soc_puppet | More Miraculous Ladybug Not!Fic (Reply)

Three from a fanfic trope combo meme:

The meme

Rules: Send me two (2) tropes from this list + a ship and I’ll describe how I’d combine them in the same story.

01 Historical AU
02 Royal AU
03 Modern AU
04 Coffee Shop AU
05 Bar/Restaurant AU
06 Bookshop AU
07 Florist AU
08 Hospital AU
09 Dance AU
10 Airport/Travel AU
11 Neighbour AU
12 Roommate AU
13 Detective AU
14 Bodyguard AU
15 Criminal AU
16 Prison AU
17 War AU
18 Circus AU
19 Summer Camp AU
20 Teacher AU
21 Dystopian AU
22 Space AU
23 Performer AU
24 Soulmate AU
25 Fairy Tale AU
26 Massage Fic
27 Sick/Injured Fic
28 Proposal Fic
29 Wedding Fic
30 Holiday Fic
31 Birthday Fic
32 Pregnancy Fic
33 Baby Fic
34 Vacation Fic
35 Bathtub Fic
36 Text/Letter Fic
37 Coming Out Fic
38 Grief Fic
39 Survival/Wilderness Fic
40 Almost Kiss
41 First Kiss
42 The Big Damn Kiss
43 Dance of Romance
44 Flowers of Romance
45 Chocolate of Romance
46 Blind Date
47 Not a Date
48 Fake Dating
49 Fake Married
50 Arranged Marriage
51 Accidentally Married
52 Marriage of Convenience
53 Mutual Pining
54 Secret Relationship
55 Established Relationship
56 Awful First Meeting
57 Forgotten First Meeting
58 Accidental Eavesdropping
59 Interrupted Declaration of Love
60 Poorly Timed Confession
61 Love Confession
62 Love Confessor (Character A confessing their love for Character B to Character C)
63 Everybody Knows/Mistaken for Couple
64 Star Crossed Lovers
65 It’s Not You, It’s Me
66 It’s Not You, It’s My Enemies
67 Character in Peril
68 Heroic Sacrifice
69 Flirting Under Fire
70 Locked in a Room
71 Twenty-Four Hours to Live
72 Stranded on A Desert Island
73 Stranded Due to Inclement Weather
74 Huddling for Warmth
75 Bed Sharing
76 Did They or Didn’t They?
77 In Vino Veritas
78 Above the Influence
79 Anger Born of Worry
80 Green-Eyed Epiphany
81 The Missus and the Ex
82 Second Love
83 Intimate Artistry
84 Married to the Job
85 Innocent Physical Contact
86 I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On
87 Aroused By Her Voice
88 Erotic Dreams
89 First Time
90 Unexpected Virgin
91 PWP
92 Kink
93 Makeovers
94 Hair Brushing/Braiding
95 Sleep Intimacy
96 Scars
97 Time Travel
98 Curses
99 Magical Accidents
100 Accidentally Saving the Day

Selection by

sweetmeatdale: 60. Poorly Timed Confession, 63. Everybody Knows/Mistaken for Couple, for whatever ship but the confession from a congratulatory wingman

At Alya's urging, Ladybug has decided to hand out a few other Miraculous on a more permanent basis, but still makes the call whether any given "secondary" hero should show up. After a particularly long and messy battle, Ryuuko, Cat Noir, and Ladybug end up picking the same unused storage closet with a burnt out lightbulb to detransform in. They're trying to make excuses for how to get out of there safely, with everyone's secret identities intact, when the door opens to reveal Alya, who had seen Adrien and Kagami go to "hide" in that same closet and now knows who all three of them are.

"Finally!" says Alya. "Now I can stop looking for excuses to set you three up! I hope you're ready to come out of the closet now," she adds with a wink.

Adrien and Kagami, not knowing that Alya (now) knows all of their identities, are quick to jump on the excuse Alya gave them, while Marinette, who is well aware that Alya has put the pieces together by now, is quietly dying inside. At least she'll die happy, though?

More shenanigans:

The three of them are somehow convinced they need to be fake dating: Adrien and Kagami because they don’t know that Alya knows, and Marinette because she doesn’t know how to explain that Alya knows. “Fake” dating ensues.

After the first couple of dates, Adrien and Kagami are doing their best to work things out between them and make the relationship seem real with Marinette, and end up being the healthy end of the thing by actually managing to talk about their feelings for Marinette and how their feelings for each other never actually went away, and oh hey, now Kagami knows exactly what was going on and gets why Adrien couldn’t tell her stuff! Adrien still apologizes, saying he could have done a better job with her feelings, etc, and they come to an understanding. Their next item of business? How to convince Marinette that this shouldn’t be a fake relationship, it should be a real one.

Marinette, meanwhile, is freaking the hell out at Alya. What the hell was her BFF thinking? She told her about her feelings for Kagami in confidence! And Alya wasn’t supposed to do anything about them, especially since neither of them actually knew if Kagami was even into girls, let alone Marinette herself! No, the fastest way to get out of this is simply for Marinette to figure out how to rope the other two into staging the perfect breakup for Alya to witness. And maybe now they can date each other again? That’d make everyone happy! …Two people happy, at least. And Marinette will learn how to be happy for them, so that’s everyone after all! Yeah.

Alya takes all of this in, nodding at the appropriate times, making noncommittal noises, etc, until Marinette finally winds herself down with “the perfect plan”. She then goes directly to Kagami and Adrien and explains what’s what: “Marinette loves both of you, I’m sure you both love her, and if you don’t do something quick, she’s going to ruin a very good thing for all three of you. I worked very hard to find a way to make her happy, and I’m not going to let her ruin it! So: Are you with me? (Also I know your secret identities, JSYK.)”

Together, the three of them do their best to out-maneuver Marinette’s own plan to break Adrigaminette up and find their happily ever after.

lady-charinette prompted: 14. Bodyguard AU, 66. It’s Not You, It’s My Enemies, Marichat or Lukanette (and upon asking, said she’d be okay with an inclusive “or”)

Things with Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth/Whatever-that-asshole-calls-himself are starting to reach a crescendo. During the latest mass akumatization, Ladybug interpreted her Lucky Charm in a very interesting way, and chose to end the fight by revealing her civilian identity to all of Paris.

Naturally, the vast majority of Paris decided to make a physical wall between their beloved hero and the supervillain she’s been fighting for however long now, probably years, IDK. Finding himself unable to akumatize anyone new, some of the current victims actively rejecting their akumas, and the rest of them outright overpowered by Paris’ citizens, Hawkmoth chose to retreat. But with Ladybug’s secret identity no longer a secret, that puts Marinette in extreme danger, and she has to sleep sometime.

Enter Marinette’s plan: She is acting as bait to lure Hawkmoth out so they can retrieve the missing Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses once and for all. She doles out the other Miraculouses to their most recent holders and gives them instructions for how she plans to lure Hawkmoth out.

It can’t happen for several days, however, and until then, she needs to be protected. That’s where Cat Noir and Vipereon come in: No matter how much Marinette protests that she’s fine on her own and can protect herself, all of her friends agree that she needs someone to watch out for her, and these two are the only ones who don’t need to be on the front lines for her plan.

Marinette spends the next few days alternating between worrying for her friends and over her plan, fretting over Adrien being missing (where is he? Did Hawkmoth somehow get him? She really hopes he’s somewhere safe) and being turned into a blushing mess by Cat Noir and Vipereon being totally gallant and amazing and romantic—I mean platonic! Very, very platonic, and not at all super sweet and sexy and—and it is entirely possible that Marinette will blush herself to death before her plan to capture Hawkmoth has a chance to be put fully into action.

Meanwhile, Cat Noir and Vipereon are both convinced that the person Marinette loves is the other one, and are being very self-sacrificing about it and doing their best to talk up their perceived rival. This is not helping Marinette sort out her feelings for her “three” (really two) love interests at all.

And if stakeouts sometimes get a little bit intimate, and Cat Noir and/or Vipereon end up starting to understand what Marinette sees in that other guy, well. Maybe that’s something they can all sort out after Hawkmoth is finally behind bars.

For

alexseanchai: Magical Accidents + Flirting Under Fire + Ladynoir

Someone gets akumatized over their frustration over some of the people in their life not communicating properly. (Possibly it is Luka, Kagami, Alya, or a combination thereof, over exactly who you think it would be over.) The akuma’s power is to essentially magnetize two people together who are arguing/fighting with the goal of making them sit down and talk it out now that they can’t escape each other. Ladynoir get hit when Cat lands a particularly well-crafted—and entirely accidental—flirt at exactly the wrong moment, leading to the two of them attempting to fight the akuma while being not-quite-literally glued at the hip (okay, they’re stuck holding hands).

Ladybug complains one too many times about how she’d like to bring in this or that hero, but she can’t expose their identity to Cat, and Cat finally cracks and accuses her of not needing or wanting him around anymore. Realizing not only that shit is going down emotionally with Cat, but has been for quite some time, Ladybug retreats with her kitty in tow; clearing things up right now is more important than the akuma.

In a safe hiding place, Cat finally confesses how he’s been feeling like he’s not really her partner anymore, like she’s trying to replace him, and even how he doesn’t even want to know her identity anymore because he feels like that’s the only reason she still keeps him around.

The next thing either of them knows, Ladybug is hugging him and apologizing. She had no idea he felt that way—but she feels like she should have known. She comes up with a pair of magical charms for them to share that, when one of them pushes a button, the other one will get a signal and be able to send a pulse of their feelings through the charm. She also vows to bring him up to speed on as much as she feels like she reasonably can; she says this while holding the charm and sending her emotions through it, so he can feel how much she means it.

They both know it’s not over, that there’s still work for them to do to repair their relationship, but they’re able to get back out and defeat the akuma while holding hands. They have to be prodded by Alya probably afterwards to notice that they don’t need to hold hands anymore.

(The charms end up being very helpful to both of them. What neither of them will mention, what they may not even notice consciously, is how, every time they share their emotions through the charms, it’s always accompanied by a strong undercurrent of love.)

Some Emelan mashups, prompted by

alexseanchai: Emelan Crossovers

Emelan setting: There are a couple of new mages in town! Unfortunately, the Quartet doesn’t actually know if they have teachers or not, because these mages spend all of their time in full costume, fighting (usually magical) crime. Marinette is a stitch witch, because obviously, and uses her powers to make the fabric of her costume relatively impervious to damage, to control the yoyo that is her weapon of choice, and as an illusion to keep people from recognizing the face under the mask. She set a similar charm on the cloth base of Adrien’s uniform and mask, though he’s a smith mage (I think) and has covered the outside with plates of metal that are stronger than regular armor, and his main weapon is a metal staff that he bends to his will (though he can’t make it stretch nearly as far as canon CN can). Their teacher is an academic mage named Fu who they accidentally saved from some form of harm one day, at which point all three discovered their powers.

(Gabriel is an academic mage; Adrien may or may not be responding to his attempts at academic magic training, since apparently Tris is going to be able to fake it to get into Lightsbridge? IDK. Sabine has some baking magic, but Tom is mundane; Marinette also has a teensy bit of baking magic, and Sabine was able to train her in that, though whether either of them have noticed Marinette’s thread magic or just think she’s suuuuuper into cloth stuff is more of a mystery.)

Meanwhile, there’s a magic criminal in town who’s taken to leaving curses on objects; when people pick them up, they go into a rage and are able to access magic left in the objects in a way neither the Quartet nor Niko nor anyone at Winding Circle has ever heard of. The quartet are not only trying to figure out who this new crime-fighting duo is, but what the deal is with these possesion objects that only the duo seem to know how to deal with. Sandry in particular is also troubled by the potential legal implications of these two acting in Summersea, having taken over many more of Duke Vedris’ duties, and what sort of precedent they might be setting.

---

Parisian Version: Borrowing from the Reblog Not!Fic of Doom that we still haven’t finished, Gabriel decides that he wants some extra backup or interference or whatever, and makes some new Miraculous. He doesn’t quite have the hang of it, so they’re tied to elements/things rather than animals and related concepts, and they don’t have their own kwamis, but he gets four out of the attempt: Thread/silk, metal, plants, and weather (he got some extra juice into that one from all of his experience with Stormy Weather). He finds four orphans that he can manipulate, and, as Gabriel, “recruits” them to be “new superheroes”. (No idea why he didn’t pick Lila; possibly she’s more useful as she is? Adrien he just doesn’t want involved, if at all possible.) He wants them to protect akumatized individuals from Cat Noir and Ladybug, because it’s not their fault they’ve been akumatized! They shouldn’t be hurt for something outside of their control!

The quartet agrees, because yay! Adopted! and Yay! Superpowers! etc; and they buy into Gabriel’s story to differing degrees. But with each fight sorta-against Ladybug and Cat Noir, they start to get a little more suspicious of Gabriel. Eventually they figure out that he’s tricked them and also is Hawkmoth, and go to Ladybug and Cat Noir to tell them everything, team up, and try to figure out what to do.

This ends in a big showdown when Gabriel figures out that his charges have turned on him, with the four plus the usual Miraculous crew fighting against him and who knows how many minions (and possibly Lila with a refined Miraculous, since he’s more desperate now and has a better hang of the technique?). The four unite their powers to save the city, ending in a similar bond to what they have in Emelan canon (made possible because no kwamis). Hawkmoth is defeated, Gabriel is put in jail, and Adrien is ultimately less sad/angry over this because he now has four “siblings” who were also tricked and manipulated by his asshole father, and he invites them to all move into the huge mansion that defaulted to him when ol’ Gabe was arrested.

Tags: Briar wastes exactly ZERO time taking over the garden; ditto Tris and whatever passes for a library in maison agreste. She tracks down Fu and makes him teach her how to read the coded stuff and reads absolutely every last document Gabriel had on miraculouses etc. Sandry befriends Marinette, because obviously they may be prepping to start their own fashion empire out of the ashes of Gabriel Inc. Daja is having a bit more trouble because smith magic? In modern times? But she does find work and helps keep things running in the city, with special attention to the ovens at a certain bakery. And possibly makes jewelry with Marinette and Sandry, and may end up dating Alix.

galahadwilder:

Chronic Hanahaki AU where Marinette has had Hanahaki for as long as Adrien has known her, so clearly she had it before they met and it’s for someone else she’s known for a very long time

Nathalie has had Hanahaki for a long time and he can’t help her with it so he is desperate to do something for Marinette. He can’t stand to see his Good Friend suffer like this. Who has she known for longer than him who she might be pining for? Is it Nino? Is it Kim? Is it—oh god—Chloé? He has to help her!

(There is a moment where he realizes that it might be more recent than he thinks but that only makes him wonder if it’s Alya. The alternative just… does not occur to him.)

soc_puppet:

Meanwhile, Tikki is fervently apologizing to Marinette for having created hanahaki in the first place. Those two holders in the third century just would not get their act together and confess, and finally when the Ladybug of that time said wistfully that they’d give the Black Cat flowers if only it wasn’t the middle of winter, Tikki may have ...slightly lost it.

Nino vs Carapace Twitter Battle:

sunfoxfic: Everyone loves Alya and Adrien or Rena Rouge and Chat Noir geeking out together over Ladybug but what about Alya and Chat Noir or Rena Rouge and Adrien geeking out over Ladybug, huh? Chat Noir who stands at the side of the battle making witty comments and ruining Alya's footage while Ladybug absolutely wrecks an akuma's shit? Rena Rouge and Adrien arguing about which of them is the bigger Ladybug fan on Twitter? What about them? Huh?? Huh????

soc_puppet: Okay, but only if we also get a Twitter side battle between Carapace and Nino over who's the bigger Rena Rouge fan, while neither Alya nor Adrien can explain in either of their identities why exactly it's making them crack up.

sunfoxfic: I know you probably mean post-Rocketear but all I'm thinking is Adrien who believes that Nino absolutely doesn't stand a chance

soc_puppet:

For any pre-Rocketear situations, Adrien already knows that Nino’s dating Alya and they’re ride-or-die for each other; Nino might have a celebrity crush, but all of them know he’d never act on it.

Meanwhile on Twitter, when Carapace points out that he’s dating Rena, and that basically means he’s automatically her biggest fan, Nino comes right back with how it’s because Carapace is dating Rena that it doesn’t count: He’s obligated to be Rena’s fan! Nino, however, is just some dude as far as Rena is concerned; therefore, his appreciation is worth more. Carapace shoots back that it’s because he’s Rena’s biggest fan that they’re dating, not the other way around, and will thank Nino not to get things mixed up like that. Nino responds with a literal music mix about how awesome he, Nino, thinks Rena is. Carapace then re-mixes it with even more Rena awesomeness.

The fight eventually ends with both of them agreeing that Rena is cooler than either of them, and it’s just good to be her fan in general (and Nino says that while he is jealous that Carapace gets to hang out with Rena sometimes, his own girlfriend is every bit as awesome as Rena so he’s not jealous that the other two are dating). Alya is trying not to blush herself to death, while Adrien finds someplace to sit down and stare into space, deeply confused over whether being someone’s fan “counts” if you’re dating them or not, and how this would play out with him and Ladybug.

Anon Fic Prompt: Chloe finds herself in a situation where both Miss Bustier and her mother are in trouble but she can only save one. She saves Miss Bustier, not her mother. Her father disowns her for this, but Miss Bustier takes her in even though Chloe blames her for her mother’s death.

soc_puppet: ‘Scuze me for a second, Anon, I just need a second to

I need to

I just

😭

galahadwilder: Why would you do this

soc_puppet: Okay shit where did I put my [Monarch of Angst Mitigation] crown, I need to get that sucker back on, I got this...

Ah, here we go! 👑 Now, where was I? Oh yes...

Take some time to imagine Chloe slowly healing… learning to forgive not just Ms. Bustier (because deep down she knows it’s not Caline’s fault), but also herself (because deep down that’s who she really thinks is to blame); learning how to live in a household with someone who genuinely cares about her, mentally, physically, and emotionally; Chloe growing in a home that teaches her not just to respect and understand, but to enforce her own boundaries; Chloe breaking down one day because Ms. Bustier is a better mother than Audrey ever was and she doesn’t regret saving Caline instead and now she feels guilty about that…

And Ms. Bustier sweeping Chloe up in her arms and hugging her and just… loving her unconditionally, the way a mother should love a daughter, and Chloe feeling better and worse at the same time, but mostly better.

(Chloe eventually taking Ms. Bustier’s advice and going to therapy, because Ms. Bustier tries hard, but she is not a trained therapist, and Chloe is going to need an expert.)

Chloe reforging her friendships with Sabrina and Adrien, and forging friendship for the first time with the rest of her class. Chloe finally forgiving herself for all of it, especially for loving Ms. Bustier more than she loved her bio parents.

The first time Chloe calls Ms. Bustier “Mom”.

.

And that, my friends, is where the Monarch of Angst Mitigation will leave you for today.

(Well, almost.)

(Optional: Nobody actually died. It was an akuma attack, and Chloe still saved Ms. Bustier instead of Audrey, and her parents still disowned her for it; Andre pushed the legal papers through to allow Caline to have full custody of Chloe in a classic display of appeasement/conflict avoidant behavior. Actual adoption will come when Chloe is ready for it.)

(Further optional: Thanks to Chloe’s improvement, she is able to understand that the other heroes of Paris might also need a therapist (and yes, she does get to permanently be Queen Bee eventually), and she can actually recommend her own therapist to them.)