#mireille caquet | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

goggles-mcgee · 2 years

Text

Replaced: It’s The Latest News

Second Chapter of the story for @miner249er

Last Chapter Next Chapter

Summary: Alya prided herself on being the Number 1 Ladybug journalist in all of Paris. She was the one who got exclusive interviews, she was the one who got recognized in a sea of reporters and news channels on the scenes of akuma battles and she was the one who had been trusted to be Rena Rouge. So imagine her surprise when a rival Ladybug blog has the latest Ladybug scoop, not just a scoop, no, they had Ladybug as a guest and she gave them the honor of hosting her announcement.

Alya tried her best not to feel betrayed.

Alya prided herself on her journalism skills. Her blog was the culmination of those skills. It was definitely a step up from going around her old neighborhood with an old tape recorder (her father’s) and a little handheld journal to write whatever she found that caught her eye or ear. She upgraded to using an app on her phone to record herself or whatever juicy lead she was following and a note app that let her type out quick notes that she would later transfer to her computer so she could flesh out her story. It was a beautiful if not meticulous process, one she found almost methodical. Oh it was hard work don’t get her wrong but it was work that paid off and it was work that deserved to be recognized. Alya had a talent and she knew that, ever since she was a little girl she knew she had wanted to be a reporter. It was different than most kids her age, especially when her and her family had been living in Louisiana in the States.

Moving to Paris had been a big move but when her mother had gotten the job offer by the mayor of freaking Paris to work in his hotel restaurant it had been an easy decision to let her mom follow her dream, the whole family had agreed. Besides, from what her mother had told her and her sisters, their ancestors had lived in France for a substantial amount of time before they fled to the States and settled down in New Orleans. When Alya had asked why their ancestors had fled her mother had been particularly avoidant of the whole thing, she always said it wasn’t the kind of story she wanted her little girls to know. Of course her father had agreed with his wife, that was what led Alya down her path of journalism. Down her path of justice. Her ancestors were her past just as much as her mother’s, she should be able to know why they had fled to the states in the first place.

War had been ruled out pretty fast, as it was something her mother denied when asked and she knew her mother wasn’t lying. When her mother lied she tended to bite her lip and scrunch her nose. It was an obvious tell. When her father lied his left eyebrow would twitch just the slightest bit. Nora rarely lied, her older sister was someone who wore their emotions on their sleeves, but on the rare occasions she did lie she would give this awkward smile. Now the twins were still at that stage where if they lied they looked off to the side or giggled, it was horribly obvious. Alya knew all her family’s tells so she knew when her mother lied or told the truth, her mother quickly caught on to that fact and just refused to talk about their ancestors all together. She wanted to know the story, no, she craved the story! She needed to know and so she set out to find the truth.

It made her feel like a secret agent! Hunting down the clues, following leads if she got any. It was thrilling. In the end it wasn’t that big of a shock, Alya had honestly been expecting the fleeing of her ancestor (who she found out was a woman called Fayette) to be something big and shocking like running away from an assassin or an arranged marriage to a wealthy family and her ancestor had a torrid love affair! Something dramatic! In the end it was because Fayette wanted to travel while her father firmly denied his daughter’s wish because, though she was the youngest daughter, she had responsibilities. The family had a farm and Fayette knew she would either live a life on the farm or have to marry to get away from the farm and that wasn’t something she wanted so she ran and caught a boat to the States.

Though it wasn’t the story she had been wanting nor expecting it was still something that she had hunted down and found herself and it had made Alya feel so good and accomplished. Her mother and father hadn’t been so happy with her, nor had her grandparents but nothing could have dulled her flames that day. She told everyone about it, even those not in the family, it was a story she found, so she figured she had every right to share it. Nora had been interested to hear about it but when she found out Alya was telling her friends at school and the neighbors, she got mad just like their mom and dad. That was the night that Alya got lectured about what she shared, because that was a story about the family, one that was supposed to stay in the family.

Alya really didn’t see why it mattered. It’s not like Fayette did anything bad, so she saw no problem with sharing the story about her ancestor, but her parents told her it would have been fine if she had asked permission. That was also the night that Alya decided it was better to ask for forgiveness than to beg for permission because she knew her parents never would have given her their say to share the story. Okay maybe she didn’t know for sure but she liked to think she knew her family members well enough to know they wouldn’t have so she stuck to her thought to ask for forgiveness. Plus, reporters never asked for permission to follow stories they just did! And she was going to be the best reporter ever.

Maybe that was a childish thing to still believe in but Alya knew she had the skills and the drive to reach for it. Sure she had some hiccups but those were merely bumps in the road towards her shining future! Alya had grown since those small mistakes and so had her blog, her blog was truly her greatest accomplishment. Her blog would also be the key to getting her future, it was her portfolio, her experience, it was her everything. A large part of her success she credited towards Ladybug, if it wasn’t for the hero, her blog wouldn’t have found its focus nor its audience, but it was her who built it to what it was today. It was her hard work, her editing, her research, her talent that made it what it was. Perhaps she sounded smug but Alya firmly believed she earned the right to.

Lately though her posts weren’t getting as much traction as they usually got. The numbers were still high but not nearly as high as they had been months ago and Alya had no idea why. She hadn’t done anything differently. She still posted the latest akuma fights, she still posted random facts that correlated with the animal or whatever thing the Kwami of a Miraculous represented, she still posted interviews with Lila. Her content was the same perfect formula she had created and observed as being her most popular, so there should have been no significant drops, and yet there was. Sure Alya could go to her comments and try and see what the people were displeased with but it was getting harder to find the actual constructively critical comments and the haters.

Ever since her first interview with Lila she had been getting massive hate, that’s not to say she never got any before but that interview seemed to set off a chain reaction of hate comments. They called Lila every name under the sun that was synonymous with ‘liar’ and they called Alya many names too but more often than not she was labeled with ‘sell-out.’ Lila, of course, apologized for the hate her interview brought. Apparently she had quite the following of people who hated her and tried their best to denounce everything she did. Alya had brushed it off but to be honest it was a pain because those comments took up so much of the comment sections of her posts that she basically gave up blocking people and deleting comments. It was just too much work. What made it worse was that Alya’s best friend seemed to believe those people.

Marinette was never someone who didn’t give someone a second chance or believed rumors right off the bat, and yet she was whole-heartedly against Lila. It hurt. It hurt because Lila was amazing and kind and generous and just everything that Marinette was and if that girl could just open her eyes, Alya was sure they would be friends. Apparently that wasn’t going to happen, or at least not any time soon, so until Marinette could grow up Alya had decided she needed space from her BFF. The girl squad knew and agreed so they too held Marinette at arms-length when they interacted with her. They hoped it would make the girl realize she was in the wrong and apologize but she hadn’t.

It hurt to admit but Alya missed Marinette, she missed how they would pass notes during class (well back when they sat together), she missed how Marinette was always ready to help her if Alya needed her, and she missed their sleepovers. There was so much she missed but those were the things that first came to mind because in class her and Lila didn’t pass notes, Alya had to take class notes for Lila and herself because of Lila’s wrist issues. Alya loved Lila, she really did, but Lila promised help but she had so much already going on that she often forgot. And sleepovers, Alya missed not stressing out about them, every time Lila came over for a sleepover she felt like her house, her very room, wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t a very nice feeling so somewhere along the way she stopped offering sleepovers.

Another thing she missed was how excited Marinette got for Alya when she got a new scoop on Ladybug and the Miraculous Squad. Her joy amplified Alya’s. Nino was always excited for her but it wasn’t really the same, and so was Adrien, another local Ladybug Fan, but again, it wasn’t the same.

Speaking of Ladybug it seemed like the hero was avoiding her. Lately after an akuma battle the hero left the space no matter if her Miraculous was beeping or not. She would give a couple of answers to the press and then yo-yo away. Usually she would give Alya a little interview or at least wave to her camera but lately that stopped. It stopped and Alya wasn’t sure when it actually started to stop and that scared her because that meant her attention slipped. Her focus slipped and as a reporter focus was crucial.

“You good babe?”

Alya blinked out of her thoughts and gave Nino a small smile and a shrug. “Yeah I guess. Just a little anxious I think.”

“Of the upcoming announcement?” Adrien asked from his spot next to Nino.

They had all headed to the park next to Alya’s house when Mireille and Aurore notified everyone at school and on their blog (MiraculousTales another blog about Ladybug and the other heroes that defended Paris-Alya was loathe to admit it was a good blog) that they had an interview with Ladybug who wanted to make an announcement.

“Partly.” She admitted as her focus went back to Nino’s laptop that had said blog on display. “But I don’t really want to talk about the other thing right now.”

Nino gave her a knowing look but nodded anyway while Adrien just looked confused. The poor boy always looked confused these days. No not confused, well okay, yes he looked confused but he also looked frustrated a lot. Alya and Nino just chalked it up to problems with his dad, it seemed like the model had a new event or photo shoot going on each week. Alya had half a mind to report it to her parents and see if anything could be done because surely that had to be illegal. She had even considered writing a piece on it but Alya wasn’t stupid, she knew if she wrote about Adrien and his awful work hours that she could very well be sued by Gabriel Agreste and really her blog didn’t need that. Plus she didn’t exactly have proof, nor was her source confirmed, two things that were very important in the field of journalism.

“Oh look! It’s starting!” Adrien announced as he bounced in place. Alya couldn’t help the fond smile that slipped through, if she didn’t know better she would say Adrien was a bigger Ladybug fan than her.

“I wonder what this whole announcement is for.” Nino mused as they heard the voices of Mireille and Aurore greet the viewers from the screen.

“I don’t know…Usually they let everyone know what their next videos are going to be about, same with announcements. I mean they at least give a brief synopsis of the announcement or if it’s a surprise they say it is. This feels like something else.” Alya mumbled as she stared hard at the screen. Whatever Ladybug had to announce she knew it was going to be important so of course she had her notepad and pen out just in case.

“Hey Lovelies! Aurore here, I know, not who you wanted to see, but before we bring in our special guest Mireille and I had a couple words we wanted to say.” Aurore said with a bright smile, Alya felt a little bad when she wished the girl would hurry up and announce Ladybug already, but well, they promised Paris’ number one hero and if there was one thing Alya understood about running her own blog was that the people were impatient for their content.

“We know you guys are eager to see our guest and hear her announcement,” Mireille said softly, “but we just wanted to take a moment before that to let you guys know how grateful we are to each and every one of you for following our blog.”

“Yes, we are so grateful. We never imagined the blog gaining popularity so fast. So we just wanted to thank you, our wonderful followers, as well as those who helped us set up this blog. A special thanks goes out to Claude Beauréal, my cousin, for doing the coding and technical stuff for the blog as Mireille and myself are awful with technology not related to our phones.” Aurore admitted with a laugh as she held up her phone to show a picture of said cousin to the viewers.

“See, if this wasn’t an important announcement Claude would have edited a picture of himself on the screen so you guys could see him better, though I’m sure you will see a picture of him somewhere on the blog following this video.” Mireille said with her own laugh.

“Very true Mireille! We would also like to give a special thanks to the designer of the blog who helped with the layout and the icons, Paris’ own Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” Aurore made a heart with her hands towards the camera before her smile broadened and she straightened in her seat. “Now that the thanks have been given, please welcome our guest, the beautiful, the talented, the miraculous…Ladybug!”

Alya felt like she had been on a rollercoaster back in the States, one that traveled with a fair. It looked fun but you still looked at it with skepticism because while it looks fun you don’t know how much you trust it despite the fact you know the machinery is constantly being checked over. Alya had willfully boarded that rollercoaster and already her stomach had dropped, Marinette had designed their blog’s layout? She didn’t know how she felt about that. The first emotion that came up was betrayal followed by rage followed by this chest clenching sadness. All to end with numbness, but then the introduction of Ladybug had her heart swooping, her pulse rushing and she pushed all thoughts of Marinette away in favor of her favorite hero.

“Thank you for the warm welcome you two.” Ladybug smiled at the two girls as she strode into frame and took a seat across from both Mireille and Aurore. Alya bitterly thought of all the times Ladybug gave her that smile and how it always made her feel so warm, so special, so important.

“Huh. That’s weird.” Nino mumbled.

“What? What’s weird?” Alya questioned right away.

“Uh, well, there’s a lot of seats there for just three people.” He replied.

“Maybe they didn’t have time to take out the other seats?” Adrien said, though he posed it as more of a question. Nino just shrugged while Alya frowned.

There were a lot of seats.

“You are always welcome on our blog Ladybug.” Mireille gave the spotted heroine a shy smile.

Ladybug returned the smile with one of her own. “You’re too kind. Now, I don’t want to take up too much of your or Paris’ time but I felt like this needed to be addressed. There may be some of you who have noticed and those of course who haven’t, but…there have been some changes as of late to do with what you have dubbed us as, ‘Team Miraculous.’”

“Changes?” Aurore asked.

“Yes. First off, it has fallen to me to let you, the people of Paris know that Chat Noir has decided to be a solo hero. We are no longer partners. I can’t nor will I, disclose his reasons why. Those are his own. So just know his actions are also his own and are not affiliated with myself and the new ‘Team Miraculous’.” Ladybug was as she always was in her interviews, business as always but her words were like a rock being thrown at a window.

“New team?” Alya whispered in horror.

“Dude…I wonder why Chat left.” Nino said as he shook his head like he still couldn’t believe Ladybug’s words. Adrien…Adrien was oddly silent and very focused on the screen with a scowl on his face. Alya felt for him, she figured it was because he was such a big Ladynoir supporter like herself and this was like a cannonball to the ship. It seemed like it was well and truly sunk.

“Maybe she’s just announcing that the temporary heroes are going to be permanent? I mean they haven’t been called in a while but with Chat ditching her she is going to need help.” Nino mused in excitement, one Alya shared, maybe Ladybug was just too stressed with Chat leaving to notify them of their new status’ as the permanent heroes! That had to be it!

“Now I noticed the not so subtle air-quotes over ‘Team Miraculous.’ Why is that?” Mireille asked.

Ladybug hummed as she leaned back in the chair she had been provided. “You’re observant. It’s because the old team was disorganized, we never had an official name. Frankly it was a hot mess. The new team does actually have an official name now and this is a good time to introduce you all to them, I would like to introduce you all to 'The Court of Miracles’.”

Alya’s hopes dropped as fast and hard as her heart and stomach.

The first to appear on screen was a new Bee hero. She strode in with her two high pigtails swaying behind her. Her pigtails had black streaks curl around them to end at a point and she had ribbons near the base that came up to slightly curl above her head like antennae. The ribbons were black and ended in little yellow pom poms. The black of her gloves came up to about mid-bicep, her black boots came to about mid-thigh. Her body suit was striped black and yellow like a bee but it did have a white fur collar and it looked like she had poofy shorts reminiscent of Victorian bloomers, the stripes on the shorts were vertical instead of horizontal. Above the shorts seemed to be a silver belt that looked to be like a honeycomb design.

“This is Honey Bee.” Ladybug introduced and said hero waved to the camera before taking one of the empty seats.

Next came out another girl, the new Mouse hero. Her short hair was in a half-up half -down style with the part that was half-up was styled into little buns, the color of her hair was black that faded into a soft pink. Around the buns were false mouse ears, the outside of the ears were gray while the inside were pale pink. Her gloves were black and slightly puffed out at the wrists with gray ribbon on the wrist, you could faintly see pink mouse paw-prints on the hand of the gloves when the hero waved. Her boots resembled her gloves and her suit was mostly gray with pink details. The shoulders of the suit were puffy like a fancy dress shirt and it seemed like there were edges of sleeves that, like her gloves and boots, fanned out. Only instead of gray ribbon for detail there was black ribbon.

The collar also resembled that of a dress shirt only rounded and black. There was a pink bow there on the collar and there was a bigger bow wrapped around her waist, much bigger, tied in the back and the end of the ribbons wound around each other to mimic a tail. If you looked closely you could see what looked like a jump rope tied under the ribbon on the waist. Alya distantly thought she kind of looked like a magical girl from an anime. “This is Merry Mouse.”

The hero that followed Merry Mouse was like a punch to the gut for Alya, she barely even felt her eyes tearing up as she saw the new Fox hero. He was tall and his hair was an ombre of burnt orange to white, it was a little long so it was pulled back in a little ponytail, fake fox ears were attached to what looked like a Newsboy cap sat atop his hair. His suit looked like a three piece suit that Alya had seen men wear in the orchestra, though it looked a little old fashioned she noted, she wasn’t quite sure what made it so, but they were meshed together it seemed. It wasn’t a bad look she bitterly admitted to herself. Hell, she herself had given her Rena Rouge look a tailcoat somewhat. To top off the look, the Fox hero had ankle length boots. Of course everything stuck to an orange, white and dark brown color palate.

“The new Fox hero, Foxtrot.” Ladybug said with a warm smile at the replacement.

“Hello.” Foxtrot said softly with a wave as he took a seat.

Another hero came out briefly after Foxtrot and Alya had to bite her lip so she didn’t make a sound or worse yell something out in outrage. The next hero was the Turtle hero. She was elegant as she walked out, her head high, her short hair was a dark green that looked almost black. The suit itself was a bit intimidating to Alya for being the Turtle but it did look cool. The suit under was dark green like her hair but she had what looked like a black kimono over it. Over the kimono in sparcing pieces were what looked like armor in the fashion of samurai armor. They looked like turtle shells, spiky turtle shells and they too were black like the kimono. Her hands were covered by the dark green material but if you looked closely it looked like she had claws.

“This is Genbu.”

“It is an honor to be here.” Genbu said as she took her seat.

“It’s an honor to have you.” Mireille said.

“Wow. The new Turtle looks…” Adrien muttered. Alya flinched when he spoke, she completely forgot he had been there. Alya turned to look at her boyfriend who was staring at the screen intensely, she knew the feeling. She grabbed his hand and gave it a soft squeeze, one he returned.

“Next we have Striker.”

Striker seemed to be the new Snake hero. He walked on screen with a quiet confidence, his hair was a little hard to see because of the hood that covered it, it was no surprise that the teal hood looked like that of a snake. The hood itself was attached to a tunic vest, the front of the vest looked like the belly of a snake and was a pattern of aquamarine and seafoam. The suit underneath the vest was dark, clearly it was a mix of green and blue too but Alya honestly only knew a handful of colors because of Marinette’s fashion rants. The boots that went to mid-calf were the same color as the back of the tunic vest and hood and also that of the gloves. It was a simple but effective look. When Striker sat and waved at the camera it was the hair that shocked Alya, the hair was pure white.

“And finally we have Vouivre.”

Alya didn’t know if she could handle any more new heroes. How could Ladybug replace them all? Not just temporarily, she made that perfectly clear, these clowns were there to stay and it burned Alya. And yet, she couldn’t look away. The last hero walked on screen, the first thought Alya had was, wow this chick is tall. The second thought she had was, I would not try to take that girl on in a fight, Miraculous or not. Vouivre had short fiery red hair that looked like it was slicked back due to the wind and nothing else. Two black horns sat in her hair and in the middle of her forehead was an eye shaped ruby. Her suit was this gorgeous emerald green and the pattern looked like scales, the green and scales wrapped around her left leg and vanished into her boots. It was very reminiscent of a tail. Around the ankle of the left boot was a golden ring. The boots themselves and the right leg of the suit were black. Around her waist and neck were what looked like strings of pearls and to top off the look were the symbols of the chest.

“This is the Court of Miracles. We are Ladybug, Honey Bee, Merry Mouse, Foxtrot, Genbu, Striker and Vouivre, along with our two Chamberlains who work in the shadows we swear to protect the people of Paris.” Ladybug said with such conviction that Alya flinched.

“Marinette?” Now that caught Alya’s attention and she silently thanked Adrien for the distraction no matter how distraught the boy sounded. She felt like she was about to have a mental breakdown. When she got home she was certain she was going to be sobbing into her pillows but for now she was going to indulge in whatever caught Sunshine’s attention.

The sight that greeted her however threw her for another loop, one just as big as the damn announcement. Now Alya would be the first to admit it had been a while since she had seen Marinette and to be honest she hadn’t really paid that much attention to the girl but she didn’t think much would have changed. Evidently she was wrong. There Marinette was walking with Luka Couffaine like there was no where she would rather be, with long fucking hair. Since when had her hair gotten so long? And when did she dye the underside of her hair pink? The same pink that matched her high-waisted plaid skinny jeans. She wore thick heeled silver boots that gave her some height, though she was still smaller than Luka. She wore a black cropped Jagged Stone shirt that Alya knew she had cut herself and she was wearing Luka’s jacket.

The trio of Alya, Nino and Adrien watched the two teens walk by as they remained oblivious of their audience and talked animatedly about the same announcement they had been watching. Alya felt her heartbreak when Marinette didn’t even glance at them but she also felt this overwhelming fury, she turned to complain at being unnoticed but caught sight of Adrien frowning at the retreating forms of Marinette and Luka while he rubbed at his chest.

“You okay there Sunshine?” She asked in lieu of complaining.

“What?” Her question seemed to snap the boy out of whatever thoughts he had been drowning in. “Oh…yeah. Yeah I’m fine.”

Alya didn’t know if she fully believed that but she was more than happy to let the issue go in favor of talking about the new heroes and how there was no way they would be better than the old ones.

___________________

Honey Bee- is Aurore if you guys did not guess. I considered also giving her the name of Honey Queen but I decided she wanted to distance herself from Chloe's version of the Bee. Though her aesthetic does have some parts to it that are reminiscent of royalty.

Merry Mouse- is Mireille. Her appearance is based on a headcanon I have for the girl and that is she loves Magical Girl animes/shows, and since the Miraculous Transformation takes your ideas and wants into mind she has a more Magical Girl look than most of the heroes.

Foxtrot- is Luka. I gave him this Miraculous because after Miracle Queen he can't keep the snake and he holds a creative patient soul that I believe would mesh well with the Fox Miraculous, add to that his mischievous side and I thought it was a good fit. His look is inspired by men's fashion from 1914, because that is when the Foxtrot started up and was popular. (he is also the one that cast illusions of Mireille and Aurore as their hero selves partaking in the announcement.)

Genbu- is Kagami. I gave her this Miraculous because she is fiercely protective of those she loves and is loyal too and because Genbu (who was worshipped as a God and known as Black Warrior/ Black Turtle) is seen as a warrior deity. This is because the shell of a turtle is like a suit of armor. So it is no surprise that Kagami wanted to look like a mighty warrior.

Striker- is Marc. I gave Marc this Miraculous because he is patient and more than willing to hang back and observe so he can help out. He chose the name Striker because it sounded like a cool superhero name from the comics he loves so much and because he liked to compare being the Snake Hero to that of the snake "sudden striker" in Sunzi's Art of War. His look is based more on a traditional hero look mixed with a rogue look since he thinks himself a background hero.

Vouivre- is Ondine. I gave her this Miraculous because she is a fighter and determined and loyal. Her look and name are taken from the description of the vouivre in The Drac: French Tales of Dragons and Demons. I headcanon Ondine being obsessed with fairytales so when she was given the Dragon Miraculous she immediately remembered the stories of the vouivre and thus her decision for her hero look and name was made.

The two Chamberlains that Ladybug mentioned in her Court are Chloe and Sabrina, they offer the heroes support from the shadows. Chloe still wanted to help the hero but knew she couldn't do that as a hero anymore so she offered her aid in support and finances if the hero needed it and where Chloe goes, Sabrina follows.

Next Chapter

464 notes · View notes