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#chloé could never
zivazivc · 1 year
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i don't know how zoë managed to top vesperia but hot damn
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lc-holy · 3 months
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Conférence Masterclass 808 (Translation)
I've taken the liberty of translating the conference that took place last year with the writing director of Miraculous (Sébastien Thibaudeau). It was only made public when someone posted a video of the conference a short while ago.
In this conference, Sébastien Thibaudeau will talk about the creation of Miraculous and his work on the series. He is joined by Chloé Paye, a new scriptwriter working on Miraculous season 6.
Sébastien talks a lot and repeats himself a bit, so the summary can be a bit confusing.
I strongly advise you to go and listen to the video if you understand French. There are a lot of details I'm going to leave out, and Sébastien is very funny.
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Photo belongs to mlbfanfr on twitter.
Please be respectful in comments or tags. If you want to debate on things related to this conference, please make your own post. I apologize if there are any mistakes, I'm French and I'm not fluent in English.
-12 years ago, Sébastien arrived at Zagtoon, a studio that was just starting out and had yet to produce and broadcast any series. The producer (Jérémy Zag) and Sébastien hit it off and decided to start working together. Zag decides to give Sébastien total freedom over his projects. Sébastien then decides to put the spotlight on scriptwriters, because in this profession they are unfortunately poorly paid and never stay on the same projects.
So they produced a cartoon called Kobushi. A little-known series that did rather well, even if it didn't stay on the "Gulli" channel for long. The scriptwriters and producer were happy with the end result, as it was produced in a very short time.
Jeremy Zag then proposed another project, which he thought was quite good, but which he was unable to sell to broadcasters. At the time, the project was called "Ladybug". No one was interested, as the project was aimed more at an adult audience than a children's audience. Sébastien had to make sure that the project could be broadcast on Disney and TF1.
There was only a "trailer" also called "Ladybug" (but you'll find the video under the title Ladybug PV) animated by Toei animation. At the time, Sébastien had not yet been hired by Zagtoon. It was Jérémy Zag who convinced Toei animation to work with them (no mean feat, since Toei animation doesn't work with anyone).
So Sébastien started working with Thomas Astruc (the man who wrote and created the "Ladybug" project). At first, he didn't want to work on this project because he found it complicated. Thomas wanted to make a series for adults, but at the time, it was very complicated to make a cartoon for adults. What's more, they didn't have enough money to take on such a project. Sébastien finally agreed, but there were some changes to be made, which Thomas accepted.
-What Sébastien appreciated most in this project was the romantic comedy, the love square between the two main characters.
To meet the requirements of the cartoon industry, "Ladybug" had to be set in a neutral universe, in other words, in an imaginary country or the USA, but Zag, who loves Paris, declared that the cartoon had to be set in Paris.
In the end, Thomas Astruc's entire project was discarded, leaving only the love story between the two heroes and the city of Paris, where the story was to take place.
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-Sébastien explains how he writes Marinette's first dialogues: He says he talks a lot in real life, so he writes Marinette like him. She says out loud whatever she's thinking.
For Chat noir, he makes him tell his father's jokes. Something TF1 doesn't accept. The TV channel went so far as to refuse to validate the Bible (a collection of information on the series and episodes) until it had removed the sentence: “Chat noir makes jokes”. Sebastien has therefore removed the sentence, but will continue to make Chat noir tell jokes.
-The writing director's job is to get the producer, creator and broadcaster to agree. The series broadcast on TF1 and Disney are very different. TF1 wants series whose story can be told in a single episode, unlike Disney, which wants series whose story spans several episodes.
Sébastien and TF1 agree that Miraculous will be a series with one story per episode, a "Formula Show".
He cites the example of Dora the Explorer episodes, where every episode is the same: Dora goes on an adventure from point A to point B, she has to find 3 clues, then she meets Swiper, she sings a song to make Swiper go away, she uses the talking map to get from one place to another, then Dora manages to get to point B and the episode ends.
This episode format is used for children, to give them a reassuring framework, as they build themselves up through repetition. That's why series like Dora work so well with young children.
So Sebastien sold the Miraculous series to broadcasters as a formula show. A person gets angry, is akumatized, then marinette transforms into Ladybug then frees the person from the akumatization and… The End.
It's also for this reason that Marinette tries to confess her love for Adrien in every episode, but is unable to do so.
But he tried to go against what he had planned with TF1, by slipping little extra stories into certain episodes. Audiences were receptive to these slightly hidden stories. The TV channel even asked Sébastien if there really were hidden things in the series, but he denied everything. Thanks to the positive reception from the public, TF1 agreed to develop the characters of Marinette and Adrien and flesh out the universe a little more.
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-Once the bible is written, they have to write a script. But first Sébastien, as writing director, needs to know the mood of the series, and to do this he calls on Thomas Astruc, the series creator. Thomas is a great fan of classical painting. A single painting can tell a complex scene with lots of detail. He wants the episodes of miraculous to be like these paintings, there will be very few shots, but in a single shot a lot will happen.
-Sébastien explains that one of the things Thomas wanted to convey in the series was emotion. They didn't want to do what a lot of children's cartoons do, which is to beat the bad guys and win at the end of the episode. They wanted to tell kids that it's normal to have negative emotions. We can also become better people, learn from our mistakes and so on. It also reassures TV channels by setting up scenes that are repeated in every episode: people get angry, people akumatize then people deakumatize, end of episode...
Once the TV channels had been reassured, they set about writing a script.
-Sébastien asks Thomas to write the ending, as they're not sure the series will work. They also wondered what the aim of the series was, and what they wanted to say to the children. The two of them sat down in an office and wrote the ending, which turned out to be just the end of an arc. He even adds that now that they've written a lot more, it's important for them to write in advance so that everything is clear to them.
-The first season was written by 19 authors, from home. He found it interesting that the series was written by several different authors, even if some of them didn't quite understand the premise of the series. One episode that Sébastien particularly appreciated was written by two “autrices” (I think it's weird to say “two female authors”, so I'll use the French word): the refletkta episode, with the story of Juleka who couldn't get into the photos. (Note that all the episodes were proofread by Sébastien and Thomas).
After that, they kept a few people on to work together on the scripts for subsequent seasons.
Sébastien explains that he keeps a close eye on the production of the episodes, to make sure that everything that goes into the picture is as faithful as possible to what they've written in the script.
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-The kwamis exist thanks to Toei, who wanted funny little animals to sell plush toys. So the scriptwriters had to find a way to integrate kwamis into the story.
-(Again, Sébastien advises people to check out the Kobushi series if they can still watch it somewhere, or ask the leaker who leaked the whole of season 5 to give them the episodes (that's a joke, of course)).
-Sébastien talks about the Ikari gozen episode, which could have been a total failure because the storyboarder didn't fully understand the scenario. Sébastien asks Zag to redo the storyboard, which will add 10 weeks to the episode's deadline. The storyboarder admits that he's always done storyboards mechanically, without worrying whether the episode is good or not, whether the jokes are funny or not. Eventually, the episode was redone by the same storyboarder, resulting in the episode we all know today.
- They still have a lot to tell with Miraculous, to the point where they're wondering if they'll have enough seasons to tell everything they want to tell. Sebastien says there will be a season 6 and 7, and probably a season 8 and 9.
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- Chloé Paye met Sébastien when she was looking for an internship. She had never worked in animation, and knew nothing about Miraculous. She tells us how the scriptwriting team works. Each time, all the scriptwriters in the room have to be convinced of the script. They can sometimes spend hours on details to get everyone to agree.
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- The driving force behind the series is that there must always be a secret between Marinette and Adrien. The lovesquare can never be broken, otherwise there's no series. Sébastien knows that some people are worried about this. Will they continue the lovesquare for another 4 seasons or more? How will they evolve? Sébastien says not to worry, they know where they want to go.
-It takes them 14 to 16 months to produce an episode, but it's often much longer due to unforeseen circumstances. And they don't work on one episode at a time, but on several at the same time. One episode takes a long time because of the 3D animation.
One of the things that's complicated with Miraculous 3d animation is that they can only display 3 characters at a time on screen, whereas the series requires them to display many more characters. It's also very difficult to correct animation errors, as this takes a lot of time.
-The TV networks were very surprised by the success of miraculous. They didn't think adults and children alike would watch the series. The TV channels were a little confused because they usually make series for a specific age group, but since miraculous had people of all ages watching, they weren't sure what to do.
- Sébastien says he's very happy that miraculous inspires a lot of people to create things, like writing fanfiction, however he's not interested in it because he doesn't want to be influenced by certain fans who would love to see certain things in the series.
- Writing direction also means paying attention to how the characters speak. They all have their own way of speaking. For example, Adrien will never say "j’te parle", but rather "Je te parle".
- During the writing process, the writers sometimes act out scenes to make the dialogue more natural. This is what happened with the episode "Gang of secrets". They felt that, with the success of the show and the pressure it was generating, they needed to write something to relieve their stress. So they wrote about Marinette and the enormous pressure she was under to keep all her secrets. The final scene, in which Marinette tells Alya that she's Ladybug, came naturally when they performed it together.
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kamotecue · 5 months
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love at first sight ✰ s. catley
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pairing: steph catley x reader
summary: in which a pop star and her band attend a football match, in which love at first sight happens. something you never really quite believed in. pop star!reader
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ ⋆✦⋆ ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
love at first sight, was something that you didn’t believe in. maybe because it was a little too cliche, or peculiar—but either way, it was something that you took a chance at.
so, when the offer comes to attend a women’s football game, you know it’s something you can’t deny. your bandmates are a fan of the ones in red. once a gooner, always a gooner they say.
the bunch of you had sorted yourselves already in the seats, not minding how you were already on the big screen. you were shyly hiding behind the beanie, and the book you held in your hand to pass time.
while your bandmates had a small laugh at your introverted self. the crowd cheered, it wasn’t always that the british-american band had been in public. you guys were in fact in the middle of recording a new album, hence you were always in the studio.
“oh, look who’s staring at the screen.” hazel commented as she noticed steph catley, one of the team’s co-captain looking at the big screen. kyra who was a huge fan of your group looked up at the screen in awe.
“come on n/n, you’re wearing her jersey.” chloé gave you a slight tease, knowing you were the only one who wasn’t a football fan. the jersey you wore was something the blonde had owned.
“shove off it.” you said, glancing at the book to distract yourself. despite being in a band, you weren’t one for attention.
the game had started, it was against liverpool afterall. you had glanced at the field from time to time, simply analyzing the play as the rest of the band was adamant that you knew the basics of the game.
but how could you not know it? even when they reminded you over and over, which was why you always wore earphones during the on-going matches.
the game—had ended, in a way the band didn’t expect. a loss to liverpool, but you quite frankly understood it. with how much new signings arsenal has gotten, the team had to adjust, especially their defense.
and as usual, the team had dragged you to the front—for the chances of getting their jersey signed or perhaps a match worn jersey. you stood a few steps behind, not noticing how a few players had glanced at you wondering if you also wanted to get your jersey signed.
“not a football fan, are you?” an aussie accent was heard, as you looked away from the book, giving her a small chuckle.
“yeah, not really. i’ve been dragged to the game by my members, they’re quite a huge fan of the team.” you commented, noticing her jersey—that had the same number on yours.
“steph catley right?” she hummed, giving you a small nod, as you put the designed bookmark in between.
“correct, y/n l/n?” steph replied, as you gave her a short nod.
“would you perhaps want to get it signed?” she gestured to your jersey, as you shrugged. it wasn’t your jersey, but you figured that chloé wouldn’t mind.
“sure.” you stood closer to her, as she took out a black sharpie, she held the end of the jersey as she focused on signing—while you had gazed at her eyes. and let me tell you, it was the most beautiful thing you had ever laid upon.
and that was the start of a beautiful love story.
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star-anise · 2 months
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reading supercut: disability, body image, and trauma
A glimpse into the clothes thrashing around in the washing machine of my mind, with apologies that it is still a wet lump and not an actual synthesis of ideas.
From Easy Beauty: A Memoir by Chloé Cooper Jones:
[This event] embedded a damaging idea in me, one I’d recognize deeply when I read Scarry years later: beauty was a matter of particulars aligning correctly. My body put me in a bracketed, undercredited sense of beauty. But if I could get the particulars lined up just right, I could be re-seen, discovered like the palm tree is discovered. To be deserving of the whole range of human desires, I had to be extraordinary in all other aspects. In this new light, I started to see my work, my intellect, my skills, my moments of humor or goodness, not as valuable in themselves, but as ways of easing the impact of my ugliness. If only I could pile up enough good qualities, they could obscure my unacceptable body. [...] accepting the argument that beauty was malleable came, for me, with a cost. The Platonian view rejected me cleanly, but Hume and Scarry left a door ajar and I’ve spent a lifetime trying to contort my form to see if I could pass through it.
From Til We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by CS Lewis:
I now determined that I would go always veiled. I have kept this rule, within doors and without, ever since. It is a sort of treaty made with my ugliness. There had been a time in childhood when I didn't yet know I was ugly. Then there was a time (for in this book I must hide none of my shames or follies) when I believed, as girls do — and as Batta was always telling me — that I could make it more tolerable by this or that done to my clothes or my hair. Now, I chose to be veiled.
From Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy of Borderline Personality Disorder by Marsha Linehan:
Inhibited grieving is understandable among borderline patients. People can only stay with a very painful process or experience if they are confident that it will end some day, some time—that they can "work through it," so to speak. It is not uncommon to hear borderline patients say they feel that if they ever do cry, they will never stop Indeed, that is their common experience—the experience of not being able to control or modulate their own emotional experiences. [...] In the face of such helplessness and lack of control, inhibition and avoidance of cues associated with grieving are not only understandable, bur perhaps wise at times. Inhibition, however, has its costs. [...] Volkan (1983) describes an interesting phenomenon, "established pathological mourning", which is similar to the pattern I am describing. In established pathological mourning, the individual wishes to complete mourning, but at the same time persistently attempts to undo the reality of the loss.
From How to Respond to Criticism by Danny Lavery:
Apologize, but don’t really mean it, and plant a seed of secret resentment so deep in your own heart that years later you can’t even remember that you’re the one who nurtured it and made it grow, it seems that much like a native part of you.
From Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed:
[After learning that state child protective services had made a budgetary decision to only intervene with children under 12, to one of the teenagers that regularly shared stories of abuse at home] I told her it was not okay, that it was unacceptable, that it was illegal and that I would call and report this latest, horrible thing. But I did not tell her it would stop. I did not promise that anyone would intervene. I told her it would likely go on and she’d have to survive it. That she’d have to find a way within herself to not only escape the shit, but to transcend it [...] I told her that escaping the shit would be hard, but that if she wanted to not make her mother’s life her destiny, she had to be the one to make it happen. She had to do more than hold on. She had to reach. She had to want it more than she’d ever wanted anything. She had to grab like a drowning girl for every good thing that came her way and she had to swim like fuck away from every bad thing. She had to count the years and let them roll by, to grow up and then run as far as she could in the direction of her best and happiest dreams across the bridge that was built by her own desire to heal.
From Essays in Aesthetics by Jean-Paul Sartre:
Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you.
From "I Know What You Think of Me" by Tim Kreider:
if we want the rewards of being loved we have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known.
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ilikekidsshows · 4 months
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I'm not sure if people still remember but I have always been in the camp that Chloé was a jerk who got what she deserved in the season three finale of Miraculous, a failed hero. When season four first started airing, I also believed that her character regressing in season four could be a reasonable reaction to what she went through in said finale, because she did not have a good time and her lashing out in hurt made sense.
Then season five had the characters talk at length about how Chloé's trauma doesn't excuse her behavior (with Mylène parroting stuff Astruc has said to Chloé fans on twitter if the true source and targets of this part of the episode aren't obvious), in the same season where Chloé traumatizing Marinette is used to excuse Marinette's less likeable behavior. Chloé is made responsible for Marinette's character flaws while also being 100% responsible for her own character flaws when both of their character flaws are stated in-show to be caused by trauma caused by another person. The double standard is obvious.
If I'm going to look at 'Rocketear' and call it out on its character assassination of Nino, I need to look at what the writers did to Chloé and call it out on being the exact same thing. It's not often you see a villain character get character assassinated, but it sure happened here. Chloé might have been a jerk, but she was never whatever seasons 4/5 turned her into.
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The main reason I usually default to lesbian Chloe is because her interest in guys often seems extremely artificial and performative.
Its like if a guy performs traditional masculinity so intently that it ends up coming off as insincere. The same sort of thing tends to apply to Chloe with my reads.
Especially because her rather awkward, both too extreme, and yet very at a distance 'flirting' attempts on guys can be contrasted against her much more affectionate manner with Ladybug. Which seems to lack the same sort of language, both verbal and body, that comes out with guys.
Plus there's the fact she only ever seems to express an aesthetic appreciation (Luka), a weirdly oscillating mix of formality and performative gestures at a distant target (Ali), or otherwise seems to 'pursue' a guy who is seemingly profoundly disinterested, (Adrien).
Plus like, I tend to assume that if she wanted Adrien as a boyfriend she probably could have swung that before school was even a thing. She was literally his only friend and company, the idea she never even tried seems odd if she was truly super interesting.
Plus, when fear regarding her relationship with Adrien comes up its rooted in the friendship over a potentially lost lover. The times she does lean on the idea of Adrien being her BF, tend to be more implied and usually used for a bit of social clout before being forgotten just as quickly.
It all really adds to the feeling her interest is, either consciously or subconsciously performative. More about playing a role than it is something she's genuine about.
Oh yeah absolutely!
Chloé's supposed romantic interests are in like. Safe people. Adrien is her friend and she wouldn't mind marrying him but she knows he won't return any feelings like that. While she has connections to be able to meet various celebrities, from popular-but-quickly-irrelevant idols like XY or someone genuinely influential like Ali, they're also not really people that there's hope for a proper relationship with, so they're also 'safe' for her to show interest in.
I think the thing about Chloé's seeming to be a lesbian is mostly in the way that she repeats her parents' relationship dynamic with her most obvious relationships: Sabrina and Ladybug.
Sabrina is the more obvious one because here, Chloé is playing Audrey while Sabrina plays Andre. The demanding, the devotion, the verbal abuse mixed in with genuine affection, the cold shoulder when she does something 'wrong', etc.
With Ladybug, it flips. Chloé is fawning. She's doing anything and everything to please Ladybug. To make her like her. And falls into despair when she 'fails'.
These are things she doesn't really do with the males she's showing affection with.
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imultimouse · 1 year
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I never come on here, but I wanted to discuss something since I've seen a couple of salt posts discussing Adrien's "sudden" shift of feelings towards Marinette in season 5, and I don't think some of you are understanding the whole lovesquare arc. Adrien has ALWAYS loved Marinette, ever since the umbrella scene. His feelings gradually grew more and more, but since he had already taken interest in Ladybug, he suppressed those feelings. This was the whole point of the "just a friend" phase. It was DENIAL, not genuine disinterest. If you go back and rewatch the show from the beginning, you'd notice that Adrien unconsciously behaves in a way that makes his crush on Marinette obvious. Ex:
Feeling uncomfortable kissing Chloé in season 1, but feeling perfectly comfortable with Marinette.
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The constant heart eyes we got throughout the show.
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He carries her lucky charm with him all the time, and he even made a gift especially for her
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He called her his "everyday Ladybug", which we all know how much that means coming from him.
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Effortlessly dancing romantically with her, TWICE.
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Etc, etc. Keeping all that in mind, what happened in Puppeteer 2 isn't when he started DEVELOPING feelings, it's when he started REALIZING those feelings. He said it himself, the way he reacted to her going ahead and kissing him shocked him. Not to mention that in Chat Blanc, he straight up told her in his confession that he had always felt this way, he just didn't understand what he felt.
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All their interactions thus far had Marinette somehow friendzone their encounters, so Adrien never had the chance to think about his own feelings, except in Weredad, but he was too preoccupied with his intense feelings for Ladybug to notice. And it's because of that, that after Marinette kissed him, he started noticing the similarities between her and Ladybug, causing his feelings to grow even further.
"You remind me of the girl I love."
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Then, he started paying more attention to her, and noticed how she always cheers him up and makes him laugh, and is always there for him when he needs her.
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Finally, we reach the season 4 finale, and he realizes that Marinette truly understands him for who he is, not the image he kept up, and it's THEN that he fully realizes there is something there, but he is too confused to know for sure, which is directly supported by his confession in Chat Blanc.
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That is when Determination comes into play, and Adrien finally realizes what the butterflies in his stomach meant this entire time. This is also why that every time he discovers Marinette is Ladybug, he is instantly relieved and overwhelmed with joy, because that makes the two people he loves the most one person, and there is no more dilemma in his heart.
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So this is it, a summary of Adrien's development of his feelings towards Marinette, which also explains why it's so sincere from his end. It's not sudden for sure. Yeah, it could have been written a lot better, but what do we expect from MLB writers anyway? If you've made it this far, thank you for reading, and let me know what you think.
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Ml Analysis: Marinette's crush on Kim
You know, Marinette having a crush on Kim in the past in "Derision" checks out so much more than people give it credit for.
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Marinette is a kid who got bullied on an sometimes even extreme level on a daily for years by Chloé and by the power she has over the school environment (or more accurately, Chloé's parents) and under these circumstances that we saw it makes perfect sense for why she felt drawn to Kim. Kim embodys alot of characteristics she would find comforting or even attractive because of her being a victim of bullying.
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- Basics: Kim is tall, strong and sporty. He could effectively defend and protect her from Chloé or almost any of the other kids.
- He's stupid and this manifest itself very dominently in him not being too bothered by authority or threats. No, I'm not joking, him being stupid factors into this. "Derision" shows how everyone around Marinette is at least to some degree afraid of Chloé (or her parents) because of her power, the verbal insults she can deliver or physical "pranks"/bullying she pulls. Kim on the other hand isn't bothered in the slightest by whatever Chloé does and because of that Chloé has barely any power over him the same way she does everyone else.
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Plus, Ms. Mendeleiev is characterized and highlighted as the strictest, most unfair and most "Chloé-like" teacher and one thing is for sure, she definitely would have some "nice" opinions on Kim too and certainly wouldn't hold back voicing those either. We don't need to see it on screen to know how she would treat certain students we know by now. And just like with Chloé, Kim probably isn't too bothered by Ms. Mendeleiev either besides being annoyed by her unfairness. I have no problem seeing how Marinette would find herself drawn to a person who isn't bothered by Chloé's and Ms. Mendeleiev bullying (because it's flying right over his head), something she has to constantly endure and feels very hurt by.
Also: if he already doesn't mind whatever they can do or say it to him, then the chances are good that he isn't very interested in whatever mean things they say about or do to others (meaning: Marinette) either. Logically, Marinette would find the thought of being with a person who won't listen to or believe everything bad being said about her ect VERY appealing.
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- because of Kim not being bothered by the bully environment they are all in, he is probably by a good edge the most carefree and "fun" student/friend around. And fun is something Marinette certainly missed in the school environment or wished she could have despite the danger she's constantly in because of Chloé and the teachers.
- and one more thing I think is incredibly important: it's not like Marinette isn't SEEING right in front of her eyes that Kim has bully characteristics too. They immediately showed that through the old dynamic between Kim and Max:
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Socqueline is right in her concern when she doesn't want Marinette to get closer to Kim because she can see that he behaves in ways that clearly will clash with everything Chloé puts her through. But the thing is, Marinette is not stupid. She knows that but she didn't minded it and was even drawn to Kim because she saw that whatever Kim is doing that resembles Chloé's bullying isn't done by him with the intention of bullying.
It is realistic that Marinette would find comfort in a person like that in her circumstances because Kim is openly showing his worst (yes, one should acknowledge here that is was clearly shown that Kim by himself would have never done to Marinette what he did. Even he double checked with Chloé if she was sure that Marinette would like a prank like that) and therefore Marinette knows (or thought) that his worst therefore can't be truly dangerous to her. And may I say, feeling like the worst the other person can/will do to you not being something you have to fear because you don't concider their worst dangerous to you IS something humans are naturally very attracted to. This perfectly checks out, Marinette’s rose-colored glasses just.. overlooked a bit too much potential danger in good faith.
What mattered most to past Marinette in that moment is that she can't see any malice in his actions and intentions. And because of that she didn't minded the thought of putting up with Kim's more negative characteristics. She knew this isn't the same as with Chloé.
This is also one major factor of why Kim's prank messed Marinette up so much and why that should have been properly acknowledge by the episode because Chloé alone didn't cause this. Kim as a person and the fact that he sorta-bullies without malice was just as important. Marinette made a clear-cut distinction between Chloé's bully behavior and Kim's and was drawn to him because in her eyes his kindness/ not maliciousness outweighed the negative.
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BUT then Chloé as an outside force came along and took Kim - who is one of the few students not intimidated by Chloe and actually finds her charming - and his bullying without maliciousness and turned his regular "danger-level" up to an eleven by using his kindness/ and stupidness against Marinette.
Kim's kindness and not maliciousness may have outweighed his negative character traits and because of that Marinette wouldn't have minded at all putting up with it since she knew that Kim himself isn't a danger to her the way Chloé is, but the thing that truly traumatized Marinette is having wittnessed that a person's kindness or low danger-level doesn't stop the world around them to use and turn their kindness into something else and into a weapon against her. It's when even kindness looses it's purity and therefore can't be trusted anymore because of bad people corrupting it and the good person (this is literally the same base structure as what Gabriel does to the akuma victims Marinette has to save)
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And concidering that this is exactly one of the true major issues Marinette has with pursuing Adrien romantically and which hold her back from accepting his kindness towards her as true and loving as it is - something she is even directly referring to and calling out in this very episode! - one would think this episode would have prioritized highlighting it instead of just blaming everything on Chloé and Chloé alone because it's easy. Like, that was the point!
Please point it out and not just the Chloé part! If there was one narrative half that could have remained in the surface-level subtext, it should have been the Chloé part and not the one directly explaining to us alot of major reasons why Marinette behaves around Adrien AND Chat Noir the way she does and most importantly: why Adrien/Chat Noir is inherently DIFFERENT and therefore never truly off-putting to her no matter how similar some points I just listed get.
But that is a whole analysis for itself and it's way past midnight now so I'll add it on another day.
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leadenn · 6 months
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Hello welcome to my Chloé, Adrien, Jon, and Damian being childhood friends agenda. Chloé and Damian fucking hate each other until they're 13 and form an alliance against Gabriel bc they both hate him more than they hate each other.
Bruce knows Gabriel bc rich people stuff, so when he had another accidental child acquisition arc he figured Damian could use a friend or two his age (Jon, Chloé, and Adrien)
Damian dislikes this at first, but then he doesn't hate being around Jon and Adrien. Chloé is a different story. She's a spoiled brat, he hates her, and he doesn't understand why killing her would be a bad thing. The feeling is mutual.
Jon and Damian have comical little shenanigans hiding their hero identities from Chloé and Adrien, and they have to do the same shit except hide it from Jon and Damian once they get their miraculous.
I can imagine them all going on vacation together or something and going over the various ways to hide shit from each other
Damian: I open the doors so you can't rip them off the hinges by accident- Jon: I did that twice. Damian: Because Agreste said something you considered "cute" and you were flustered enough to behave like a barbarian. Do you have any other comments? Jon: You know you're only allowed to have two weapons on your person, right dude? Damian: Tt. Yes. Jon: Do I need to check your pockets? Damian: *pulls out an unrealistic number of knives from his pockets, and reaches into his socks to pull out more knives*
Meanwhile in paris Chloé: You don't need to lecture me about making sure Pollen behaves. She's never done anything wrong ever. Adrien: You and her came up with the idea to pretend Pollen is a wasp and have her try and sting Lila in front of everyone Chloé: Yes, and? It was funny and she totally had it coming. Adrien: ... Chloé: Don't fucking say it- Adrien: Beehave. Chloé: If Pollen and I can't do the wasp thing YOU CAN'T MAKE BAD PUNS-
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generalluxun · 30 days
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MLB MQ Boop
It was impossible. Of all people, it shouldn't have been her. The streaming rain couldn't hide the truth though. Cat Noir had tried. He had fought tooth and nail. Dragonbug could see him, struggling to rise even now as the sky cried their defeat.
Three shapes strode through the rain towards her, others stood impassively behind. The two tall shapes resolved first, purple and blue. Enemies to the core. Mayura wore a grim smile.
The third resolved last, the grey resolved to black through the rain, and yellow highlights follows. Miracle Queen. Chloé.
Hawkmoth didn't even bother to hide his fiendish glee, "Now Miracle Queen, take her Miraculous. Give me the Ladybug and the Cat. The rest are yours. You will be the only hero in all of Paris."
Miracle Queen stepped forward, box held under one arm. Her glowing wasps formed an aura around her, even in the rain. Purple within blue eyes stared down at Dragonbug's bent form. Dragonbug struggled to rise. She could still fight, she would still fight. She had two miraculouses. Seven on one? It didn't matter. Broken body? It didn't matter. She-
"You see Ladybug? Even Hawkmoth knows it. Once a hero, always a hero. Too dangerous? Ha. You should know I never let anyone get in my way." Miracle Queen leaned down. She reached out with one hand. Dragonbug's world shrank to those spread fingers. She saw the end and her racing mind turned completely blank. "Boop." Miracle Queen's finger touched the end of Dragonbug's nose. The stolen Miracle Box fell into her numb hands.
"Now, let's get these ridiculous losers."
Despair turned to disbelief.
The impassive silhouettes advanced, resolving into the other mind-blanked heroes. They encircled Hawkmoth and Mayura from behind.
"Ha, looks like the fur's about to fly, now." Cat Noir had pushed himself up on his baton.
Disbelief turned to hope.
Pain fell away. A yellow and black grip helped Dragonbug rise as the others closed in.
Miracle Queen ducked under Dragonbug's arm and supported her with a shoulder. "I promised I wouldn't disappoint you."
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ryuryuryuyurboat · 3 months
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les lois d'amour: deuxième acte.
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synopsis: alors qu'une légère pluie tombe sans raison.
genre: fluff, slight angst at the end
characters: neuvillette x mermaid! reader
warnings: fem! reader, usage of 'mademoiselle' to refer to reader, reader referred to in 2nd person
a/n: hehe @i23kazu submission for ebg!! likes, reblogs and comments highly appreciated!!
©2024 ryuryuryuyurboat. do not repost, translate, plagiarise, or modify in any way, shape or form.
masterlist
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it had been weeks since nevillette last met you behind the opera epiclese, weeks since you wormed your way into his mind, and he still had absolutely no idea what your name was. were you well? did you face any troubles? were you adjusting well to life on land? 
he stood, sighing as he neatly arranged the stacks of paper on his desk. at this rate, he would never get any work done– perhaps a good lunch at hotel debord could help him get his emotions in order. 
it seemed as though the divine had been listening to his thoughts, for he heard a familiar voice sweetly call out to him.
“bonjour, monsieur neuvillette!”
you were surrounded by a group of children who were clamouring for you to tell them more tales from under the sea, the glow of happiness on your face just as radiant as he remembered. 
“bonjour,” he politely returned the smile, “it’s been a while. how have you been?” 
“very well, miss navia has been nothing but kind and welcoming!” you cheered. “everyone’s super nice too, can you believe the elders said humans were not to be trusted?” 
one of the children gave a loud gasp before neuvillette can reply. “no way! could it be…”
another cut him off. “jeez, antoine, how long did it take you?” 
“not everyone’s a genius like you, chloé!” antoine glared, giving chloé a light shove before turning to you. “so, mademoiselle y/n (neuvillette makes a mental note of your name), is it true?”
“hm?” you tilted your head.
“are you and monsieur neuvillette together?”
“EHH?”
“ah, actually–” he began, but a chorus of voices cut him off.
“y/n and neuvillette sitting in a tree! k-i-s-s-i-n-g!” the children chanted over and over, linking hands and skipping to form a circle around you both. 
you smile sheepishly up at him. “sorry, they’re… quite the zealous bunch.” 
“haha, evidently.”
somewhere in the distance, a bell chimed.
“alright! run along, now, kids, or your parents will come hunting for my tail.” you clapped your hands. “i’m also getting hungry–” your eyes softened at their whines, “hey, it’s not as if you’ll never see me again!”
neuvillette cleared his throat as the crowd of little ones dispersed. “you said you were hungry? would you like to go for lunch together?”
he allowed you to lead him by the arm, listening as you chattered about how excited you were to taste more fontainian cuisine– well, with the exception of seafood, of course, and he felt a strange warmth bloom in his chest. 
oh. and an odd sense of foreboding, almost as if it was taunting him: how long will this serenity last, monsieur chief justice?
over the court of fontaine, light rain began to fall without reason.
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taglist: @lynyluvr @kazemiya @meidnightrain @https-furina @dailypenpen (send ask to be added to taglist!)
if you liked this, do consider dropping me a follow for more :>
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Hey Chris, how are you? Hope you're doing well
Can't remember if you've ever done something like this, but can I have Alear, Ivy, Chloé and Rosado with an S/O who always cries because they're too pretty?
thanks
(FE: Engage) Alear, Ivy, Chloé, and Rosado's S/O crying because of how pretty they are
This ask was from November WHOOPSIES, but I'm doing well! Just procrastinating on writing as per usual.
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Well, this was bound to happen since Alear was a divine being.
She figured this would probably happen among the more Pious members of the Somniel.
But when S/O told Alear that they were crying because she was pretty, as in just regular pretty, she couldn't help but blush.
(Alear) "O-Oh...Um, thank you! But, please don't cry!"
She has no idea how to actually deal with the situation. It both flattered and confused her to no end.
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Ivy's mind completely comes to a halt.
She's had all kinds of people compliment her appearance, but never to the point they actually cried.
Her eyes blink rapidly as she sees S/O wipe away a few tears, just to make extra sure she was seeing things correctly.
It also makes her blush wildly, compounding onto the issue of trying to get them to stop crying just by seeing her.
(Ivy) "I see...I appreciate your kind words, but I would ask that you do not shed tears because of me."
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Chloé is taken aback for a moment, immediately going to S/O's side.
(Chloé) "S/O, why are you crying, did something happen?!"
When told the reason, she couldn't help but feel a little bad. She was the reason her S/O was shedding tears but...because it was from her beauty?
That honestly sounded something unhinged that Louis would say.
And he kept his eyes closed!
(Chloé) "I'm sorry...I think?"
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Rosado thinks something was wrong, drying their tears with a gentle hand.
(Rosado) "Dear, what's going on?"
And after being told the reason:
(Rosado) "Hah...I suppose my beauty is that moving after all...T-That was a joke, right?"
On some level, Rosado could understand. Seeing something so beautiful could move him to tears as well sometimes.
But to be the very thing that someone found so beautiful, well it made his heart skip a beat honestly (and boost his ego).
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One of the things I hate about Thomas Astruc is his thing of warping people's personalities to benefit his agenda.
Chloe is a good example of that:
In previous seasons, Chloé was always a passive bully (as weird as that sounds). She almost never does anything with her own hands. She usually made Sabrina do things for her (such as stealing Marinette's diary and taking pics of her designs). Or she calls Daddy to make things go away ("Daddy, do this! My daddy will do this to you if you don't do what I want!" *cue crocodile tears*).
When she does do things herself, she isn't direct. She always does things in roundabout or petty ways, like locking Juleka in the restroom, or bribing her class with concert tickets to become representative. The only direct thing I can think of is her trash-talking, like when she made Mylene cry by making fun of her cowardice.
And yet, we're just supposed to believe that she's suddenly capable of keeping Sabrina prisoner in a closet, is abusive to her dad (when what she does is either steamrolling or guilting), and puts roaches in Marinette's locker (damn girl can't even make a hat. What makes you think she'll make the effort to put roaches in a locker?)
I hate it. At least keep things consistent! It's possible to make Chloé a monster without sacrificing her personality!
The thing is that this could have worked as part of her "damnation arc" if it was natural development.
If you wanted to actually show Chloe getting worse instead of claiming she was always evil, make it so Chloe has to rely more on doing things by herself, becoming more aggressive and cruel in the process. That way, by the end of Season 5, it makes sense why Ladybug and Cat Noir see her as a huge threat.
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liquid-luck-00 · 2 months
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Red Binding 1
Maribat March Day 1: Origins
@maribat-calendar-events @maribatserver
Next
Trigger for implied neglect, blood, and violence towards a minor
~~~~~~~~~~
Marinette was, what most would consider a normal, happy, child. But that was far from the truth.
She was ten when she finally noticed something was off.
Her parents as much as she loved them and they said that they loved her. Never made time for her. Never asked more than how was her day, so she would ramble about anything and everything. She never had a curfew and her parents never seemed to worry. That's when the bullying began.
She was eleven when she recognized that the bakery was the top priority and not her.
Her school life was in shambles. Her friendships were strung by a thread, with even a whisper from Chloé, they would abandon her.
So when a small box appeared in her room, at the age of twelve, and from it a small red creature asked her to leave with them she agreed. They talked for hours, extending for days (a bit over a week in total), before she was truly good and ready to leave Paris. They spoke about their lives (existence in Tikki’s case), the powers and responsibilities that would be placed upon Marinette, but most of that time they enjoyed one another’s presence.
The creature listened to her, actually listened to what she had to say, gave her a choice, so she agreed to follow the creature.
In the middle of the night she packed a small bag and stood in the center of her room. "Are you ready, Marinette?" The creature, Tikki they called themselves, chirped. "As much as I can be." She looked the creature in the eyes and everything spun. It felt as if she was floating, or not, as she slammed onto the stone floor.
When she stood up, she dusted herself off and looked around. She was in a well kept garden, the air was thin, but the moon was bright over head.
"ལགས་སོ། ཁྱེད་རང་ཕེབས་བྱུང་།" A voice startled her as she jumped from the sound.
"Who are you?" She questioned. "Where am I?"
The man was still, he didn't seem to hear her, or maybe he didn't understand.
"ང་དང་མཉམ་དུ་ཤོག" The man turned and walked into a building that looked like some sort of temple. She stood there staring where the man used to be before he turned back. His even strides carried him right to her. "ངས་རང་ཉིད་ལ་བསྐྱར་ཟློས་མི་བྱེད།" The man's tone surprised her, she jumped to her feet, following him at a brisk pace.
Lanterns lit the walls of the hall, no doors or even windows could be seen. The two of them walked in silence for what seemed a half hour, but she couldn't tell. She tried to remember the path, but there were too many turns and steps to remember.
They stopped at an ornate circular red door, that was roughly twelve meters in diameter. Golden knots were carved expertly into the wood.
He stepped aside as if she was supposed to do something, but she didn't know what. So Marinette stepped forward and placed a hand on a golden vein.
A flash of golden light erupted from where her hand touched the wood, as it swung open on silent hinges.
She had turned away, in an attempt to shield her eyes.
"Welcome, child." A voice from inside was warm and she stepped forward.
She wanted to say something but thought better. Yes she understood this new voice, but the man before she still has no idea what he said. She just followed him and he led her here.
"Do not fear to speak child." The voice came from everywhere, echoing through the large cavern. What looked like an island garden sat in the middle. A giant oak tree with flowers blooming in complete darkness sat at this center. Chimes rang thought the branches without any wind.
"Who are you?" She finally asked, voice small, as she looked around. "Where am I?"
Chimes rang almost resembling laughter. "I am known as the supreme. As to where you are, you are with the Order of Miraculii, my child of creation."
"Order? Creation? Where is Tikki?" She started rambling questions in the hopes of at least one being answered.
"All will be answered in time." Chimes once again filled the cavern.
"སུའུ་晗་ང་ཚོའི་ན་གཞོན་སྲུང་མཁན་ལ་བཀའ་སློབ་གནང་རོགས།"
"ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་བཀའ་གསུང་གནང་བ་བཞིན་དུ་ངའི་བླ་ན་མེད་" The man spoke with a bow, before placing a hand on her shoulder and leading her out of the cavern.
He led her to a room that was somewhere deep in the temple, at least she assumes it is. The room was simple, a four poster bed sat against the far wall. A desk was set next to it with a bookshelf that was carved into the wall above it. A dresser was next to the door, and a thick rug was spread underfoot.
"Tikki."
"Yes." The little god appeared in front of her with a poof.
"What’s going to happen now?"
"There is a lot for you to learn, but for now rest. The morning will come soon."
•••
Jason didn’t know why he left that night.
Scratch that he knew exactly why.
Bruce and Dick were arguing again, and no matter where he was at the manor he still heard them. But it wasn’t them it was Cathrine and Willis fighting for the uptenth time. So he did what he always did, he snuck out.
He was running roof tops trying and failing to get the voices out of his head. The weather was starting to change and a sludge of rain and snow fell around him. If only…
He shot out to grapple to the next building but with the semi frozen and slick exteriors the hook slipped. He began to free fall, as the line retracted, and everything was quiet. He heard his heart flutter then a sharp click. The line was back and he shot it again, this time it landed. He was yanked and thrown into a graceful arc before landing on another roof.
He stood in the middle of the high rise roof. Completely soaked but he didn’t care, he just wanted to stay in this quiet for a little while longer. He sneezed, breaking him from his stupor, sure the suit helped keep him relatively dry, but it didn’t do much for the cold, less still for his head that was completely out to the elements.
He kicked a few rocks that were strewn in the roof in an attempt to warm up, but stopped when some sort of metal glinted underfoot.
He reached down and found a ring, and when his fingers wrapped around the metal a flash of green illuminated the rooftop.
"Finally!" A nasally voice echoed around him. "I thought you were never going to notice it."
"Who are you?" He half whispered half yelped. "Show yourself." He reached for a batarang.
"No need kitten." A tiny cat like creature floated up to his eye level. "Names Plagg, and you are?"
He didn’t answer, he’ll he didn’t know if this was real or if he might actually be asleep. He gripped the batarang, feeling as it sliced through his glove straight to his hand.
"Not asleep." He whispered to himself. "So what are you?" He attempted to poke the creature with his finger, but it easily evaded him. It took hold of the ring and dropped it on to his finger.
"I am a kwamii, specifically of chaos and destruction." They puffed their chest, watching as the ring emanated a soft glow before it stopped. "And you are my kitten."
"I’m not your anything." He didn’t want to be involved with magic, it only seemed to cause problems, if the reports Bruce had was anything. "It started with that ring, right?"
"Yes an…" He didn’t let him finish speaking, he tried to pull the ring off, but it was gone.
"What did you do?" His attention snapped to the supposed god, or whatever it was.
It was about to say something when his vision started to blur. Something heavy slammed into his head. He felt himself starting to crumple forward, laughter ringing behind him.
When he woke up, Jason was tied and laying face first in a dingy old storeroom or maybe a warehouse. There wasn’t much light except for three industrial lights towards the center of the room. And under the furthest one was the silhouette of a person.
"Is the birdie awake?" The voice was tinged with laughter, it sent chills down his spine. He knows who that voice belongs to.
I’m sorry.
"Let’s have some fun now!" Joker came into his view and then he noticed the item in his hand, but he couldn’t stop him. The crowbar swung down and it connected with his upper arm. He was thrown into a box to his right. The next hit was to his stomach, as he coughed up blood.
I’m sorry. He heard again, but Joker didn’t react to it. So he knows Plagg is in his mind.
Stop apologizing and talk. He thought, and he did.
Plagg told him a story. He tuned out best he could, but it was difficult whenever he would be thrown around. It even felt like Plagg was holding his breath at times, waiting for his attention to continue.
"Well it’s been fun, Boy Blunder, but you should go to bed. Don’t forget to brush your teeth and say hello to the Big Bad Bat." He left him there in a heap on the floor, a ringing his ears silenced everything except for Plagg.
"Come on, get up! Please!" He saw Plagg flying in frantic circles over a box.
"There is a bomb, and…" Plagg placed two paws on his forehead before flying back, to where the bomb must be. "You will live, Kitten, I swear it."
A flash of green and black rolled over him, yet the blast of air did however destroy the building they were in. But he saw Plagg fly back to him. He felt him curl into his hair, his purring rhythmic, as he began to loose consciousness.
"What a waste." He felt someone turn him over. Changing the path of the blood on his face to stream into his mouth. It tasted like iron, and dirt, and it burned his throat. "I will see you when you awaken."
His world went black, Plagg’s put was a constant rumble. The next time he opened his eyes it was dark, Plagg was on his chest staring at him, his green eyes glowing in the dark.
Steady breaths kitten. Plagg’s voice echoed in his mind, as he tried to explain what was happening. You’re in a coffin.
"How!?" He began to panic, but Plagg began purring which calmed him.
You need to stay calm, you can get out. Focus my power.
I don’t know how. He thought, not risking wasting the little air he had.
The ring on your finger is a focus for power. Do you feel the space my presence takes up within your mind?
He searched concentrating on Plagg’s voice and presence in his mind. Yes.
Good. Now pull that towards the ring. He pulled at it but there was a resistance, like a rubber band being stretched too far.
Slowly. He made the connection and his palm glowed with a faint black and green light. Now touch the area in front of you.
He did and as soon as he did the rubber band snapped back. But a hole big enough for him to pass though was above him, along with a foot of dirt above it. He was tired but he tried again. It was harder this time, but he managed. He touched the top of the dome, but only a few inches disappeared this time. He was about to try again when Plagg stopped him.
Don’t kid! You’re exhausted. Channeling magic requires energy along with training it, like any other muscle. We have to dig the rest of the way.
Fine. He huffed.
The ground was wet and soft from all the rain. But he knew if he didn’t hurry that would be an obstacle. It was starting to freeze. That’s how he knew he was getting close to the surface. Plagg had been moving the dirt into the casket, allowing him to stand. Yet he flew up to him this time with a broken piece of wood, and he knew just what he needed it for. He finally broke through the surface and pulled himself up. He laid back, legs still in the hole, but he stared at the cloudy sky, taking giant gulps of air.
"I knew you could do it, Kitten." Plagg stiffened and his hackles rose before disappearing. Guard yourself.
What do you mean?
"You were quicker than I thought." A feminine voice carried through the cemetery. He stiffened, knowing what Plagg was warning him of. "Now let us be off."
Someone grabbed him and he tried to fight them, but he was exhausted and they weren’t.
Next
~~~~~~~~~~
Permanent Taglist:
@jennifer-rose123 @toodaloo-kangaroo @joydone07 @mizzy-pop @starling218 @crystalqueertea
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milarqui · 1 year
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Scarlet Lady: Origins (Part 1)
Directory
That blasted girl! she thought. She had been the queen of this class of pathetic, poor peasants for years, and Dupain-Cheng, who was the worst of the lot, had somehow got a spine to replace the baguette she once had!
Baguette, ha! I kill myself.
Maybe that new girl, Cesar or whatever, had something to do with it, but she needed to make sure Dupain-Cheng got the message that no one got away with messing with Chloé Bourgeois, the Princess of Paris!
“I’ve got to get back at that upstart Marinette and Alya for talking back to me,” she muttered, and she looked towards the girl, who was distracted doing whatever homework she had missed, the clumsy idiot. And she also saw her bag - seriously, what a horrible thing, not even a Dior! - unattended to a side.
Struck by a brilliant idea, she carefully walked towards the bag and put her hand inside. Maybe she could find something she could use to put her down, back into her place. Her fingertips touched something wooden and polished, and when she grabbed it and pulled out, she saw that it was an eight-sided box that looked really old and expensive.
Hahahaha! This is probably an old family heirloom! she thought, crowing to herself with an evil smile. She’ll be totally freaked when she can’t find it! Perfect!
As she left back for her seat, Marinette remained completely oblivious to what just happened.
And would remain so for months.
----
Perhaps, if she had known what that act of thievery would bring her, Chloé Bourgeois might not have carried it out.
Perhaps.
But Chloé Bourgeois was never one to think on the long-term consequences of her actions.
----
Back home from that peasants’ building known as Collège Françoise Dupont, Chloé sat on her bed and picked the box she had purloined - not robbed, robbing is something those who are pathetic do! - and admired its colors. 
“A pity that this was wasted in that family of boulangers,” she said. “Let’s see what kind of treasure I won. Hee hee!”
And she opened the box.
----
Within the box, the kwami known as Tikki had been waiting for this moment for quite some time. Master Fu had shown her how her future holder, Marinette, looked and acted like, and she knew it would be a wonderful partnership. With Nooroo and the Butterfly Miraculous in the hands of someone who would use it for evil, someone needed to act - and who better than the girl that showed strength of character and compassion in every act?
The box opened. This was her moment!
“Hello, Marinette!” she said, smiling. “Please, don’t be afraid, everything’s--!”
The light that usually covered this kind of thing vanished... and she saw that the person in front of her was clearly not Marinette. Blonde, long hair in a ponytail, rather than black and held in pigtails. Blue, cruel eyes instead of innocent blue. Features of Caucasian ascendancy instead of Chinese.
Conclusion: Master Fu had made a mistake.
“WHO ARE YOU?!” Tikki screamed, trying to make a sense of what had happened.
“THAT’S MY LINE!!!” the girl screamed even louder.
----
Elsewhere in Paris, a boy by the name of Adrien Agreste had discovered a similar box, containing a ring and the kwami known as Plagg. After the terrible day he had had, with his attempt to finally go to school thwarted by Nathalie and his bodyguard, he had listened to the cat-like creature and jumped into the chance to become something he had always wanted to be.
A Superhero.
“THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME!!!”
----
He would regret those words soon enough.
----
Chloé couldn’t make heads or tails of what this little bug was telling her.
Going out there to fight some monster that had suddenly shown up?
"You’re the only one who can stop the Akuma!” the bug said.
As in, doing something sweaty?
“You use Lucky Charm to save the day?”
Helping other people? Her mere presence was enough to do that! She didn’t need to do like Majestia and waste her precious time in making people think they had any value beyond doing what she wanted.
“You have a partner?!”
And not even a way to claim the credit! No, she had to share it with some no-name peasant, and she couldn’t tell anyone she was the one that had saved their lives! No, she had to hide herself for whatever dumb, irrelevant reason the bug had mentioned, something about someone wanting to rob the earrings she had purloined from Dupain-Cheng.
But the bug was persistent. It kept pestering her until she agreed to it.
Well, maybe she could actually do something and bask in the love of the masses.
----
At the Dupain-Cheng’s house, Marinette thought she had earned a prize for finally telling Chloé off for being a jerk, so she had made herself some popcorn and gone to watch TV, where the usual programming had been replaced by a live newscast.
Un Super-Vilain Á Paris?
A giant creature, who for some reason the newscast had identified as Stoneheart, had shown up in the middle of the city, and was causing quite a lot of chaos.
“Stoneheart is moving toward the Montparnasse Tower!” Nadja Chamack reported, clearly shaken by the current events, as the titan punched a car and sent it flying several meters away.
“Sucks,” Marinette said, munching on her popcorn. Not like there was much she could do. If she were part of something like United Heroez, she would probably jump into action, but she was a civilian, so--
“The monster... seems to be unstoppable!”
And, as Stoneheart kept ambling towards its target, at the down left corner of the screen, Marinette saw something.
Or, rather, someone.
“ALYA!!! What are you doing?!”
----
How does Lois Lane always look so perfect when she does this?! Alya Césaire thought, panting as she pedaled behind Stoneheart. This could be the start of her journalist career!
----
“I’m starting to get the hang of this,” Adrien - no, Chat Noir, that was his superhero name - said, following the trail Stoneheart was leaving behind.
“aaaaaaaaAAAAAHHHHH!”
Pain.
Before he could react, someone had crashed on him, and now the two of them were tangled in some sort of thin rope and hanging upside down. And, as he recovered his sight, he was met with someone wearing a domino mask, similar to his, but red with black polka dots.
This had to be the partner Plagg had mentioned! Well, maybe he could break the ice and begin with a good joke.
“Well, nice of you to drop in!”
“Omigod, no.”
Seriously? Not even a smile?
Tough crowd.
The girl in red pulled on something, and the rope around them suddenly became untangled, causing them both to fall to the ground.
“Say, what’s your name, partner?”
“Why should I tell you?” she replied, with a tone that reminded him too much of his father talking down to someone else - usually him.
“I’m Chat Noir! Nice to meet you!” A loud noise reminded him that Stoneheart was still loose, and he swung back in action. “Come on! Stoneheart seems to be going for the Parc des Princes!”
“Stone-who?” he thinks he hears her say, but it might have just been his imagination. He didn’t pay it any mind.
It was time to be a hero!
----
Sabine Dupain-Cheng looked in shock as her darling daughter nearly crashed down the stairs and towards the door, a look of dread in her face.
“Marinette, where are you going? Lunch is almost over.”
“Out because my new best friend is INSANE!!!”
The bell clinked as Marinette opened the door, picked her bike and started to pedal westward.
“What’s going on here?” she wondered. Well, she would certainly learn about it later.
----
Chat Noir charged towards Stoneheart, his new staff - he could make it grow like Goku did, which was amazing - in hand, and attacked the creature, distracting it from the guy it was trying to attack.
BANG! the staff sounded as it hit Stoneheart’s head.
And then Stoneheart grew in size.
“Oh shit, he’s bigger!” he said, dodging an attack. “Where are you, partner?”
Looking around, he saw his partner standing at the top of the stadium.
“Ah, there!” Good, she could jump in and help him stop Stone- wait, was that a compact mirror?
She was preening in front of a mirror while he was here, risking his life?
“HEY!!!” he shouted, dodging another attack.
----
It looked like that mangy cat had everything well in hand, so she didn’t need to do anything at all! Whew! She could just stand here and let him do all the work, that was what peasants were for, after all.
“What are you waiting for, Super Red Bug?” a voice said from below, and Chloé Bourgeois turned to see the new girl down below, a cellphone in her hands.
“Ugh, you again.”
“The world is watching you!” Césaire said, gleaming and smiling.
“The world is watching...?”
Oh my god, this was perfect! She could jump in, easily put a stop to the monster and bang! Instantly famous! The adoration of all Paris was at hand!
She closed her new compact mirror and grinned.
----
Chat Noir was starting to feel that maaaaaaybe he was a bit over his head. Nothing he could do to Stoneheart could stop him, and it was a hard task to just keep dodging everything. And, of course, his partner refused to do anything.
Stoneheart had grabbed one of the goals with its gigantic left hand, and was clumsily attempting to swing it at him, but fortunately his years of fencing had given him the reflexes to avoid such a large object, and the suit was actually making him faster and stronger!
But then Stoneheart tossed the goal - and it was clear the target was not him, but a red-haired, dark-skinned girl that seemed to have followed them into the stadium.
Oh, no!! he thought, and he turned about to attempt to stop the large object from hitting the girl.
“ALYA!”
Before he could act, someone else, a girl with black bluish hair in a pair of cute pigtails, tackled the red-haired girl out of the way.
“You came!” the red-haired girl - Alya - said.
“Yeah, but why did you?!” the new girl replied.
Whew, crisis solved. Now, he had to find out how to stop Stoneheart, quickly, before it could cause further disruption.
“Cat boy!” the pigtailed girl said, and he felt her hand on his shoulder.
“It’s Chat Noir, actually!” he replied, turning to look at her - and wow, she was quite cute and blushing.
“He doesn’t open his fist!”
“Good note, thanks! Maybe you should be a hero!”
Anyone could be better than his "partner". Not that that was a high bar to surpass.
“Priorities!” the girl said.
----
Chloé could only see red. That blasted cat had said that Dupain-Cheng should be a hero? Ha! As if!
She jumped and kicked Stone-whatever in the head, sending it tumbling away as she turned to the cat and her classmate.
“WHAT DID YOU SAY?!” she shouted.
“Wow, wow, calm down! Maybe we need to use our powers to stop him? Cataclysm! My power destroys anything,” the cat said, his right hand covered in some sort of icky black thing.
“How barbaric. And useless. Like you.”
“Did I look cool?”
The cat thought he was cool? She wanted to laugh.
“Absolutely not.”
The cat grabbed the large net thing that had fallen nearby with his right hand, and suddenly the white on the stick became black, and in seconds the entire thing had disintegrated into dust.
She was sickened to have to admit it, but that trick left her hair standing.
“Jesus...”
“So, what about yours?” the cat challenged her.
You’re going to swallow those words, you mangy cat!
“Lucky Charm!” she declaimed. After a flash of pink, she felt something heavy in her hands, that seemed to be made of rubber and looked a lot like this unfashionable costume she was wearing. “Oh, ha ha, Tikki.”
“So, how useful is your power?” he taunted her, and she angrily threw the thing at him.
“Why not ask your other partner?!”
“You just don’t want to work,” he muttered. Well, of course she didn’t! Work was something someone as important as her shouldn’t be bothered with!
You’ll come crawling back to me once you see how useless Clumsinette is, she thought, grinning at the idea of her rival doing anything useful at all.
“Cat boy, run interference!”
“it’s Chat Noir!”
“Alya, the tap!”
“You got it!”
What.
----
Chat Noir followed the black-haired girl’s instructions. The moment he had given her the polka-dotted red wetsuit, she had immediately come up with a plan. It was a bit risky, particularly since he would have to let himself get captured, but something told him he could trust her.
His trust was rewarded. The girl had managed to trick Stoneheart into grabbing her and the wetsuit, dropping a purple rock from its closed right fist, and then Alya had opened the hose tap, filling the wetsuit to grow and forcing Stoneheart’s fist open. The girl had quickly jumped out, ran for the rock and stomped on it, letting out a black butterfly and a crumpled piece of paper.
And Stoneheart transformed back into a large boy that looked to be his age.
The girl picked up the note and ran for the large boy, shouting what he presumed was his name, as his ring began to beep.
“What’s the noise mean?”
“Dunno, I didn’t read the manual,” he said. Maybe he should have waited for Plagg to explain everything before transforming?
----
“Kim wrote it. He’s always making fun of me,” Ivan confessed to his classmate.
“Pa, don't worry about him. He cried when we saw The Little Mermaid when we were 10.”
He chuckled.
----
Chloé grabbed the rubber thing - now empty of water - and attempted to rip it, but it only stretched without giving in.
No one’s paying attention to me!
How could this be? She was Chloé Bourgeois! The Princess of Paris! Everyone’s eyes should be on her! All the boys should be in love with her! Everyone should worship her! But here they were, paying attention to a mangy cat and Bruel who got his dumb arse turned into a monster, instead of her!
Oh, wait. Tikki had said something about this, right? That she could fix stuff broken by the monsters with this Lucky Charm thing?
“Hey, reporter girl! Catch this! MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!”
The Lucky Charm transformed into a cloud of ladybugs that flew around everything Bruel had destroyed as Stone-whatever. In moments everything was back to its normal state - still below the quality she demanded of everything, of course.
“Whoa!!” Césaire said, and she rushed towards her, cellphone in hand. “Incredible! You can fix everything?! Hey, what do we call you, Wonderbug?!”
Now, that was closer to what she expected. Still not enough simpering, but closer.
“Well, obviously not that. Let’s see...”
----
Chat Noir was tired. Fighting Stoneheart had taken out a lot off him. And he realized that maybe the beeping was some kind of count down.
And then he heard his ‘partner’ proclaim to have saved the day ‘in spite of her clumsy partner’s inability to do anything right’.
“You... you didn’t do anything,” he muttered, astonished of her credit stealing. But then the beeping became more insistent and he left: he had to return home before someone noticed he wasn’t in his room.
Somehow, the beginning of being a hero had become nothing like he had thought it would be.
----
Fu sipped on his favorite tea, relaxing after a long day. Wayzz had reported that the negative energy of the Butterfly had vanished, which meant that young Marinette and young Adrien had managed to stop Stoneheart and captured the corrupted butterfly transforming him. Good. Ah, if only he were a few decades younger! He would have been able to go out there and guide the two young heroes in the matters of the Miraculous.
Wayzz clicked on the remote to turn on the TV and see if the news were mentioning anything about the attack.
“... our new hero, Scarlet Lady...”
He turned to look at the screen, only to notice something strange, because the girl wearing the Ladybug Miraculous didn’t resemble his Chosen wielder at all-
“... thanks to amateur footage by local student, Alya Césaire...”
-and then the screen showed Marinette and a red-haired girl he supposed was this Alya Césaire, smiling at the camera.
“Wait...” Wayzz said. The problem was clear: if Marinette was there in her civilian clothes, who was wearing the Ladybug Miraculous?
He barely noticed as his teacup crashed into the floor.
----
“So... her name is Scarlet Lady...”
Plagg was a bit disturbed by his bearer’s angry face. What in the holy name of Camembert had happened to leave him like he had gone a few rounds with trying to swallow some mushrooms?
“I’ll call her Scar for the scars she leaves on my life.”
Uh-oh.
----
Tikki enjoyed the cookies Chloé had offered her.
But she still wondered why she was here, instead of with Marinette.
And she remembered there was something she hadn’t explained.
“Did you catch the akuma?”
Chloé gave her what she supposed was what humans called the ‘deer-in-the-headlights’ look.
“Huh?”
Uh-oh.
----
Origins (Part 2)
@zoe-oneesama Hope you liked this.
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ilikekidsshows · 3 months
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hey I figure that you’re probably tired of talking about the Sentimonster nonsense but I genuinely still can’t stand that it’s an actual thing. The wildest thing about it is that I JOINED the fandom because of the Sentimonster theory, actually got excited for it and looked forward to hints, not believing the skeptics or the salters bc it didn’t seem like such a big deal—that is until I saw with my own eyes how SO MANY FANS said with their whole chest that, in “Ephemeral” Adrien HAD to be a Sentimonster or there was no other “sympathetic explanation” for why he didn’t de-akumatize himself or fight off Gabriel.
Seeing the victim blaming in real time was such a punch in the gut—and then they just kept on coming!! It finally hit me how damaging the entire thing because for the show as a whole. If even regular fans that weren’t even known for salting could so willingly disregard and ignore genuine abuse coping mechanisms in favor of magical BS… it was such a dark time. Abuse Apologism and victim blaming in a whole package
Sometimes, when I write about Miraculous, I pretend I'm writing about a show that only had three seasons. That's what the "zagulous fandom" tag is for; it's for posts that are about the parts of Miraculous that had Zag's executive control keeping Astruc in check. I also kinda accepted long ago that my blog's kind of a support blog for people who are against the Sentihuman concept.
When I first heard of the expanded Sentimonster theory, the one that went "all the rich kids are Sentimonsters", I instantly went: "You do realize how making victims of child abuse nonhumans with questionable rights minimizes their victimhood and excuses their abusers, right?" people told me I was making stuff up and whoopsie doo, the writers did exactly that.
Neither Gabriel nor Tomoe faced any consequences for abusing Adrien and Kagami because, after all, since they're Sentimonsters, the real abuse was that they didn't have their Amoks so giving them their Amoks resolves all their problems. The only abusive parent who gets acknowledged as such is Félix's dad, who is dead by the time we hear about any of this, because we can't have abusive parents face consequences for their actions because that might upset people or whatever excuses Astruc's giving for Gabriel's vindication now.
This also minimises all the affects of the abuse on the kids, since they can be handwaved away with: "They were just programmed that way." Kagami's bad social skills aren't because her mother isolated her, it's because she forgot to program Kagami with those skills. Félix's villainous behavior isn't because his mother is overly permissive with him, he was just programmed that way (by the eeeeevil Colt). Adrien isn't a people pleaser because he's repeating his abuse coping mechanisms with his overly controlling girlfriend to keep her happy the same way he did to his overly controlling father, he was just programmed to be the perfect doting son and boyfriend.
You'll notice how neatly this ties into the crew denying that Chloé was abused in any way ever by her clearly abusive mother. Chloé wasn't made into a Sentimonster, so we can't have her bad coping with her abuse be excused by "Sentimonster programming", so now the writers are just gaslighting the audience and saying: "Chloé wasn't mistreated by her parents which caused her to act to out to get attention (which she literally stated to be her motive in season 3), in fact, she's the one who's been terrorizing her poor, innocent father and he needs to be protected from this naturally occuring evil hellspawn."
All child abuse in this show gets excused.
Of course, now the writers have an added reason to make sure Adrien's abuse gets excused in particular: because they made Marinette benefit from it. As I said, Adrien is repeating abuse coping mechanisms learned from dealing with his father to keep Marinette happy. He's always prioritizing her feelings and never brings up his own problems, and this is good for Marinette, because she can just enjoy having a perfect boyfriend who caters to her every need and doesn't have problems of his own or with the ways she treats him (for all she knows). She's even maintaining this status quo by lying about Gabriel to Adrien, so Adrien won't get upset (and have emotional needs that she would need to help him with). Either we have to excuse Adrien's abuse, or we have to admit Marinette is benefitting from the fact that Adrien was abused, and even taking advantage with the way she makes no effort to improve their communication on her end, preferring to spy on Adrien and lie to him instead of just talking to him like an equal.
The show writers are also allergic to following through on their creative decisions, is what I think. They put all these different victims of child abuse and neglect in the show, and then dehumanized these children in different ways so that they wouldn't actually need to say anything about that abuse they wrote in and they can instead pretend it was never there. This is why I also think that, no matter how much the show's defenders insist the story isn't over yet, we will never be getting a proper resolution to the Sentinonsense.
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