#at least very least he gets the jokes adrien makes about wanting to get with carapace | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

miraculouslbcnreactions · 29 days

Note

I just realize you're the only person who point out that Felix and Kagami would be just as in the wrong for hiding the truth from Adrien. Most people I know puts the blame entirely on Marinette and like yeah, I get it it's really bad she would keep something like that a secret from her boyfriend but at the same time how do you deal with that big of a burden?

If it were up to me, I'd make her deal with it the same way like in the Dragon Prince with how Rayla tries to tell Callum and Ezran about their dad being dead but idk, maybe it's not the same with Adrien so it's unfair.

I'm just irritated at people who blame Marinette just cuz she's her gf and not at the adults like Nathalie or Amelie, Marinette's a child, what about Felix and Kagami? They care about Adrien too right?

Yep, it's somehow all Marinette's fault even though Felix knew for all of season five. He knew before then, too, but at least you could argue that he was fearing for his life in previous seasons. As soon as he got the peacock? No excuse. Especially since he got the peacock by trading away Adrien's freedom. A thing he arguably didn't even need to do since I don't think anyone believes that Gabriel would have said, "No" to only getting all of the miraculous. Felix just offers up the ring without even waiting for Gabriel to ask for it. A master negotiator this boy is not.

To add even more insult to injury, season five gives Felix a subplot about informing freaking Kagami and faking her amok. A girl he literally just met gets the treatment that Felix arguably owes to Adrien after all the shit Felix has put him through. You can't even argue that Felix did it because Tomoe isn't a threat on the scale of Gabriel. She's literally a co-conspirator in season five and Felix knows that because Kagami wouldn't be a sentimonster if Tomoe wasn't involved. And Tomoe has always been written as far more hands-on than Gabriel when it comes to controlling her kid, so this isn't even a case of Felix picking the easier target. He doesn't care about easy targets or subterfuge since he, you know, kidnaps Kagami in front of her mother?

But does anyone in the fandom seem to acknowledge that? No and I really don't get it. If hate must be assigned to a character and not the writers, then Felix deserves so much more hate than Marinette.

Kagami isn't innocent either. She knew the truth for about half of the season and yet she doesn't seem to care about telling Adrien. At the same time, she's fine outing Ladybug's secret identity and fine telling Marinette everything, none of which is done in the name of justice. Kagami does it all for purely selfish reasons. To me, this was as much of a character assassination as the whole Kagami believing Lila thing even though Kagami should know the truth about Lila after the Oni-chan incident (Lila faking the kissing picture and texting it to Adrien's contacts).

Then there's Nathalie. In my opinion, Nathalie's redemption is a joke and one of the key reasons for that is how little she cares about actually saving Adrien. At no point does she tell him the truth even though she knows she's dying. She could have very easily died much sooner than the final, leaving Adrien to obey Gabriel's commands, never knowing that he was being controlled. She doesn't even try to find someone else to guard Adrien's ring. She just maintains the status quo and pretends that everything is fine while occasionally asking Gabriel to pretty please change his mind and think of Adrien? Please?

Lady, you literally pinned this man to a table at the start of the season and you are his second in command. You know all his secrets. You have access to everything. You have the power to take him down. You have the power to save Adrien. You are an awful, awful mother figure who put Gabriel's wants above Adrien's needs right up to the very end. Did you even think you had a chance to fire that cross bow or was this just another, "I'm totally helping" feel good moment to assuage your guilty conscious before you died?

And Amelie. Oh, Amelie. If you hate what Colt did to your son, then why are you idly standing by while Gabriel does the same thing to your nephew? You know that Felix has the peacock, so he's safe from being snapped. Why aren't you encouraging him to help Adrien? Or, if you want to keep protecting Felix, then why don't YOU go to Ladybug and Chat Noir and tell them that Gabriel is behind everything? Surely you have to know that Felix isn't safe as long as Gabriel has all those miraculous, right? Gabriel knows that you and your son know everything. A terrorist knows that you're a chink in his armor. Why aren't you terrified by that?

In summary: yeah, Marinette should tell Adrien. It's totally fair to be mad at her. But dear God, she should never have been put in a position where she needed to tell him because one of these four should have done it long before the end of season five! The fact that Marinette was put in this position in the first place is terrible, nonsensical, illogical writing. So go ahead and be mad at Marinette, but you sure as shit better be just as mad at the people who knew everything and did nothing, leaving a teenage girl to face it all alone while bearing the safety of the world on her shoulders.

#ml writing salt #ml writing critical #ml season 5 salt #adrien deserves better #marinette deserves better #ml fandom critical #Wow I got pretty heated there didn't I?#You can probably tell that I feel pretty passionate about this one #Marinette has many faults but at least she's actively trying to do the right thing!#Unlike these other four #To be fair it's really a writing problem and I blame none of these characters except maybe Nathalie #I really hated Nathalie in season five she was such a self-righteous hypocrite

24 notes · View notes

theerurishipper · 7 months

Note

I hate how im not even angry at how Kwamis choice ruined the Ladynoir ending from Hack-San. That little conversation was already bothering me in s4 bc Hack-San was brutally open with how little Marinette ever conciders Cat Noir in anything.

Beats me why she thought he wouldn't have the logical reaction of fcking RED ALERT when he suddenly sees Ladybug's earrings in possession of somebody else, but hey, Marinette told Alya to play with her pet so that makes up for it I guess? And "pet" I find extremely fitting in that episode's context. She literally send in another Ladybug miraculous holder who's lead Cat also had to follow with no saying in the matter. Marinette literally send him a new owner since the Ladybug can do with the Cat whatever she wants as Marinette herself perfectly demonstrates in her leadership and Adrien therefore had to learn in season 4. I don't know what kind of dignity Marinette was supposedly treating Cat Noir with because it definitely wasn't on screen.

Marinette not thinking a single second about Cat was so bad in Hack-San that in the end she was genuinely surprised that she had to talk to him. There had been no intention on her part to have a conversation, she truly thought she had taken care of everything that matters. And from her perspective that meant telling Alya to laugh at his jokes being the only thing she conciders of any importance (something Marinette herself barely does). Honestly, there is not more personhood to him than "Pet".

So no, her words in the Ladynoir end scene have always meant as little as it turned out in Kwamis choice where she immediately left after he rejected her one time in "Elation" and the she didn't even care if it was at least Scarabella again who Cat Noir would met next to find out the awful news.

I always felt so unbelievably bad for Adrien in the Hack-San ending because the episode went out of its way to show that it isn't Marinette who gets the "Their crush barely realizes they exist" treatment, it has always been Cat Noir.

It had to be ALYA to make Marinette even talk to Cat when she comes back and then the only thing Marinette acknowledges as a mistake is that he must have been (negatively) surprised by having met a different Ladybug holder and that she's sorry, if she were to have found out that way that he had revealed himself to someone else she would have been upset too.

Which... man, Ladybug's dialog in that scene is so surface level. Comparing the emotional depth of how Cat talks about what all this meant to him, with how much care he talks and that it was so bad that the thought of her not being there anymore one day hurt the most and that he doesn't think he could bare that...

And Ladybug is besides him and says "she would have sulked too".

The difference between what she means to him and what little he seemingly means to her is so bad that when Marinette says "I will never abandon you, Kitty" and Adrien immediately forgives her for everything as per usual, I look at Marinette and honestly want to ask if she even knows what the words she just said mean. Because the entire rest of the episode characterized her in a way where her line feels almost shallow.

What is Ladybug apologizing for not having warned him and saying "I will never abandon you Kitty" even worth when she was shocked that she had to talk to him at all?

Already back in season 4 I looked at Adrien's heart eyes after that and felt so bad for him bc very clearly this IS a bond be should be able to live without because she's spearing him barely any thoughts of actual significance in season 4.

So yeah, I can't say I'm angry about season 5 then having made that reality and destroyed the Hack-San ending with Kwamis choice. Marinette in part 1 once again proofs why it's even IMPORTANT that Ladybug isn't someone Cat should hold onto in his life and definitely needs to be able to bare possibly not seeing again. He rejected her ONE TIME and next morning she already tells Tikki to give her earrings to literally ANYONE before Plagg goes about his plan.

Already at that point the line "I will never abandon you Kitty" became worthless and she also would have caused yet ANOTHER Ladybug miraculous holder to met Cat Noir instead of Scarabella, when this time around the new Ladybug would have no information or connection to Marinette and was meant to stay for good.

I almost feel bad for saying it but also honestly not, Kwamis choice really reinforced how little Marinette actually learned in season 4. What little Ladybug "learned" in Hack-San was ripped to shreds in the same intensity as it already felt shallow in s4.

It's only thanks to Tikki that the same "new Ladybug" fiasko wouldnt have repeated itself for Cat just this time he would have been faced with every fear he had coming true, right after Elation where Cat admits that he isn't in love with her anymore and asks if she's okay with him only loving her as a friend.

She said yes. And then she left.

As much as I want to be harsh on Adrien's side of Kwamis choice too, I cannot hold it against him that he left to just finally be able to find happiness (and that being Plagg's motivation too for starting all this), especially not when him having stayed would have only resulted in him having to go through Hack-San 2.0 only in WORSE because once again Marinette barely spared Cat any thoughts besides this time him not wanting to date her anymore making her sad.

Hack-san is one of those other episodes in Season 4 in which I was rather defensive of Marinette in the beginning. Like yeah, she is in the wrong and she should apologize, but I understand that it's an honest mistake, you know? She isn't the best at considering how others might feel about situations, and it's understandable that it didn't cross her mind to talk to Chat Noir. She did do it after Alya mentioned it and she took responsibility for her screw-up, and I was fine with it. That scene from Hack-san on its own is still one of my personal favorite Ladynoir scenes.

But that's just it. The scene itself when seen individually is so soft and sweet, but putting it into the context of the whole season, it's not a good look. Marinette says she'll never abandon Chat Noir, and spends the rest of the season pretty much replacing him with Rena Furtive and overall just pushing him away. It just makes her come off as hypocritical and dishonest. She continues to never consider him and his feelings and things just continue to get worse. The way the Ladynoir conflict was handled retroactively makes the scene in Hack-san worse.

And honestly, I don't feel like defending Marinette for what she did anymore, because she didn't really fix her mistake. She just doubled down and continued to do the same thing, and her assurances that she never really backed up really seem shallow in hindsight. She never learns anything, he takes all the blame for it in the end, and they just carry on without her having to fix her mistake. It's just so bad.

Thank you for your ask!

#MLB #Miraculous Ladybug #Adrien Agreste #Marinette Dupain Cheng #Ladybug #Chat Noir #ML Salt #ML Writing Salt #ML Writers Salt #Marinette Salt #Ladybug Salt #Meta #My meta #Asks #Ladynoir conflict

59 notes · View notes

immaturityofthomasastruc · 11 months

Text

IOTA Reviews: Perfection

This is another Lila episode, so get ready for dumb writing and lies only an infant would find convincing.

Let's get into the twelfth episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Perfection

We start off with a sort of funny scene of Ladybug and Cat Noir doing heroic things while casually discussing the new relationships they're both in, unaware that they're talking about each other. It's less the irony that I like, but just the visuals showing how they're so experienced as superheroes at this point, they can casually chat while saving people.

Of course, even though the last scene confirmed that Marinette and Adrien are officially dating after four and a half seasons, the main conflict for the civilian plotline is that Marinette somehow isn't able to simply tell Adrien that she loves him. So basically, even though they're now in a relationship, the show is still going to rely on Marinette stuttering around Adrien like an idiot. Oh, thank God! I thought the writers were actually going to have Marinette and Adrien talk with each other like humans beings for a second there.

We then get a montage of Marinette struggling to get closer to Adrien, stumbling around and breaking stuff as if she was a character in an infomercial, culminating in a scene where Marinette attempts to confess to a picture of a cow, only to say “I love moo” instead. Get used to her saying this, because it's going to be a running gag.

During the aforementioned montage, we get a decent moment where Lila helps Chloe realize she needs to be more discreet when it comes to screwing with Marinette instead of her usual blunt attitude, which does a good job showing the one thing that sets Chloe and Lila apart: Their approaches to dealing with Marinette. It's not much, but it's something.

Meanwhile, the writers remembered Adrien is a musician, as he wrote a song for Marinette. A bunch of their friends come over to the Liberty, including Kagami.

Adrien: It's great to see you here, Kagami. You get to hear the song I wrote for Marinette.

Kagami: You made your feelings clear and you're dealing with them. That's good. I'm very proud of you.

Man, even the characters are glad the Love Square is finally going somewhere.

After another scene where Marinette once again tries to confess to the picture of a cow (the writers are really running with this gag, aren't they?), Adrien starts to perform the song he wrote for Marinette. Fun Fact: Adrien was originally going to sing a cover of that one song from Miami Connection, but Luka helped convince him that it would be better if he used his own song instead.

As for the song itself? Well, the music itself is nice, but the lyrics? They're decent, showing how Adrien doesn't want anything complex from his relationship with Marinette, but I'm just going to say it: I don't like the way Bryce Papenbrook sings. Like, I don't know how to describe it. It's not awful, but I just don't like the way he delivers the lyrics. He just sounds so monotone when he sings, which makes it hard to take this grand romantic gesture seriously.

Marinette once again struggles to tell Adrien she loves him, so we get even more of Marinette blaming other things for her hesitance, but not before we get more jokes about the cow picture.

Marinette: I'm just grabbing the cow to tell Adrien that I love him because I have the "I love" but not the “moo”. I know it's ridiculous. I'm ridiculous.

You know, at least C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa, a show full of cow puns, actually did more with the jokes instead of just saying the words “cow” and “moo”.

Kagami tries to talk to Marinette, only for her to essentially be ignored. After Marinette transforms into Ladybug as an excuse to get out of there, Kagami then decides to call Lila about Marinette failing some kind of “friendship test”.

Kagami: You were right, Lila. I checked every box on your friendship test. Marinette doesn't consider me her best friend. I'm not even sure she ever considered me a friend.

Lila: Oh, no, Kagami... I'm so sorry she didn't see all the effort you've been making to get closer to her. Someone as amazing as you deserves a more considerate friend and... I'd be honored to be that friend.

youtube

I know I used this clip last time, but this is essentially the same problem I had there. Lila only had a single line in this episode before this scene, and it was her talking to Chloe, and I don't think Lila and Kagami have even shared a scene together before this episode, much less exchange numbers. Yeah, Kagami had been checking off things on a sheet of paper earlier in the episode, but we never got any explanation as to where and when Lila even gave her the friendship test. While we know that Lila's test was obviously fake, it seems out of character for Kagami to be this gullible, given that she was able to easily see through Adrien's lies last season (Lies).

Kagami then decides to just give up on having friends entirely, deleting all of her contacts except her mother's. I'm not sure if it was an animation error, or if the writers forgot, but for some reason, Adrien wasn't listed in there. We then cut to Lila, cutting Marinette's face out of some random pictures she got.

The scene's clearly supposed to be menacing, but I'd be more invested if I actually knew why Lila was so obsessed with Marinette outside of Marinette telling her to stop being a liar.

Kagami goes somewhere so she can be alone where she cries, where Monarch senses this and akumatizes her into Ryukomori through her ring.

Ryukomori's design is simple, but I think the concept behind it and use of Miraculous power makes it work. Monarch gives her the power to make it hard for her to see or hear anyone (insert your own Helen Keller joke here), and thanks to the Dragon Miraculous's Wind/Lightning/Water Dragon, Ryukomori is now a giant cloud person who can shoot lightning. Yeah, you have to wonder why Monarch gave her powers that would make it harder to see people, much less get Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous, but this is the kind of stuff I wanted to see from the Miraculous powers used this season: Past heroes getting akumatized and having perverted versions of the powers they're familiar with.

Adrien sees this and transforms into Cat Noir, meeting up with Ladybug and showing her the friendship test he found earlier. Ladybug and Cat Noir try to talk with Ryukomori, but in her current state, it's hard to talk to her, so they'll need to find a different way to communicate. Ladybug and Cat Noir try arranging some cars into a kanji sign.

Hey, this is a French show! I'm supposed to be seeing french words I don't understand, not Japanese words I don't understand.

Ryukomori ignores the kanji, so now, the two have to come up with another plan while Monarch goads her into trying to kill them so she can finally be alone, whipping up a storm in anger.

Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm, a box of ironing beads, and gets an idea. Cat Noir goes to Socqueline's art shop (because I guess the animators really want to get their money's worth out of this character model and set) for supplies while Ladybug assembles a bunch of her friends and shows her a picture she made using the beads, wanting to make a bigger one for Ryukomori to see by holding up these panels to reveal it.

As simplistic as it is, it's a pretty cute visual, and it does the trick, causing Ryukomori to reject the Akuma. While I guess the Akuma was already de-evilized by Kagami, Ladybug hands her a Magical Charm as the students cheer for her.

Marinette apologizes to Kagami about how insensitive she was, but Kagami explains that she feels pressured to be perfect around others, which is meant to parallel Marinette's anxiety around Adrien. The two make up, and Marinette calls Kagami her best friend alongside Alya. Of course, Marinette somehow never asked about the friendship test, because that would actually clear everything up, and then we wouldn't have Kagami and Lila becoming friends again. Marinette and Alya talk about what exactly is keeping her from getting closer to Adrien, something that they'll figure out together. And so the episode ends with Tomoe storming into Gabriel's office that she endangered her daughter's life by akumatizing her... ignoring the last four times she's been akumatized (Riposte, Heroes' Day, Oni-Chan, Lies). In fact, if she's working with Gabriel, shouldn't she know Kagami was also Ryuko, and—okay, forget it, episode's over.

This episode was very hit or miss. The scenes with Ryukomori were well done. I like the way they called back to earlier episodes and how emotional the memories made Ryukomori, and the overall message of friendship was handled pretty well. But while I really like the way Ryukomori was handled, the road there was a pretty bumpy one. The subplot with Marinette wasn't funny, Adrien's song was really forgettable, and the writers just expect us to assume Kagami would fall for Lila's lies when earlier episodes have shown how perceptive she is. I get that the episode's probably setting up Kagami learning the truth in a later episode, it seems very out of character for her.

Overall, this episode just had a great Akuma fight, and a mediocre first half. Nothing too special, but it's still better than “Illusion” or “Determination”.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... KAGAMI

While Marinette came close thanks for her inability to say three basic words, Kagami ended up taking the award home. Not only did she fall for Lila's lies without even questioning her, she assumed that Marinette didn't care for her in the slightest, and after that, decided she had no other friends, not even Adrien, and after everything that happened, she still chose to believe Lila even though her test ended up being false when earlier episodes showed her being able to see through lies.

91 notes · View notes

bbutterflies · 4 months

Text

major thank you to everyone who’s been so excited for my (second) fake dating adrino fic!! chapter 1 is up now on ao3 go read it it's so fun!

Everything I’ve wanted

Summary:

Nino really didn't mean to get himself tangled up in the life of someone like Adrien Agreste. But it was kind of hard to say no to dating him, even if it was all fake, when he learned that Adrien was more than just a hot model. He was funny and kind and patient and a great listener – but definitely nothing more than a fake boyfriend.

Excerpt below the cut!

Nino was kind of regretting coming to this bar. It had just opened and it had seemed cool at first, but the music sucked and he was bored. He’d only had one drink and was already debating just calling it a night as he waited at the bar for another drink. This bar was weird, anyway. Some kind of rich, exclusive-type deal, he was pretty sure? He’d been excited at the idea of going out and trying something new. He usually did with Alya and Marinette, but they’d both moved to New York for work months ago, and as happy as he was for them, he was lonely without them. He’d made the impulse decision on his night off to come here.

He wished he hadn’t now, after waiting outside of this bar for an hour and paying an insane cover to get in and now being bored and hating the music. He’d finish this drink he was waiting for, he decided, and then probably just head home.

The last thing he expected was for someone – a blond, green-eyed, drop-dead gorgeous someone – to come up to him. “I need a huge favor.”

Nino stared back at him. “Who are you?”

The man grinned, eyes shining. “Someone who’s about to be incredibly grateful for your help. Do you see that girl behind me who’s, like, definitely staring at me right now?”

Nino looked over his shoulder, and there definitely was a girl watching them. “Yeah?”

“I’m trying to be nice, but I’m not into her, and she won’t leave me alone. I may have told her you were my boyfriend. And she didn’t believe me.”

Nino snorted. The entire idea that this hot stranger was his boyfriend was laughable – Nino had barely even started coming out as bi, let alone flirting with boys enough to get a boyfriend. And this guy was definitely out of his league. “Well, because you’re a liar.”

“I happen to be a very famous liar and I promise I’ll make it worth your time if you play along.” He clasped his hands in front of his chest. “Please?”

Nino leaned on the bar. “Yeah? What do I get out of it?”

The man shrugged. “A kiss, maybe. If you want it.”

“Tempting,” Nino said, and he was only half joking. This guy was cute. The bartender was back with his drink, and, well, he had an idea. “You buy the rest of my drinks tonight.”

“Done.”

“Well then, babe,” Nino said, holding out the glass. “Here you go.”

“For me? You shouldn’t have.” He glanced at it. “Like, really, you shouldn’t have. What is that?”

“Um. Alcohol?”

He stuck out his tongue. “I mean, I’ll obviously cover your tab, but that looks disgusting.”

“You don’t even know what it is.��

“Yeah, I’m getting something else.”

Nino watched him flag down the bartender and order himself a drink (some stupid seltzer that totally made sense for him to drink). “Do I at least get to know my boyfriend’s name?” he asked when the man turned back to him, drink in hand.

“Adrien.”

“That’s a lot of syllables.”

“Excuse me? It’s not that long.”

Nino shrugged. “You need a good nickname. I’ll come up with something.”

“Mm-hm. Do I get to know your name?”

“You should’ve asked before you asked me out. Honestly, I’m not convinced this isn’t some super convoluted pick up line.”

“While I would absolutely use a pick up line as complicated as this, it’s unfortunately real. That girl seriously won’t leave me alone.” Adrien stole a glance over his shoulder and turned around quickly when he realized she was still staring. “Like, really? How has she not figured out I’m not interested?”

“You don’t like girls?”

“I just don’t like her, really. And she’s just so drunk. It felt weird.”

“Well, I appreciate you not flirting with girls at bars,” Nino joked.

Adrien blinked back at him. “What?”

“Because we’re dating?” Nino explained, giving Adrien a playful shove. “C’mon, Dri, you gotta keep up.”

#everything I’ve wanted #it’s gonna be SO fun and silly guys I promise you’re gonna like it!#also very gay I’m kinda going overboard this time it’s simply what the fic is asking for I’m just following the whims of the google doc #miraculous ladybug #adrino #adrien agreste #nino lahiffe #my writing #my art

29 notes · View notes

tosteur-gluteal · 3 months

Text

OMORI MLB AU MASTERPOST (might change)

Hi! I'm @tosteur-gluteal and this is a masterpost for my au, the OMORI MLB AU! You can check out the content for that au in the #omori mlb au tag!!

What is the OMORI MLB AU?

It is an alternative universe I've created as a joke, but it slowly turned into a legitimate AU of mine where Sunny and Basil from the video game OMORI are superheroes, specifically Ladybug and Chat Noir from the TV show Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir.

What is the setting?

It takes place in Paris, at the same time as the Miraculous Origin episode. But instead of Marinette and Adrien, the heroes are Sunny and Basil. Master Fu was in a hurry, you see... He had to choose a new guardian for the Miracle Box, and happened to stumble across a male nurse. Sunny and Basil go to a private school, as well as the Faraway kids, except here they're french and Parisian. It would be a school that's similar to the one in the Miraculous movie; very fancy.

Sunny's name isn't "Sunny"?

No, his full name is Kiyomu Fua Suzuki! He is French and Chinese (mom's side) and Japanese (dad's side). Very unusual combo. Sunny is a nickname.

What are the names of the heroes?

Ladybug for Sunny (He just chose the name of the animal his miraculous is tied to) and Catmint for Basil (He wanted to be called Stranger but the public just unanimously chose to call him Catmint so it stuck)

There are no character sheets yet, but I can show you some concepts that are still relevant today: Ladybug's final design

Sunny/Ladybug

Basil/Catmint's personality

Ladybug looking at the camera menacingly

Is Gabriel Agreste the villain?

No! In this cannon, he grieved like a normal person would. Also he won't appear in that au sorry lol

Who is the main villain?

The main villain... Is Sunny's dad! Ukon Suzuki, an overworked game designer. Shocking, amarite?

Here are some drawings of him:

He wants to order

Dilfguy

Suzuki Family

Papillon's old design

Is Mari alive?

Yes! She is!

What about Aubrey? And Kel? And Hero? AND OMORI????

Aubrey and Kel go to the same school as Sunny and Basil. Kel becomes friends with Sunny very quickly (he's kind of the Alya of this au) and Aubrey bullies Basil... Thankfully, it becomes more bearable for Basil as soon as he becomes friends with Sunny. ..And yes they'll get miraculouses Omori is a sentibeing! It was decided in this post that Omori's amok should be a rubber bracelet.

What is Catmint|Basil and Ladybug|Sunny's dynamic?

Sunny and Basil are best friends, but Basil has a crush on Sunny. Ladybug and Catmint are colleagues, but Ladybug has a crush on Catmint. By extension, Catmint has a crush on Sunny and vice-versa (see that funny date drawing)

At least, that's the status quo at the beginning of the story!

Drawings of them interacting:

Them cuddling

Aftermath of the heroes' first appearance

Unfinished comic

(Old drawing) Charm

Just them ;3

What is your gendah

Sunny the unforgiving

PPGZ reference (i'll add more once i get some time ifhfeioehm)

Will there be a fanfiction?

Yes!! It's in the making! It's gonna take some time though, since I have another AU called OMOFALLS that takes a lot of work too.

About the Playlist?

There is a playlist for the MLB, but don't expect it to make much sense yet TwT. These are the songs that I listen to when working on my au. BUT! I think the songs that represent it the most are this cover and this remix of Tokio Funka by Takamatt; as well as HERO by Ayase/YOASOBI.

#omori #omori au #toaster talks #omori mlb au #mlb au #omori sunnflower #sunnflower #omori fic #fic #masterpost #tosteur-gluteal

31 notes · View notes

adriensaltprompts · 2 years

Text

Submitted prompt: Adrien Needs Therapy

(Some parts edited a bit for clarity, and more firmly criticizing the misogyny. The end line edited to not make it seem like other characters calling Adrien out is bad, since no one is obligated to redeem a character like Adrien.)

Gabriel is worried that Adrien's sneaking out and continual attempts to shake his control are the beginning of a rebellious phase, which would be disastrous for Adrien's image and marketability and could impact the company's bottom line.

As a result, he sends Adrien to therapy, in an attempt to regain control over his wayward son.

At first, Adrien is less than thrilled, but his therapist, when he looks her up, looks a lot like Ladybug, with eyes like his mother, and because those are the two people he fixates on, he finds himself going along with his father's plan out of a need to have glimpses of both in his life.

It's not healthy, but it's enough to keep him in the room, which is a start.

His therapist, a young recent graduate named Euphrasie, is good at handling Adrien.

She redirects him when he over-focuses on Ladybug and tries to get him to focus on who he is and who he wants to be - after all, he didn't have something he wanted to be as a little kid canonically, and he grew up with only Chloe (and by extension, Sabrina) for friends. He needs to learn to stop fixating on Ladybug and the idea that loving her will solve all his problems, and focus on caring about himself and learning to solve his problems by himself, whenever he can.

And if anybody else were telling him that, he'd say no, but Euphrasie seems to him like the mom he wished he had. He may only do the bare minimum, but he at least will, for her, try.

Over time he builds up a fondness for her.

Because he doesn't try very hard at protecting his secret identity, she puts together that he's Chat Noir, and she worries about him getting hurt or captured by Hawkmoth.

What Adrien doesn't realize is that, by venting to her and taking her advice to try to broaden his interests, listening to new music, making his own fashion choices no matter what his father says, and spending time watching new media with his friends, he's actually genuinely begun to love her. She's almost like a mom to him.

So when one day she calls him out, very bluntly, for his sexual harassment of Ladybug, it hurts. It feels like a knife twisting into his heart. It feels like betrayal. It hurts to be told by someone he loves and trusts that he's doing things that are bad, that disappoint her. He always thought it was a joke, that parents being disappointed was worse than them being mad, but Euphrasie is disappointed in him, and it's a million times worse than if she'd been mad at him. She believes she can do better, she knows he can improve, and she asks him why he hasn't.

She gets him to admit, both to her and to himself, that he knew his behavior was wrong, and he was doing it because he thought it was fun. Admitting this out loud to her is the hardest thing Adrien's ever done in his life, especially because her disappointment is as clear as day.

She coaches him on how to apologize to Ladybug, and how to process his emotions in a way that's not only good for him, but everyone around him, too. He sexually harassed Ladybug for fun because it gave him control over something in his life, when he had little control over anything else. He did to her what his father did to him so that he would be able to laugh and have fun at her expense.

Knowing why he'd done it didn't make it any better or less terrible, didn't excuse him in nay way, but it did give him a road map on how to do better and become a better person. If he felt like he didn't have any control, if he was angry at his helplessness, then he should talk to someone, even just a friend or a diary or journal, not let his anger convince him to make other people feel just as bad as he did.

Where this goes is up to the writer. Just give me Adrien being called out and forced to actually reckon with his mistakes and get his life together.

#submission #ml writing prompts #Miraculous Ladybug #Adrien salt #Adrien salt prompts #Adrien sugar #Adrien sugar prompts #Adrien pepper #Adrien pepper prompts #Adrien redemption #Adrien redemption prompts #ML OC #Show!Miraculous #Show!Marinette #Show!Adrien

99 notes · View notes

applejuicefruit · 1 year

Note

Hello ! Because you love Adrien as much as me, can you make one with him where he’s jealous of your man best friend ? Thank you so so much :)

I love Adrien so much 😭

Also I changed it a bit I hope you don’t mind😭❤️

Thank you for requesting this ❤️ I hope you like it ⭐️

Let’s pretend Juve didn’t just lost 5-1 to Napoli okay 🥲

Are you jealous?

Adrien wasn’t the jealous type. He was calm, always, in every situation he never lose control. It happened a few times that some men made some comments but Adrien always let it slide because he was sure you wouldn’t lose your time with other men.

You, on the other hand, were very jealous. This was your first ever real relationship and you still had no idea how everything worked so yes, you were a jealous type. Especially now that your boyfriend is famous. Girls messaged him every single day on instagram, models tried to flirt with him and fans threw themselves at his feet. You were happy for him - of course - but sometimes you couldn’t stop thinking about what would happen if one of the girls won over you. You were a very insecure person and even if Adrien tried to reassure you in so many ways you still let your thoughts have the best of you.

Tonight you were supposed to go to this club with some of his teammates to celebrate juventus winner last night and honestly you wished you could stay home.

But instead you were getting ready. You decided to wear a black short dress. Not too short of course, you still haven’t that much confidence and it wasn’t too revealing either but it fit you so good you were kinda proud of you. You opted for black heels and a very soft make up. It would be all dark so no one would see your face - you thought.

When you left Adrien wouldn’t leave your hand, not even when he was driving and you couldn’t ask for more. You were both very affectionate. He didn’t mind kissing you or hugging you in public and you loved it.

When you arrived at the club you got welcomed by loud music, people jumping and dancing and an awful smell of alcohol, all things that made you feel uneasy and uncomfortable.

You went straight to your group friends when you saw them and started talking with each other. At least you weren’t in a crowded part of the club.

“Mon amour do you want to dance?” Adrien asked you and you had no idea of what to answer. You weren’t a club fan. You hated loud music - only concerts were allowed - you hated people dancing on each other and jumping and this question made you speechless

“Mon amour?” he asked you again

“It’s fine…you go and have fun. I’ll get something to drink first…” you said

“But you don’t drink…” - fuck he knows you very good

“I think I’ll need it tonight” you smiled at him

“You don’t mind if me and the guys dance a bit?”

“Absolutely no! Go and have fun!” you said kissing him and he left for the dance floor.

In that moment you got up and went straight to the bar, sitting on a bar stool waiting for your order. You were kinda lucky that this part of the club wasn’t full of people so you could actually hear people talking.

The barman handed you your drink and you began to drink not before taking a deep breath.

“Not a fan ah?” a man asked you smiling sitting next to you

“Nope” you continued drinking your martini

“Me neither…but friends dragged me here”

“Same…” you said finishing your drink in two shorts

“Get me the same one she had! And…for her another one” the man next to you said to the barista “I’m Mark by the way” he introduced himself and you shook his hands

“Y/n”

“So…y/n what are you doing here all alone? Drinking your problems away?” he joked a bit and honestly you laughed, he was funny and he had a positive energy

“Wishing to be home instead…so I drink”

“I feel you…I don’t know maybe it’s the loud music or the fact that people get so wasted with drinks and dances but I do really hate clubs…” he said trying to break the tension a bit

“Yes I know!” you said while the barista handed you both your drinks “I’m not even an alcohol drinker but I think desperation made me do it” you said holding up your drink and he laughed

“I wish I was at home watching some movies…”

“Harry Potter on Channel 5…that is what I was supposed to do instead of being here” you said drinking

“Or Deadpool on Channel 9” he said smirking and you couldn’t help but laugh

“Yes well…next friday I’m definitely staying at home”

“Watching Harry Potter?” he joked and you laughed so hard you were sure everyone in the club heard you.

In fact, Adrien heard you.

His eyes haven’t left you since the moment you started talking with that man.

He tried to be calm, thinking maybe you were only friends but he had no idea of who that man was and he knew that not even your friends could make you laugh so much.

He was jealous.

He was so jealous he wanted to take you away from the club and go home, only for him to be with.

But he also knew how much this kind of places made you uncomfortable so he was relieved to see you laughing a bit. But he couldn’t think straight because it was a man who was making you laugh.

He decided to go at the bar.

But stopped the moment he saw the man touching your arm. He waited for you to do something but you didn’t even moved.

“C’mon do something…” Adrien whispered to himself but truth was you were too drunk you didn’t even know he was touching you.

Instead you kept laughing and talking and Adrien was fuming.

“Hey” he said approaching you

“Adriiii!” you said grabbing his hand “have you met Mark? Mark this is Adrien, Adrien this is Mark” you introduced them, forgetting a little detail - he was your boyfriend

“A friend?” Mark asked

“Her boyfriend” Adrien stated with a strong voice

“Yes he’s pretty handsome don’t you think?” you asked Mark and in that moment Adrien realised you were too drunk to even comprehend what was going on

“Ohh y/n you didn’t told me you had a boyfriend” Mark smirked at you putting his hand on your thighs, right in front of Adrien’s look

“Yes she has a boyfriend and I wouldn’t touch her if I were you” Adri stated with a strong voice and a hard look, if he was jealous first, he was pissed now

“She doesn’t mind, right baby?” Mark said touching your thighs going up and up

“What?” you asked getting out of your trance. Yes you were too drunk even if you only had two drinks, but everyone knew you couldn’t handle alcohol.

“Get your fucking hands off of her now before I make you” Adrien shouted and a few people turned around. Adrien’s friend Dusan came to see what was going on and calm the situation down in case anything happened.

“Okay I won’t touch her, but man you need to take more care of her, poor baby was left alone all night don’t be surprised if she looks out for other man” Mark said and even if you were kinda drunk understood what he said

“You’re the one who approached me first jerk!” you shouted drunkly and Adrien couldn’t help but laugh a bit

“Because you looked like you needed a good fuck baby” Mark said to you and you felt sick, you thought he was actually a nice person and not dickhead

“Okay that’s enough. Don’t touch her, don’t talk to her, if I ever see you again next to her it won’t end up good for you!” Adrien shouted while you stood up and tried to get him out, with the help of Dusan.

You got him out of the club and he tried to calm down but he was so pissed at what that man did and said.

“Let’s go home y/n” Adrien said reaching for his car, you thanking Dusan for his help and following behind

“Adri…” you called him

“That man got you drunk! What a dick!”

“Adrien calm down please”

“I can’t! The way you were laughing at his jokes…I can’t get the imagine out of my head! The way he touched you!”

“Adri I’m sorry-wait! Are you jealous?” you asked him smirking

“Of course I am! That man couldn’t keep his hands off of you!”

“Yes I knew it!” you said laughing

“What?”

“That under that calm presence of yours you needed to be a little bit jealous”

“A little bit? Y/n my love that if homicide would be legal that man wouldn’t have lived another day” he said seriously but you couldn’t contain your laugh

“I love you Adri”

“Moi aussi mon amour” he said taking your hand and kissing it.

You fell asleep in the car while he was driving back home.

You were too tired you didn’t even heard him picking you up and letting you in the house. He gently removed all of your clothes and dressed you in one of his hoodies, he proceeded to remove all of your make up and then he put you in bed.

“Je t’aime mon amour” he said to you while he wrapped his arms around your body and put you closer. That’s how he fell asleep, with you in his embrace and his head on top of yours.

#adrien rabiot one shot #adrien rabiot imagines #adrienrabiot #adrien rabiot angst #adrien rabiot x reader #adrien x reader #adrienrabiotimagine #adrien rabiot fluff #psg #paris saint germain #equipe de france #juve x reader #juve #juventus #football fan #football imagine

50 notes · View notes

gale-gentlepenguin · 1 year

Text

Gale Reviews: ML Season 5 episode 13 Migration

Spoilers Below

-Starting out on the boat

-Marinette wants to talk to Luka. I can already hear the screeching from here

-Luka's got jokes

-Luka got a degree in psychology during the last few weeks cause he playing therapist

-Points to Marinette for being self aware.

-And there is the guitar strumming.

-Luka being like "Nah bitch, you gave me material to work with.”

- you know I wonder why I’m so hard on Luka sometimes…

-Oh right! I remember he knows their identities and blatantly lied about it.

-at the very least, at least Luka sees what we the audience see.

-Adrien and Marinette are adorable

-Adrien’s therapy session. (Seriously someone get this boy legit therapy. He has gone through so much.)

-someone PLEASE tell them to remove their shoes on the bed. It’s gross.

-Adrien’s main worry isn’t finding out the truth but worried it would make Marinette uncomfortable or hurt to do so. Damn that’s actually a fascinating contrast between their relationship with Marinette. Luka wanted the truth not caring what it was, while Adrien wants the truth but not the expense of Marinette. Fascinating

-Luka really said “Fuck the true selves narrative”

-JAGGED TOO! Seriously? Is he everyone’s therapist?! No wonder there are akuma everywhere! This Paris is actually a dystopia

-So Jagged is actually trying to be a better dad here, but knows he can’t stay cause him and anarke aren’t getting back together. Points for trying.

-Jagged and penny is sailing!

-Penny sounding like the only one with actual s*** to deal with but…

- PENNY TOO! Damn he should start charging. He’d make a boat load of cash (Hehehe)

-penny out here telling us she is in love with Jagged even though he is a disaster. Pfff problematic faves

-Can’t believe Luka figured out the 3 questions needed to be a successful therapist.

-not gonna lie. I was hoping Bob was next.

-Anarke YEETED HIM. I think she gave him a life preserver. That’s funny

-Luka really being ladynoir shipping trash

-Kitty section is mid. But Bob gonna be plottin

-Anarke being the only adult here. She is right.

-IT WAS A RUBBER DUCKY! That’s funny!

-okay, Luka being like “Mom…” and anarke saying she will stop throwing people overboard. HOW OFTEN DOES SHE DO THAT?!

-Bob roth pulling the “I was lying but now I’m honest” routine

-Luka…. You of all people shouldn’t trust him after silencer.

-They seriously signed it…

-These expressions will haunt my nightmares

-They really should have read the contracts. Like seriously. Anarke, YOU OF ALL PEOPLE could have read it.

-Bob roth came prepared to be yeeted that time. I gotta respect the play.

-Damn, that contract is Disney evil.

-Now there’s Luka looking visibly distraught. Now this is what I wanted from silencer

-Monarch out here loving the pain and suffering

-Silencer 2.0 let’s go!

-So Monarch Can’t read minds, but he can read emotions, picking up that Luka was trying to hide the fact he knew who ladybug and chat noir are! Oh damn!

-He smashed the guitar! Well karma’s a bitch Luka. You lost a guitar over it (but probably not cause miracle cure)

-How did Bob create duplicates so quickly?!

-Monarch really said he be settling today.

-I like the 70’s skeevy record producer look with gold. It works for Bobs villain form

-Rip guitar. I guess that’s 1 consequence of his actions.

-OH DAMN! Julrose confirmed!?

-oh… she loves her friends. Okay that’s just lesBaiting.

-HE YEETED HER INTO SPACE!

-Luka getting everyone to hide but having Marinette hide somewhere else. Marinette seemed sus of it but didn’t complain.

-Luka was Hinting hard there.

-Juleka!

-Screw you bob, Juleka’s music was low key heat.

-THE Rubber DUCKY! Also Bob is right. That Ducky mix tape slapped

-He put it with his golden records. Amazing

-Mood chat noir

-Pigeon record was not a hit

-Luka revealed that He knows ladybug’s Marinette to ladybug.

-Marinette didn’t get it right away.

-THERE IT IS

-and she blames herself.

-Oh look at that he doesn’t get in trouble for when he blatantly lied to her about seeing the identities last season. WHAT A FUCKING SHOCK! (Sarcasm)

-so he got caught to distract him. So in other words they gambled that he wouldn’t blab in his heart’s song immediately.

-Bob Really thought ladybug and chat noir would protect him?! That’s amusing

- And here we have Luka being ‘Noble’ by saying he has to leave. (At least Adrien found out he knew)

- Jagged quitting the Rockstar life to be with his son. Juleka is in charge of kitty section.

-Price of blatantly lying about knowing ladybug’s identities. ( One Guitar, and a world trip)

____________________________________________

4/10

If I ignored my bias probably 6/10.

I’m still mad Luka basically got off scot free. I was waiting for at least SOMEONE to yell at him. But no. We got nobody mad at him. He gets a hero sacrifice. And while this was Luka’s best season, he still has s*** to own up to. Aside from that the episode was entertaining but also kind of mid. Also I’m salty about the Julrose fake out.

That being said.

Bye blue boy.

#miraculous ladybug #ml #ml migration #ml migration spoilers #ml spoilers #Luka couffaine

32 notes · View notes

flightfoot · 2 years

Note

Adrien only being annoyed and irritated for being accused of poisoning, getting the end of unprovoked violence and everything horrible Marinette do to him is very in character considering he's very patient but boy... I really hate it when male getting violence then it's violence but when female getting violence it means as a joke, provoked or not. When Marinette just judo flip him I was really hope he'd flip her back because you know, it's fine because it's self-defence.

Also what with people not liking what Marinette do in that AU and be called stupid or salter? Marinette Stan that I've seen do be like that always, their queen could do no wrong and I hate that mentality because what Marinette do is horrible, it wasn't even fair accusations. Just because her action is understandable doesn't make it justified and some people really need to accept that.

To be fair, Marinette at least does believe that Adrien poses a major threat. But yeah, I ain't especially fond of that double standard, and it just felt unnecessary to me for her to judo flip him like that, seemingly just to intimidate him and not because she believed he was an imminent physical threat, after he'd already poked holes in her theory by proving that the cake wasn't poisoned. I think that's probably why it's rankled people so much, given that ultimately the emotional pain is likely to be more harmful to Adrien than any physical pain he got from this.

As for calling people who aren't happy with what Marinette did during this part of BEAU stupid or just accusing them of hating Marinette in general... yeah I don't agree with that. Based on what she's perceived and the mental state she's in, it makes sense that she thinks Adrien is a threat, and that he poisoned the pastries. But with how far she went and how much it either visibly looked like it was hurting or upsetting Adrien, or like it logically would, and how much the theory was based on a very particular interpretation of the facts... I can see why Marinette's doing the things she is based off of what she thinks, but she's still wrong and causing a lot of harm in pursuit of a half-baked theory.

I don't want to go down any line of reasoning that's like, accusing Marinette of being a horrible person overall, or calling on horrible things to happen to her. She doesn't deserve that. She's making a terrible mistake, but I'm expecting she'll feel guilty as hell once she finally accepts that and try to make up for it. Also I just don't like punitive justice much overall.

But yeah I'm not fond of the whole "anything Marinette does, even if it really hurts other characters, is fine, they'll just laugh it off later" sentiment, or the idea that "Marinette is incapable of causing harm to others no matter what she actually does". Marinette can overall be caring and try to protect and help people, and still sometimes do things that really hurt others with dubious justification for it. Being upset about that isn't unreasonable, especially if the other character is greatly harmed.

#ask #ml fandom salt

31 notes · View notes

twin-books · 2 years

Note

Adrien!

This is an ask directly related to this and I'm finally here to answer it. Or at least part of it. Tagging @non-canon-central because they also asked for Adrien but I was unable to get to him at the time. For some reason Tumblr doesn't want me actually tagging them I guess, so hopefully this freaking works??? So let's make one thing pretty clear; I don't hate Adrien but I do hate his character. That sounds like an oxymoron, I am aware. The best way I can describe this is, it's like the opposite of liking a villain's character but fundamentally hating them as a person. Like I love the idea of Adrien. I think he has plenty of fun potential and it wouldn't take much to make him more intriguing but I just hate how he's written. I'm sure that comes as a shock to absolutely no one. I say this about almost every Miraculous character. I wanted to clear this up because a lot of people seem to believe that if you talk bad about a character, and it isn't some kind of joke, that you just hate that character entirely. This isn't the case with me. Now I mentioned a while back that the only way I believe I could ever hope to explain my frustration with Adrien's character is by comparing him to other similar characters or similar character arcs. My goal is to compare him to a few characters. I tried to keep it to characters within his age range but there are one or two on here that are adults (though I would be referencing a lot of their childhood for at least one). Since I will be comparing Adrien to these characters this means spoilers will be very hard to avoid so I'm just going to warn you now. If you don't want spoilers for the following I suggest looking into these things yourself; Sonic and the Black Knight, Sonic the Hedgehog Archie comics, Sonic Universe Archie comics, Sonic the Hedgehog IDW comics, Mr Love: Queen's Choice the Gavin and Kiro story arc, Koi to Producer: Evol X Love the Mr Love: Queen's Choice anime, Ben 10: Alien Force, Ben 10: Omniverse, and Miraculous Ladybug. I was initially going to include Raven Saga from Webtoon but decided against it since it's not nearly a big enough franchise as compared to the others and the author would most definitely not benefit from it. I highly recommend reading it and then you can guess what character in there I found similarities to Adrien in but was just actively done better. I will most likely be splitting this into parts just to make it an easier read. Part 1: Mr Love: Queen's Choice and/or Koi to Producer: Evol X Love - Kiro (Helios)

One of the reasons I believe Mr Love: Queen's Choice's characters are comparable examples to Adrien (despite all the characters presented are adults through most of the story) is because it is an otome game, which means its primary focus is romance much like Miraculous. But also, much like Miraculous, it involves high actions scenes and beings with superpowers. It balances these things quite well whereas Miraculous (in my opinion) does not. And unlike Miraculous, it presents itself as a romance first and foremost, making it clear where their primary focus is whereas Miraculous doesn't really do that. In fact, most of its marketing is pointing at girl power. At least MLQC knows what it's about. Since MLQC knows exactly what it's about it may not come as a shock at all to you that they know exactly what their characters are. And there are two characters in this game that share quite a few similarities to Adrien. However a main difference is that both characters have a clear direction their headed towards but Adrien doesn't.

So let's talk about Kiro (Helios). This is the character I know the least as compared to the others. Most of what I have learned about him I got from the anime which I have learned is not entirely accurate but I will be referencing most of that (sorry die-hard MLQC fans, I am a very slow reader) as well as some scenes from the game.

Who is Kiro, exactly? And who the heck is Helios? Let's define him. Kiro is a mega popular popstar (so popular that girls practically fall at his feet) with a love for junk food and sweets (despite his agent forbids him from eating them). He's musically gifted, being able to pick up and play any instrument after a very short period of trial and error. He is also known to moonlight as a movie actor and a model. He's got a child-like wonder to him and a huge appreciation for superheroes, specifically ones without powers (Batmen, for instance). He shows affection and comfort through cute gestures and physical touch. He's, in essence, a big teddy bear. He's such a teddy bear that the narrative often compares him to one. This perfect teddy bear like nature is easily comparable to Adrien's perfect sunshine character. They both are hugely popular and beloved by their fans. They both show incredible talent, able to take on many tasks given to them such as modeling, acting, and instrument playing with ease. They both show comfort and affection through cute gestures (though Adrien's can be more grandiose) and physical touch. Pretty similar, right? Here's the massive difference; Kiro has flaws. Kiro has secrets. There are things he actively keeps from the MC and behavior one wouldn't associate with his supposedly perfect teddy bear likeness. There's actually a narrative reason why Kiro is presented to be so perfect. There's a reason why it's shoved in your face. We're gonna get into huge spoiler territory here for Kiro. This is your only warning.

Kiro is secretly a vigilante code-named Key (a name passed down to him by his father figure that taught him everything he knows). Key is an expert hacker. Able to hack through almost anything. There's very few things he cannot bypass. He likes to think of himself as a hero and loves to play the hero role (much like how Adrien took to Chat Noir so comfortably). Kiro prefers to use his own wits and hacking skills rather than his evol. That's right, he has evol, which in MLQC is the equivalent to superpowers. His evol is absolute charm. This was actually not fully a secret to us, the reader, but it's a shock to MC. It's heavily implied that Kiro used this power almost unintentionally purely because he's selfish. He longs for people to love him and his power responds to his wants. It's implied he's not aware how much he may use it but it could only be at his concerts. In fact, Kiro may have only been made aware of it when evolvers control over their evol was lost due to tampering with, I believe, electro-magnetic waves. Where, at one of his concerts, his fans began to tear each other apart to prove they loved him more. This is such a shock to him he quits being a popstar immediately because he can't bare the idea he caused that, even if it wasn't his fault he lost control. Now here's the really annoying thing about Adrien; I could totally believe he secretly has absolute charm with the way people just fall in love with him and he's just totally unaware of it but the problem is it's also pretty clear Adrien doesn't even want the attention he gets. And despite how obvious he makes that people blatantly choose to ignore it. This includes Kagami, Chloe, Wayhem, and nearly the entire class! He's not trying to hide it guys! It's pretty obvious he's unhappy with it! What is the purpose of this? To show he's so unfairly treated? How none of this is his fault? He couldn't possibly be unintentionally feeding into some of this because he's perfect and that would be too interesting of an idea. /s Ah, yeah, but I guess it ain't totally obvious because he's totally cool with Ladybug and his best friends giving him that same attention (except in season 4 I guess). Double standards much? What the freak do you want, Adrien?

But let's get back to Kiro because we aren't near done yet. Now here's a fun thing, Kiro actually possesses another evol. This evol he tends to refuse to use unless he has to. It is revealed to us and to MC at the same time. It's important to note that neither of us were aware of it until he had absolutely no choice. I'm gonna try to explain this without giving away too many spoilers because this game is awesome; Kiro refuses to use this power probably because it goes against what being a hero means to him. I should also mention that over using evol can be harmful and even deadly to the evolver. This is also why Kiro probably only ever used absolute charm. Keeping this all in mind, Kiro only decides to use it when he and MC are being chased by the bad guys and there's no way to escape. He has to painfully make the choice to use it on her when they reach the door to the heart of the issue which buys her some time while he fends them off. He risks her hating him just to buy her time so she can destroy the machine and save everyone. He also risks dying due to the sudden amplification of evol power. This self-sacrificing may slightly remind you of Chat Noir but the main difference being... Kiro actually had a reason. There is only about 2 or 3 times Chat Noir's sacrifices had ever made sense in the narrative and were presented as possibly the only action to take in that moment. I cannot stress enough to you how horrifying it is that almost every time Chat Noir self-sacrifices there are clear other avenues they could take and yet he immediately just jumps to the extreme. It makes you think Adrien just wants to die but something as serious as that is never at all focused on beyond one small comment from Ladybug in Lies! For Kiro there was no other option. If they entered the room together they would almost certainly be caught and since in this world they use guns, MC or himself could be dead before he ever got the chance to use his powers. And because MC effectively believes him to be dead after this Kiro takes on a new identity. An identity that isn't the perfect cuddly teddy bear Kiro or the heroic Key but rather someone akin to an anti-hero. Kiro becomes Helios; a cold, methodical man not afraid to use guns and his own power against the enemy. Helios even tricks MC into believing that he has no idea who Kiro is. He actively tricks her just to preserve her good memories of Kiro because there's no way MC could like this cold man, there's no way she could like who he really is. And he does state this a few times, that Helios is the real him even though he seems to almost fear this side of himself. It is MC who had to help him learn to connect Kiro and Helios and to not separate himself. He is Kiro and Helios.

This could almost be compared to Adrien's relationship to Chat Noir. Expect, rather than fearing this other side, he actively chooses Chat Noir over Adrien in most instances. He actively believes Chat Noir to be his true self and does not respond well to being turned away as Chat. This could be interesting and a great way to cause, not only outside conflict, but inner conflict. But this is not even explored. One could argue Kuro Neko did it explore it. But it really didn't. Instead of focusing on who Chat Noir is it, instead, chose to focus on how much Chat Noir loves Ladybug and how she needs him there for... no reason? No, seriously. They give absolutely no good arguments as to why she shouldn't just keep Catwalker around. The one good argument they possibly had they didn't even use. And that was that he freaking distracts her. No, instead their argument here is that he's "too perfect", whatever that freaking means. Excuse me? I believe, since your whole city is at freaking risk, that's exactly the kind of individual you'd want for the job. Never mind you want Chat Noir back for your own personal reasons (whatever those are because they do a very poor job communicating it). Why the freak would anyone turn away someone that's "too perfect"? The only reason I can think of is if she's suspicious of him but she so obviously isn't. They don't even try to explain why Adrien should even keep Chat Noir around if he's apparently only argumentive, not taking anything seriously, and effectively just another member of the team based on the visuals alone. The only thing keeping Chat around is cataclysm. That is it. And that's such a weak argument to stand on when literally anyone else could wear that ring. But no, that can't happen because we have to keep the status quo, I guess. That Ladybug is awesome and Chat is there to just make us laugh and give her an inspiring speech every season finale.

You know what's great about Kiro and Helios? That the narrative doesn't demonize Helios like Kiro does. It goes out of its way to show you how Helios is just as important as Kiro!

I don't get why it's so hard to just show that Chat Noir is just as important to Ladybug as Adrien without having to reference cataclysm or that it's because he's Adrien. How about it's because he's Adrien and Chat Noir? Why are the writers so afraid to merge these two together as if they aren't the same person. Heck, you even have one episode where you do just that but it's a what if episode so it's therefore non-consequential! And I hated Ephemeral but at least it bothered to do that despite pretty much every other episode tackling a similar issue absolutely refusing to do so! But this also required Marinette finding out he was Adrien and then only coming to love Chat that way. Which isn't entirely horrible but it just feels kind of shallow. I would have much preferred she realized she liked Chat but didn't want to "betray" Adrien in her mind so she refused to acknowledge it and then this reveal allowed her to combine the two and except that she has the best of both worlds. In many ways the romance of MLQC lends itself well to the character of Kiro/Helios but the romance of Miraculous seems to fight against the character of Adrien Agreste/Chat Noir. Probably because Kiro and MC's relationship feels like she (and the writers) have fully accepted and loved who he is where Adrien and Marinette's relationship feels like her (and the writers) love only one side of him and the other part is kind of just a small bonus. Oh, but don't worry this works the exact opposite way. Where Kiro actively loves MC, all of her (even though she can be kind of stupid), Adrien over here seems to only freaking like Ladybug. Like, yeah, he's nice to Marinette and he blushes around her occasionally but oftentimes that just feels like he's only blushing because their in oddly intimate positions often for some unknown reason. And also because he likes her as a friend. In Chat Blanc it feels like as soon as he realizes Marinette is Ladybug he suddenly recognizes this out of no where crush (that was barely hinted at). With Kiro he fell in love with MC first, before he found out she was a badass and then he fell even harder. Which makes it all the more ironic that he's willing to except all of her, even her flaws, but he can't seem to do the same for himself. In fact, Kiro even fell in love with MC in a similar way Chat did for Ladybug. MC was his hero. Someone who saved him and others by constantly being around to cheer people up despite the very dark situations of their childhood (which I won't get into because again, I'm trying not to spoil too much here). But that went from just outright admiration to genuine love. Chat's crush feels like he's just been holding Ladybug up on a pedestal the whole time except for kind of near the end of season 4 which I'm not sure why it had to take him that long.

I am not asking for Adrien to be exactly like Kiro. I am asking for him to feel like a sturdy character like Kiro. I am just trying to show that despite the similarities Kiro's character was able to find success where Adrien's character seems to only find failure. Kiro is most definitely not a perfect character. No character is ever perfect. But that's why we love them, isn't it? Because they're imperfect? So why can't the ml writer's seem to pull Adrien out of that bubble? Just let him be selfish without somehow justifying it! Also, keep in mind that this is just my interpretation of Kiro based on my experience with the game and anime. Some of this could totally be wrong or misinterpreted but it speaks volumes I am able to come up with all of this about his character based on what little I know yet for Adrien I have to compare him to characters to even try to explain why he annoys me! But that's just one of the successful characters I could compare Adrien to. The next part I'm going to talk about Gavin, also from Mr Love: Queen's Choice, and see how he also compares to Adrien.

18 notes · View notes

g0ttal0ve101 · 2 years

Note

Tommy x Charlie head canons bc i just reread the hall case 😏

😈 W behavior…

Charlie x Thomas HeadCanons ✨

Despite smoking himself, Charlie would NEVER let Thomas do the same. Like never, never, never, never. No matter how ‘uncool’ he seems because of it, he’s just not gonna let that go by. 💀 “Wanna cigarette? You must be joking. Nothing is more wack than picking up smoking. 🕺”

Thomas really likes to show public affection and Charlie despises it. Man won’t even hold Thomas’s hand because he’s too shy. Eventually, he’ll start to warm up if the people around him don’t really care that he’s. y’know. ✨🍓✨

When Thomas gets wasted, he hugs Charlie for dear life. Boy grabs his waist and he’s not letting go until he passes out. You might be thinking, ‘awww, so cute!!’ but let’s remember that they go to parties to get drunk all the time AND Charlie hates public affection…Charlie is quietly having a mental episode trying to hide the fact they’re gay.

“Why is he holding you like that?”

“Brooo, he is so wasted hahahahahahah oh god oh fuck-“

Charlie is insecure about his hair?? And Thomas loves it??? A LOT????

Thomas is insecure about his voice?? And Charlie loves it??? A LOT????

They both love the corner-store. Enough said. They buy all the junk food they can with the money on them. Also, they share raspberry and cherry slushees together.

You know that one scene in movies where the couple park on a cliff and make out in their car?? Yeah. Thomas and Charlie do that. 😭

Charlie teaches Thomas slang. This has been a thing since they met. Thomas was sheltered asf by Adrien, so he used to speak like he had a stick up his ass. (💀) But Charlie taught him how to speak regularly.

^ Speaking of teaching, Charlie taught Thomas how to skateboard as well. But he still sucks at it. Very. Badly. He has to have Charlie hold him up while they practice, bro. It’s that bad. And it’s not any better with bikes, scooters, roller skating, or driving either. He. Absolutely. Sucks. But at least they have bonding time!!

Both have pet names for each other.

Thomas’s for Charlie are: Sweetheart, honey, and darling.

Charlie’s for Thomas are: Doll/dollface, babe/baby, hot shot, and handsome.

So actually, the roles are kinda switched because you would THINK Charlie would be more ‘lovey-dovey’ rather than Thomas. But no. Thomas is the soft one and Charlie is the baddie. 😈🖤

They joke around calling each other corny ass pet names for fun A LOT. Like

“Hey sugar booger 😫💦”

“Oh my god 😍 hey sexy buns”

If they disappear from the party all of a sudden, don’t look for them. 🌸✨💕🌹🦋 Don’t make the mistake Freddy did.

After the fall (where Thomas gets brain damage), Charlie becomes an extreme worry wart. Like. BAD. He always checks Thomas’s breathing and his heart to make sure everything is okay.

^ This usually ends up with Charlie creating the excuse, “I’m cHeCkInG uP oN yOuUuU!” just so they can cuddle on the couch with Charlie’s head on Thomas’s chest. Half hour in, the boy gives up the act and admits to just wanting to be close to him.

AGGRESSIVE play fighting!! People try to break them up thinking that they were lowkey fighting to the death!! But they both come out completely unharmed.(?!!)

Inside jokes for days. These two will look at a water bottle, nudge each other, then start cackling. Their objectives are unknown.

I don’t know what it is, but caressing Charlie’s face gives Thomas so much joy. Like. SO much joy. He’ll just stare at him with a stupid smile on his face and compliment him. Meanwhile Charlie is just: 😫🦋✨🥺💕🌸😳…th-th-th-th-th-thanks 😖!!

Will smack each other’s asses for no reason. Literally just:

🚶🏻‍♂️🚶🏽‍♂️

🚶🏻‍♂️💥🚶🏽‍♂️

🧍🏻‍♂️🧍🏽‍♂️

“Bitch.”

“Whore.”

Thomas steals Charlie’s clothes. It started with the jacket…then his shirts…then his pajama pants…and now…they basically share them. 😭

This is the side of them we never see!!

This is the side we DO see!!

(But believe me the top one is definitely more accurate when they’re alone. They are not dumbasses all the time.)

#charlie x thomas #oc: thomas hall #oc: charlie allen #the hall case #asks!!

20 notes · View notes

miraculouslbcnreactions · 5 months

Note

About you last post, I think a reason why the show took such a weird and concerning direction of Adrien having this therapy role, I don‘t really believe that the writers take Marinette‘s PTSD serious (at least outside of derision). The whole show her „weirdness“ was played off as comedy (TA said so himself in a tweet a while back) and the phone call scene you were describing also had vibes of making Mari look quirky like „haha look she still can‘t be normal about her bf“.

The worst part is that I feel like the writers could actually write good mental health representation but only when the plot demands it. Adrien being visibly depressed in s4? Makes for good drama. Adrien forgetting all his problems after he gets with Mari? Well duh love solves everything. Marinette having a panic attack? Makes the scene where she looses the miraculous more intense. Almost every other instant of her panicking? Hehe funny.

The whole show her "weirdness“ was played off as comedy (TA said so himself in a tweet a while back)

Oh, her weirdness was absolutely supposed to be read as comedic pre-Derision. I never consider those jokes funny, but they were very clearly jokes. In fact, it always weirded me out when people took her actions seriously because those people never applied that logic to the other absurdist humor used in the show.

My go-to example is Party Crasher. If you're up in arms about Marinette being a "stalker", but aren't equally or even more concerned by a bunch of adult men just randomly showing up to hang out with a group of 14-year-olds, then maybe you're holding the teenage girl to an unreasonable standard and ignoring the fact that she's written by a bunch of adult men who clearly think that teenage girls act like fangirls around their real-life crushes.

Marinette is not a real person. She's a character in an absurdist romantic comedy aimed at kids. Her actions have to be judged in that light if you want to make any sort of good-faith analysis.

The problem is Derision and the choice to make all of Marinette's Adrien-based-behavior a PTSD response. Once you go that route, the absurdist humor excuse is dead in the water.

Absurdist humor is all about making things so ridiculous that you can't take them seriously. For example, Marinette having Adrien's schedule for the next week isn't absurd because that schedule exists. She could absolutely get her hands on it! Her having his schedule for the next 3 years? That's absurd. You can't take it seriously because it's impossible for her to have a schedule that goes that far into the future. It would have, at most, a handful of events because you just don't schedule most things that far in advance.

But if you have Marinette do a big, dramatic confession where she shows Adrien the schedule and apologizes for it? Then none of that matters. the absurdist nature of it goes away because you have treated it seriously and absurdist humor is all about not treating the absurd too seriously. Derision was the equivalent of that big dramatic confession. You can no longer use absurdist humor to justify anything Marinette does and, notably, they don't. She's massively toned down post Derision and things are being taken more seriously with her and Adrien actively working on her behavior, which is a problem because this is also true:

I don‘t really believe that the writers take Marinette‘s PTSD serious

They've given her a serious issue, they're taking it seriously enough to have Adrien and Marinette address it, but they're not being serious about how you'd treat PTSD and that is the worst possible way to approach this issue. I'd be happier if they just flat out ignored it or used magic love to heal it with a kiss and never addressed it again.

When writing comedy aimed at kids, there's a thing that I like to call The Seat Belt Principle. If you've ever seen a show where a kid character was about to launch themself off in a rocket, only to fasten their seat belt first, then you've seen this principle in action. It's the idea that, in a kids show, you can have wild things happen so long as it's something that a kid can't emulate. If a kid can emulate it, then you have to take it more seriously. This is why kid characters always fasten their seat belts even if it's pointless because the child audience needs to see seat belts as cool and a thing that you always use.

The Seat Belt Principle applies to more than physically dangerous situations. If you are portraying any serious, real-life issue in a kids show, then you need to handle it differently than something that a kid will never face. To put it another way, Ladybug can have ignorant parents, Marinette cannot. Sabine and Tom not knowing that their daughter is a superhero? Not a problem, superheroes aren't real. Sabine and Tom not knowing that their daughter is experiencing horrific bullying or even straight up ignoring it? Big problem, bullies are very real.

This is where we get to the mental health stuff. A lot of media treats mental health issues as something that can be solved via romance and nothing could be further from the truth. Romantic partners can make the fight easier, but they shouldn't be your whole army if you can help it. The show doesn't seem to get this.

As you pointed out, the show keeps giving the characters metal health issues for drama and then hand waving those issues away via romantic relationships and that's a big yikes for me. You don't have to introduce mental health issues into your romantic comedy, but once you do, you have a responsibility to portray them accurately. They clearly don't want to do that and that's why season five's love square romance is a hard pass for me. There's a world of difference between bad jokes and bad mental health rep. I can overlook one, the other is a personal pet peeve and I've seen the negative consequences in action first hand. I think we all have! Who isn't familiar with the concept of a person being confused that "X is still depressed? But they got that new job/have a new SO/got engaged/etc."

#ask response #ml writing critical #ml season 5 salt #ml writing salt #ml derision #there are a lot of criticisms that will make me roll my eyes #like don't use the words “child soldiers” as a critique of canon #But bad mental health rep is a hard pass

51 notes · View notes

coffeebanana · 2 years

Note

Adrino pining!!!!!!! Please tell me more!!!!!!

In response to the WIP Game! I don't have much for this one so far, but I've been wanting to write something for this pairing for a while and this idea popped into my had at some point in the last month or so. Essentially an aged up, post HM, and they were roommates fic where Adrien and Nino are those friends who act like a couple, joke about being a couple, and confuse people into thinking they're already dating...which Nino is totally fine with until he realizes he might feel something more, and suddenly can't tell if Adrien's being sincere or if it's all just part of the act. I have a very small amount written that I'll share here, but this is written in present tense which I have a complicated relationship with, so it'll almost certainly change. (Plus this was basically...me info-dumping to myself so I could get a feel for things and calling it prose.)

For Nino, falling in love with his best friend sort of starts as a thought experiment. It's probably not how most people fall in love—with an almost clinical sort of detachment at first—but it's not something he's unfamiliar with. It's sort of how things happened with Alya, because he never thought about dating her until he did think about dating her, and then...one day he just knew. One day loving her felt right. The memory of loving her still feels right, just not as immediate as it once was. They had a good thing going, and they still talk all the the time. They just...wanted different things. They changed. Nino's pretty sure he and Adrien want the same things, but with him...falling takes a bit longer. (Or at least, getting over the denial takes a bit longer.) Probably because they're adults now, and there are a hundred different things to overthink and misunderstand and agonize over. Or maybe it's because he and Adrien have been friends for years, and Nino will never forgive himself if he somehow screws that up. It might also have a lot to do with the fact that he and Adrien live together, and the last thing Nino wants is for Adrien to feel uncomfortable in his own home (again). Whatever the reason, Nino can pinpoint the moment when it starts. It's nothing monumental, just a lazy Friday night where they spend too long sifting through movies on Netflix. Nothing seems to hold their interest, but eventually they land on some anime film (Nino knows it'll make Adrien smile). And then Adrien gets up to grab some popcorn, playfully shoving Nino off his shoulder so he can stand up, and somewhere amidst his laughter, Nino just feels warm. Then he thinks about that. He watches Adrien walk into the kitchen, the same way he has a hundred times before. But this time Nino sees things differently

#in progress #ask response #miraculous ladybug #adrino #adrien agreste #nino lahiffe #fic in progress #if means i'm starting over from scratch when i find time to start working on this #because akjdej honestly i have a completely different idea of how i want to start this now #but i included the snippet because vibes? idek

15 notes · View notes

olivia-anderson-fanfic · 1 year

Text

Alt Ending, Part 12

First

@solangelo252 @animegirlweeb @frieddonutsweets

Marinette had discovered three things since starting therapy:

1. Therapy sucks

2. Therapy sucks (again)

3. THERAPY SUCKS (but this time capitalized)

You see, every time she went into Dinah’s office to talk, she would end up crying.

She is very well adjusted. She knew this for a fact, for she only cried (due to emotions, physical pain doesn’t count) once a year. Could someone that was mentally unstable do that? Didn’t think so.

Therefore: therapy sucks.

Most of the time she didn’t even know why she was crying. Once, she had been talking about a show she had been watching with Cass and Duke and how the main trio had a really cute friendship… and then she had started sobbing into her hands. Make it make sense!

Dinah tried to make sense of it (because it was her job). She thought that she was lonely or something, as Marinette found out when she lip read the conversation Bruce and Dinah had had outside the car later that evening.

Her lips twisted into a scowl. She wasn’t LONELY. She had people watching over her every time she dared to leave the house, cameras trained at her at all times, and she even lived with two people! Every single bat was at her beck and call, and if she so much as sent a text that even suggested that she wanted to hang out with them, she would find them at her doorstep within minutes. She didn’t know what the problem was, but it was NOT loneliness.

But… she had to admit, when she heard a knock on the door and found Chloe and Adrien standing just outside…

Well, she wouldn’t deny that it was nice to see someone else for a change.

She beamed at them. “Holy shit, it’s been AGES,” she said, before immediately latching onto Adrien’s arm. “We should go shopping.”

Adrien blinked at her a couple of times, looking mildly perturbed by the change in eye color the Pit had caused, before breaking into a grin of his own. “We look like siblings now.”

“Don’t tell the bats that, they’ll get jealous,” Marinette said, shaking her head with a playful smile.

Adrien either didn’t get the joke or wanted to play it safe, because he glanced around warily. “So, the mall, right? Sounds fun!” He said, making sure his voice carried into the apartment.

Marinette and Chloe exchanged mildly amused looks, but were generous enough to allow for the change in subject:

“I heard your wardrobe’s gone to shit,” Chloe said, resting her hands on her hips. “And, honestly, they’re right. I mean those colors…” She shook her head. “How far the mighty hath fallen. Remember when you were one of my mom’s most promising talents?”

She pouted and looked down. She had thought the colors matched pretty well, but now she was too afraid to ask what ungodly combination she was wearing. “Well, I’m kinda colorblind now, so I think I have an excuse.”

“Don’t colorblind glasses exist?” Adrien said, a little too quick, clearly desperate to change the subject…

But now that she thought of it, annoyance prickled under her skin.

“Remind me to kill B.”

“I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to discourage that,” Adrien said lightly, dragging her away from the apartment.

She groaned. “Buzzkill.”

“I’m pretty sure being a buzz-kill is Chloe’s thing.”

“Marinette, we should drop him off in the nearest alley. Give him a proper Gotham welcome.”

“Agreed,” she said, nodding.

Adrien made an offended noise and pulled Marinette further into his side as they walked. Possibly for protection against Gotham alleys. She might have clutched his arm tighter in return, but she would never admit to it.

“Marinette, do I remind you of Harley?” Dinah asked during a lull in the middle of one of their usual sessions.

Marinette jolted up to sit more fully, the ball she had been casually tossing from hand to hand smacking her in the face in her moment of distraction. But she hardly even noticed. It didn’t hit her new glasses, at least, so it didn’t hurt in the slightest.

Besides, she was more concentrated on other things.

A blush spread across her cheeks as she looked down at her hands. “I mean…” She cleared her throat awkwardly. “Maybe a little? I mean, you do look kinda the same… I think,” she said, chancing a quick glance up through her bangs. With the color-correcting lenses, she looked rather different from Harley did. Her skin wasn’t as pale, her hair was more gold, the blue of her eyes was brighter. But it was still too close for some reason she couldn’t name.

Dinah didn’t let her expression give anything away. “Is that all?”

“Uh…” She bit her lip. “You’re both therapists…”

She nodded encouragingly.

She twisted her fingers in her lap. “And you both wanted me to hurt Bruce for a minute there.”

The woman glanced away, something complicated making its way across her face before getting smoothed over. “Well, it was very brave of you to admit all that. And it’s okay to feel that way, it’s very common. It’s a phenomenon called transference, where you ‘transfer’ some of your feelings about someone onto your therapist.”

Marinette gave a jerky nod.

“Now, I’d like you to tell me how seeing her in me makes you feel.”

“Good,” Marinette said.

Her therapist nodded slightly. “Care to explain further?”

And this was where she hesitated.

Because putting words to the feelings were more difficult than she wanted to admit. It was easy to say that she felt ‘good’ when thinking of Dinah as Harley, that the moments where she accidentally mixed them up mentally were some of her favorites even if they were quickly crushed when reality set in again… but as for the cause? How could she explain something even she didn’t fully understand?

“I miss her,” she admitted quietly, barely resisting the urge to bite her cheek. Dinah had said that that was an unhealthy coping mechanism/grounding technique, and that she should instead find things to focus on. She picked up her ball again and started attempting to flatten it between her hands. “I – I know I shouldn’t, you all have already explained how she wasn’t all that great to me, but… I really do.”

“There is no ‘shouldn’t’ when it comes to feelings,” Dinah reminded her, gently. “Sometimes we feel things that aren’t rational, it happens to everyone, it’s just how you choose to go on from there that matters.”

But how was Marinette supposed to go on? The weight of all of her contradictions was beginning to get suffocating, and she wanted nothing more than to retreat to her bed and disappear under the covers, never to come out again.

“And as for us telling you that she wasn’t a good caregiver…” Dinah gave a tiny sigh. Marinette stiffened. But then she gave a slight smile. “It is okay if you don’t believe it yet, don’t understand. But I will continue saying it until it finally sinks in: you didn’t deserve for that to happen to you, what she did was wrong.”

“She just wanted me to help her,” Marinette said, curling in on herself.

“It stops being ‘helping’ when someone forces you to do it for them. Then it becomes ‘coercion’.”

She nodded numbly.

The timer went off, and Marinette all but leapt to her feet, more than ready to switch out with one of her siblings.

“Marinette,” Dinah called.

She cringed and glanced back, her grip on the doorknob tight enough that she could practically feel the brass bending beneath her fingers.

“I’d like to give you something to think over until our next session: why did she let Scarecrow test his toxins on you?”

Marinette slammed the door shut behind herself.

Jason blinked behind his glasses. His were the horse miraculous in disguise, but they, too, had color correcting properties. Probably better than her own, as his were magical.

Yeah, no, neither of them were ever going to let Bruce live down the fact that he, with all of the money and knowledge the world had to offer, never thought to try and cure their colorblindness.

He raised an eyebrow at her, carefully pocketing his phone.

“You alright?”

She pointed at the door. “Your turn.”

Marinette stitched in time to the music blaring in her headphones, but she wasn’t really concentrating on either.

The bats, upon Dinah’s request, had allowed Marinette to start up a tailoring business. She could no longer design, for color correcting lenses could only do so much, but she had still wanted to work with clothes. So: tailoring. A thoughtless task that she could do with her eyes closed if she so wished, and the familiarity of a fabric under her hands and tiny pinpricks of blood welling on her fingers – for she wasn’t the kind of coward that used a thimble – was more relaxing than she wished to admit.

She mulled over Dinah’s words.

Why HAD there been so much fear toxin involved in her time with the Rogues?

Sure, she understood they were ‘evil’, and that Jonathan Crane had wished to know what would happen, wanted to know how effective his new formulas were… but it wasn’t like they couldn’t find unwilling participants on the streets like they always did. She had always kind of assumed it was for the sake of convenience, after all why go through the effort of kidnapping a whole different person, but…

What if it wasn’t?

What if it was more sinister?

Jason had always argued that it was about making Marinette associate Harley with safety, as she would always come once the toxins were cleared from her system, would always bring her water to soothe the way her throat ached from screaming, would always hug her tight and comfort her…

And Dinah had mentioned that the woman might have been using it to look for preexisting complexes to exploit. Hadn’t Harley always said the exact right things to get her riled up?

Her needle pricked her finger and she hissed, dropping everything so she could stick it in her mouth.

But… there had to have been easier ways. Why would they go through all that effort if that was all it was? Surely, there was another explanation. She just hadn’t figured it out yet.

As the leading expert on miraculi, and perhaps as a treat for participating in therapy as much as she was, she was allowed back in the batcave to help out with the case of her stolen earrings.

Marinette hung upside down from the balance beam, squinting at the picture of Selina Kyle – of Catwoman – wearing her earrings.

They were dull in color, but they were still undoubtedly the ladybug miraculous.

She closed her eyes. “Well, if it’s been this long then she probably can’t use the miracle cure anymore, so you should be able to apprehend her as normal. And, if she’s somehow managed to save up, then there would only be, like, one last ditch miraculous cure before it’s used up for good until Dami uses Plagg,” she prattled off.

She could hear the bats murmuring amongst themselves.

“Why do you say that?” Jason said after a moment.

“Well, beyond experience using the ladybug without an active cat…” she hopped off the beam and landed neatly on her feet. Cass clapped politely, and she sent a grin her way before turning back to the projector. “She’s not using the suit. But she used to, that’s how you figured out she was using it in the first place, right? So, it’s safe to assume she’s out of power.”

“It could be a different design for the suit,” Tim pointed out.

Marinette shook her head. “Nah, the ladybug spots are necessary. It’s a stipulation of the miraculous. Trust me, there is no way around it.”

“So… we have to catch her once or twice… and then they’re no longer invincible?” Dick clarified, looking relieved.

She nodded, beaming. “Exactly. And then I get my miraculous back.”

There was an awkward silence.

Marinette’s smile didn’t waver. “What? I never said I wanted to be a vigilante again or anything. I just want my friend back. Can’t I?” She turned to Bruce, giving her best puppy dog eyes.

The man didn’t flinch. “We will discuss it once Harley is behind bars.”

All of the other bats immediately started talking over each other in their haste to argue, but she didn’t pay it any mind as she made her way over to the water cooler. Honestly, getting him to say they’d talk about it later was better than she’d thought she’d get.

She knew she would never be allowed to be a miraculous-holding vigilante again. They didn’t trust her – not truly. Not because of her, because of what had happened. But that didn’t change the fact that they would never allow her to have that kind of power and training, because they weren’t the type to take risks, and she was a risk now. A liability. A person that could easily ‘relapse’, as Bruce put it, and end up using her power for the wrong side.

She would argue that she would never do that to Tikki… but she had worked for the Rogues using Kaalki, so that argument wouldn’t convince them.

So, it became a question of whether she cared more about being a vigilante or being a miraculous holder. She couldn’t be both, she needed to choose one.

In the end, it wasn’t even a question, not a true choice. For being a vigilante had never been healthy for her – she wasn’t dumb, she knew that all of the things she told Adrien about being Chat Noir very much applied to her as well, and even if she HADN’T realized before the sessions with Dinah certainly would have forced her to – and being a miraculous holder was how she accessed one of her best friends.

So, she wanted her earrings back. She wanted her friend back.

She leaned against the batcomputer, her head leaning against Duke’s shoulder as the pair of them watched the screens. It was nearly time for Duke’s shift as Signal, and his suit wasn’t all that comfortable to lean on, but she was too tired to really care. Her eyes drooped as she watched Tim take down an asshole that had decided to attack a poor elderly woman.

Bruce strode in, pulling his helmet from his head. He glanced at where the pair sat and sighed a little, before walking over and moving to ruffle Marinette’s hair.

She groaned and attempted to push Duke in the way. “No. You smell. Shower.”

“Stop trying to sacrifice me,” Duke complained lightly, but he valiantly waved off the hand reaching for them nonetheless.

She giggled. “This is what you get for throwing out my coffee, you bitch.”

It was a nice moment.

Until it wasn’t.

A familiar groan met their ears and, instantly, all three sets of eyes snapped back to the screens. Tim was on the ground, the grandma standing over him. But she wasn’t a grandma at all, for she pulled off her wig and tossed it aside, letting it join an empty, broken syringe on the asphalt.

Harley Quinn.

Marinette’s breath caught in her throat. She snapped to attention, her exhaustion fading like it had never been there at all. She found herself leaning closer to the screen, greedily taking in everything about the woman. Her clothes, her stance, the new wrinkle between her brows.

Vaguely, she registered a hand on her shoulder, but she shook it off without even sparing the person a glance.

Harley leaned down and dug the comm out of Tim’s ear. A terrible crackling noise met them, and they watched Tim’s arm reach for it in a weak attempt to get it back, but Harley stomped on it without hesitation and he let it fall limp with a quiet hiss.

The mugger stepped into frame – Joker, judging by the bright green hair and deathly white skin – and smiled too widely as he stuffed the ski mask he’d been wearing into the purse he had just been ‘stealing’. He waved for the camera as he waited for Harley to figure out the controls so they could both speak to and hear the bats with ease.

“Now, Batsy,” Joker began. He moved his hands a lot when he talked, something that was made threatening by the fact that he had a loaded gun in one of said hands. “I assume you’re already sending your little birds over, so let’s make this quick: we want a trade.”

“Harley,” Bruce began, his voice surprisingly calm. “Let him go.”

Joker and Harley both looked mildly surprised by the choice to address Harley instead, but Joker, bravely, continued on:

“Give us Marinette back and we might just return this one in one piece.”

Tim made a sound Marinette had never heard from him before. She could see him try and curl in on himself, but Harley pressed her foot under his chin, nudging him to make sure they were still in view of the camera in his domino.

“She knows where we’ll be waiting for her,” Joker said.

And then Harley kicked Tim between the eyes, effectively cutting the camera feed.

A high whining noise filled the room as the comm was crushed.

But that was nice, for the room would have been so QUIET otherwise.

Marinette was the first one to break the silence that had come over them all:

“They want me back?”

She screamed as she was forced back into a cell. This one wasn’t as nice as the others, wasn’t the bland white room that she had never thought she would miss until she was forced into this one. It was made of bulletproof glass that allowed her to watch her family rush around on the other side. Trying to find Tim’s location. Yelling at each other. Gearing up.

Everyone kept looking back at her, as if expecting her to break out at any moment.

She certainly felt like she could, with the way anger curled beneath her skin and made her see GREEN. She stalked her cage, eyes flicking from place to place in search of a way out even if she KNEW that it was flawless. Knew that she would only be getting out if they let her out.

She pushed up her glasses to wipe her eyes, wishing she had never said anything.

“Where do they want to meet?” Duke asked, his gaze fixing on anything but her. “They said you’d know.”

“Let me go with you and I’ll be happy to lead you there,” Marinette said, giving a smile that was really more of a bearing of teeth than anything.

He groaned and rested his head against the glass. “Mari, please.”

“No, YOU ‘please’. All of you act like you care, but do you really? Or do you just want to keep me? I have done EVERYTHING you asked. I played good, I went to therapy, I tried SO fucking hard to go back to ‘normal’. And all because you said you knew what was best. Because I trusted you to care. But do you? Because I’m fucking MISERABLE, and all of that therapy I’ve been getting has been telling me is that the people that care aren’t supposed to do that to you!”

It was quiet, now.

The anger drained out of her.

“You’re not better just because you don’t kill,” she said, her eyes finding their way to the ground. “There are fates worse than death.”

No one seemed to have a response to that.

The Zeta tube buzzed, snapping them all out of their stupor abruptly.

Superman walked in, the smile he normally wore noticeably missing as he zipped over to the colony of bats.

“Kon-El is off-world,” Superman explained hurriedly. “But I think I can find him for you. Kon described his heartbeat pattern to me. Give me an hour.”

Bruce nodded once and that was all it took for Superman to disappear.

He turned to the rest of the bats. “Everyone spread out. Hood, stick back with her.”

And then she was left.

Jason sighed and slumped against the glass, tipping his head back against it. He slowly slid down.

“Shit,” he groaned.

Marinette gave a humorless laugh. “Tell me about it.”

He gave an attempt at a smile, and then looked down at his hands.

They stayed there in silence for a long while. Time passed like sand in an hour glass, trickling away, the sand’s descent and yet over so suddenly that you begin to wonder whether you had really turned the hourglass over at all.

Jason groaned again, louder this time, and pushed himself to his feet.

He slammed his palm against the scanner next to him.

She watched on, her mouth falling open as the door to the cell did the same.

He didn’t give her much time to process this as he pulled the horse miraculous from his face and tossed it at her. She fumbled it a little.

“Make the decision you think is best for you.”

Her eyes widened. She held the glasses close to her chest as she looked up at him, analyzing his expression. He was looking away, but she could still tell there was no trick this time. No taser on his suit, no hidden backup. Just a genuine offer.

“Thank you,” she breathed, already rushing to put them on and transform.

He gave a pained grin. “Just… don’t say I never do anything for you, eh?”

She wrapped her arms around his middle in a hug.

He patted her on the head twice.

And then he gave her a tiny push to dislodge her.

“Do what YOU want to, okay?” He said.

She nodded once, firmly, and then opened up a portal underneath herself.

She popped into existence in the abandoned warehouse they had first stolen her in.

Or, rather, below it, where a secret facility lay.

Talk about adding insult to injury.

She looked around the empty halls, quietly getting her bearings, and then headed towards the room she had spent the better part of half a year in.

Tim was tied up in the corner, his body shaking just a little too much for it to be mistaken for simple fear. Indeed, he was smiling through his gag, and bulging eyes didn’t even seem to register the sudden addition to the room.

She looked away. To the people that she had come to meet.

She barely caught sight of the Joker’s expression – had just enough time to think that it was slightly off – before she had been gathered into a hug by Harley.

Marinette’s knees felt weak. With shaky arms, she hugged back.

“Oh, darlin’, I missed you SO much! We started trying to get you back the moment one of our lookouts said he saw you out with those two blond kids!”

A few tears escaped. They’d never stopped looking. Her hands balled in the woman’s shirt, clutching it tightly with intents of never letting go.

Joker made his way over, his expression still odd. “You were right, Harls. The good ones always make their way home eventually.”

“They do,” Harley said, her tone as soft as the hand combing through Marinette’s hair.

And then it was blissfully silent, allowing Marinette to melt into the woman’s touch.

Other than Tim’s quiet choking.

She worried her lip. “So… we’re letting him go, right?”

Joker cackled. “No, no, of course not!”

She glanced at Tim. He still didn’t show any signs of seeing her as he continued to laugh into his gag. His lips were tinted blue.

Harley used the hand in her hair to tuck her face into her shoulder, forcing her to look away. “How would you feel about a brother? We can all be a happy little family, y’know.”

“All united under a single goal,” Joker continued dreamily. “Messing with the bat…”

His expression soured, briefly. He glanced over the three of them. But then he was grinning again, perfectly happy with the situation.

“It’ll be perfect,” he said. Firmly. As he could speak it into existence if he simply believed it hard enough.

“Yeah…” Marinette said, trying to sound enthusiastic but just ending up sounding strained.

Harley, of course, noticed.

“What’s wrong, darlin’?”

There was a beat as she considered the question. Mulled it over in her mind. Wondered whether it was worth ruining what she had right then if it meant knowing the truth. Wondered whether she wanted to ruin the past few months with the bats if it turned out they were lying. Wondered which would hurt more.

“What would you do…” Marinette began, hesitantly.

“Yes?” She prompted, reminding her so much of Dinah that it hurt a little.

She took a deep breath in to steady herself.

“What would you do if I said I wanted to take him and go home? That I don’t want anything to do with you anymore?”

Harley frowned and pulled her closer. “I’m not sure what they told you while they had you, darlin’, but we’ll work past it, okay?”

Tears formed in the corners of her eyes. Why didn’t the hug feel good anymore? Why did it feel like the arms around her were trapping her? Why did the nickname she used to love remind her of what someone would call a pet?

Why was everything wrong? Was it her?

What could she change to fix it?

She sniffled and let her legs give out entirely, unsure how to feel when Harley caught her with ease.

And then she was walked over to Tim and sat down beside him in the chair.

She curled up there, pressed against her brother’s side, wishing the folds of her dress would swallow her whole.

The door splintered (quite a feat, considering it was plastic) and Superman took only a moment to set down Bruce before zipping off with little more than a murmur that he was going to get the others.

The man’s eyes zeroed in on the pair in the corner. His lips pulled into a thin line.

“Superman,” he said, seemingly speaking to the air itself. “Don’t bring them.”

He turned his gaze onto Joker and Harley, who were both smiling unpleasantly. Marinette squeezed her eyes shut tight.

“Harley,” the man greeted, though the way he said the name made it sound like a curse. “Let them go.”

“‘Let them go’?” The woman mocked. “I mean, say what you will for little Timmy over there, I guess, but Marinette came all on her own. I’m not holding her captive or anything.”

“Harley,” he began.

She ignored him. “And, of course, given enough time, I’m sure the poor boy will see the light.”

The man began forward, his footsteps heavy on the tile.

Harley wasn’t at all put off as she said, “Marinette. Now, if you will.”

She quietly did as she was told, calling upon the kwami’s magic and trying to envision a place far enough away to give them time to recuperate. Superman’s appearance would make things difficult, but she just needed to find a place lined with lead. Lex Luthor probably had some stuff. They’d need to drop by his office for an address –.

“HARLEY –!”

A gunshot rang out.

Marinette’s eyes flew open.

Harley’s body fell to the floor with a thud.

Joker blew the smoke from his gun before turning to Bruce, smiling wider than she had ever seen. “Great, now that that DISTRACTION is out of the way, Batsy, let me…”

He trailed off.

For Marinette chose that moment to get out of the chair, her clothes rustling as she pushed herself to her feet.

She tipped her head to the side, smiling in that exact way that her ‘parents’ taught her to do when she wanted to throw someone off.

“Yes, now that that ‘distraction’ is out of the way…” She continued for him, her eyes narrowing just slightly. The Pit thrummed in her veins, calling for blood. She refused to give it any. “I guess it’s time to focus on what’s really important: you.”

The man looked like he was torn between agreeing and doing the actually smart thing that people called groveling. Not that it would have saved him.

She never gave him time to decide.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure Superman can never find you. Just like you wanted.”

The man disappeared in a flash of blue light.

Marinette, finally, fell to her knees.

#if you saw that mistake #no you didn't #anyways #one more until the epilogue yay #almost done with this bitch #maribat #ladybug #marinette dupain cheng #harley quinn #harley quinzel #joker #satisfied #alt ending #alternate ending #alternative ending

2 notes · View notes