he didn’t have breakfast this morning, likely because he was also up til four in the morning taking care of a nightmare-induced akuma and tried to get as much as sleep as he could before showing up at this shoot. 

“Take better care of yourself,” she says. “Okay? For me?” Then she shakes her head. “No, for you.”

Adrien has always been careful to never move when she does his makeup, but in this moment, he cracks a smile. “Okay,” he agrees. “I will.”

“And...” Marinettes swallows thickly because asking out her superhero partner is always so much easier when she has the cat ears. Somehow she doesn’t feel quite emboldened without her super suit. Still, she tries. “Maybe we should get something to eat after the shoot’s done...together?”

“Together?” Adrien echoes.

“Just to make sure you’re eating, obviously!” 

He chuckles and it makes her heart beat faster. “Sounds like fun.”

Marinette finishes his makeup in silence and when she’s done, she sends him off to go get some photos taken so they can work on the second look. A few hours later, when they’re finally finished, Marinette waits around while Adrien washes his face. He comes out of the bathroom, cheeks still a bit pink.

“Ready to eat?”

“I’ve been ready to eat since yesterday, Marinette.”

She laughs as she grabs his arm to pull him along. She picks a bakery nearby to get some sandwiches that are already prepared, along with a few other treats. Since it’s so busy inside, she tells Adrien to wait on the bench and she’ll get their meals. He protests, insisting that he should do that, but Marinette tells him not to worry and narrowly avoids the cash he tries slipping into her pocket.

“Marinette!” he yells as she rushes off.

Marinette returns a few minutes later and hands Adrien his jambon beurre. He looks positively euphoric as he takes his first bite. 

Adrien notices her watching after his second bite. He grins sheepishly, cheeks bulging with his lunch. “What?”

“You seem to be enjoying yourself.”

“Of course I am. Good food with a good friend -- what else can a guy ask for?” 

She eats her own lunch while Adrien asks what she got him for dessert. They chatter away over lunch the way they normally do over patrol. She tells him she got him a few passionfruit macarons because she knows for a fact that those are her partner’s favourite, and Adrien lights up in delight. He wears the grin she fell in love with back when she was fourteen and she wonders how she never realized he was Mister Bug until now. 

An Impromptu Proposal, 28-29

<<Previous Next>>

28. Community service

When Adrien and Marinette returned from their trip to China, well rested and relaxed, there was one big thing they decided on: Adrien was going to go to counseling, and Marinette should probably see someone, too. Their kwamis did offer to help them, and while Marinette and Adrien agreed to take some of the help, they also thought seeing an outside specialist would be beneficial. Neither of the kwamis objected.

“Honestly, as fantastic as that vacation was, it’s kinda nice to be home,” Marinette said, stepping into their apartment.

“Yeah,” Adrien said. “Though, home is only home because you live here, too. Makes it feel like I belong here now.”

With a smile, Marinette looped her arms around his neck. “I’m glad to have this home with you.”

His own smile grew before he leaned down to press a sweet kiss to her lips. “Love you.”

“I love you.”

“Do you want to wash off the plane and travel feeling?” he asked.

“Yes. Very much.”

“Are you joining me?”

“Well, since you’re offering, how can I refuse.”

…

When Marinette and Adrien finally got out of the shower, Adrien immediately collapsed on the bed for a cat nap while Marinette scrolled through the emails and phone calls she’d been purposefully ignoring for the last few weeks.

She was about to call Alya when her best friend beat her to it. “Hey,” Marinette greeted quietly, knowing Adrien was in the other room. She got up to shut the door to the bedroom so she wouldn’t disturb Adrien. “I was just gonna call you.”

“One step ahead of you,” Alya’s cheerful voice came through the phone. “Wanted to call and catch you up. But first, how was the trip with the hubby?”

Marinette sighed, relaxing into the couch. “Relaxing and much needed.”

“Do anything special?”

Marinette was going to ignore the particular teasing lit in Alya’s tone. “No. Not particularly.”

“Did you pay attention to the news?”

“Definitely not.”

“Then you didn’t hear Lila and Gabriel’s sentencing, I assume.”

Marinette stiffened at that. “They were sentenced already?”

“Yeah,” Alya confirmed. “You don’t exactly get to terrorize the entirety of Paris for several years and not get the luxury of a swift and painful trial. Anyway, Lila was pissed and fought all the while. She never got out that you and Adrien were Chat and Ladybug, so you guys still have a little time before that surfaces. Besides, you know I’ll do damage control over it.”

“The bonuses of being best friends with the ladyblogger,” Marinette teased.

“Girl, had I known who you were earlier, I totally would have helped keep your identity.”

Marinette pursed her lips to keep back the doubtful smirk. “Sorry, but I’m not sure I believe you. I knew how you were in school.”

Alya paused. “True, but you also know that I would have helped my best friend. But, I know how Ladybug loved her secret identity, which was probably for the best.”

“Thank you.”

“Anyway,” Alya said, getting back on topic. “As for Gabriel, he surrendered shockingly easily. Because of that, they were a little more merciful on him. I mean, life in jail and community service isn’t pretty, but Gabriel may have the option of parole earlier than Lila does. That is… if he gets the clear from the psychiatric doctor. They were really worried for his mental state during the trial, so he’s in a specialty ward at the moment being cared for as a potential risk to himself.”

Marinette cringed. How was she going to tell that to Adrien? He was already a mess as is. Knowing that might be even worse. But then again, he’d find out one way or another. She’d tell him later, and then they could talk about it at counseling.

Speaking of which…

“Hey, Alya. Um, one of the things that Adrien and I agreed to was to seek some counseling help considering that we’re facing… all of this. And I was wondering—”

“If I knew anyone?” Alya finished. “I’ll do all the research for you, girl. I got you covered. I think that Adrien could really use it, poor guy. I’m glad that he sold the company when he did, though. He’s not dealing with the legal battles now.”

“I got to feel a little bad for the buyer, though,” Marinette said. “Having to deal with that mess.”

“Well… yeah,” Alya admitted. “But honestly, it’s so much better than Adrien dealing with it. That’s the last thing that guy needs right now.”

Marinette couldn’t disagree with that. Knowing her husband wasn’t the one who had to bear that weight on his shoulders along with everything else was a relief. “Yeah, you’re right about that.”

“How are you doing?” Alya asked. “Because I know that we’re talking about Adrien being KO-ed, which is completely understandable, but what about you? This can’t be easy on you, either.”

“It’s not,” Marinette said. “But I think part of that stress is knowing what Adrien is going through and wanting to shoulder what I can and be a pillar of support so he doesn’t feel like the world’s caving in on him.”

“Honey, you are a good wife to that man. He better take good care of you.”

“He does,” Marinette said, smile on her face and a warm feeling in her heart. “He’s my partner; we take care of each other. I don’t think either of us know the limit of how far is too far. Particularly Adrien.”

Alya hummed. “I think you’re right. But don’t forget that you have your own stressors that you need to carry. Don’t try to carry everything on your own.”

“You’re right,” Marinette admitted. “I’ll be careful.”

“Good, because I care about you…” There was a pause at the end of the line. “Hey, give me a second, Nino’s calling, probably about the wedding venue.”

“Okay.” Marinette couldn’t help but grin. Nino had finally gotten the courage to propose to Alya a couple months back in between all this superhero chaos. They decided not to rush with it, because they were dealing with their own stress from it, too, but it seemed like they were moving ahead with it now.

There was a click signaling Alya’s return. “Hey, so I’m sorry, but I gotta jet. Nino’s picking me up in a couple minutes to go check out a wedding venue.”

“Then I’ll let you go. Hope it’s a successful endeavor.”

“Here’s hoping. Call you back to talk later, ‘kay?”

“Okay. Bye.”

“Bye, girl.”

When Marinette hung up the phone, she suddenly felt Adrien’s arms wrap around her shoulders. “You’re the most incredible wife I could ask for,” he whispered.

“Were you listening?” she asked, reaching up to hold his arms.

“I was,” he admitted.

“I thought you were sleeping.”

“Not really, and this cat has killer hearing.”

She couldn’t help but giggle.

“Thank you so much for everything,” Adrien said, squeezing her tight. “And I’m sorry if I make you feel like you have to shoulder any of my burden—”

“You don’t,” Marinette cut in. “I do try to because I love you and want to help you through this."

"It helps just knowing you’re there.”

“Then that’s all that matters.”

Adrien squeezed her tight, then pressed a kiss to her cheek. “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too, kitty. I love you so much.”

 ...

29. Kwami swap

Before either Marinette or Adrien had realized, Christmas season was upon them. Life was slowly returning to normal. Counseling was going well for both of them. Marinette decided her new year’s resolution would be to start looking for a new job. She was ready to get back into the workforce. Adrien, on the other hand, decided to continue his studies and find a university to apply to next year, but for now, he was looking into his options of courses of study. Honestly, for where he was, Marinette was very proud of her husband for beginning to take those steps.

This next year was going to be a good one, Marinette could tell. And she was very much looking forward to it. But for now, Marinette was looking forward to a very nice, underrated, mundane Christmas that wouldn’t be overshadowed by the fear of an akuma appearing in the middle of any party or dinner or event. They could open gifts and sleep in and have Christmas dinner without the constant fear of an akuma or two or three cropping up right when it was the least convenient.

At the moment, Marinette was taking a leisurely stroll around Paris trying to find the perfect Christmas gift for her husband.

“I’m hungry. Are we done yet?”

With a cranky little kwami in tow.

“Here,” Marinette said, taking a wedge of cheese out of her purse. How Adrien carried that stuff around for years, Marinette had no idea. She was certain she’d die from the smell. “Now, no more until you help me find a good gift for Adrien.”

“He’d be happy with your kisses. There. End of story.”

Despite being married for a few months, Marinette still blushed under the sarcastic kwami’s smug smirk. “Plagg.”

“What? You know I’m right.”

“Yeah, but I actually want a gift to give him.”

“Wrap yourself in a ribbon.”

She was going to smack this kwami into another country. “Plagg!”

“Fine,” the kwami whined. “Geez. I happen to know of a couple books he wants. Okay?”

“Thank you,” Marinette said. “Which ones?”

Plagg sighed. “We go to that big, fancy bookstore, and I’ll tell you.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“And then we get to go home, right?”

Marinette smirked. “Sure. After we get a gift for each of my parents, Alya, Nino, and Chloe.”

Plagg let loose a long groan before sinking into her purse. “Wake me up when we get there.”

With a roll of her eyes, Marinette shut her purse. Even though Plagg had proven himself to be the laziest kwami in existence, he was helpful enough when he wanted to be.

…

“Tikki, I will trade Marinette for you.”

Tikki giggled. “You don’t mean that.”

“You’re helpful,” Adrien began, listing things off on his fingers. “You don’t sass back. You actually gave me good suggestions for Marinette’s Christmas gift as well as gifts for her parents. You don’t smell like cheese all the time. And you’re tidy. Just to name a few.”

“Well… yeah, I can’t argue with you about those,” Tikki cheekily retorted.

“So, when Marinette gets back, we’re trading.”

Again, Tikki giggled. “You don’t have your ears pierced.”

“A small detail,” Adrien dismissed with a wave.

“I think you’d make a good Ladybug, to be honest. But I think you make a better Black Cat.”

Adrien shrugged. “I guess it has its perks.”

Tikki settled in his hair. “Sure. Whatever you say.”

               task #14a: getting to know you              general info and physical appearance

Character’s Full Name: Benjamin ‘ Bones ‘ Wraight Name origin:   From the Hebrew name בִּנְיָמִין (Binyamin) which means "son of the south" or "son of the right hand". Wraight  is an early English surname. It is occupational and was used to describe a maker of machinery or objects, mostly in wood. Nickname, if any (if so, explain its origin – e.g. who created it?):  Benjie Bones. Benjie prefers to shorten his name since Benjamin is a bit of a mouthful only Sam really calls him Benjamin. He doesn’t like being called Ben however because that was his sisters name for him and it makes him uncomfortable if anyone other than her uses it. 

Bones came about because he works with the police he wanted a Witch alias that couldn’t be traced back to him. He picked it because people always caught him talking to the cadavers in the morgue when he was studying or working. They called him the Bone Whisper as a joke behind his back. Eventually it got shortened to Bones to his face. Does he like the nickname?  He’s quite fond of both his nicknames. Since arriving at the Institute he’s only given out Bones as his surname which is what he’s most comfortable doing.

Birth date: 8th August Place of birth: Miami, Florida Ethnic background: American Religion: Pagan Degree of religious practice: Currently practicing, has done most of his life.

Current address: The Institute, Caribbean. Does he rent or own? He lives with Samuel Faust who owns the house. ( @feallende​ ) Brief description of home: Modern semi-detached home with a clean, open floor plan. It’s in a secluded, forested area, and features a large number of glass walls and windows, as well as outdoor space. Does s/he live with anyone? Yes he lives with his partner Sam. Describe the area in which s/he lives: Secluded and quiet, surrounded by nature. Is this his/her ideal home and location? Yes If not, what would s/he prefer? n/a Home decor (check all that apply):

XXX Expensive

___ Inexpensive

XXX Carefully planned

XXX Comfortable

XXX Neat

___ Cluttered

When someone walks in, what’s his/her first impression? Lots of greenery and glass, open space and light. Pets?

___ No 

XXX Yes

If yes, what kind and how many? Name(s)? Quoth, a Jackdaw How important are they? How well are they treated? Quoth isn’t just Benjie’s pet, Quoth is Benjie’s familiar they share a fragment of Benjie’s soul. He’s been Benjie’s companion for many years and for the rest of his life. They are incredibly important to Benjie.

Current occupation Professor at the Institute Job satisfaction: Benjie likes his job, he likes teaching other people and passing on his knowledge. Income level: Whatever the teachers are paid at the Institute, but he’s well off with money. Education: doctor of medicine, forensic pathology specialization, years of Witch teachings Does s/he drive? Yes What kind of car does s/he own, if any?: Benjie drives an Aston Martin DB9 Volante Carbon Edition in Black

Sexuality:  Pansexual Marital status: Divorced If married or currently romantically involved, with whom, and for how long? Benjie is romantically involved with Samuel Faust ( @feallende ) and has been since the end of October 2017. List any significant previous romantic partners: 

Jillian Wraight, Née , Hawkins, First Wife, divorced

Deborah Wraight, Née McGrath, Second Wife, divorced

For current spouse/partner, what does the character call him/her (pet names, nicknames, etc.)? Love, Beloved, my angel ( only when they are on their own) How did they meet? Benjie and Sam met at the Institute Any children? None. Describe relationship with each child (if any): n/a

physical appearance

Height: 6′1″ Weight: 144lbs What is his/her body type? Benjie is very thin, what muscle he has is lean. But he’s all sharp angles and jutting bones, especially at his hips and ribs. He doesn’t put on much weight because he forgets to eat. Eye color? Green Does s/he use glasses? Contacts? Hearing aid? Benjie needs no aids for visual or hearing impairments. Skin tone: Extremely pale. Any prominent features, freckles/moles/scars/tattoos/other distinguishing marks? Benjie’s nose is quite prominent since it’s crooked. He broke it when he was a young adult and it stayed that way ever since. Other than that he has a scar down the center of his chest from heart bypass surgery. It’s faded now but still extremely visible and he’s covered in tattoos Face shape? Narrow and angular Whom does s/he most look like? Adrien Brody General health? Decent health, Benjie drinks and smokes too much to be good health, in addition to his bad heart and poor eating habits means he’s often underweight. Any chronic conditions? Coronary Heart Disease, Depression Any current health problems? Benjie occasionally suffers from angina but he’s not told anyone yet. He knows he’s at risk for a third heart attack too. He also suffers from large bouts of depression.

How does s/he dress (mark as many as appropriate):

PRICE:

XX Expensive    

__ Average    

__ Inexpensive  

__  Cheap

STYLE:

__  Haute Couture  

XX  Conservative  

__  Trendy    

__  Eclectic  

XX Business  

__ Sexy    

__  Gaudy    

XX  Casual  

__ Sloppy                

Does s/he dress to be noticed? Why? Benjie dresses to be comfortable with himself. He doesn’t much care for how other people perceive him. Any special jewelry? Yes, Benjie has lots of special jewelry. Be it beaded bracelets with sigils carved into them or his important bone charm necklace Benjie has a lot of sentimental and important jewelry. (His necklace sort of looks like this .) If so, why is it special? Benjie’s bracelets are often charmed, they do different things.  Wardings, protections, he swaps them out depending on what he thinks he’ll need for the day. His bone charm necklace carries bones from Benjie’s divination collection, he strings it generally every day with different charms depending on what the bones tell him to take with him. The only permanent things on his necklace are the human rib bone in the center as well as an angel feather and a Jackdaw feather.

Other accessories: Benjie likes most things, hats, scarves, rings, watches, tie pins, cufflinks, Benjie is a hoarder he loves wearing lots of jewelry. 

Grooming:

___ Every hair in place, very neat (Why?)

XX Average grooming

___ Clean but sloppy

___ Unkempt (Why?)

Hairstyle: Short. Generally left to it’s own devices but he may gel it back. It varies from day to day Facial hair: None, shaves every morning. Doesn’t particularly enjoy having a beard or stubble. Natural hair texture: Thin, gets greasy quickly. Current hair texture (if different from above):  n/a Natural hair color: Black Current hair color (if different from above): n/a

Miraculous Ladybug Twins AU Headcanon

I posted this on FF awhile ago so I though I should post it here too; Hello fellow LadyBug and Chat Noir fans. Welcome to the story. This my first fanfic so I can't wait to see how this turns out. This will not be a cohesive story but rather a compilation of short stories about the lives of Marinette, Marín, Adrien, and Audrey. This is an AU story that depicts Marinette having a twin brother named Marin and Adrian having a twin sister named Audrey. The following headcanon mainly apply to Marin, Audrey, their personalities, and their relationships. Btw this AU is actually inspired by a comic dub on YouTube so go check that out, it's called: "Twins AU" Miraculous Ladybug Comic Dub EDIT: Here's the Comic: http://yaushie.tumblr.com/post/157083317009/another-dumb-miraculous-au-from-yours-truly And here's the dub: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DroijYIpz6Q&feature=youtu.be Please support the original artist guys! Headcanon list: Both sets of twins share their miraculouses. Half of the time it's female lady bug half of the time it's male ladybug. Same applies to Chat Noir. By pure coincidence most of the time when the twins switch out its Marinette fighting along side Adrien and Marin fighting alongside Audrey. They has been a few instances of different pairings. Marin and Marinette are the same age but Marin acts like the protective older sibling. He has a level head and always has Marinette's back. Marin and Marinette share a room however Marinette has just a little bit more space than Marin does. He continued to offer her a bit of space for her fashion stuff but now it's begun to escalate. Marin doesn't like to admit it, but he's a great artist and he secretly wants to pursuit a career in art. Marin and Marinette always help around the backers when ever they can. Marinette prefers to work the counter and stay in the shop Marin enjoys making deliveries. Marin saved his birthday money every year and eventually saved enough to by a moped. Marinette constantly asks him for rides to go meet up with her friends. Marin is childhood friends with Audrey. They met once when they were little and would keep in touch. Now that she attends the same school as Marin they hang out more often. Marin does have a crush on Audrey but he isn't as flustered about it as Marinette's crush. He fears more that if Audrey rejects him that it would ruin their friendship. Marin had to get his ears pierced in order to wear the ladybug earrings. He did not have a pleasant time. In addition, he never told his parents so it wasn't a good night at home either. When Marin is Ladybug he is constantly mistaken for a girl. This is because his sister was the one to debut the costume. He can't stand being called a woman while in his Ladybug outfit. If it was an honest mistake he'll keep his cool and explain. If it's out of hate or spite he looses it. There is a little girl in Paris (8 years old maybe) who is absolutely in love with Marin's Ladybug. She always offers him flowers whenever they meet. Marin has a soft spot for this girl so he always allows her to put a flower in his hair whenever they meet. This does not help the girl misconception. Marin and Marinette sometimes fight over who gets to be Ladybug or at the very least who gets to hold to the miraculouses. They tried swapping every week but crime is unpredictable. So are there schedules. Marinette's Ladybug about 57% of the time. (This is directly taken from the dub) Marin and Marinette cover for each other all the time. Even going as far to put on costumes and pretending to be the other. Marin and Audrey find out each others identity. This doesn't affect their relationship too much. However for the sake of their twin's friendship they keep this a secret from their siblings. Marin doesn't like to admit it but when he was younger he used to have a crush on Chloe. Purely based on looks though, he knows better now. Marinette will tease him on this every so often. When Marinette's is Ladybug Marin always does his best to be of use. He'll get bystanders to safety, cover Marinette whenever she's about to transform, even contribute to the fight if things get desperate. Marin is a bit protective of Marinette. Always coming to her aid. He's also the logical sense of the duo, if something crazy happens and people just accept it he'll be that one guy who questions it. Time for the Chat Noir Headcannons: It's a personal headcanon but I'd like to think Audrey is a quite protagonist. She does speak but not very often. She like to reflect and is a bit more introverted than Adrien. Audrey and Adrien both do modeling but Audrey isn't too fond of it. She does it because she fears talking back to her father. Audrey isn't allowed to take fencing however she watches Adrien practice and has learned a bit about it from the sidelines. Audrey has a little more control over her dissensions than Adrien does. In this AU she has a huge hand in convincing her father to allow Adrien to go to school. Audrey was allowed to go to school a year or two before Adrien. Her father wants her to run the business aspect of the company. He felt social interaction may help with that. Audrey used to attend an uptight preparatory school. She transferred when Adrien was allowed to go to school. Gabriel did this in order to keep a close watch on both of his kids. Audrey would like to study Architecture. Audrey's silent persona can be contributed to the loss of her mother. People ask Adrien why his sister is so quite all the time. This confuses him a lot. His sister is a total blabbermouth when he's around. When she was little she snuck away from her nanny in order to go to the park when Miran and Marinette were playing. She bumped into him by accident, fell, and hurt herself, Marin gave her a bandaid and helped her up. That's how they met. Audrey absolutely adores puns. She constantly encourages Adrien to say'em. Audrey has a slight allergic reaction around cats, ironically, when she comes into contact with a cat her skin gets a small rash. As Chat Noir she gets a lot of fanboys, every so often she'll stop mid battle to wave at them or blow them a kiss. Audrey loves to mess with Miran Ladybug and joke around with him. After finding out who he was she had even more material to work with. Audrey once convinced Adrien that after transforming to Vhat Noir she was starting to turning a cat. She'd play with yarn, eat a lot of tuna, and said Nya after every sentence. After the cat prank she'll say Nya after a few of her sentences just to mess with Adrien. Audrey loves nature and if she could, would spend all her time in the park. Miran drew a pic of a park during class but threw it out, Audrey saw this kept the picture. She has it framed right above her desk. Audrey notices and absolutely adores that Marinette has a huge crush on her brother. She tries her hardest to "subtly" hook them up. When in a really bad mode Audrey will steal the Cat miraculous and go out on her own. If not she'll sneak her way to the Cheng's and hideout in Marinette and Marin's room. Chloe tries to hang out with Audrey in order to make it look like she cares about his family. Audrey CANT STAND CHLOE. Adrienne will try to defend her sometimes but Audrey 100% despises her. Play takes advantage of Audrey's naivety. He constantly asks her for cheese and she always gives him a mountains worth. This kinda upset Adrien. Audrey and Adrien have a better schedule when it comes to sharing their miraculous. Plague joking says he prefers Audrey over Adrien as Chat Noir cause she always gives him cheese with out question. Audrey is t as witty as her brother so sometimes she'll google cat puns to shout out in the middle of battle. Sometimes, if a pun is too good, she'll shout them repeatedly even if it has no relevance to what she's actually doing. That's all for now, hope you enjoyed. BTW I'll start writing my own scenarios but if you have a story idea you want written out then please, feel free to comment it. Thank you all, HAVE A MIRACULOUS DAY!

January 16, 2020

 First journal of the new year!

I’ve been doing Yoga With Adriene’s 30 Day Yoga Journey, which is called Home this year, and I haven’t missed a day! Yesterday’s theme was return, and she told us to focus on something we want to return to.

The first thing I thought of was “my own goddamn lane”. My boyfriend and some of his friends are planning to hike/climb Mount Rainier in July, and I want to do it. Or I thought I did. But I’m starting to think I only want to want to do it, because the idea of doing it actually stresses the hell out of me. It sounds like such an amazing bucket list item, but I am trying to stay in my lane and ask myself if I would still want to do it in a vacuum, if I would want to do it if I didn’t care at all about other people thinking I’m badass...

I don’t think I would. I don’t want to be responsible for other people’s lives, I don’t really want to spend every weekend coming up working on mountaineering skills, and I don’t actually trust the mountaineering skills of the other people going. It also sounds like a pretty intense couple of days (they’re planning on trying to do it in two days, which means the second day is 12-16 hours), with a third day available in case they can’t summit on the second day. Spending those 2-3 days backpacking around Mount Rainier Park sounds infinitely preferable to me!

Am I just being avoidant as always, allowing my anxiety to steer me away from something that would truly challenge me and then making up sour-grapes excuses about it (”I didn’t want to climb it anyway!”) to silence the cognitive dissonance? I never want to stop pushing myself ouside of my comfort zone... but there’s just something about this.

The other thing that’s been bothering me is my gaming group. I keep flaking on them, and at first it was because of moving, and then travel plans, and then the holidays, and I kept saying “I’ll come back when x”, “I’ll come back when y”, “I’ll come back in the new year”, and now x and y and the new year have happened, and I’m still making excuses. Always making excuses, and letting people down.

I originally hoped to commute on Wednesdays and Fridays so I could be at the game in person, but the long day and late drive home was too much. Then I was planning on playing remotely, but once again, the long day of commuting and working leaves me totally sapped. This is compounded by my boss getting fired in August which has left me as the unwilling (and uncompensated) authority on our systems, so my job is a lot more draining than it used to be. Everyone's always asking me questions, and they're not easy questions like "What does this error mean?", they're questions like "How should I implement this?" and I can’t even speak anymore without thinking about the architecture of all our software and remembering every little detail and mentally walking through the whole process, because... people are starting to take my recommendations seriously.

These excuses feel so petty, too, “I’m tired,” “Work is hard.” But damn, I’m tired and work is hard! I’m irrationally afraid they’ll kick me to the curb - irrational because they care about me! And if the positions were swapped, I would just want the person to do what they need to do to take care of themselves.

But this is still getting to me, which made me think there was something deeper... I think it’s just that I’m not excited about that game and haven’t been for months. Gaming with this group has been such a huge part of my identity and my social circle for 15 years, so it is terrifying to feel like I’m growing apart from it. I still love gaming because I play an occasional game with Sean and his friends and it's a blast, but I'm bored of my game. Bored of the system, bored of the one- or two-session adventures. Sean's game is this huge, multi-year adventure, and those are so fulfilling because you get to watch your character grow, whereas no one in my group has been willing to run one of those huge adventures for 5 years now, so we just play these disconnected short adventures that aren't terribly fulfilling in the long run. And while I love the people still, moving has made it difficult to see them outside of a gaming context. Going to see a movie with them is now a whole 5+-hour production for me.

But I’m making changes. I swapped my remote days so that I am working from home on Fridays, which should leave me with slightly more energy and brainpower to play. Playing remotely is unappealing, and I think that’s part of it - as long as I haven’t tried it, I don’t have to deal with feeling isolated even when I’m playing. I think I just need to jump in and do it, though. It will become a new normal eventually.

Another part is that I don’t actually know if I’m a regular player in Sean’s group or just a guest player. I am unsure about how attached to get, how invested to get, in case it could get pulled out from under me. I need to talk to Sean about this.

The other thing I’d like to return to, and this is a positive thing, is beginner’s mind. I’ve been thinking a lot about this concept, both with my skills and with my mental illness. You never really win, do you? Or rather you win every day, every minute. You don’t just wake up one day and you’re better. It’s a practice, and that’s the definition of practice that doctors use, the application of methods, not the definition where you perform the same action again and again until you get good at it. The latter definitely applies, but it also implies this idea that you’ll eventually become a master/expert, and I don’t believe in that. It will come easier, but I don’t think anyone truly masters it, you have to always be working at it. And it’s good and worthwhile work, but it’s work and effort and intention and mindfulness. Hence beginner’s mind. When I have negative thoughts, I need to still go through the same steps as I did when I was just starting therapy.

ETA: My therapist just pointed out that another part of beginnner’s mind is compassion, e.g. forgiving yourself and others for messing up. This is super-important and I’m going to weave it into my own definition.

What would be the perfect "Miraculous team" for you?

At this point, the characters that do stand out most to me as major players that could be on a plausible team are: Marinette, Adrien, Felix, Alya, Nino, Kagami, and Zoe.

Honorable mentions/maybes: Ali, Aurore, Chloe, Lila, Juleka, Ivan, and Kim.

Marinette is a must. I do really enjoy writing her, and making my desired tweaks, and it is kinda a shame a lot of recent writing with her is in salt response to canon treatment. It's a big part of the reason I'm on an ML writing break. But she's a must. Most likely with kwami swaps as I am kinda done with her as Ladybug and working off Tikki. Tikki I think could better serve elsewhere and Marinette could be refreshing working off a different personality.

Adrien by default is kinda a must, though his biggest help is that he has a lot of options in what can be done with him. Could go along canon as starting off as a goofball hero that will get serious (though still keep his sense of humor), and be at a crossroads of working with his father or going against him. He could also work with Gabriel at the start, either openly or secretly, and through friendship finds himself as a crossroad. Could also do him joining later, initially exploring him as a civilian, maybe he runs the Ladyblog and wants to unmask heroes and he's extra excited cause his father is actually supportive and invested in his interest. There's some good options for him.

Felix is a must, partly from bias, but he does have a good established arc from starting as an antagonistic loner to turning to a true hero. And the stiff, skeptic, passive aggressive personality he can have could be a good counter to other personalities. And if you want to work off cnaon, he can go absolute gremlin.

Alya is another must. Frustrating as she is, she's a character I see a lot of potential for. Like, a lot of the "lessons" Marinette is expected to learn would better apply to her. And like Adrien, she'd be a great character if she was allowed to learn and improve. And I see a lot of potential in exploring her as a hero at the start, cause you got Alya wanting to start out for glory and attention, kinda treats it as a game initially, and she's on the side of reckless with secrecy, and I just see a lot of good potential for her as a major lead to follow at the start. Learning that heroing isn't all fun and glory, sometimes it's hard, and with reveals, there are pros to it, but there are also cons. She could really add to the secrecy vs reveal debate.

Nino is kinda here by default, but the boy needs something. Ideally something to let him stand on his own, especially outside Alya and Adrien. And one of the best ways to do that is explore him as a Miraculous hero at the start. And he wants to be a film director, so, maybe his focus arc could relate to leadership, learning to develop those skills, awareness of his team and what they can do, and how to best direct them. I will say, of this list, I could also roll with Nino as the supportive civilian friend who grounds one of the leads as he is a character who doesn't have a lot going on.

Kagami, despite all her issues as a character, is a character that caught my attention in Riptose. And while she got a lot of odd choices and polarizing characterization, taking the scattered pieces I can see a potential character being crafted. You got potential in her as the blunt ice queen who's overly dedicated and a little too serious, she wants to make friends but she's socially awkward and can come off as mean, she wants to make her mom proud but she also feels stifled. And by her official skills, she's one of the few characters that could actually vigilante and help the heroes without a Miraculous, or try to compete with them as her mom is tasking her with the chance to fight superhumans and prove herself.

Zoe is in a weird boat as she came in so late and I stopped watching ML so I didn't click with her all that well, but seeing more of her as Kitty and the apparent partner for Alya, it did prompt me to think and consider her more and brainstorm ideas. There's definitely something to work off of with her wanting to please Chloe and pretending to follow her along, but that's not who Zoe is and she can have an arc of figuring herself out, dealing with the tension and mistrust that her relation with Chloe brings, and letting herself flourish. Adjustments though would have to be made for her to come in sooner or be at Paris at the start, either as Chloe's younger sister or maybe twin, or her cousin, or we rip off the bandaid of the vague Bourgeois union, say they're divorced, and Audrey remarried and Zoe is Chloe's stepsister and she's up in Paris so they can "bond". I will say, with her coming in so late, she's also a character I can just exclude.

For honorable mentions where I can see potential or fun or I wish they had more attention:

Ali has a lot of the same appeals as Adrien, is shown to be very sweet, and I am bummed so little was done with him. He's not present enough to warrant being on the main team, but I like him enough that I should try and write more with him.

Chloe I can acknowledge has potential as a character, and that chance of a redemption arc is there, and she can be loads of fun to write. But I also feel irritated with her as she was a waste of time. I get they were halfheartedly going for "will she be good or will she be evil", but it was such a butcher job and you could tell the team was split, and instead of compromising, they just put in both potential to be good and her clearly not going to get better. And I'm just stuck in that irritating spot where I can SEE the potential but she may ultimately better serve as a villain/antagonist.

And this is where Aurore comes in, having all the perks of Chloe being haughty and proud, but none of the downsides. She was a lot of fun to write in Leave for Mendeleiev, and honestly, when I started ML with Stormy Weather, I actually thought she was a major character since she had the initial focus point. Color me surprise when she ultimately became a background character. And then disappeared for a while.

Lila is in a similar boat to Chloe, and honestly between them on who should get a redemption, it's pretty even them for me as they're both terrible. But we didn't NEED two mean girls to go against Marinette. Now, if they were a rival/foil to another character, and Marinette just worked mostly off one of them, then having two mean girls could've worked better. Either way, Lila redemption would have to be around Volpina, cause Chameleon and onward is a trainwreck and there's no way to pick up the pieces of that. And for a chracter who lies a lot, can be petty and spiteful, she has promise to be a lot of fun, and to bring a lot of chaos.

Between the two Couffaine siblings, Juleka is the one I see a lot of potential for writing wise, as she does have that established struggle of trying to find her voice. And by her livelihood, you could play off the comedy of her being chaotic but chill, and ready to take things to the extremes (like kidnapping). And there's the friendship potential that canon tapped into with her and Marinette's shared interest in fashion (I actually think that if the show was more realistic on friend pairs, Marinette would've been in a trio with Juleka and Rose).

Kim is on this list because he cracks me up. Peak himbo but surprisingly wise. That is if we can ignore how he got ruined in s5.

Lastly, Ivan. He was actually the first classmate I really paid attention to, and I saw a promising story to work off with him. Watching Origins, you see most of the class is intimidated by him, so I thought he could have an arc of changing people's perspective, instead of him being feared he's seen as a protector. Which kinda got speedran in the background, but I guess we can't have a plus size character as the focal point. But I'd like to do him as a major lead sometime.

Romeo and Ghouliet

romeo and ghouliet by fragileizy

Why does she do this? Lady Noire is always doing this. She's always doing the jumpscare, always staring at him with wide, neon eyes and a devilish smile, like her plan in her life is to get him to an early grave. Knowing his Kitty, that's absolutely what her plans are when she's smiling at him a touch too wide, a touch too sharply, a touch too interested in his screams.

“Why are you doing this to me?” Adrien calls out from his side of the couch, absolutely not hyperventilating.

“Why did that scare you? I'm literally here every day! What, you want me to send you a warning through email? Send a pigeon first?”

“No. Maybe. I just… thought you weren't going to be here today,” he tries, bluffing, terrified out of his mind. “Why exactly are you here?”

“It's Halloween tonight, Sunshine! And you are watching scary movies with me!”

Words: 2558, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 7 of Sharks and Sugar

Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M

Characters: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug

Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug

Additional Tags: Ladrien | Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug, Kwami Swap, Reverse Crush, Short & Sweet, Halloween, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Has a Crush on Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug has ADHD, Actual Cat Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Ladybug Adrien Agreste | Mister Bug, Chat Noir Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Lady Noir, Black Cat Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Lady Noire

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42764733

Whenever I see someone mentioning "rewrite" for ml, my brain simply turns off for a few minutes because I quite frankly can't see why it would last many episodes. In a rewrite you can change some aspects, but not their personalities, so I would still view Gabriel as an idiot and think that this is would be stupid. Nothing's wrong with a series that mostly focus on your characters, but... you need to get the sense that SOMETHING is happening, rather than keep it vague.

Yeah... honestly, for an ML rewrite, what would’ve been better is just a massive overhaul of everything. Like, its on my future WIP list to do an ML rewrite and writing down details and ideas here and there, but it’s not matching up with the show all that much. 

Either way, story wise, you can’t drag Hawk Moth out for, what, 7 or 8 seasons like they want to? Or at least, the misused Butterfly. And presumably Peafowl too cause status quo-yo. At most, Hawk Moth should’ve been 2 seasons, though depending on Mayura and possibly her being a more dangerous threat and his boss, could’ve dragged things out to 3 seasons with him. 

But afterwards, they should bring in something else to focus on. 

Like, if you cut sentimonsters as a power, you can make use of some of those beings as a non miraculous related villain to face. Like, Feast and that Butterfly being demons to combat. Could also make use of that dragon form from the Shanghai Special and have an actual Chinese dragon appear as an antagonistic force. 

And if you want more miraculous antagonists and reveal that there are more miraculous out there, there’s @nobodyfamousposts solid idea that multiple miraculous were lost and many are popping up in Paris and part of Marinette’s new role with Fu is gathering them up, and it’s a race against HM (and maybe Mayura) to get them. Play off Jackie Chan or Xiaolin Showdown. 

And you can get some antagonists out of them, like XY using the Rabbit to steal ideas (if time travel, peeking into the future, also his name could be Hip Hop). Uh, Jalil usind Dog to “sniff out” answers (could be Pharaoh Hound). Chloe and Lila could wind up with Bee and Fox respectively and misuse them to make themselves heroes. Could also apply to Adrien having the Cat and being more of a wildcard helping LB when it suits him but he’s not here to be a hero. 

And as Nobody’s mentioned, could also get some complex situations out of it, like Ali using the Snake (King Cobra) for as a prince, he’s under a lot of risk of assassinations. Does she really want to take that away? 

Now this can be done with Myura but could also be done with Su-Han, but having someone who opposes how Fu goes about things as a Guardian, and challenge him as a mentor to Marinette. Be that set up of which path does she walk? Make things complex and challenging for her and her stance. 

Miraculous is a show with a lot of possibilities and potential and a lot of ways you could have things go. That’s what makes an ML rewrite so interesting, though with how canon has gone about it, I’d say just overhaul the whole thing. 

Of course, my take is more kwami swap galore. Have Alya get the earrings and Marinette something else. But yeah, you can’t drag out HM for long. He should’ve been about 2 seasons, they could’ve stretched him out to 3 with Mayura. 

After reading everything that both sides have said in asks and in your notes, I think I’m on Team Scarabella myself. One of the big reasons for me too that I haven’t seen any other fans bring up yet is that I’d simply like to see the in-show “what if Alya was Ladybug” premise from Hack-San done better. What-ifs in a show’s canon can be a lot of fun to watch if the writers understand what they’re doing, but unfortunately ML has a habit of not delivering on that front. With the LS kwami swap, we didn’t get to see Adrien learn to take Ladybug’s disposition seriously and ease her load in future battles, having Lady Noire there to support him on a level he doesn’t do for her, with his only takeaway at the end of it all being, enquote, “I'm not cut out to be Ladybug, that's for sure! 😃” With Master Fu fighting Hawkmoth + Jade Turtle concept, while he was able to outquip Hawkmoth with some biting remarks at the beginning, he was quickly trapped with his own use of Shell-ter, which is really not something you wanna see from or makes sense to see from the Guardian who should understand the pros and cons of each Miraculous under his repertoire, especially considering his history with the Peacock and his dismissal of the Order’s silly rule of not using Miraculouses themselves. And now with Alya using the Earrings, along with the oddness of her jumping from name to name since she landed on Rena Rouge easily enough in Sapotis, you’d expect far more physical and mental competence during the beginning from someone who has used the Fox on a number of occasions, especially since she did all that hand-to-hand combat in Heroes’ Day and the Fox in general requires you to think of a Mirage to best suit the current situation. I’d expect fumbling like that if it actually was her very first time using any Miraculous, and even then only if akumas and sentimonsters weren’t a consistent occurrence yet since she fell into being Rena Rouge pretty smoothly all things considered despite it being her first time. And it just so happens that these would be the conditions if she got the Earrings from the get-go in Origins, which is where FFtB starts, so yeah lol 😁

That is why I don't quite count Hack-San as a proper "what if Alya had the earrings!" as what we get isn't true to her character and seems OC at times. I would say, it would work if this was her first time using a miraculous at all, but not so when she's been using the Fox for a while and now in the know.

Alya stressing worrying over people; that's pretty out of character. Even after receiving a miraculous, she never stressed about people getting upset. It actually makes it come off that Alya thinks that all LB users are supposed to worry over other people and not factor that this is just who Marinette is. At most, I expected to see her nervous but also really excited. She had a lot of admiration for LB and while I do think that respect dropped learning that its Marinette, I would anticipate that Alya's over all going in confident and certain.

I know I said it before, but I'll say it again as it still applies: Alya would totally already have a name down for her Ladybugsona a loooong time ago. Her love of heroes, her big imagination, and self confidence, she would've imagined herself as LB even as early as s1.

She also came off way too aggressive with Chat. Like, ok, yes, he's coming at you with Cataclysm and is attempting murder, but you're also trying to establish yourself as a friend that he can work and trust. Going over the top and kicking his ass is not the way to do it. There are better ways than going "See! I can kick your ass and take your miraculous whenever I want, but I wont!" Alya can be all sorts of pushy and inconsiderate, but that to me felt OC. Alya does have a sense of how to handle people who are upset and can get people to rally around her. She's won over Marinette with this in Origins, has become the leader of the girl squad; unless this strictly only applies to girls, Alya should've handled things with Chat better, only taking extremes when he's really doing something far too extreme. And with how easily she was able to handle him coming to try and murder her, she didn't need to take things so far and so over the top.

And then there's the factor of her easily falling for a trap and the implication that she can't fill Marinette's shoes, that Marinette still is needed to step in and save the day and it really can be ONLY her... yeah Hack-San was not good. By its set up, LB shouldn't be easy to use by just anyone, but for Marinette's mental and emotional sake, it should be set up that Alya could do really well if it came to it.

Anyway, a lot of these issues I would keep in and they'll be happening around Origins and other early s1 eps, as it's more fitting for them to happen there than s4 where Alya's been Rena for about 3 seasons now.

What are your potential Ladybug Miraculous holder candidates in Life Swap AU if Adrien Dupain wouldn't have it?

My main choices are: 

Felix, Adrien’s cousin who is sent to live with Adrien at Amilie’s insistence. His father isn’t doing too well and she thought it’d maybe be better to have Felix away from his sick father so he doesn’t have to witness him starting to wither away. This can open up two possibilities, either Felix alone has the earrings OR Adrien and Felix wind up discovering them together and they each take an earring and Tikki is able to travel between the two pieces. It does secure that HM will have a hard time getting the earrings, but Felix is the preferred hero as he can perform LC, Adrien though is far more interested in being the active hero. Here for the adventure and excitement, not “saving Paris as its the right thing to do”. And Felix himself isn’t all for this but he’ll do it. 

Nino, he has actually become my prime pick for what if Fu didn’t pick Adrien. Nino is shown to be another elaborate planner, though he may need more time in comparison to Marinette to figure out LC, but he’s better suited for the earrings than ring between him and Marinette (both in canon and life sway au). He’s also better set up to be apart of the “yin-yang” duo they want with Marinette and her partner, largely working off him being a very passive character. Not to say Marinette is aggressive, but she’s a very involved, direct, and active character, while Nino is a lot more easy going and calmer in comparison, though there is still a motion to him, a goal in life he’s moving towards (becoming a director). And unlike Adrien, he has very clear issues that need to be addressed that can end up arcs (learning courage, being ambitious to a fault that he’s thoughtless of others, learning to be more observant and aware of his surroundings, and learning to strength his resolve as he can give up too quickly as seen when he loses Alya). Nino is also 2nd to Marinette (in canon) to have the most friends. This can set him up to be an involved character as well and can give us more perspective on other classmates that we don’t get. He can be emotionally involved in the plot with Thomas’ tweet revealing that he had lost an older brother recently, and while he wants him back, he wouldn’t go to the extent that Gabriel is. 

Luka, a lot of the same appeals that Nino has, but unfortunately he’s got less to him. That’s actually why there’s not a lot of Luka content from me; while I do like him, there’s not enough of a character there for me to work with. He’s a struggle for me to think of including in most of my wips, and that’s largely because canon has set him up as a very removed character, to a point that upon his introduction, I really didn’t want to see him with a mriaculous. He can technically apply and work, but I’d have to reach out to some friends to get an idea on how to include him as a lead. 

Some Good News, Some Bad News

Some Good News, Some Bad News by the citric spade

“Right, right, okay, so, uhh, bad news — Hawkmoth knows who I am.”

“What?! Chat, are you—” safe, she means to say, but her Chaton finishes for her.

“Safe, no, yeah, I'm fine — well, at least for the moment? I think? The good news is, I also know who he is!” Chat continues mentally.

“Bad news, he has my miraculous.” What is going on, Ladybug thinks distantly, and even more distantly wonders if he can hear that. Her chaton, oblivious to her mental turmoil, keeps going. “Good news, I have his! Oh, and he's contained for the time being — I think Plagg is yelling at him for parental abandonment or something, I'm not quite sure.” --- or, an ML one-shot crack reveal fic based on a tumblr text post found here! (same user has a few cute comics continuing it too, so check those out if you like this.)

Words: 1227, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Gen

Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth (mentioned), Plagg (mentioned)

Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, If you want, it could also be, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug

Additional Tags: Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Identity Reveal, Gabriel Agreste's A+ Parenting, how is that not a tag this is a crime, Chat does Not Have a Plan, I Don't Know HTML, Kwami Swap, Oblivious Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Chat Noir Being Chat Noir, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Is So Done, Technically?, Adrien Agreste Has the Butterfly Miraculous, oh there's a tag for that, My First Work in This Fandom, Cool, this is my first posted work be nice to me, low-key also a test for how to work ao3, i think i did it right tho

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31395236

Minty Fresh, Strawberry Sweet, Cinnamon Spice

Minty Fresh, Strawberry Sweet, Cinnamon Spice by angelofthequeers

“I can, but too many flavours mixed together may throw off the delicate balance,” André says.

Heart Hunter, but if Kagami, Adrien, and Marinette actually pointed out the flaws in André's ideas of ice cream blends instead of accepting it, because I will forever be salty of the polyamory we could have had. Ft. lovesick Marinette, Adrien getting the love he deserves, and Kagami politely giving the love polygon the middle finger.

Words: 10747, Chapters: 4/4, Language: English

Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/F, F/M, Multi

Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Kagami Tsurugi

Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Kagami Tsurugi, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Kagami Tsurugi, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Kagami Tsurugi

Additional Tags: Fluff, Adrigaminette, Episode: s03 Mangeamour | Heart Hunter (Battle of the Miraculous Part 1), ML Secret Santa, Love Confessions, Polyamory, Romance, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Has Anxiety, adrien deserves ALL THE LOVE okay, and so does kagami, and marinette, they all do, Chloé Bourgeois Redemption, Kwami Swap, Bee!Kagami, Dragon!Chloe

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22286482