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soulmate-game · 9 months

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Chapter 6

(Yes, Marinette and Damian disconnected Audio only before they went to her hotel, so no Tikki reveal sorry!)

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—*—*—*—*—*

Back at the Batcave, Robin was the first to change, sit through debrief, and go to sleep. Nobody questioned him, knowing full well his motives. The other vigilantes however, despite being back in their civvies, were not so quick to end the night.

“You all heard that, right?” Jason asked. Oracle, also known as Barbara Gordon, rolled her eyes. She backed up in her wheelchair and turned to face everyone else.

“What, the part where Marinette made you coo when she essentially defended you and said she still thought of you as a good person?”

Jason rolled his eyes. “I mean yeah, that part was pretty nice. But I’m talking about everything she said about Paris,” the man clarified, leaning back in a chair so that the front two legs lifted off the ground. “She was geared and ready to continue listing examples of Akumas. I doubt she even listed half of the ones that were centered around or targeting her. And having to go through all of her classmates becoming villains, even temporarily?” He shook his head. “That kinda shit doesn’t leave anybody unaffected.”

“Especially what she said about the mermaid monster Akuma,” Tim agreed, pulling up a story on the computer. “I’ve pulled up the reports from both the Ladyblog and the AkumaWatch app. They seem to agree on everything, so I think this was back when the Ladyblog was still reliable,” he pulled up a video taken by the girl who ran the Ladyblog, Alya Cesaire. Marinette’s former best friend and current classmate. The commentary was all in French, but Tim had went ahead and added quick English subtitles for everyone. The wonders of having a supercomputer. The video was taken from a high roof, and showed the water flowing so high that it completely covered most buildings. It would have definitely caused enough pressure to break open windows and fill those buildings on the inside too.

“Woah! It looks like they can transform!” The voice of the reporter said in French, pointing to the distance where two blues of red and black hopped onto a building. The girl zoomed in, her phone’s camera just barely able to show an out-of-focus Ladybug and Chat Noir with different patterns to their uniforms and fins. The cat-themed hero managed to pull an entire car, and as they soon sound out, temporary supervillain Syren, out of the water all on his own. “Aqua suits! That’s so cool!”

It was obvious, however, that the girl’s voice shook a bit. She kept the camera purposely pointed as high up as she could while still catching the heroes and the destruction of the possessed item on screen. There were blurred images all across the surface of the water, which the heroes knew to be censored bodies.

“Only a couple thousand out of two million Parisians survived, that’s what Marinette said,” Barbara breathed, eyes wide. “Seeing it like this really makes it all real,” she clenched her jaw. They all continued watching as what was simply dubbed as Ladybug’s Miracle swept through the city in a shockwave o ladybugs, and the water disappeared. They watched as Alya aimed the camera down and caught very alive people popping up in the streets or on top of cars, wherever they had been right before getting carried away by the vicious waves.

Every hero in the Cave saw people of all ages down there, shimmering back to life. From month-old babies to old men and women.

It was both wonderful and horrifying.

After the video ended, the entire cave was silent for a long moment. Jason was the one that spoke up, to no one's surprise.

“What the fuck?” He growled, no longer leaning back in his chair. Both of his fists were clenched. “This has been on the internet for almost three years! How did we not see this before? How did we never know?” He asked, to which nobody had an answer. But the Bat himself had a hand on his chin as he studied the freeze-frame that the video ended on. Chat Noir and Ladybug fist-bumping.

“Maybe,” Bruce said slowly, as if tasting the words. “It’s time one of us visits the Paris branch of Wayne Enterprises. Ladybug and Chat Noir have been protecting the city for almost four years, it’s likely they know something about why the news hasn’t spread,” he mused. “Meanwhile, I will look into the League records. I never heard about a supposed prank call from France, meaning another piece of the puzzle is there.”

“There’s a problem with that though,” Tim pointed out. “Paris is essentially being held emotionally hostage. Anyone we send will have to be extremely capable of pushing down their negative emotions or transforming them into something positive. The last thing Paris’s heroes need is a supervillain with years of combat experience. Besides that, HawkMoth can telepathically communicate with his Akumatized villains. It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that he can read their minds.”

“So not only would Paris’s heroes have to fight someone much more experienced than them, but our identities would be exposed,” Dick completed the thought, arms crossed. “That rules out Jason or Damian for sure. Which of us would be the most capable of avoiding strong negative emotions?”

When the First Robin looked up, it was to a raised eyebrow from his adoptive father and three fingers pointing straight at him from his brothers and Barbara.

“We can set up a flight for you for the day after tomorrow,” Bruce said with a grin that seemed way too smug for Dick, who was still gaping at everyone in betrayal. “Ask for the time off, okay? I can smooth things over if you need me to.”

“Oh, come on!” Dick threw his hands up. “I can be broody and mean!”

He was thoroughly ignored as everyone left to sleep for the night.

“Guys! You know what, fine, Paris is a gorgeous city. It’ll be like a vacation! Oh my god I just proved them right.”

—*—*—*—*—*

That night in the Mindspace was… well, Marinette’s insomnia reared its head and she entered it around three AM to find a very unamused Robin waiting for her.

“Honestly?” He asked, gesturing to the Tv screen. “You couldn’t have put some of the work off for tomorrow?”

Suddenly Marinette was very glad she didn’t talk to Tikki while working on her dress. The little Kwami had passed right out after the stressful day they both had.

“I have trouble sleeping sometimes,” she admitted shyly, shifting from foot to foot. “Sewing helps me relax. I want to be a fashion designer,” she explained, letting a soft smile overtake her lips. “I’m actually making my own dress for the Wayne charity gala at the end of the month.”

Robin’s eyebrows shot up over his domino mask. Once again, he was in his normal pajamas besides the mask that he donned after entering the mindspace. “Really? That’s pretty ambitious,” he told her, eyes going back to the screen. Then again, the snippets that he saw on the screen looked incredibly well done. Marinette’s face twisted up a bit in apprehension.

“Maybe a little,” she conceded. “But I’ve designed for Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale. Even Gabriel Agreste and Audrey Bourgeois have asked for me to collaborate with them for a few pieces. Jagged and Clara commission me pretty often nowadays, and Jagged is a lot like an uncle to me now. I also design for local newscasters and other minor celebrities around town, and my best friend’s band Kitty Section,” She rambled, getting more passionate as she went. Robin actually found himself pretty impressed. The elder Agreste and Bourgeois both were notoriously hard to please names in the fashion industry, so to gain not just one but both of their attention and respect was a huge accomplishment.

“Perhaps I was incorrect then,” Robin amended. “With a portfolio like that, designing for the Gala is just the next small step up. I will look forward to seeing what you create,” he said honestly. His soulmate blinked, obviously caught off guard, before blushing furiously.

“Oh, uh, um, th-thank you!” She blinked again, the blush fading as she focused on the second meaning behind his words rather than just the flattery. “Wait, you’ll be at the gala?”

Robin had to hold back a smile. “It is a month away. I suspect by then you will have earned my identity. Soulmates tend to move faster than unbonded couples.”

Marinette gaped again. “Well. Uh. Thank you? I think. Wanna spar?”

It was Robin’s turn to be caught off guard. “Excuse me?”

“Do you want to spar?” She repeated, speaking at a normal pace instead of a tongue-twisting one. “Part of the reason it took so long to fall asleep is the adrenaline. It didn’t, uh, completely fade yet. And I’m still a little angry, but not enough to be dangerous in a spar.”

“I know,” Robin soothed, his calm tone a direct contrast to Marinette’s flustered rambling. “I felt the vibration when you were angry, both at GothCorp and on the roof when you punched the wall. You calmed down considerably fast, but the initial anger you felt at the woman lasted quite a while. It was very odd,” he tilted his head. “It left me very on edge. I cannot say I enjoyed it very much, but it was quite effective in getting the message across.”

Marinette laughed, nodding. Her own buzz of warning from Robin earlier had been very brief and low, barely a blip on her radar but enough to be felt. He had most likely just been upset for a moment. Marinette, on the other hand, had been burning up with her own fury.

“So, spar?” She asked again, smiling widely. “Maman says a good spar is one of the best ways to get to know a person,” she coaxed, leaning forward a bit. “Please?”

Robin snorted, standing up and stretching his arms. “You did not need to plead, I was about to accept either way. I could perhaps benefit from a new sparring partner.”

Marinette whooped, going to her half of the room. To her slight surprise, a new pink punching bag hung off to the side along with a few high bars for gymnastics. Taking a second, she turned to see that Robin’s own half of the mental world also had a few new additions. Weights, probably just for the familiarity of it, a few training dummies, and a punching bag of his own.

Neat! The girl thought excitedly, the last vestiges of anger draining away to be replaced by wonder. Soulbonds are so cool!

Shaking her head, she walked around to her sewing station and thought for a second. Her pajamas weren’t exactly a good outfit for a spar.

“Uh, how do we change clothes in here?” She asked, turning her head to look back at her soulmate. He, unsurprisingly, had already figured it out. The teen was now in exercise shorts and a perfectly fitting black tank top.

Marinette’s brain momentarily fizzled out.

Those arms! No, the legs! No, oh Kwami, I can see his abs. Shirts that tight should be illegal! Ohhh He has broad shoulders. Am I dead? I think I’m dead.

“Marinette? Are you listening?” The girl jumped, her object of torment suddenly standing with his arms crossed a few feet away.

“Huh? Oh yeah, totally. Just, uh, zoned out for a second.”

“Yeah,” he said with a raised eyebrow that just screamed disbelief. “I was saying that you simply imagine yourself in the outfit you wish to wear. This world is molded by our minds, after all.”

“Right. Easy. Got it,” Marinette nodded a little too fast, closing her eyes and imagining her usual exercise clothes. Black basketball shorts trimmed in red and a red tank top shone into existence, replacing her pink-and-white polka-dotted pajamas. Her hair, which was down from her taking out her pigtails before bed, was up in a messy bun on the back of her neck er head. Once down, she opened her eyes and gasped in joy. She turned to look at herself in the full length mirror next to her sewing station.

Behind her, she had unknowingly left her soulmate in a situation he was wholly unaccustomed to.

Perhaps I should have expected this, he thought sluggishly, feeling really caught off guard. His mind flashed to the memory of her punch splintering odd a few shards of solid brick. But her arms didn’t look that toned in her blouse earlier. Then again, she was wearing long sleeves, he had to stubbornly keep his eyes respectfully above the hips. He knew if he didn’t, his gaze would linger far too long on her muscular thighs. Turn away. You are being indecent he scolded himself, deciding to retreat to the sparring mat first.

After a second to recover from having caught Robin staring at her in the mirror— well, we ARE soulmates. It would be awkward if the attraction wasn’t mutual— Marinette joined him. Seeing as their bodies were not actually physical at the moment, they could skip stretching. Any hits they took would hurt momentarily to simulate the real world, but no actual damage would be taken.

“Ready?” She asked first, receiving a predatory grin in response.

“Are you?”

They both stood at the ready, their legs braced shoulder width apart and their arms tended but at the ready. To his shock, Marinette moved first.

The petite girl lunged, a very familiar high kick brushing uncomfortably close to Robin’s nose as he side-stepped the strike and attempted to grab her ankle. Marinette pulled her leg back too quickly, though, easily going right back into a defensive stance. Robin took the moment to get in close, aiming rapid punches at Marinette’s chest and torso. The girl proved to be just as flexible as she was strong, however, twisting around the wider strikes and batting away the ones she couldn’t avoid with her open palm. Each blocked punch sent a sharp sting through her hand, letting her know in no uncertain terms that she could not let even a single of his hits land.

The second Marinette saw an opening, she grabbed Robin’s bicep and heaved him over her hip. Instead of hitting the mat hard though, the seasoned vigilante tucked into a roll and popped right back up, leaping straight back at his soulmate. One of her punches glanced off his shoulder, forcing him to quickly recover his footing before he stumbled.

There’s that strength she showed earlier he noted. If that had been a direct hit, she might have dislocated my shoulder.

Robin leapt over Marinette’s head, slamming one knee up towards her back. The smaller teen was able to avoid a direct kit, but Robin’s knee still managed to clip right under her left rib cage. Instantly, she felt herself gasp for air. Mon dieu, that’s ridiculous! She thought, quickly hand-springing back to gain some distance as she caught her breath. My body gets a little sturdier outside the suit the longer I use the Ladybug Miraculous, but if he had hit me straight on I would have been down!

Both teen heroes were already slightly out of breath, staring at each other from opposite sides of the mat. They didn’t notice right away, but they each had the same breathless smile overtaking their face. They jumped back in towards each other at the same time.

Their spar was a flurry of punches and high-kicks, flips and ankle-swipes. They landed hits and got hit. Marinette got hit less often than Robin, purely due to her acrobatics and flexibility, but Robin’s tolerance for punishment was leagues (ha, bad joke) higher than Marinette’s. Even though he took more hits, he was in better shape than she was. Therefore, even though each of their strikes carried roughly the same force, it was clear Marinette was the one slowly losing ground. Marinette didn’t have her indestructible suit or enhanced abilities to help her out, at least not beyond what prolonged use of the Ladybug enhanced, but she was holding her own very well despite it.

It was almost twenty minutes —the mindspace making normal stamina levels irrelevant— before Marinette finally managed to grapple Robin and send them both tumbling onto the mat. They wrestled for a long moment, finding their physical strengths almost matched, before Robin finally managed to wrap his arm around Marinette’s throat and pin her legs with his own.

They were both gasping for breath by that point and, even though she lost, Marinette found herself laughing in glee. Robin’s grip loosened briefly before he completely let go, unwinding himself from her and standing up. He didn’t laugh like she did, but he was grinning widely and let out a few soft chuckles. He extended his hand down to his still-giggling soulmate, who grabbed on and allowed him to help her up.

“That was great!” She gushed. “I mean, sure, it stinks that I lost. But I’ll get you next time!”

“I fear you might not be wrong,” Robin admitted with another soft chuckle. “Not all of that was martial arts,” he said, clearly questioning her fighting style casually. Marinette rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

“Ah, yeah. I took gymnastics as a kid. And my friend Kagami has been trying to teach me how to fence, but I just end up using those movements in melee instead. I’m okay with a foil, but I’m nowhere near the best. Kagami says I’m a natural, but I think she’s just sparing my feelings. And, uh, the whole parkour thing I mentioned.”

“Right. Parkour,” Robin agreed with a nod that Marinette knew meant he didn’t believe her but wouldn’t push. For now.

Marinette’s lips slowly widened into a devilish grin. “Hey, do you play Ultimate Mecha Strike Five?” She asked slyly, and Robin narrowed his eyes through his mask.

“Why do I feel like agreeing would be a mistake?”

“That’s a yes!” Marinette cackled and dragged Robin over to his couch. “Come on, let’s play!”

Seeing as both of the were asleep and their other senses inaccessible through the Tv, it allowed them to load the game. Surprisingly enough, Robin actually put up a decent fight.

Unsurprisingly, Marinette still won. Five times in a row.

“Alright,” Robin put his controller down, glancing over at an all too smug Marinette, crossing his arms. “Let's recap; I’ve discovered the situation in Paris is bleaker than I thought, you are surprisingly strong for your frame, you are much better of a fighter than you let on, and you have a vengeful streak.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Marinette cooed, her hand over her chest as she fluttered her eyelashes with false innocence. Robin just deadpanned at her. “I am completely innocent! An angel! I would never stoop to petty revenge over losing a spar!”

“Uh huh,” Robin said blandly. “Let’s revisit this argument when you decide to be more truthful, ‘Angel’.”

“Anytime, birdboy.”

—*—*—*—*—*

Thankfully, the next few days weren’t as hectic as the first twenty-four hours. Robin did have school and vigilante business to see to, so he and Marinette only met in their Mindspace for the rest of the week. Which wasn’t bad, even on nights when one or the other stayed up so late that they only had three or four hours in the mental world. Somehow, despite their brains remaining constantly active, the magic is the soulbond always left them more refreshed when they awoke than they would normally feel after that amount of sleep. And Marinette had her own things to do with her class, which included a brief (and very therapeutic) two-day visit to Metropolis since it wasn’t far away, to broaden the sights they could see. When they got back, they had one full rest day where they and a buddy could visit anywhere they wanted, provided they stayed within three blocks of the hotel and called to check in with Bustier every two hours.

The class, used to recovering from terrifying circumstances, had almost completely recovered (as much as could be expected, anyway) from their GothCorp nightmare by the time they returned from Metropolis. Lila had quietly thanked Marinette the day after the attempted robbery, but followed the thanks with a threat to never make her look weak again.

So, suffice to say, the liar was back to her usual tricks after the brief reprieve of the Metropolis visit as well. Milder than usual, sure, but still back to normal.

Meanwhile, Richard Grayson had seemingly spontaneously asked for vacation time in order to help his adoptive father out with company business in Paris. He landed in the City of Lights the same day that the Parisians got back into Gotham. He quickly realized that this trip would take more than just a few days. In fact it wasn’t until Friday, exactly one week after Damian had met his Soulmate, that Dick found the ability to track down the Parisian heroes.

Akuma alert sirens rang all around the city, confirming for the experienced hero that the natives had gotten accustomed to the constant havoc. Those who had been around since the beginning of the Akuma terror ran towards shelters with practiced speed.

It was the perfect distraction for Dick to change into Nightwing and take to the rooftops. Upon reaching the Eiffel Tower, the blue clad hero saw a bizarre scene. A male dressed in an aqua colored, snake-themed uniform and a petite female in a red, black, and gold uniform with a spiral down one leg were facing off against…

A… Giant… Cat lady...

Not even a giant half-cat person. She was a legitimate fifteen-foot tall old lady in classic Cat Lady attire. Knitted cat-embroidered shawl, cat-eared knitted beanie, a crochet needle that she was using to hypnotize cats and change their size and species. Her skin was bright orange with shiny silver tiger stripes, and her face had giant black glasses in the shape of a domino mask.

It was really, really weird. She had two twenty-foot panthers and a lion that was half the size of the Eiffel Tower growling at the two heroes who, surprisingly, didn’t look very affected at all by the fever dream they were facing. Smaller house cats were all slinking out of the nearby streets to ominously surround the two heroes, their eyes all glowing bright gold.

“You know, Chat would be making so many puns right now,” The red hero, Ryujo if Dick remembered correctly, mused as the two analyzed their options.

“He would also be making a lot of ‘family shouldn’t fight’ jokes,” the surprisingly zen male replied, flipping up and out of the way onto a nearby roof. “This should be easy, but I will provide backup if you need it.”

“Don’t worry Viperion, I got this,” Ryuko brushed off. “Water dragon!”

The hero turned into water before Nightwing’s eyes, swirling around the square. The water scared off the smaller cats, and the lion recoiled slightly, but it and the panthers lunged anyway, trying to catch the stream of water. The floating river easily avoided every strike, winding around the old lady’s crochet needle when they weren’t looking and snapping it in half.

A purple butterfly, exactly like those Dick had seen in the videos he and the others watched as research and exactly how Marinette had described them, fluttered out of the broken object. A quick flash of yellow darted onto the scene, a bee-themed woman carrying an ornate pot with Chinese engravings on it flew over and trapped the butterfly in the pot.

“There!” She said triumphantly, smiling wide. The crazy cat woman faded away, shrinking down into a cute little, completely normal, old lady with her gray hair in a high bun.

“Oh dear,” she brought a hand to her cheek. “Where am I? What happened?”

Nightwing watched as the heroes comforted the victim, watching as Queen Bee and Viperion left in one direction and Ryuko, whose choker had started beeping, left in another.

He followed the two paired up heroes.

—*—*—*—*—*

#maribat #mlb x dc #ml x dc #dc x mlb #dc x miraculous #damimari #platonic jasonette #damian x marinette #marinette x damian #maribat fic #the hero’s game

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i-like-anything-water · 8 months

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Oh man, that fainting scene was PERFECT!! If my questions ever get to be a bother, don't hesitate to let me know; I'm just excited to find another Chloenette fan, and your thoughts are amazing to me. What do you think of these ideas?

AU where Marinette finds the Butterfly and basically becomes an anarchist passing out powers and is convinced she's the hero, Chloe gets the Ladybug and is struggling not to crack under the pressure of being a hero and unknowingly becoming a good person.

AU where the only change to canon is that, at the start of Origins, Chloe and Marinette are dating... but Chloe's the exact same brat she is in canon. The two are genuinely in love, but tend to feed each other's bad habits; for a dash of irony, Adrien and Marinette end up rivals due to Adrien's concerns that Marinette is enabling Chloe, and Marinette thinks Adrien is trying to get between her and Chloe.

Pure, fluffy Crack Chloenette where Chloe goes full Karen and channels her inner Audrey at a fast food restaurant when they screw up Marinette's order. Everyone is afraid, except for Marinette, who is just reminded why she loves this girl.

Like, again, I hope I'm not being a bother, and if I ever get to be, please let me know.

sup

no not all. i actually enjoying answering asks about my ships hjsizjajskskw. thank you, I try my best to make my thoughts coherent.

first one, I'm guessing this is aged up or when they're adults. young Marinette doesn't seem like the type to do that let alone have resources and time for that. Marinette one her twenties just trying to help people while also juggling life and its challenges. she thinks she's doing everyone a favor but with power comes consequences and humans have always had greed. so sometimes it does more annoyances than helping.

Chloe is always on the spotlight, especially now that she's prepared to take over their business. she's still young , around 24-27, but her family is anything but unprepared. becoming ladybug at age 20 was the biggest shock of her life and biggest blessing. if Tikki wasn't here she would have already lost her mind and said 'fuck it, all of you suck' and became her mother 2.0

there's drama, there's sexual tension and 'oh god she's my enemy I shouldn't be blushing like a teenager!' they get paired up in work together in their civilian forms and sparks fly (literally lmao). but they can't. because how could they when they still had someone to capture? someone to keep an eye on and capture? how can they think of each other when they should be thinking of someone else (which is still them lmao silly lesbians).

second one reminds me of that one wenclair fic I read where they're not even remotely good but god their romance was epic and lovely. Marinette is actually the more dominant and initiative in their relationship but she's so much better at hiding it. It thrills Chloe whenever they go on their dates and escapades where they beat up people they don't like (which in their defense are mostly sexist, pedo, homophobes etc.) after obtaining their miraculous. i have to do a bit of Kwami swap and have the ladybug, bee and cat on the same tier. still ladybug and queen bee though and they're a trio.

Adrien is just worried for his friend but he wasn't there when Chloe had no one, when Marinette was cornered, when Chloe had beaten up a guy that was way too close, when Marinette had talked Audrey shit in the face after Chloe's 13 bday. He wasn't there, so of course he didn't understand. It doesn't stop him though. He tries to reach out to his childhood friend only to be stopped with a glare from Marinette. He glares back.

"I think he's interested in you," there's a pout to her voice and Chloe smiles. She reaches a hand to brush the hair that's fallen on Marinette's face, cupping her cheek, "Nonsense. He only sees me as a friend. My best guess is he's worried I'm corrupting you."

Amusement flashes into the girl's eyes, "You? But you're an absolute angel, my love."

Chloe snorts as Marinette wraps an arm around her, "Screw you."

"Gladly."

this one could be connected to the second one in terms of their relationship. Marinette is kind and shy and still a bit clumsy, but she's also more confident with her love and doesn't have much inhibitions whenever she wants to know something or gets things done. Especially when it's for Chloe.

She watches in amusement as Chloe chews them out, garnering eyes from anyone inside the store. She should stop her girlfriend, tell her it was only a mistake. But her girlfriend is so damn attractive right now and it fills her with butterflies that Chloe would make sure she was pampered even at the smallest of things.

She does the same of course. She wouldn't hesitate to manipulate or blackmail anyone that comes too close to her liking. So far Adrien hasn't crossed the line, but the idea of toying with him crossed her mind. She wouldn't do it because Chloe is his friend and she doesn't want Chloe upset at her.

After they're done in the restaurant she pulls her girlfriend to the side, smirking at the blushing blonde. "You looked absolutely beautiful there, mon amour."

And that's all. I've been thinking about slightly darker/grey Marinette in my fics but I have yet to find the perfect formula on how to execute her. She's fun though, I like playing with her obsessive characteristics. Also, it's never a bother to me regarding asks about my ships or anything in particular long as it's respectful when asked. Thank you for the asks! Lovely aus indeed.

#chlonette #chloenette #chloe bourgeois #marinette dupain cheng #asks #k7l4d4 #they'd be such an iconi duo #the tension the drama the stolen glances #the rivalries and whispered sweet promised #they make me crazy in a way i am not complaining about #i answered this half asleep so some of em could be crack

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gale-gentlepenguin · 1 year

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Gale Reviews: ML Season 5 episode 18 Emotion

(So this is completely far ahead in the order and I will likely revisit this when I am able to see it in order. But if this doesnt deter you from reading this review. Spoilers below)

-Andre is here. And is like "Wait, no drama this time?" Then is happy. I am still mad at you andre, but you are a mood

-I really hoped he was planning on leaving

-Wait a minute, they going right into it? Like no drama? Marinette and adrien about to kiss? NO WEIRDNESS? What is this?

-AND RIGHT ON CUE, interuption

-"Was that weird that he left tikki." "Bitch you both weird af"

-WAIT! THEY CONFESSED ALREADY! FUCKING FUCK GLOOB! I WHY WOULD YOU... I... SHIT BALLS DICK HOLE. FUCKING FUCK

-Okay, I am calm. But apparently they havent kissed officially yet

-So Marinette decided to back off on the scheduling thing which is why she doesnt know. Good for her

-Kagami fighting with her mom with kendo swords and then lila shows up...

-Lila... what are you up too. Also Kagami and Adrien are getting introduced as king and queen at this ball which is awkward af because they arent together

-Still has feelings... Oh.... oh no.

-"You arent a precious stone, you're just a stone!' ROASTED. Kagami roasting bitches by the open fire

-No kagami, you SHOULD mean to hurt her

-What the heck, Zoe out here blasting these parties. Good on her.

-Zoe being a good friend here and helping Marinette work stuff out and then giving her a means of getting into the ball.

-So the masks are the way to get in. Also Ali is there. Neat

-Nathalie being passive aggressive is fun

-Lila got denied!

-Kagami laughing over Marinette and adrien being together and having fun. She gets some joy out of that.

-Tikki growing so tired of Marinette's Bulls***

-Good thing those Mask dont have pictures of the person they actually look like.

-Why was adrien stunned at Kagami's ring... Unless... THATS NOT ADRIEN

-Amelie is here and Felix is missing?! Well that confirms my theory

-GET HIS ASS AMELIE

-He didnt invite her to the ball, what the f*** gabe

-"There is always a choice." damn Amelie. Putting Nathalie on blast

-How did she get that dress on so fast. Also Marinette is slaying it.

-They really just copy and pasted that one girl in the background like 5 times

-Chloé just took Marinette because she thinks she's a rich girl. Oh no

-Marinette saying her underling's name was Chloé which is funny to me. Girl shot her insult

-Kagami saying adrien is being the brave assertive guy she always wanted him to be, but Adrien (who I know isnt adrien) is being flirty af. That is Felix, 100%.

-I am like 99% sure Kagami is a sentimonster now

-Adrien/Felix really out here slinging massive dick energy. Like kagami is smitten but cant help but feel its off

-Marinette... thats not Adrien! OH NO

-Gabriel heard the name Marinette and IMMEDIATELY knew s*** was going wrong

-Marinette was precious and I cant help but think, Aww she doesnt

-Wait... IS it adrien? No it cant be something is off. He isnt adrien

-Wow these are lame rich kids

-THERE IT IS! I KNEW IT WAS FELIX

-Where is Adrien?! Also did Chloe just JUMP HER! OMG

-OH SHIT HE JUST TRANSFORMED. Also its dope af

-Wait did he just summon a moon? DID HE JUST GIVE HIMSELF THE POWER OF THANOS!?

-And Chloé is gone. Felix is MVP

-Argos, thats such a cool name

-Gabriel is gone! Felix you lovable little bastard. You are great. Keep it up

-Kagami looks so devastated. BABY GIRL

-Felix cares about his cousin, thats cute

-HE JUST DROPPED MARINETTE IN THE TRASH!

-Marinette wants payback! FOR STRIKEBACK

-OMG! HE GOT A MUSICAL NUMBER! FELIX GOING FULL DISNEY VILLAIN

-OMG I LOVE THIS SO MUCH UNIRONICALLY

-Felix just embracing it. I feel so much joy (10/10)

-Felix also says NO COPS

-Ladybug really letting Felix have it. Go girl!

-Felix just kicked her into a building.

-Wow... so the Peacock miraculous makes him super strong too? wtf

-Felix trying to make a better world with no masters or slaves.

-Tell me youre a sentimonster, without saying you are a sentimonster

-Felix really thought this out. So bascially saying he will thanos the world.

-Ladybug looking for a solution with... NOTHING?!

-Omg there is no solution. OMG THERE IS NO LUCKY CHARM

-Oh.... I get it hehehe

-Ladybug called his bluff.

-Yo... empty paris. Dark

-KAGAMI!

-Wait... Adrien? Did he ... oh he made the sentimonster earlier and snapped adrien first! thats how... OMG

-So he made the moon earlier in a ring. And they did all this to save adrien

-He planned this for weeks. DAMN so he hid it in the fake ring. Smart

-Its kind of funny that Kagami is just swinging at him like crazy, and Felix has been acting like a little kid thinking he did good. I feel kind of sad man

-You can be happy without your father adrien. But everything else you said is true

-Felix realizes he done goofed. Its sad he went from evil to adorable. Baby boy.

-Marinette's plan worked. Because Felix wasnt a true villain. Nice

-So Polygami coming back anyone? BRING ON THE THRUPPLE! -"My friend... My sister." Yea Felix is 100% a sentimonster

-Yo... can i give Felix a hug. He needs a hug

-Oh so now you can make ice cream for the 3 of them. Sure Andre. You bastard

-The ring... Gabriel... you son of a ....

-And apparently Lila knows he's monarch apparently?!

_____________________________________________________________

So I am missing a LOT of what happened. Thankfully it seems like i can piece together a few things.

Adrien, Kagami and Felix are like 99% likely to be Sentimonsters.

Yep... so thats a thing

I think I will rate this a 8/10.

I may not like all the revelations that happened. But Felix stole the show and I loved every scene he was in.

#ml emotion #ml spoilers #emotion spoilers #miraculous ladybug spoilers

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purrincess-chat · 1 year

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I'm tired of hearing how by adrinette dating, they forgot about their partners and that they don't care about each other enough. I might be wrong but wasnt it the kwami's choice to take the miraculous away? And not Adrien and Marinette's?

It was, that's why the arc is named Kwamis Choice, but LN stans are in their butthurt crybaby era so every time canon doesn't exclusively show them making out on screen, they're going to cry that it's an injustice. So like, idk maybe just block them? 😅

I'm sure LB and CN talked about it afterward and realized they were in the same boat or when the new heroes showed up, realized that, hey, maybe Plagg/Tikki took theirs too. But I think their reaction to not being heroes anymore says a lot. Not necessarily about their relationship because being heroes is way more than that, but again, people forget about all of the ways being heroes has traumatized the two of them because they're too busy reducing the LN dynamic to "constantly eye banging each other while mercilessly flirting and occasionally punching a bad guy so they can go back to flirting" which is a very shallow and over exaggerated interpretation of that dynamic. Being heroes is a huge responsibility. Marinette's anxiety hasn't gotten worse since s1 for no reason? She hasn't started having panic attacks just because she feels like it? Being heroes has caused them so many problems, and yes, there has been good to come out of it, but that doesn't make up for all of the bad? Look at the state Marinette was in at the beginning of Transmission. She's being crushed by the weight of the world, and she doesn't know what to do about it. She's in full on mental breakdown mode because she's a hero. Not only a hero, the hero. Everyone counts on her more than Chat Noir because she can fix everything and purify the akuma. She's the guardian. She's the one with the plans that win the fights. And it's crushing her.

So, yeah, excuse her if she feels relieved to be free of that burden and allowed to just be a normal teenager that can have a boyfriend and normal life again. It's not about how she feels about Chat Noir or even about her wanting to date Adrien, it's about her being actively traumatized and pushed to her breaking point over a responsibility she didn't even ask for in the first place. That's why she was relieved. And ya know what, she did think about Chat Noir when shit was going down. They only gave up their miraculouses for like a day, so it wasn't even enough time for everything to sink in yet. They took a deep breath and were trying desperately to embrace normalcy for the first time in months because they're exhausted. Once they had that for a minute, then Marinette said oh shit I hope Chats okay, and then before she could dwell on that further, they were back again.

But most people don't care about them as characters, they just want to watch them fight bad guys and flirt forever rather than having any of the meaningful development happening this season that they're ignoring because it's not the dynamic they wanted, and they think two people helping each other heal trauma is boring. So, again, to my original point, just block anyone having a tantrum over LN being platonic this season. It's easier.

#asks #cat replies #s5 discourse #ml fandom salt

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mochegato · 2 years

Text

Bad Day in Apartment 5A

A continuation of the Pride Goeth Before the Superhero Landing story.

It had been a bad day. There was no sugar coating it, no looking at the bright side, no silver lining. It was a bad day. Start to finish bad. It seemed like nothing could go her way, like the day and everything in it were prejudiced against her. Plagg assured her it wasn’t his doing, but Marinette knew. There was no other explanation for a day this bad than somehow having drawn the ire of the god of bad luck.

She had briefly considered it being retribution by Lex, but there was no way he was able to trace it back to her and Kon. Not to mention, while he was absolutely petty enough to do something like this, he was nowhere near creative enough to come up with something as diabolical as this day had been. Tim? Yes. Kon? Absolutely. But seeing as she hadn’t done anything to deserve retribution like this… not lately anyway.

Which only left Plagg. She bet Adrien didn’t have to deal with this nonsense and when he got back from his romantic weekend with Cassie, she was going to find out what exactly he did to prevent this… or cause this.

She trudged into her apartment, dropping her bag, keys, and coat on the floor, not even bothering to put anything away. With her luck today, if she tried to hang up her coat, she’d end up breaking the hook. What she’d discovered throughout her day was the best approach was to do and say as little as possible to reduce the opportunities for things to go wrong and get blamed for them. It didn’t eliminate them, nothing did. There was no escaping. But it did lessen them.

“Just going to leave them there to trip over, huh?” Plagg asked lazily. “That’s awfully risky, considering your day today, Pigtails.”

Marinette narrowed her eyes at him. “The day you blessed me with,” she hissed.

Plagg floated upright and crossed his arms across his chest. “I didn’t do this, Pigtails.” He floated up with a wicked grin. “Have I enjoyed today? Yes. Have I laughed more than I have since Adrien went through that goth phase? Yes. Will I think back to these days in times of darkness in the future? Also, yes. But, did I cause today? No.”

Tikki groaned but floated up in front of Marinette with a bright smile. “It’s just a bad day, Marinette,” Tikki tried.

“An epically bad day,” Plagg cackled. “Molly Brown didn’t have luck this bad.”

Tikki glared at him and waved him away. “I would know if it was him. I promise it wasn’t.” She floated closer to Marinette to give her a comforting pat on the cheek. “But tomorrow is another day, full of promise.”

Marinette gave her a flat look. “That’s not really comforting. It could be a promise to make Plagg laugh even harder than he did today.”

Tikki fixed her with a pointed look, then quickly softened her gaze. “Tomorrow will be better. You’ll see.” She eyed the pile of objects on the floor suspiciously. “Plagg and I will stay in the box tonight and leave you in peace… but he may have been right about the stuff on the floor. That’s may be tempting fate.”

Marinette groaned but nodded in agreement. Tikki smiled and patted her on the cheek again before kissing her on the forehead. “Good night, Marinette.”

“Night,” Marinette grumbled. “Thank you.”

She waited until they were both gone before bending down to pick up her things, because as much as she hated to admit it, and she did, they were right. If she didn’t move them out of the way, she would probably end up tripping and falling through the drywall and then the super would yell at her too.

She hadn’t even had the chance to lay her hands on her stuff before her front door slammed open, hitting her in her rear and sending her sprawling on top of the pile with a squawk of indignation.

“Pixie!” Jason exclaimed as he rushed through the door to help her. He reached to help her up but the bags he’d brought with him swung from the rapid movement, hitting her repeatedly in the head. “Oh! Shit! Just let me…” He jumped away, throwing his arms out to the side so the bags were as far from her as possible. He waffled in indecision, looking between the kitchen island, where he could set the bags and her… still sprawled out on the floor.

Marinette pushed herself to a seated position and blinked at him a few times as his unexpected presence settled in her mind. “What are you doing here?” It wasn’t meant to come off as accusatory, but it did anyway. She didn’t need him there. She didn’t need him seeing her like this. It was bad enough that she had to endure this day at all, but for Jason to see her falling, sprawling, running into things, collapsing, reeling, and all the other things she’d done today.

Jason brushed off her tone with a bright grin and swept past her to drop his bags on the counter. “Heard you were having a bad day. Thought I might cheer you up.”

“By giving me a concussion?” she grumbled. She rubbed her head as she stood up. “Actually, that might make my day better so feel free to finish.”

Jason scoffed at her. “I’m not here to bring more pain… unless you’re into that kind of thing.” He waggled his eyebrows at her with a charming wink. “I’m here to make you feel better. Just tell me where it hurts. I’ll kiss it and make the pain go away. I’m a doctor, I know these things,” he singsonged.

She sighed deeply. Normally, she would revel in that cheeky interaction, the playful banter they had that just skirted the line of actual flirting, testing the water toward something more substantial. But she just didn’t have it in her today. She was too tired to play games right now. “Just go home, Jason. I’m not in the mood tonight if I was, I’d be moping at Tim’s right now instead of here.”

“And I know that,” he assured her with a cheery intonation that she only usually heard from Jason when he was teasing his brothers, “soooo, I brought your favorite take out and then I was going to see if you wanted to go to a shooting range and work out some frustration.”

Marinette stared at him in shock for a few seconds not having expected that level of attention from Jason. Hell, she didn’t even think he knew her favorite take out, but based on the smells emanating from those bags, he did. “Oh,” she mumbled sheepishly. The idea was appealing. Shooting with Jason was always entertaining and often became demolitions practice as well.

But today was not the day, and honestly, she was just worn too thin to leave her apartment after the day she’d had. “No, thank you. With my luck today a gun would misfire, and I'd accidentally shoot you and then everyone would yell at me for trying to kill you and being so irresponsible.”

Even if he had somehow missed the look in her eyes, the exhaustion lacing her voice as she spoke was unmistakable. Sympathy flashed in Jason’s eyes but was gone in an instant. He shrugged instead with a slightly strained smile. “At least it would be accidental. Most people I know would do it on purpose.” Marinette snorted but didn't disagree with his very accurate assessment. “So, Pixie, what do you want to do instead?”

“Nothing,” she whimpered. “I want to take a warm shower, because I would probably manage to somehow flood my bathroom if I tried to take a bath, then scrounge around for something to eat, before collapsing in bed" probably in tears, she added mentally. "You, however, are going to leave. You know the way.”

Marinette left the room before Jason could respond beyond the surprised rise in his brows and the concerned slant to his lips. He considered leaving, as she requested, but refused to abandon her when she was feeling like she was, not to mention, considering her luck that day, she might turn on her light, causing a short in a wire, starting a fire. Leaving her now would be tantamount to letting her die. Or at least that’s the story he was going to tell her when she yelled at him later.

Instead, he worked on getting some drinks ready and dishing out the food into bowls for the two of them. He just finished dishing out the food when he heard a screech from down the hall. Jason was moving before he registered the action. He burst through the bathroom door, body already in defensive position and gun drawn.

He quickly scanned the room for threats but froze when his eyes landed on Marinette, his cheeks immediately flushing. She was huddled on the floor, shower curtain barely wrapped around her enough to be considered covered. Her hands lay limp on the floor, not bothering to hold the curtain close to preserve her modesty in front of Jason. Her eyes were staring unfocused on the floor in front of her.

He flicked his eyes quickly to the shower to try to deduce the cause of the screech, but the shower looked in perfect working order. The water was even still running. He scrunched his face in confusion. “What happened? Don’t tell me it broke. It looks fine.”

“The hot water ran out or died or redirected, or… just decided to abandon me like all other good thing have today,” she moaned.

Even without looking at her Jason could tell she was on the verge of tears. He could hear it in her voice, the way it fluctuated and almost broke. “Do you need to… were you… Do you want to go back to my apartment and finish your shower? It might be safer than…” he motioned vaguely around them.

“No,” Marinette answered miserably. “I hadn’t started washing my hair yet so I can just…”

Her voice was muffled like she was burying her face in something, but the despondent tone still carried easily. All the fight and passion had faded from her eyes. The fact that she didn’t even have the strength to snark back at him, spoke volumes to Jason. In all the time he’d known Marinette, in all the fights he’d seen her take on, and win, thank you very much, in all the adversity and setbacks, he’d never once seen her this defeated.

Jason nodded resolutely. “Okay.” He grabbed the towel off the counter and wrapped it around her before finally looking her in the eye with a determined smile. “Get your pajamas on, we’ll hide under the fluffiest blanket you have and eat your favorite takeout on the couch while watching your favorite movie, and we won’t care if we spill our food or stain anything. I’ll buy you a new anything that gets damaged. Doctor’s orders.”

She looked at him but clearly wasn’t really seeing him. “Okay,” she agreed after a few beats but didn’t move.

Jason quirked his lips to the side. “Do you need me to pick something out for you and bring it to you? Because it’s not the way I pictured finally being able to see your underwear, but I’ll be happy to do it.”

Marinette’s eyes cleared up and finally met his eyes, surprise and a touch of fondness showing through. She snorted quietly and shook her head as she pulled the towel closer to her and stood up. Jason reached out to help her but pulled back remembering her state of undress. “No, I think I can handle it,” she assured him quietly.

He watched her walk out of the bathroom into her bedroom with a tender look. He wished they were in the kind of relationship where he could follow her into her bedroom and help her get dressed or even lay down with her, holding her close, encasing her in his embrace, protecting her from the world that seemed to have something against her today. But since they didn’t, he settled for what he could do for her.

He’d just set the food and drinks down on the coffee table and queued up The Mummy when Marinette came out. His breath caught at the sight of her. It was just an oversized shirt over some sleep shorts, but it was one of the sexiest things he'd ever seen. It didn't hurt that the shirt was one she’d acquired from him at some point. He wasn’t sure if she took it on purpose or just ended up with it somehow, but either way, he was beyond thrilled to see her in it. Hell, he’d bring her a dozen more just to see her walk around in them.

Marinette offered a weak smile and collapsed on the couch. She stared at the coffee table for a full three minutes before she finally noticed what she was looking at. Her eyes wandered from the takeout, to the wine, to the brownies, to the ice cream… which he really should have left in the freezer, she noted absently, to The Mummy movie still on the television, waiting for them to click play. She slowly raised her quickly dampening eyes to Jason. “Why are you doing all this?”

He gently laid her favorite blanket on her and handed her a bowl as he sat next to her. He hesitantly pushed a wet strand behind her ear, letting his fingers linger along her jaw. “Because you lost your smile. Your smile is one of my favorite things about you. It encapsulates everything that you are. It’s bright and hopeful and winsome and irresistible and beautiful. I’d do anything to bring your smile back. I’d do anything to see you smile more.” He looked at her lovingly. “I'd make amends with Tim and start hanging out with him more.”

“More?” Marinate laughed lightly. “Jason, you're over there all the time. If you were there any more, you’d have to move in.”

Jason gave her a pointed luck. “Since you started hanging out with him,” he said slowly, like explaining something she should have known. “Since you've been over there enough that you have your own room and more clothes there than your own apartment.”

Marinette stared at him vaguely aware that the longer she stared the more her jaw was dropping. Finally, something seemed to click, and her eyes became coy. “Well, you never come to my apartment, but you were always at Tim's. So...”

Jason’s eyes lit up as the meaning of her words became apparent to him, a large grin breaking out. He placed his bowl on the coffee table without breaking eye contact and gently traced his fingers down her hairline and along her jaw, resting it there. “And here I was thinking you hung out there so much because of Kon.”

“Well, I do like hanging out with Kon,” Marinette granted, leaning into Jason’s fingers. “But not that much.” She leaned in conspiratorially. “Do you know how many pranks and nagging I’ve had to deal with?”

Jason laughed, his whole body shaking as he did. “At least he likes you. Do you know how many glares, hissed threats, and body checks I received? He doesn’t even always do it with his actual body. His telekinesis is dangerous.” His smile widened when Marinette chuckled, being very familiar with how annoying his telekinesis could be, but also useful when messing with overbearing, despotic, pretentious, blustering, bald fathers. “I’d deal with worse for you,” he added softly.

Marinette smiled, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth as she did. She rested her hand on his forearm to keep him there while the other gently eased up his other arm and over his shoulder until she ghosted her fingers over his neck, leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake, and finally winding them into the hair at the back of his head. Her smile widened when he leaned toward her, his eyes darkened. She leaned closer to meet him halfway but just about jumped away when she heard her spoon hitting the rim of her bowl and felt it tip over.

She quickly moved to grab it, but not fast enough to stop it from spilling. She groaned and dropped her head against the back of the couch in frustration. Jason quickly scooped up the spilled food and set her bowl on the coffee table, taking the blanket in the same motion. He bundled it up and tossed it haphazardly down the hallway. He almost bumped into Marinette when he turned around. “Thank you for tonight, Jason. It really means a lot, but I think I’m just going to go to bed. I’m a menace awake and it’s only a matter of time before I do something to hurt you.”

“You can’t!” Jason insisted, cutting off her path to her bedroom. Marinette raised her eyebrow at him. Jason looked down at his food and back up with a smirk. “Who’s going to eat the food?”

She sighed and moved to step past him, but he blocked her again. “You go ahead.”

“But I don’t even like that,” he motioned toward his food but took a step closer to her, “I bought double for you in case something like this happened.” He smirked at the awed look on her face, taking advantage of her stunned state to sit and bring her onto his lap.

“Even if I loved it, I’d still let you have it,” he continued quietly, leaning his forehead on hers. “You can have anything I have, everything I have. Everything I am, is yours.”

“Such a nerd,” she grumbled affectionately but her cheeks were flaming deep red, but her lips quirked up in a brilliant, adoring smile. She pushed forward, pressing her lips to his gently. She let out a quiet sigh when he wound one arm around her waist to pull her closer and the other into her hair. His lips were softer than she imagined but insistent and demanding, and she was eager to provide. She pulled away after a few glorious minutes, but returned her forehead to rest against his.

��But you got your smile back,” he noted softly.

She gave a nod small enough not to dislodge Jason. “I realized not all good things have abandoned me today.”

He shook his head with a smile. “Never,” he promised before pulling her in for another searing kiss.

@maribat-calendar-events @jasonette-july-event

#maribat #jasonette #jasonette july #jasonette july 2022 #prompt - prejudice

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sunfoxfic · 1 year

Text

I finally get to tease my fic for the @mlbigbang! It's called Miraculous Academy and I'm very excited for it. The fic will be released probably weekly starting in January with artwork to accompany it. Also, it maybe has a couple spin-offs in the same AU in the works.

Alya unlocked their room and Marinette instinctively sat down at her desk.

"If I don't get the Mouse, then I want the Fox," she said.

"Girl, you have negative musical ability."

"I know, but I can't stand the thought of not rooming with you anymore."

That was the other thing. With being placed in streams, the students were being moved from dorm rooms to suite-style living. They'd have their own kitchens and living areas to share with other students on their stream, and a private bedroom to go to at night. Lots of people were anxious for the private bedroom, but Alya and Marinette had been rooming together for years; she didn't know what it would be like to fall asleep to silence instead of Alya's heavy breathing.

If Marinette couldn't get the Mouse, then at least she could stay with Alya.

She opened up the envelope, clumsily tearing the edge with so much less grace than she anticipated.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng,

As per the terms of the scholarship awarded to you which funds your full tuition to Miraculous Academy, you are required to choose the stream which we deem best suited to your skills and ability. Using several measures, including a personality test, intellectual placement test, and recommendation from the staff at Miraculous Academy, we've

"Holy shit," Alya muttered, and Marinette jumped. She'd been standing right behind the chair silently.

"What?" Marinette asked.

"Just... read."

She went back to the letter.

...we've come to the conclusion that you are best suited to succeed in the Ladybug stream.

Marinette's eyes went wide and she spun around, leaving the letter on her desk.

"No."

"Girl —"

"No. I am not getting put in the Ladybug stream. That's — That's so —"

"It makes total sense, though! The Ladybug is the leader of the group. Usually they're the one who coordinates the superhero and gives them assignments. You would be good with every Miraculous, which makes you perfect for the Ladybug!"

Marinette buried her face in her hands. Alya quieted down, and in a moment Marinette's chair was being pulled to Alya's bed until they were both sitting, facing one another.

"You know that the Ladybug stream always has the most students," Alya said. "And that they wouldn't make you use the scholarship on the Ladybug stream unless they thought you had a real chance of getting through it."

Marinette nodded. She knew that. Didn't make it true, and it certainly didn't mean that she wanted it to be true.

"You'd make a great Ladybug Miraculous holder. That's an awesome choice! Plus Tikki is so nice —"

"I just... I'm stressed, okay?" Marinette said. "Can you leave me alone and go to dinner without me?"

Alya nodded and stood, leaving Marinette in the room alone. Neither had turned any lights on, and the sun already set, so she felt surrounded by gray.

Good.

#my writing #mlbigbang #mlbigbang2022 #miraculous academy #marinettte dupain cheng #alya cesaire #ml fics #miraculous ladybug

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manofmanymons · 1 year

Note

you've posted miraculoous and have made me assume you like that show: So. Survive kids meet the cast of miraculous ladybug? I think it'd be interesting, maybe the kwami know about kemonogami, but never encountered them personally?

My first thought was "what if the miraculous kids thought the kemonogami were caused by an akuma at first and freaked out" and I proceeded to chuckle thinking about it

After the initial shock I feel like these kids have seen so much shit that funky little monsters is the least of their problems

I think it would be fun if maybe kwami heard like legends about kemonogami but aren't fully positive themselves if those stories were real or not

And then met them with the full enthusiasm of a child in a christmas movie meeting santa

Thinking about...Tikki having a conversation with Kunemon and Plagg being like "you can understand that?" and her looking him in the eyes like "nope not a word, not but look how happy he is"

Speaking of akumas I just realized both groups of kids have to be really careful about their negative emotions lest they unintentionally cause a tragedy. Like that's just a somewhat unusual thing they could bond over. Two very different flavors of a somewhat similar issue.

I realized in this exact moment that there are a LOT of miraculous characters and I do not have the brainpower to think about specifics of all characters meeting each other BUT

Alya and Saki would be besties for sure

Nino and Minoru are also besties

Aoi and Marinette are team "overworked and underpaid"

Lopmon is two seconds away from throwing hands with Gabriel Agreste

Ryo and Mylene would vibe (and she'd probably like Kunemon once she got used to him)

I think Kagami and Kaito should be friends

And I just want Marc to tell Takuma he would make a good main protagonist in a story like that would be hilarious

#digimon survive #miraculous ladybug

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landofanimes · 9 months

Text

Miraculous Season 5 Finale

(not counting 5x27 since apparently that’s just a bonus/extra episode)

SPOILERS

Well then. This was it. I mean, it’s not the END of the story, but the end of the arc. I thought it was gonna be more conclusive but makes sense they’re saving some big stuff for later to keep us invested. I question some of them though...

Things got pretty wild these last few episodes, I still wish they hadn’t done the sentimoster thing but that’s just how it is. Oh and I get Felix’s situation was freakin terrible cause his life was on the line but he risked everyone’s by giving Gabriel all the miraculous last season so like... I thought things happened a bit too quickly? Not to mention his sudden romance with Kagami like whaaaat.

Now, about Hawkmoth’s defeat... It was pretty good on the Marinette side of things, but I am once again dissappointed on the Adrien side. I know they’re gonna deal with some of his stuff later but Gabriel is literally DEAD and Adrien wasn’t a part of the fight and also doesn’t know shit. He’s gonna have to deal with the full extent of his father’s actions AFTER his death. He won’t be able to talk to him about it (I assume). And right now he thinks Gabriel died a hero which will not help once he learns the truth.

Also I thought Emilie was back but someone pointed out that was probably just Amelie (Felix’s mom) and yeah, that makes sense. Cause I was wondering how did Gabriel save both Natalie and Emilie with only one sacrifice? But apparently he only saved Natalie and died to “join” Emilie, I guess? But then shouldn’t Adrien be more upset? I know Gabriel was peak shit to him lately but not long ago Adrien was happy his father was spending time with him and then he thought he died a hero! I imagine he would have conflicted feelings but still felt upset. Like, more than was shown. He lost another parent, and Natalie is the only one left to take care of him but we didn’t see ANY of that fallout, they just cut to them all reunited at home! We didn’t see him receiving the news or Natalie promising to take care of him or anything like that. Maybe Amelie will help too? I don’t know cause THEY DIDN’T SAY. I’m gonna have to wait for more episodes.

I imagine Marinette will try to tell Chat about Hawkmoth but I’m guessing Plagg will stop her somehow and the drama will be postponned for later.

I also thought by now Marinette and Adrien would have had a reveal but nope! And now Lila is the villain so they won’t tell each other yet. Damn.

Anyway...

Marinette was badass and her fight with Hawkmoth was cool (though I wish Adrien had SOME part in it). I do wish Bug Noire looked better though, that suit was...not it. Also, three long braids? Eeeeeh it looked weird. I’m hoping for some fan redesigns!

The kwami’s true forms were REALLY cool, I love that shit. Give me a cute mascot who is supportive and kind to the magical kid and I’m good. But reveal a badass beast form and ohoho that’s even better!!!!! I do think Gimmi should have more cat features though, it’s literally a bug with whiskers, that’s it? Considering it’s a fusion I expected to be more balanced...But anyway.

And I know they teased Tikki’s true form before (I didn’t even remember it but I saw a post), but I just... It all happened so quickly!!!! Idk man so many huge things happening in a short period, it’s crazy!

Seriously, I can’t believe Gabriel is DEAD!!!! Like yeah I knew Hawkmoth was going to be defeated but damn, I didn’t expect it to be so final.

Everybody got their miraculous back! Doesn’t Lila know everyone’s identities though? Because fo that time she controlled Nathalie?? Hmm.....

On to waiting for the next season! We still got at least 2 more confirmed.

Oh but before that: the movie!!!! Which is a separate thing but looks promising!!! :)

#miraculous ladybug #ml spoilers

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clarenecessities · 2 years

Note

BTS for Prince of Cats? 👀

BTS: I’ll write a DVD commentary about my personal favorite passage from [that fic]

oooh, hard one. most of what i’d put in a behind the scenes already goes in the end notes... but i think you deserve a hint as a treat for asking, and it is my favorite thus far, so let’s cover Adrien’s dream at the end of chapter 13.

Unusual Fic-Specific Asks for Authors

Adrien dreamed.

He dreamed and it wasn't like his last dream, its stark reality, the feeling of his body moving without his input or control. Things were appropriately hazy around the edges, and he was initially disoriented.

The difference between this dream & his last (witnessing Noroo’s murder) is that this is him subconsciously tapping into Plagg’s thoughts, whereas the first was him accessing someone else’s memory.

It was a place he'd never been before, a sídhe with high ceilings and corbelled edges, full of magic so choppy he felt a bit seasick.

This sídhe is under/part of Eamhain Mhacha. There is no internal structure within it--around 95 BC a roundhouse was built on the site, filled with stones (about 3 meters high) and then burned and buried. Absolutely no corbelling took place but i’m a huge sucker for quality corbelling you know? I wanted to sort of evoke the clocháin, and more importantly Neolithic passage tombs.

In the exact center of the sídhe, Tikki was consoling a woman with bells in her long blonde hair, who was sobbing so fiercely it was a wonder she could still breathe.

well, it’s pretty obvious but i do love red herrings so yeah, just to confirm, this is Émilie. Her familiar’s just been murdered & she isn’t handling it well.

Adrien initially assumed she was the source of the chaos, but he turned around and discovered a second stranger, a tall man with a shock of hair the color of freshly fallen snow, dressed all in black save for a circle of white on the front of his shirt.

There were two reasons for making Plagg pale as shit & giving him white haired anime boy syndrome. One: The taijitu. Plagg (and the black cat miraculous) are yin, the white/masculine half, regardless of what color the cat ends up being. The white dot on his shirt is just to mirror the one on his chest when he’s in cat form. Reason two: The alternative was white Tikki, black Plagg & even bearing in mind that they’re both outside the human range of skintones & that destruction is just as essential to life on earth, uh... well. I didn’t want to make the embodiment of misfortune a black man & the embodiment of benevolence a white woman. That feels like some Disney in the 40s type shit to put in my cartoon fanfiction u know?

The man didn't acknowledge him, but Adrien was certain in the way only dreams allow that he knew Adrien was there.

“You have to get out,” said Tikki, over the piteous keening of the woman in her arms. “The geas—”

A geas is like a boon with a catch. You follow the rules, or there will consequences (usually, you die). But in a lot of cases, following the rules awards sick ass benefits, so it’s not that bad. If you follow the rules, Plagg.

“I'm going,” said the man, and Adrien's back went ramrod straight. He knew that voice. “I just—I couldn't—I can't just—“

“I know,” Tikki said heavily. “I know, Plagg, but you have to go. They're coming. We're almost out of time.”

Here’s that fun little hint for you: The geas has it that no man may watch their arrival, and they are not the threat Plagg fears.

“I'll protect you,” Plagg told both of them, one hand on a sword Adrien had never seen before, the other over the spot on his chest. His eyes flashed with magic. “I'll guard the sídhe, I'll—”

That said, they still have no idea who killed Duusu, so he does fear quite a bit at the moment.

“Gabriel,” choked the woman between her sobs, “get Gabriel, Plagg. Please.”

“I—” said Plagg, looking between Tikki and the woman with a lost expression. “I can't—”

“Go,” said Tikki. She smiled at him, a trace of sadness in it, like it hurt them all to send him away, “I will protect her. Find Gabriel. Consider it an order.”

Tikki is more than capable of defending the sídhe on her own, and her connection to Plagg means that they’ll be on mental two-way radio the whole time. He’s just being overly sentimental, and it’s risking the geas breaking & dooming them all

Plagg smiled back, but it was tight and uncomfortable, alien to Adrien even beyond this unfamiliar face.

“I'll find him,” promised Plagg, and the sídhe vanished in a flash of green that slowly paled to the color of freshly fallen snow.

I mean, spoilers, but. He found him!

#answers #clare's writing #i'm working on the others too but the first one got eaten so i've changed gears lol

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winx-reboot · 2 years

Text

Miraculous Reboot

This is still a Winx blog but I need to get some Miraculous stuff out of my system. Let’s be honest, that whole franchise is a shit show. So, let’s consider this a “Miraculous Reboot.” What I would personally do differently.

First, Marinette:

- She’s the new kid in town, moving from China to France.

- Tom is her new step-dad. (She can still be half Chinese or is full Chinese this time, but she was raised in China either way).

- Fu is now Marinette’s ancestor, one of the few surviving members of the Order’s temple destruction (not eaten or frozen in time, fully gone). He’s long passed now. Appears in flashbacks.

- The Miracle Box has been passed through the Cheng family as an heirloom but remains locked.

- Marinette and her mother move to Paris to reopen Tom’s family bakery (no longer a famous bakery, but a small family owned business).

- She is accepted to Collège Françoise Dupont, now a prestigious private art school that Tom himself had attended and got Marinette an in for.

- Marinette finds the Miracle Box, having taken it with them after moving (it was collecting dust in storage or something) and manages to unlock the Ladybug compartment. Tikki doesn’t immediately make herself known but follows Marinette after she takes the earrings.

- She’s stilled bullied by Chloe when she starts attending school, more for standing out and taking Chloe’s spotlight.

- She’s still fast friends with Alya but their positions are reversed. Alya, no longer the new kid in this version, takes a more defensive position in protecting Marinette from Chloe.

- Marinette still develops a crush on Adrien but it’s not as intense as canon. She gets a bit flustered but can hold a normal conversation.

- An inciting incident by Hawkmoth causes Tikki to reveal herself and Marinette transforms into Ladybug.

- Ladybug’s design is not a skin tight bodysuit, rather it’s inspired by her Chinese heritage (and has layers of some kind).

- Can play out like Stoneheart and in the end Marinette decides to be a superhero.

- More focus on her passions as a designer rather than romance schemes.

Adrien:

- A mix of canon Adrien (as the mask he wears in public) and concept Felix (how he really acts behind closed doors). So no cousin Felix (or sentimonster Adrien for that matter).

- His mother is known to be in a coma and he has a very strained relationship with his father that he doesn’t bother hiding from him.

- Still a model.

- Not a new student, has always gone to private school.

- Adrien’s kindness at school is very surface level, is angry/angsty at home with his neglectful father, and playful as Chat as an outlet. Even he doesn’t really know who the real him is.

- Develops to be more like @zoe-oneesama ‘s version of Adrien, but a bit darker.

- Finds the Cat Miraculous after it comes into the Agreste’s possession, still disguised.

- Discovers Plagg and becomes Chat Noir to have an outlet and leave his home.

- Flirts with Ladybug but isn’t serious (at first).

- Is more serious in fighting and uses his talking to distract the villain and find their weakness instead of hindering Ladybug/getting downed/mind control/whatever.

- Knows Marinette has a crush on him but largely ignores it/doesn’t encourage it. He has an image to maintain so he doesn’t outright turn her down.

- Chat Noir can look largely the same (it’s a good design, admittedly).

- Change of power set to be more equal to the Ladybug. Maybe a change in offensive weapon instead of a baton. Some larger ability to parallel “miraculous ladybug.”

Now on to their relationship:

- They are true parallels to each other; Adrien uses “masks” with people and doesn’t open up while Marinette wears her heart on her sleeve. Creation vs Destruction. Optimism vs Nihilism. Etc.

- Less episodes about romance plots that go nowhere, more stories focused on building friendships and a rapport with each other.

- Both kwamis recommended keeping secret identities for safety/failsafe reasons.

- Budding true romantic feelings develop over the character driven plot. Love square but they start to like both sides of the identity, not just one.

- An actual reveal at the end of season 2 (if going off the 24 episodes per season format) after/during Hawkmoth’s first big defeat as a lone villain (no identity reveal for him tho). They’ve both grown as individuals at this point and trust each other.

- They don’t immediately start a relationship after the reveal, let it develop naturally after the revelation and getting to know more about each other now that they don’t have to keep secrets.

- A true, satisfying slow burn.

Antagonists:

Hawkmoth -

- No longer the only villain but is the main, plot driving one for the first two seasons.

- Keep the concept art design with the visor covering the entire face.

- Agreste family has had possession of the Butterfly miraculous for generations.

- Still Gabriel, trying to get both miraculous to bring back his wife who is effectively dead (somewhat permanent comatose, maybe she comes out of it later or something).

- No peacock miraculous, just a normal coma.

- OR it is magic related by them tampering with magic they shouldn’t.

- His mind slowly descends into madness, deciding a complete remake of the world, where he and his family are on top, is the best way to keep them safe.

- He needs a very strong and complex negative emotion to take control of their psyche to get them to do evil on his behalf. So no more baby akumatizations.

- Limit the powers a bit, can’t just give everyone an overpowered supervillain form.

- Gabriel COULD be redeemed; he loses his miraculous/stops using it without an identity reveal, becomes close with Adrien again, does join/betrays villain team, reveal happens, fully redeems self, further consequences will vary.

- Because he’s no longer the only villain, he’s not overexposed and keeps his intimidating and mysterious.

Here come the villain OCs.

Dark Web/Spyder Byte -

- Hacker/Tech based villain with cyberpunk influences.

- Foil for the heroes’ togetherness/teamwork and parallels Ladybugs resourcefulness. Believes in self-sufficiency and doesn’t like working with others.

- Personal arch-nemesis for Ladybug.

- Costume/look inspired by TFP Arachnid.

- Would realistically be called “Spyder Byte” for a children’s show, don’t want the kids searching up “dark web.”

Chasseur -

- Villain Tiger Miraculous user.

- Hunter inspired, think Kraven the Hunter while transformed.

- Foil for Chat’s destructive powers.

- A straightforward bank robber type.

- Causes lots of property damage but does have a moral code of sorts (isn’t in to killing people, especially against hurting kids).

- Frenemy, charismatic, kinda charming.

Su-Han expy/Evil Order Monk -

- Based on the canon character but less of a stereotype, more modern (he’s from the modern age in this version after all).

- Wants to possess all the Miraculous to “protect them.”

- Represents the darker side of the ancient order.

Evil Kwami -

- Not a Kwami from the Miracle Box, rather a single, lone miraculous.

- Takes control of the holder instead of empowering them and manipulates them outside of transformation.

- Enemy of Tikki and Plagg specifically.

- Maybe comes into the possession of Chloe and facilitates her eventual heel-face turn.

Quantic Industries (?)/Villain Team -

- The main villains after Hawkmoth, a compilation of previous villains and new villain miraculous holders.

Evil Cosmic Force -

- The final villain(s) of the series.

- The reason why the miraculous were created in the first place.

Story details:

- The temple was destroyed over 200 years ago, by the evil cosmic forces (but managed to seal them away). Only a few survivors, one being Fu who protected the remaining miraculous in the Miracle Box and passed it down for future generations to protect.

- The modern Cheng family doesn’t know it use or origins but keep it as an heirloom.

- Only half of the miraculous are in the box, the rest were scattered across the world. However, “fate” brings the lost miraculous closer to the Miracle Box, now in Paris, and finds suitable holders for themselves. This is why the rogue miraculous holders are all in one city.

- The first two seasons are character driven with trickles of a larger story/lore.

- Most miraculous holders are permanent, Ladybug and Chat Noir try to get the rogue users on their side, some do, some don’t, some are just straight up villains.

- Along with the main villain of the season, there are smaller villains between the bigger story driven episodes.

- Akumas used as character focus episodes for side characters.

- Either give each classmate an episode centric character arc or don’t fully introduce them at all.

Kwamis/Miraculous:

- Define what their species is, where they come from, why they’re here, and explicitly what they each represent.

- Explore and define miraculous abilities, different abilities, and new powers that come with experience (like the Ladybug concept art).

- Give each miraculous a more unique abilities that really connect to their abilities.

- Kwamis are more mature and otherworldly. No more tiny toddler gods from season 4. Tikki and Plagg act as real and meaningful mentors to their holders.

- No more skin tight body suits that looked painted on.

- It’s hard to tell what the missing miraculous look like, they automatically change forms to blend in (why Gabriel didn’t realize he had it before it was taken by Adrien).

- The ritual to create new miraculous and summon Kwamis from their realm has been lost to time and is why new miraculous haven’t been created in hundreds of years.

- No time traveling miraculous.

Minor Characters:

Alya -

- No ladyblog, she’s now a wannabe investigative journalist.

- Marinette’s closest friend in Paris and confidant about civilian life.

- Gets the Dog Miraculous with tracking/sleuthing abilities. Investigator/detective themed hero costume.

- Alya and Nino can still happen but not random and off screen. Give them a relationship arc.

Others -

- Nino is still Adrien’s closest friend but is kept at a distance from him in the beginning.

- Rose and Juleka are more explicitly in a romantic relationship.

- Luka and Kagami can still be side love interests but give up/break up amicably. They either stay single in the end or pair up with each other further down the line.

- Either redeem Chloe or don’t introduce Lila.

- No Zoe, she was a damage control character and we all know it.

Additional Notes:

- Dupont is a private school that goes through middle school to the end of high school.

- No western style heroes (New York expy heroes of Superman and Batman). Magic is the main power source for heroes/villains or are tech/gimmick based (Spider-Man/Incredibles).

- Post reveal, Ladybug and Chat Noir get a secret hideout.

And that’s everything I have on the subject at this given time.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous reboot #in case i come back to this concept #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #ladybug #chat noir #hawkmoth #ml salt #kinda #My writing #marinette deserves better

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marauderundercover · 3 years

Text

Taking Chances Ch. 2 Finding Out (Family/Friends)

AO3

@maribat-bdbwm

“Mari!” Adrien yells, running past Batman to sweep her up in a hug. Marinette’s face instantly heats up, but she buries herself into the hug. After all, it’s not every day she faces a supervillain determined to kill her with a dangerous weapon...without her suit, anyway.

“I’m okay. I’m okay.” Marinette reassures him, relishing in the comfort. A cleared throat makes her jump back and look at Batman who, despite clearing his throat and cutting off the most amazing hug ever, has no emotions on his face. Whatsoever. Cause that’s not intimidating or anything.

“The police will need your statement, Miss Dupain Cheng.” Batman says. Marinette nods, squeaking when Adrien reaches down and entwines his fingers with hers. Following Batman’s directions to the awaiting police, Marinette feels nerves flood her systerm as she sees the sheer number of officers on the other side of the door. Sucking in a deep breath, she feels Adrien squeeze her hand. Shooting him a thankful smile, Marinette uses her unattached hand to open the door and step out into the mess of personnel. A man with a mustache and square glasses steps forward immediately, his hand extended.

“Hello Miss Dupain Cheng. I’m Commissioner Jim Gordon. We were in communication with Batman while he was inside so we heard some of what happened. Would you be comfortable telling us what happened? We can get you checked over by paramedics first, if you want.” Commissioner Gordon says.

“Oh, no, no. I’m fine. I don’t-” She starts to say, but a gruff voice cuts her off.

“She should be examined immediately, Gordon. She may have inhaled smoke from the smoke bombs due to proximity. She also could have burns to her face or ears from Joker’s gun. He shot it and then proceeded to prod her with it.” Batman says, the last part of his ‘report’ slightly more gruff than the first. Was he…..worried about her? Marinette shakes that thought off almost immediately. Why would Batman be worried about her? Wait, was he really going to make her see the paramedics when all she wanted to do was talk to the officers so she could get back to the trip?

“I assure you, Monsieur Batman, Monsieur Gordon, I don’t need to see the paramedics. I’m a little shaky, but that’s all. I mean, I was held at gunpoint. I think shaky is appropriate, non?” Marinette asks, flashing the two a bright smile. Gordon raises an eyebrow and glances at Batman who shakes his head stiffly.

“She gets examined.” He says, leaving no room for questions as he pulls his grappling hook (?!?!) out and retreats to the rooftop.

“You heard the man. We can talk as you’re examined, if you’d prefer. I’m sure you just want to put this whole business behind you.” Commissioner Gordon says kindly. Marinette sighs in relief and nods, smiling again at the man. Hopefully this would be taken care of quickly. --- Bruce Wayne was slightly panicking, though he would never admit it. When reports of the Joker being spotted at the Gotham City Museum of Modern Art first rolled in, he assumed his biggest challenge would be keeping Jason from murdering the clown. He did not expect to see a small girl being held at gunpoint. A girl who looked like a strange mix between his mother, and someone else. But he couldn’t place his- of course. Memories flood his mind as he thinks back to the woman who was so clearly related to the small girl. Bridgette Le. A woman that he, at one time, thought he would be able to spend the rest of his life with. Until she left Gotham and cut off all contact between the two. Oh god. She wouldn’t….would she? --- “I don’t understand why that older paramedic looked like she’d seen a ghost.” Marinette says with a pout as she continues working on the embroidery for a jacket for Jagged. Design never sleeps.

“What d’ya mean?” Adrien asks from his nest of blankets on her bed. Marinette tries to focus on keeping her blush down. Apparently, the attack at the museum had scared Adrien more than her, though she imagined he was scared on her behalf. But she couldn’t quite understand why...nevertheless, he had become attached at her hip and hadn’t left her side since they got back to the hotel. Even though all she really wanted was a little alone time to talk to Tikki. Especially about the chance of the Miraculous Cure working here. Maybe if she was in the battle…

“Didn’t you notice? He was fine til he looked into my eyes and then he got super pale. He looked like he was going to say something, but Monsieur Gordon stopped him before he could.” Marinette recounts, remembering the way the paramedic had to switch out since his hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

“I didn’t notice that. That’s weird. Anything else happen like that today?” Adrien asks, finally sitting up and giving her his full attention. Marinette pauses her stitching and purses her lips as she runs the days events back through her head. The paramedic. Batman. Joker. Arriving late to the museum. The cab ride. Being left at the hotel. Coffee-

“Well,” Marinette starts, furrowing her eyebrows as she tries to rationalize the man’s actions in addition to the actions of the paramedic. But something wasn’t adding up. “There was my cab ride to the museum.”

“What happened? Was someone creepy? I can fight them for you!” Adrien offers, a little too cheery. Marinette freezes as she studies his face, searching for something. Adrien had been off all day. More protective than he’d been in awhile. And the few times Lila had spoken, he had scowled at her instead of ignored her. Was he finally coming around to the idea that the high road would not work with Lila? Pushing those thoughts off for another time, Marinette shakes her head.

“No, no. Nothing like that. But as I was leaving, he called me Miss Wayne.” Marinette admits, not expecting Adrien’s uncontrollable laughter.

“He, you, oh my god!” He laughs, clutching his sides. Marinette’s eyebrows furrow in confusion as she sets the jacket down on the desk.

“What?” She asks, completely and totally frustrated with the situation. Adrien laughs for another minute before calming down, wiping tears from his eyes and shooting her a blinding smile. Not his model smile. An actual smile that warms her heart and her cheeks.

“I’m so sorry Mari. It’s just, I think he was referring to the fact that you look like the typical kid Bruce Wayne adopts.” Adrien says and Marinette’s blood freezes.

“Did you say Bruce Wayne?” Marinette asks and Adrien nods, his previous mirth wiped from his face.

“Yeah, Mari, are you okay?” He asks. Marinette nods, then shakes her head, then groans and throws up her arms in frustration.

“I don’t know! I just- you remember how I told you I’m adopted?” She asks. Adrien nods, then stops. A look of mixed terror and awe flooding his face.

“Oh god, Mari. You never told me the name. Your birth father-”

“His name is Bruce Wayne. But there’s gotta be hundreds if not thousands of Bruce Waynes in the US right?” Marinette asks, even as her hope in that idea dwindles.

“The US? He’s confirmed from the US?” Adrien asks, already pulling out his phone.

“Yes. Adrien, what are you doing?” She asks, suddenly worried as she jumps onto the bed next to him, desperately trying to see his phone.

“I’m googling Bruce Wayne and Bridgette Le as a combined search. Wayne is one of the most prominent figures in Gotham, all of his previous relationships have photographic evidence. Except for whoever the mother of his youngest is. But that’s probably because he wasn’t in the country at that time.” Adrien says, typing away furiously on his phone. Marinette’s eyebrow quirks up in amusement.

“Since when were you a master researcher?” She asks with a grin.

“Since one of my best friends found out she’s adopted and it could be the man who hosts the only palatable high society parties. Seriously. And they’d be much better if you were there and-holy shit. Your bio mom looks just like you!” Adrien exclaims, turning the phone to her. Marinette inhales deeply and thanks whatever power there is that she’s not in Paris right now. The emotions running over her at an indescribable speed...not all of them are positive. And they’re all overwhelming as she looks at a picture that very clearly shows her bio mom with Bruce Wayne. As in the Gotham Bruce Wayne. Not a different unknown Bruce Wayne across the country somewhere. Nope. A man who is apparently prominent enough that Monsieur Agreste makes his son go to the man’s parties.

“I don’t suppose she just had a type for men named Bruce Wayne?” Marinette says weakly. This was not what she expected. --- This was exactly what he expected. Looking at the birth records for one Marinette Le, where he’s noted as the father. Though why he wasn’t notified before the girl’s custody was signed over to Sabine Cheng, he’ll never understand. His jaw clenches as he continues reading, eyes scanning over Bridgette’s death certificate before glancing back at Marinette’s birth certificate. A daughter. He had a daughter. Another child that he would never be able to hold when they were small. Another child that grew up without him. Another child that he didn’t meet until they were already a person. Someone with their own experiences individual from his own, someone that may not even know he had found them. And that he wanted nothing more than to get to know someone who was brave enough to stand between the Joker and her friends. Someone who was determined not to let what should have been the most traumatic experience in her life be a set back. He had a daughter. And he wanted to meet her.

***

Note, my headcannon is that the paramedic that panicked did so because he was one of the first responders the night that the Waynes were murdered. And while she looks a lot like her birth mom, Marinette also definitely has Martha Wayne’s eyes and the paramedic could NOT deal. Also, let me know if you want tagged!

Tag List: @jjmjjktth

#maribat bruce wayne #maribat #maribat bio dad bruce #maribat bio dad! bruce wayne month 2021 #mbdbwm2021 #maribat marinette dupain cheng #maribat adrien agreste #day two family/friends

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liquid-luck-00 · 3 years

Text

Where There Is Change

Identities

@maribat-bdbwm

First *** Previous *** Next

~~~~~~~~~~

Once the crashes died down, Alfred returned with a pet carrier and a smug Jason.

"Not to say this revelation isn't important, but in this moment it is not." She spoke as she stood up. "What is urgent now is to return Damian to his original state. Do you know who was the person who caused the transformation?" She looked up at Dick, because of the call she heard he may have been there when it happened.

She specifically looked at Dick, directing her question. He on the other hand opened and closed his mouth, debating on how much he could tell her.

"I don’t know who they were, but I can remember some pieces of their appearance if that helps any." He started to speak. "One was definitely a girl, ashy blonde, brown curly hair and was wearing equestrian riding clothes in browns and white. And I’m sure she had ears and a tail. The other I can’t tell if they were male or female, so they wore dark grey shorts, black stockings, and an orange crop top. Their arms were stained black to their elbows, the most unsettling purple eyes. Ears and nine tails the same orange as their hair."

"So, in other words a horse girl and a human nine tailed fox. Who turned your, our brother, into a black panther cub." She repeated aloud. It’s not that it sounded impossible, the thing is it sounded familiar. Not just vaguely, but headache inducing familiar, unfortunately in more ways than one.

---

*Flash Back*

A silvery blue portal opened and out stepped a human Trixx and Kaalki.

"When did you two leave?" Tikki flew up to greet them.

She wasn’t paying them much attention. She noticed that they changed back and all three went back to the miracle box. Yet she did not think it was important to ask them on their exploits.

*End*

---

She stayed silent, lifting her hand, thumb under her chin, index on her lower lip. She was thinking. She closed her eyes and took a breath.

Trixx.

This was Trixx’s magic. Meaning that it could be reversed, but they would need to be the one to do it.

She opened her eyes. Her voice was level, but her voice held authority. "Trixx." Was all she said.

---

Marinette stood so still he could have confused her for a statue. Then her eyes snapped open, her blue eyes almost glowing.

Then she spoke. Dick couldn’t believe her voice, it was eerily level, but held such authority that he stood straight. "Trixx."

A beat passed and nothing happened. Then she repeated the same word.

"Trixx." This time the smallest sliver of anger or was it disappointment lingered on the word. Although he knows she isn’t talking to him, her disappointment weighs on him.

Then an orange ball of light appeared in the center of their little circle. "I’m sorry. I didn’t think that the angry, stabby, bird vigilante was going to be your brother." It then turned around and saw him. "Oh, you are the blue bird." It flew around his head. "Oh, and this now makes a lot more sense. Did you realize that there was a peacock in this house." The mini little fox flew over to Alfred.

"Yes, I realized that Trixx." Marinette answered. "But you being distracted will not distract me."

"But it’s practically fate." The fox, Trixx, exclaimed while flying circles around Alfred’s head.

"Him not realizing you cursed Damian, is what should be considered luck."

"But birds don’t usually turn on foxes."

"Miss Marinette, how is it you have a kwamii with you?"

"Not just one." The fox piped up before Marinette could open her mouth.

"Trixx."

"Sorry I’ll go back."

"Not until you turn him back."

"But Mariiiiii." The fox pleaded. "Fine." They relented. "It isn’t permanent and will completely fade in 72…60 hours."

"Thank you."

"Miss Marinette, do you have multiple kwamii on your person?" Alfred asked her.

She panned for a moment; Dick assumed she was thinking of her response. "Robin." She pointed at Damian still in the carrier. "Nightwing." She pointed at him. "You fit as Red Hood making you Red Robin." She pointed between Jason and Tim respectively. "That would make you Batman himself." She turned to Bruce. "Am I correct Peacock?" She turned to Alfred.

"You are a ladybug." Alfred answered her, but Dick was just confused with this girl.

"I am also the Guardian, not just a ladybug." She returned.

"Okay, wait." He had had to interject. "You just assumed who we were because of a flying fox, you are calling Alfred a Peacock and he is calling you a ladybug. Respectively what does that mean."

"Was I wrong?" She asked in a deadly calm, tilting her head, the only indication of her confusion.

"You are correct, Ladybug." Alfred confirmed, causing everyone to turn to him wondering if he's lost his mind.

She nodded and then once again with resolution. "He calls me ladybug because I am the holder of the Ladybug Miraculous, as he is the designated holder for the Miraculous of the Peacock."

"So how does that play into you figuring us out." Was asked by Tim seemingly awake now.

"That was made by a combination of what Trixx said, my basic knowledge of heroes outside of Paris, and my personal ability to recognize people as akumas." She shrugged.

"That's the second time you've mentioned akuma, Marinette." Her father space up. "You know more than you let on."

She chuckled at this. "Of course, I do. I am Lady Scarlet, the holder of the Ladybug Miraculous, and heroine of Paris."

"Shit! She didn't need your help to be a hero B." Jason screamed.

"That alone explains so much more than you believe." Bruce sighed walking out of the room, Tim and Alfred following him, Jay following not soon after.

He would have followed, he was just out of the door, if he didn't stop when she spoke.

"Are you going to behave?" He backtracked a few steps and watched her, he leaned against the door frame, in full view.

She held up a single finger then knocked on the air. Held up two fingers then tapped her index and middle finger to her thumb. It took him a moment to recognize the ASL, but Damian picked up on it quickly.

He meowed once and she went and released in from the carrier. Who then jumped on her bed, watching her. His gaze turned to him, and he blinked slowly, before going back to watch Marinette.

~~~~~~~~~~

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arty-shadow-morningstar · 3 years

Text

A Failed Betrothal (4)

Am I doing this right? I mostly do write this when I am between the state of sleep and awareness. Hope you enjoy this.

[Masterlist]

(Part 1) (Part 3)

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PART 4

Marinette came to a dungeon cell with two other prisoners. One of them was awake and he looked vaguely familiar. The other had an ugly red helmet that didn’t help with the headache she had.

“Do you know where we are?” She asked the handsome stranger with beautiful green eyes, her throat a little dry.

Wait. Handsome?

No bad Marinette. Don’t fall for fellow prisoners, no matter how cute he looks. Oh Kwamis, she was already screwed.

He still hadn’t replied. Maybe he didn’t understand French. She tried to ask again in another language before her enhanced hearing picked up the sound of footsteps. She faked unconsciousness. Later, she heard the iron door open. She looked through the tiniest slits of her eyes she could muster while the two held a staring/glaring match. Oh shit, that’s the fame Talia Al Ghul, daughter of Ra’s, head of the League of Shadows, and the boy she was glaring at had some resemblance to her, so he must be her son, Dennis? Daniel? Damon?

"Damian, I hope you know what you should do."

Ohh..Damian. Where had she heard that name before?

"To be forcefully married to that little girl. She is no one special. Why am I getting married to her?"

Ouch, that hurts. Well, Damian, just because I forgot your name does not mean you can call me a little girl. I can also kill you very easily and painfully.

“Well, Jason, you are awake. You can be the best man for the wedding.”

“No. I don’t know what game you are playing but you better release us. B is gonna find us and you will pay. Let the girl go. She is innocent in all of this.” Red Helmet, Jason, is officially not going on her hit list for his atrocious fashion choices. But that red monstrosity still needs to go.

"Ladybug may not seem like it but she possesses great power that my father converted for centuries. Speaking of, she should be awake by now."

Marinette felt her hair being yanked. A little pain was expected but the really sharp claws digging into her scalp was not. Making her cry and tear up.

”I am so sorry, kit.” Plagg whispered in the kwami language, loosening his claws.

"Tch, See, she is more pathetic than I thought. She is not powerful." Damian growled out.

Geez, thanks for the compliment, it’s not like you ever had a tiny cat dig its claws into your scalp out of surprise. (Damian once had a kitten thrown at his head and if he knew about Plagg, he would have been sympathetic.) Marinette started begging for mercy, hoping they would buy the helpless girl out of the suit that is ill-suited for the job she had been chosen for and had no idea on how to escape.

“Like I thought, weak. She is not deserving of the title of my wife.”

Oh kwamis, what did she ever do to have such a picky groom? The more he insults her, the less she wants to be married to him.

"Appearance can be deceiving. Despite her demeanor, she is the current wielder of the Ladybug Miraculous and the Current Guardian. The old Guardian, the old fool had promised her in exchange for his protection."

Great, another reason to stop her mother from killing a senile old man.

"That doesn't mean I want to marry her. She is not worthy of an Al Ghul or a Wayne. Look at her, crying at the slightest feeling of pain."

So that’s where she heard it from. The boy was the son of the daughter of a guy who leads a secret order of assassins and a man that owns a multi-million business. How even did a billionaire meet an assassin, ends up in bed with her and lives? Something to think about for later. She quieted down her sobs, (beat that acting, Rossi) kept her voice low to hatch out a plan with Plagg in the kwami language while the mother-son duo bickered.

“Hey, Plagg before you go, you think I can do that thing, the one which your one of your past holders from Japan can do.”

“You have a lot of potential for destruction but you have not used the ring for a long time yet so I am not sure.”

“I will give it a go anyways. Nothing to lose after all. See you later, Plagg.” Marinette smiled, one that drove fear into the hearts of even the bravest of people. Plagg returned it, already loving the new Guardian before zipping out of the cell to do some scouting. Using the enhanced strength the French superheroine got from prolonged use of the Miraculous, she yanked the chains of the walls and wrapped them around Talia’s neck, cutting off her air supply.

The League of Assassins thought that they could kidnap her and get away with it. But they were no match for the daughter of Sabine Cheng, the deadly Blue Reaper. A high ranking member from the group of assassins and mercenaries called the Guild of Night, who had semi-retired. Kidnapping her was a bad move to make as it meant they had declared war on the Guild, despite the reason behind her abduction having a completely different intention.

She whispered as such to the older woman in her tight grip, making sure the League would know how much they had fucked up. After dropping the limp body, she took a deep breath and tried channeling some of her energy for what she was about to do.

Well, here goes nothing.

She breathed out on the shackles, turning it to rust.

Success!

She introduced herself as Lady and concentrated the energy from before into her hand, forming inky black orbs of destruction in order to free her fellow captives. She felt a little drained from doing magic out of the suit and tried not to show it. Plagg returned, informing her of where the Ra’s and the Pits were. She grinned at the thought of showing old Ra’s who the boss is and made sure he regretted ever messing with her. She explained about Plagg as vaguely as she can, no need to let anyone know about the miraculous than necessary. Sure her plan sounds insane but the boys don’t know who they were with.

She would worry about that curse after she got out of Nanda Parbat. Although she could probably find something in the grimoire to reverse it, she was still an amateur at magic so it was best to have a professional to take care of it. Marinette didn’t want to be with such an asshole, no matter how striking he looks in those regal robes.

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Picking off the League assassins, one by one was easy especially in her transformed state. She hadn’t appraised her suit properly but from what she had seen, it wasn’t like Chat Noir’s leather get-up. She was armoured in vital areas and her colour scheme was mainly black with green accents. There were vials that were probably poisons and pouches which she decided to look at later. She still had a long braid as a tail from her brief stint as Lady Noire and she wondered why her suit was different. While hiding in a niche she found, she called the bakery via the comm in one of her various pouches.

“Hello?”

“Papa, it’s me, Marinette. Do you know where Maman is?”

“She went out of Paris, talking about how this League must pay. I think she is meeting up with several of her old friends. Are you alright, my little blossom? I know you can take care of yourself but I worry.” The relief in Tom’s voice was palpable. However, she was right and the Guild was going to war against the League. Marinette was adored by nearly everyone in the Guild due to her strangely bubbly and cheery personality in the harsh and brutal lifestyle.

“I am fine, Papa. Did Maman use the Horse to leave? And how are my friends?” She knew they might be in a panic after her disappearance.

“I think she did. I didn’t see Kalki when I went to feed the kwamis. Your friends panicked when they found out you were kidnapped. But they are fine now, mostly worried about you. Took care of some akumas and senti monsters by themselves. I think your fencer friend, Kagami, knows more about the League than she lets on.” Of course, she does. Her mother was a member of the Guild before being blinded due to a mission. Kagami and her actually first met during a reunion party of sorts.

“Thank you, Papa. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

She hung up and dialed the personal phone number her mother uses that only Marinette and her father knows about. She waited for the call to connect, trying to think of ways to stop her mother from storming into the League’s base of operation.

“Maman, it’s me. I know you want to attack the League right this minute. But I have a better plan. Can you get Tikki’s earrings from Alix? We can use them and the ring to destroy the Lazarus Pits. Make them really angry.” She peeked out of the niche she was hiding in. She had been there for a while and needed to move to gain some grounds.

“Where are you? And are you okay?” Panic and worry filled her usually composed mother’s voice.

“I am somewhere in Nanda Parbat and I am fine. I was nearly married off to Talia’s son but I am not now. I think.” Marinette replied. Better to rip that band-aid off before she showed up with her would-have-been-husband. She jumped out of the niche and looked

“Kalki, Full Gallop. Okay, we will talk about the ‘nearly married’ part later. What was this plan to destroy the Lazarus Pits?” Sabine thought she was already used to Marinette’s brand of craziness that was her normal but apparently, not.

“I am currently on my way there. Plagg said we need Tikki to get rid of them. Since the League pissed me off and by extension you and the rest of the Guild, I thought our first move against them is to destroy the Pits and a trail of bodies. By the way, can you get some cheese for Plagg?” Marinette ran through the halls, knocking out some poor sod with a whack on the head.

Silence. She thought Sabine had hung up when-

“Voyage. Alix, where are you? We need Tikki for one of Marinette’s insane plans. And Marinette, stay safe, sweety, I’ll be there in 15 minutes.”

“Bye, Maman. See you there.”

Marinette turned another corner, the last one before the path that leads to the entrance where the Lazarus Pits were. She only managed to find it with Plagg’s voice in her head, whispering directions and Tikki’s luck. Unfortunately, the luck ran out because the entrance had a lot of guards who had spotted her.

Crap.

She hoped her mother would get here soon. Thankfully, being transformed gave her a boost and would help her to hold her ground for a while.

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Damian and Red Hood followed the trail of unconscious bodies and sounds of fights, trying to find Lady. Damian was impressed at the level of her skills to defeat many of the League’s assassins although he could probably do better. They relied on his memory to find the Lazarus Pits which was their best bet to finding her as she claimed to be able to destroy them. If Lady possessed such powers, they must find out whether she is a threat to the world or not. And also break the infernal curse they have.

Red Hood was silent mostly. He made a few jabs about how kick ass his ‘bride’ was and how the current Robin should not let her get away. Damian tried really hard not to just maim his adopted brother and also ignore that little fluttering in his chest that happened every time they saw an unconscious assassin left behind by Lady. The sounds of fighting got louder as they got nearer to the entrance. They turned the final corner to see Lady fighting against the guards who outnumbered her. But she seemed to be doing fine against them. Mostly.

One had slipped through her defenses and nearly stabbed her in the back if it weren’t for Damian grabbing one of Red Hood’s guns and shooting a rubber bullet to the neck. He jumped into the fight, grabbing the fallen assassin’s sword and taking out the knife he got from his mother. Jason joined in too, not going to let the two teens have all the fun.

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“Thanks for the save, Al Ghul but I don’t know why you bothered when me being dead would solve your curse problem.” Lady said as the guards laid around them and they tried to catch their breath.

“It’s Wayne. I go by Wayne these days. Being an Al Ghul is not something I learned to be proud of. And as much as I don’t want this curse, your death is not worth that price.” he replied, “Although, I have to wonder why you would choose to die rather than live.”

She chuckled, “Okay, Wayne, to answer your question. Petty teenage drama makes death much more preferable. On top of that, I have responsibilities that I was practically forced into for doing one little act of kindness.” Her tone was joking but there was a touch of bitterness in it. It made Damian want to find out what caused it. Red Hood looked at her in concern. Lady went down the stairs, ignoring their reactions to her words. They followed her, not wanting to lose sight of her again.

The Lazarus Pits emitted a green glow that lit up the cave and cast strange shadows on the walls. At the edge of the glowing toxic green waters was a woman in dark blue clothing and strangely enough wearing sunglasses. Strapped to her sides were two Dao, ancient Chinese swords. She wore a vindictive expression on her face as she stood staring at the green lake, likely to kill anyone who gets in her way. Damian didn’t recognize the woman as part of the League but taking no chances, he got into a fighting stance and Hood did the same. Lady calmly approached the woman. He reached out to grab her to stop her suicidal nature when she shocked him by speaking to the blue-clad assassin in French,

“Hey, Maman, sorry I am late. I had a little trouble with the guards upstairs. You have Tikki?”

Lady’s mother rushed to hug her, “灵儿 (líng er), I am just glad you are alright. I knew you could handle yourself.”

How the hell did Lady’s mother get to the Lazarus Pits faster than them and snuck past several vigilant guards? Before Damian could question further, a red blur appeared and went to Lady’s face, hugging her cheek. It appeared to be the same size as Plagg but was red, looked like a bug and had a black dot on its forehead.

“Oh, Marinette, you are alright. I was so worried when your mother showed up, saying you were kidnapped and needed my earrings to escape.” Unlike Plagg’s nasally voice, her voice was sweet and shrill.

So, my bride’s name is Marinette. Such a unique name for an intriguing girl.

Wait what?

Wayne, stop thinking such ridiculous notions. That is probably the curse working. Resist against it. He will not be ensnared in the traps of such magic. He hoped that the curse will be reversed before he turns and act like those fools in Grayson’s idiotic shows or Todd’s ‘secret’ romance novels.

“I am fine now. See,” reassured Lady, “We actually need you and Plagg to reverse the Lazarus Pits to what it was before someone made the wish that resulted in them in the first place. Oh, I almost forgot. Plagg, claws in.”

Green light flashed, leaving Lady in her wedding robes (which actually flatter her body. Shit. Think of something else. Drake with a smug superior smile that needs to be wiped off his face. Grayson and his plans for ‘family bonding’) and Plagg to reappear.

“Cheese.” whined the cat-like kwami(?) to which the older woman held out a brown bag that smelled and made Plagg perk up in delight. He proceeded to open the bag, taking out a slice of stinky cheese, muttering about the greatness of camembert.

Todd cleared his throat and asked in English, “Umm...Pixie as much as your reunion is touching. Who’s the new lady?”

“Oh Right, sorry. Well, Red Hood, this is my mother, the Blue Reaper of the Guild of Night. Maman, this is Red Hood and the one next to him is my husband-to-be and Talia’s Spawn, Damian Wayne.”

Lady introduced them, also in English. Damian stilled in fear, recognizing the name. The Blue Reaper nearly became his mother-in-law. She was famous for her efficiency and ruthlessness. And gained her nickname from the blue clothing she often wore as she killed her targets. His eyes also widened at how his grandfather had gone a little too far now by kidnapping the Reaper’s daughter. There were other organizations that could possibly take down the League if it weren’t for the somewhat truce between Ra’s and the other leaders. The Guild was one of them and having the Lazarus Pits to revive their soldiers made the League a little more powerful. But if what the mother-daughter duo were planning succeeded, then the League was going to have one of its most deadly wars in its history and would probably never recover from.

“Tikki, Plagg, you guys ready?” asked Lady.

“Yes, Guardian.” They both replied and emitted a blinding red and green light which Damian shielded his eyes from. When it died down, the Lazarus Pits no longer glowed a toxic green and looked… like normal hot spring water.

“Oh. I wished I could see Ra’s face when he finds out.” Lady laughed. Plagg and Todd joined in.

“Pixie, I am beginning to like you.”

“Voyage. That being said, it’s time to go home, Marinette. Your father must be worried sick about us by now. I hope you boys can find your own way back.” A portal opened up, showing a cozy living room. Damian grabbed Lady’s wrist as she moved towards it.

“Wait, let us come with you. We need to contact someone to get rid of the curse on both of us. And we can also call our father to send us tickets for a ride home wherever you live.”

“Curse? Marinette, you never mentioned a curse in your call.” Blue Reaper said, raising her eyebrow.

“I will explain later. They can come with us and I am pretty sure Ra’s knows that we have escaped by now.” Lady grabbed the two brothers and dragged them through the portal.

She then threw herself onto the couch after releasing her hold on them and the two pocket gods went to comfort her after her ordeal. The Blue Reaper stood where the other portal was and fed a floating tiny gray horse, that must be the same species as Tikki or Plagg, some sugarcubes.

“You boys must be tired but the showers are upstairs and we might have some clothes your size. Dinner will be ready in an hour. You can stay the night if you want. Welcome to Paris.”

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(Part 5)

#damian x marinette #mlb x dc #daminette #maribat #Betrothal AU: take 2 #A Failed Betrothal #assassin marinette #sort of #assassin sabine cheng #definitely #Jason is just here for a ride #marinette is a little petty

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mochegato · 3 years

Text

Even the Losers

Chapter 7

Chapter 1 Chapter 6

Marinette rubbed her head as though the action might actually have an effect on her throbbing headache. It hadn’t any time she’d tried it in the last hour, but it gave her brain the illusion that she was doing something to help other than just waiting for the painkillers to kick in. The action also gave her something to focus on other than the pounding hangover from not getting nearly drunk enough last night. Because somehow despite the massive amounts she, Jason, and Roy had drunk last night, all of her problems still existed. Utter bullshit, that. And now she still had to deal with all her problems and felt like crap on top of it. Double bullshit.

She adjusted her sunglasses again, fighting the urge to squint because squinting hurt. Although honestly, she wasn’t sure which hurt more, the florescent lights, the sunlight beaming through the hotel windows, or squinting. She was sure there was some way to settle the glasses on her face to block out all light, she just hadn’t been able to figure it out. She now realized why people significantly smarter than her wore those godawful, ugly glasses that wrap around their head and cut out all sun.

She took a deep breath and braced herself for the full blast of a suspiciously sunny Gotham morning. Gotham has like three sunny days a year and one of them is today? What the Hell did she do to Tikki to deserve the last few days? She wandered out of the hotel still contemplating revenge. How does one get revenge against a god anyway? How many ways can she destroy cookies?

She didn’t get more than a few steps before she sensed someone in front of her. She weaved slightly to the left but quickly realized there was someone there too. She weaved to the right and finally looked up when she realized there was someone there. There were people all around her, taking pictures of her, shoving phones in her face as they yelled questions at her.

She stumbled back a few steps and blinked at the group of reporters that had apparently been camping out in front of the hotel for her. She quickly plastered on one of Adrien’s patented PR smiles and nodded to them. She tried to push through them, expecting them to move out of her way, as they did in Paris for Adrien. But reporters in Gotham clearly did not show the same respect that Parisian reporters did because none of them moved out of her way.

Her smile strained slightly as she looked to the one in front of her. “Excuse me, please,” she requested in the most sickeningly sweet voice she could manage.

The reporter sent back an excited smile. “Ms. Dupain Cheng, would you care to comment on your relationship with your family? Perhaps explain why Gotham hadn’t had the pleasure of your presence before?”

Marinette looked the reporter up and down. She looked at the group surrounding her, noting how they had closed the circle to the point of touching her. She’d been to raves with more personal space. She moved to push through a small gap between reporters, but stopped when they quickly closed the gap. Marinette gritted her teeth and widened her smile. “There’s a reason we’ve chosen not to speak about this and that reason was NOT to discuss it in an exclusive with you at this exact moment. Now if you will excuse me, I would very, very much like to get some coffee. I’m sure you can understand the difficulty of starting a day without it.”

She gave them a conspiratorial smile, hoping if they felt like they were in on the joke they would let her through. Instead, her response emboldened the reporters, who started shouting out her name and more questions.

“Will you attend more Wayne functions now?”

Marinette didn’t even know which reporter shouted the question to address them if she wanted. She huffed and decided to give up on pleasantries. She was hung over. She was hungry. She wanted coffee. “Why would people change a relationship that doesn’t involve you because you know about it?” she grunted as she tried to push through the cracks between people.

The reporters closed ranks tighter around her, making it impossible for her to break through without injuring someone, which she was sure was the plan of at least a few of them. Whether it was to get a more salacious story or to sue Bruce Wayne, she wasn’t sure. Probably both. She looked back to the hotel lobby hoping the concierge would see her predicament and help her, but he was determinedly ignoring the scene in front of the hotel.

She set her jaw and prepared herself to create a scene channeling her best imitation of an irate Chloe Bourgeoisie. She’d deal with the fallout later. Right now, she needed to get out of this situation before someone actually did push a little too hard and tiny gods decided to curse the city. She opened her mouth to yell but instead heard someone else’s voice boom through the crowd.

“I think my sister told you to leave her the fuck alone.”

Marinette looked around to try to find the source of the voice but couldn’t see past the wall of reporters. She didn’t have to wait long for him to push his way through the crowd like a wrecking ball, not worrying about injuring anyone as he shoved his way through. Jason stopped in front of her with a smirk. “She just says it in a much more polite way than I do.” He held up a bag and a tray of coffee. “I come bearing gifts so you don’t have to deal with this shit out there somewhere.”

Marinette shot him a grateful smile and turned back toward the hotel. “That sounds brilliant. Thank you.”

Jason winked at her. “I got you.”

They didn’t stop or even look at each other until the elevator doors closed behind them. Marinette leaned against the wall and finally took a full breath. She looked over to Jason with another grateful smile. “Thank you. I wasn’t expecting that and I…” She looked down for a moment to collect her thoughts. “I wasn’t prepared. I’ll do better next time.”

Jason’s eyes softened. The press was a lot for all of them to get used to. None of them had taken naturally to it, especially Gotham’s press. They at least had the advantage of starting young and knowing what to expect, not to mention since they were kids, the press didn’t have a lot of chances to get to them. Marinette had just been thrown out there without a life preserver. Bruce didn’t even send any guards. “Don’t worry about it. I thought you could use the save.”

Marinette laughed and narrowed her eyes at him. “That was a socially acceptable version of a kidnapping. I had no way of getting out of that without exposing that there is no relationship.”

“Should have just exposed it then,” he shrugged, not remotely nonplussed by her comment. “I just thought you could use some sustenance after last night.” He held up the bag for her as they exited the elevator and made their way to her room. “I know you must be used to fancy French food so I got a variety of food from the best bakery in town. And I didn’t know how you take your coffee or if you prefer tea so I got both and lots of sugar and creamer.”

Marinette giggled as she opened her door. “You’re not wrong. My parents owned a patisserie. I grew up on the best baked goods in France.”

Jason blinked a few times at her before setting the drinks and food on the coffee table. “That’s it, next family reunion is at your place.”

“Not so sure that’s going to be a thing,” she said quietly. She reached for one of the croissants and ripped off a small piece, popping it in her mouth. “Not really sure I count as family. That’s kind of been made clear.”

“Yeah well, we didn’t know and we’d like to get to know you, if you’re okay with it,” he said biting off a chunk of cheese Danish. “Look, I’m not looking for family dinners and brunches and shit, I just… want to make sure you’re okay.” He looked up at her earnestly for a moment before his eyes turned mischievous. “Although if you grew up in a bakery, I might want all that at your parents’ place.”

“At least you’re asking. That’s something anyway,” she grumbled as she took another small bite.

“Speaking of family, where is model boy?”

Marinette puckered her lips in disapproval as she watched the crumbs fall from Jason’s mouth as he spoke. She looked away before she snapped at him. “He and Max went apartment hunting.”

“Without you?” Jason asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Neither of them were suffering from a raging hangover that took double the normal dosage of painkillers just to take the edge off of,” she said pointedly.

“Coffee,” Jason grunted, motioning toward the coffee. “Lots of coffee and food and water.” He pushed the bag toward her. “Not the bird bites you’ve been taking.”

She studied the croissant in front of her with a furrowed brow as though it had some kind of answers for her. She nearly dropped it when she heard a knock on the door. She looked through the peephole and gasped, flinching back from the door. Jason immediately jumped up and ran over to her. “What is it? Another reporter?”

“No,” Marinette rasped out, her eyes never leaving the door. “Worse.” Her heart started racing and her breathing became labored. She wasn’t ready for this. She wasn’t ready to speak with him. What was she supposed to say? How was she supposed to speak with him? She didn’t even know how she felt yet. She hadn’t sorted through this all yet. Tears threatened to fall from her eyes. She wasn’t ready. This was happening too fast.

She flinched visibly when he knocked again. He’d had time to prepare. He’d had time to think this through. He knew how he felt about this. He’d had time to plan and prepare. She had none of that and here he was on her doorstep. He knew about her and she knew nothing about him. He was ready and she wasn’t given that chance.

She was just expected to deal with it. She was just expected to handle it. She was just expected to accept it. He’d created this entire situation and she was left to pick up the pieces and move on. And now he was here. He was on her figurative doorstep in person and now she had to deal with it, on his timetable, according to his preference, because yet again it all had to be done on his terms. Her preferences didn’t matter. Her feelings didn’t matter. Her opinion didn’t matter.

“Want me to kick their ass out?” Jason offered already reaching for the handle.

Marinette shook her head and let out a calming breath. He thinks he can come in after twenty years gone and act like everything is fine and expect her to play nice, he has another thing coming. He wanted a detached relationship? She could do that. She’d seen it enough growing up with Adrien and Chloe’s parents. She knew how to play the game.

She shook her hands to get the tension out before finally reaching out to open the door. “Mr. Wayne. This is an unexpected pl… experience,” she stuttered. She mentally grimaced. She was showing weakness. She needed to be strong. She plastered on a clearly fake smile. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of being weak. She wouldn’t cry for him. She hadn’t cried because of him in the twenty years he’d been absent, she wouldn’t do it now.

Bruce took a breath. “Marinette…” He froze for a second. He hadn’t thought hard enough about this. He knew what he wanted to say, what he wanted to tell her, but he hadn’t thought about how to tell her, how to lead into it. “I was hoping to speak with you,” he rushed out, wincing internally at the sound of it.

“Well, that’s a first,” she scoffed before she could stop herself. She slapped her hand over her mouth and mentally berated herself. What was she doing? She was supposed to be calm not cruel. She was losing this game!

Jason grinned and propped his arms behind his head as he kicked out his legs, the very picture of relaxed. “I like her. I’m keeping her.”

Marinette shot him an appreciative smile but Bruce did a double take, frowning at the sight. His mind raced as to what it meant that Jason was there. Was it good? It was good, wasn’t it? She was getting close to one of her brothers already. But that brother was Jason, and despite the fact that he loved Jason, he was well aware their relationship was still contentious at best. Not exactly the best brother for her to get close to. And he was already encouraging her hostility against him. Not that he didn’t deserve it, he knew he did, it was just that any of the other brothers would help mitigate that hostility. Jason would fan it. “Jason, what are you doing here?”

“Brought baked goods and coffee,” he answered casually, a smirk making its way onto his face. “You?”

Bruce let out a heavy sigh through his nose and smoothed out his face. Getting annoyed now would do nothing for his goal. If Marinette was connecting to Jason, getting frustrated with him would just push her further away. “As I mentioned, I was hoping I could speak with Marinette about the… situation. I wanted…”

“‘The situation’,” Jason mocked shaking his head at Bruce. God was he always this bad with his kids? He thought it was just him. “Way to sound sincere, B.”

Bruce’s lips pursed until they were no longer visible. He didn’t need Jason sabotaging him right now. He was doing a good enough job of it on his own. “I’d like to speak with Marinette on our own, please. Why don’t you go home?”

Marinette’s eyes went wide and her chest clenched. She didn't want Jason to leave. She wasn't ready for Jason to leave. Once Jason left it was just her and him. Just thinking about it suddenly she couldn't breathe. Suddenly the air felt too thin and too heavy at the same time. No. She needed somebody else here.

Jason shot a look over to Marinette, letting his eyes pass over Marinette like he hadn’t been noting her body language. He let his eyes wander for a second before returning to Bruce with a tilt to his head. “No. I’m witnessing this, unless Pixie tells me to go home.”

Marinette could have kissed him… on the cheek. Because he was her br… it was complicated. But she was beyond grateful he had spoken up for her. She let out the breath she’d been holding and raised an eyebrow at him. “Pixie?”

“Small, violent,” Jason grinned at her.

Marinette laughed and playfully narrowed her eyes at him. “Fine, whatever, Goliath.”

Jason leaned back again. “Oh, no, that one’s already taken. By a dragon bat, no less.”

Marinette’s face scrunched in confusion. She tried to search through her Americanisms for what a dragon bat could be. It had to be a species of bat right? Maybe? But then again it was American English so for all she knew it could be a flower. “A what?”

“Jason!” Bruce admonished. He was really not looking forward to trying to explain what a dragon bat was or how Damian came to be in possession of one.

Jason rose up enough to grab one of the croissants and shove half of it into his mouth before he spoke. “I’ll introduce you sometime, or Damian will have to actually… which he won’t. I’ll show you a picture, you seem like the kind of person who likes terrifying animals as long as they’re fuzzy.”

“I… fair,” Marinette conceded easily.

“If I can bring us back to the topic at hand,” Bruce interjected loudly, cutting off any more discussion of dragon bats.

“Family bonding, right?” Jason cut him off with a pointed look. “Isn’t that what we were doing?”

Bruce glared at Jason for a few seconds, which did nothing to wipe the smug smirk off his face. Giving up on Jason, Bruce focused on Marinette. “At the gala you mentioned you didn’t plan on being in town much longer, leaving today actually. I was hoping I could convince you to stay a bit longer.”

Marinette examined him with a dour curiosity. She cocked her head to the side. “And why might that be? You don’t need me here to make an announcement that we prefer to keep our relationship private, hence they didn’t know about me.”

Bruce let out a deep sigh. That was fair. It was a fair response. Sabine had warned him she would be suspicious of him. “This isn’t for the public,” he assured her.

“Isn’t it?” She blinked a few times at him, her face blank. “Are you sure? It feels like it is.” She turned to Jason. “Doesn’t it feel like it is to you?”

“It does indeed,” Jason nodded in agreement, keeping eye contact with Bruce as he did.

“Jason…” he started threateningly.

“Oh, I’m sorry, were you relying on me to make fixing your fuck up easier for you? Wrong kid. You’re looking for Dick or Tim… actually I wouldn’t rely on Tim for help explaining why being an absentee father isn’t actually that bad.”

“Jason, I think it’s time for you to go home,” Bruce growled.

Marinette straightened up and moved between him and Jason. She wasn’t going to let him bully Jason for standing up for her. “I don’t think so. So far he’s the only member of my family I like.”

“Ooh, you should totally give Cass and Steph and Duke a chance too,” Jason offered with a faked enthusiasm as though the confrontation with Bruce didn’t just happen. He kept his eyes on Marinette but relished the increasingly frustrated scowl on Bruce’s face as they ignored him.

Marinette nodded. “I’ll consider it.”

“Oh and Alfred… and I guess Tim too. He’s a prick but he’s alright I guess,” Jason continued.

Marinette blinked at him. It was like a never ending list of people. An ongoing list of people he had taken in after walking away from her. A long list of people he’d cared about and for without having to be pressured into it by the press. A mile long list of people he wasn’t pretending to care about. “How many brothers and sisters do you have?”

“We have a lot,” Jason corrected her. They were in this together and he’d remind her of that as many times as she needed. “Alfred isn’t a sibling though. He’s like a grandfather.”

Marinette paused at that. She hadn’t considered that. Another grandfather figure. Another grandfather that didn’t want anything to do with her. Sure now Grand-père Roland loved her but for the first fifteen years, he’d known about her and didn’t care. Maybe it was her. It had to be her right? Two grandparents, that isn’t coincidence. That’s a pattern and the only commonality was her. She pursed her lips together to focus on something other than the tears welling up behind her eyes. “Sounds like the kind of person who definitely would have known about me.”

Jason’s eyes widened. “I… don’t know the answer to that,” he answered slowly.

Marinette nodded, slowly going numb. “So, what I’m getting from this so far is I have a another grandfather-type figure that knew about me and didn’t feel any kind of interest in me and a ton of people that my father decided were worthy of his love and affection when I wasn’t. So it isn’t that my father didn’t want to be a father, just that he didn’t want to be my father.”

“That isn’t…” Jason started. This was going down the wrong path. He was trying to show her he had her back, not remind her about the pain. But instead, now Marinette was getting hurt, remembering the pain. She’d lost her sass and impertinence and now was moving toward hurt. And she was blaming Alfred. Alfred was one of the only good things about being a Wayne!

“Jason! I think it’s time for you to go home. Now!” Bruce roared.

Marinette contemplated Bruce coldly, numbness consuming her fears and insecurities and morphing into cold, analytic contemplation. He was blaming Jason. Her frustration wasn’t because of Jason or anything he said. Her pain wasn’t because of Jason, it was because of him, because of his decisions. And instead of taking responsibility for it, he was blaming Jason.

Jason blinked a few times, no longer certain of his role in this interaction. He looked back and forth between Marinette and Bruce, noting Marinette’s hardening features. She was getting ready for a fight. He could see it developing, but he wasn’t at all sure Bruce did. He held up his hands in surrender and sat back down calmly. “I promised I wouldn’t leave unless Pixie asked me to. I intend to keep my promise to her,” he said calmly.

Bruce glared at him again and faced back to Marinette, a fake smile plastered on. “As I was saying. I’d like a chance to get to know you, if you would let me.”

“And how many members of the press did you want to be there when you do?” she inquired sharply.

Bruce sighed and rubbed his forehead. “That’s not fair.”

Marinette’s mouth dropped and she shook her head at him incredulously. “Wow. Way to pull the rich, white guy entitlement card. ‘I know everything about this situation has been unbelievably unfair to you, but now I’m being inconvenienced in the mildest way possible and I don’t like it,’” she mocked. She rocked back on her heels and narrowed her eyes at him. “Rest assured M. Wayne, I do not intend to speak out against you. Your reputation will not be harmed by me. Tell the press whatever you want. I won’t contradict you. You can relax.”

“Marinette…” he started, unsure of where to go. Everything she had said was so far from the truth, he didn’t know where to start. Her view of the situation was so skewed, he didn’t know how to put it back on kilter. His shoulders sagged in defeat. “This has nothing to do with the press. I had put plans in motion to get in contact with you before any of this started. Mr. Fox will confirm that for you if you don’t trust me. You seem like quite an impressive young lady and I would like to get to know you better, if you’ll give me the chance.”

His tone was contrite and quiet, but Marinette wasn’t done being upset yet. She wasn’t ready to move on and let go of the anger. “And if I wasn’t, you would continue to ignore me? If I was a problem child, if I had social issues, if I couldn’t find a job, you’d continue to treat me like I never existed? I’ve finally done enough to gain your attention. Oh thank you so much for letting me know.”

“That isn’t what I said,” Bruce rushed to assure her. “I meant to compliment you not say you had to earn my attention.”

Marinette pursed her lips and looked over to Jason. He was looking back at her with sympathetic, concerned eyes. She let out a long sigh and looked away from them both. “Look, I meant what I told the press earlier. I had no intention of you seeing me at the gala. I had no intention of anyone finding out about me. I didn’t even know there was anything to find out when I made the plan to come here. And I have no expectation of anything about our relationship changing.”

Bruce perked up slightly, but focused on keeping his body language the same, so she wouldn’t see the difference. That was an opening; expectation instead of intention. It wasn’t that she intended not to change it, it’s that she didn’t expect it. “I do,” he assured her, trying to keep the excitement out of his voice, keeping it calm and even. “I would like to change our relationship. I would like the chance to explain and try to start to make it up to you. If you would like to try.

“If you’re open to it, I can extend your reservation until you are ready to move on, or if you would prefer, you are more than welcome to stay at the manor. I would love to have you stay with us but I understand that may be overwhelming. Or, WE has have some flats available, with multiple bedrooms. You and your friends could stay there for a while. Your friend is going to need a place to stay while he looks for an apartment, right?

“I’ll leave the choice to you. Whether we pursue a relationship, if you stay, where you stay; they’re all your choice. Here,” he handed her a paper with several numbers hand written on it. “These are my numbers; office, home office, cell phone, manor. You can use any of them to contact me.”

Marinette took the paper impassively. She squeezed her other hand in an effort to keep the tremble from being too obvious. “Thank you, M. Wayne. I will consider your words.”

Bruce nodded, letting the very formal use of his name wash away. This was still progress. This was still movement in the right direction, even if it wasn’t as much as he would want. He knew it could take a long time. He knew he wouldn’t be able to fix this today. “Thank you, Marinette. That’s all I can ask for. And I’m sorry for ambushing you here. I tried to call and text you all yesterday to set up a time to talk in person so you could prepare but it seems like your phone was off.”

He let out a small breath seeing her eyes widen at his admission. That had to be a good sign. Maybe he actually said the right thing for once. He nodded to her and left her to think, hoping Jason would urge her to call. He seemed to want a relationship with her as well. Hopefully, he would realize this was the best way to get that.

Jason sighed and looked up at her as soon as the door closed behind Bruce. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m not. It’s… it’s a lot. I think I want to be alone,” Marinette said absently staring at the numbers in her hand.

Jason nodded. “It is. I understand. If you want to talk, at all, about anything. About where to drink in town, best burger, anything, give me a call.” He gently took the paper Bruce had handed her out of hand, letting her decide if she gave it to him or not. When she let go, he put his number on it as well. “I only have one number, but now you have it.”

Marinette nodded at him. “Thank you, Jason.”

Jason hesitated briefly. “For what it’s worth, if you decide to stay you should take him up on the flat. The hotel is stupid expensive and WE offers the flat to visiting collaborators all the time, so it’s not like it’s all that special… if you want to avoid being treated special.”

Marinette nodded at his words, barely taking them in as her mind tried to fight the numbing process. Jason watched her tentatively. “You look like a hugger,” he said uncertainly. “Did you… do you want a, um, a hug?”

Marinette looked over at him and blinked a few times, not sure how to take his words, partly because he seemed unsure of them himself, but partly because things were having a harder time permeating her brain right now. Jason took her curious look as doubt. “Oh come on. It’s fine. I wouldn’t offer if I didn’t mean it. Trust me. I tell Dick to fuck off enough when he tries to hug me. I have no problem saying no to hugs I don’t want. I’m offering because I mean it.”

Marinette blinked a few more times but finally nodded vacantly. Jason pulled her into a warm, comforting hug. After a few moments he pulled away. “It will all be okay. No matter what you decide, it will all be okay. And no matter what you decide, I’m here. Nobody’s replacing you as my sister. So get ready for some completely inappropriate Christmas presents this year.”

Marinette smiled absently at his joke, her eyes never meeting his. “Thanks, Jason.” She leaned against the door after she closed it behind him and slid down it, staring blankly at nothing. The room felt colder than it was before, but she couldn’t manage to care enough to get up and get a blanket. She thought there might have been ambient noise going on around her but none of it registered. Nothing registered. Not the numbing sensation that was rapidly overtaking her body from her fingers and toes up to her head until she stopped feeling anything. Not even the point she was staring at. She didn’t know how long she stared at the nothingness before black overtook her vision and she passed out.

Chapter 8

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