Hello mister(Or miss) RozonRozark! My name is Richard and I would like to ask you a question.
What are all of the Powers of the five Wu-Xing Miraculous(Fox, Bee, Turtle, Peacock, Butterfly)?
While we know they have their Canon Powers and that the Fox's second Power of Reality(Which I presume is dispelling illusions instead of making them), you've admittedly given us precious little in regards to the extra Powers they possess in your AU.
I don't mean that as a bad thing! I assure you! But I'm quite curious on what they are, especially since seeing them in action opens up new possibilities in terms of both combat and character interactions.
What I mean by the latter is how Marinette reacts to another Holder having access to the higher tier Powers, because as I recall they're based on "Trust", so wouldn't that mean if someone could use all of a Kwami's Powers is a very good person? Like, how would she react to someone like that?
It's just a very interesting prospect for me(And likely other readers of Cheshire) to think about.
(It also opens up some interesting AU Ideas, like a Good!Hawkmoth AU or one where Marinette is much more open with using all of a Kwami's Powers)
Funny story, but I am actually working on writing powers down. It should be posted soonish. Unfortantly due to time restraints, I was only able to write a few of the kwamies powers and of those it was a few of the Zodiac kwamis. Next time I do this I will do it for the Wu-Xing Miraculous. As long as that is okay.
Now as for an AU where Marinette more freely uses her powers. Well I could defently write something like that but some others have written some good Cheshire AUs. Now a Cheshire AU where instead of having Hawkmoth, we have Betterfly, umm... that could probably happen in a sorta Early Discovery AU where Emilie is alive and able to straighten out her husband.
Now as for how Marinette would react to someone else being able to use more powers. It would slightly depend at what point this happens. Before Hawkmoth/Main Story, Bread would be beyond happy to find someone else who is a good Kwami Friend. She would aim to learn more from them and become a better friend to Plagg. During the main story if one of the other miraculous users was able to use more powers than it would make her a bit upset. Becuase what was she doing wrong that she couldn't use more than the Main Power while someone else could?
Well this was a fun question but I still need to get back to writing. Have a great day.
Oh by all means! Take all the time you need to complete your work! All of it is enjoyable so you taking your time just ensures it's quality.
Regardless, can we get a list of all the Power you've currently got down? A friend of mine(And admittedly, myself) is very curious about them.
Although the last part makes me sad, I hope that if Marinette ever thinks something like that that Plagg straight up tells her that the only reason he hasn't told her about his advanced Powers is because she's literally the only one of his Holders that could use them, therefore Plagg himself didn't know what a single one of them were until she pulled out Catastrophe!
Now I hope you don't mind, but I would like to deposit a few AU ideas I thought would be interesting.
The first is what I call the Miracle Finder AU, which has a very simple premise. If there exists a "Lost" Miraculous anywhere near Marinette's location, there's a 99.98% chance that she'll be the one to find it, with the remaining 00.02% spread out across the entirety of every other possible person who could reasonably discover it.
This means that Marinette taking a casual walk down the street makes her more liable to find a Miraculous than someone actively looking for one! Meaning it's very possible for her to lay claim to the Butterfly and Peacock years before the start of the Miracle War. Including with whatever fanmade Miraculous you want to give her.
The second I don't really have a name for, but I guess Eldritch!AU would work. Basically in it the Miraculous don't exist as jewellery, but people. What I mean by that is that a person can undergo a "Miracle Ritual" to tie themselves directly to the Kwami, essentially turning themselves into this Universe's Miraculous.
Now obviously some things need to be changed about how the Transformation and Powers work and all that, but my thoughts is that there are three different Miracle Rituals that grant different types of influence in the bond between Kwami and Miraculous. One puts the Kwami in complete control, the second pulls an Uno Reverse card and gives the Miraculous control, and the third is the in-between where they share equal control.
How powerful a Miraculous-Kwami duo are depend on the Ritual used and how willing both participants are in the exchange. If neither wanted the link and the Miraculous Control Ritual is used, then they'll be the weakest they could possibly be. However if both want it and the Balanced Control Ritual is done, then they'll be a total powerhouse and easily capable of overpowering an entire team of weaker Miraculous.
How this correlates to Marinette and Fu? Well, I imagined Fu gets kidnapped and forced into a Miraculous Control Ritual with Wayzz by the Guardians, because they're assholes who only use the MCR and never let the Kwamis have any form of control whatsoever. Meanwhile Marinette is kidnapped and forced into a Kwami Control Ritual with Plagg by some lunatic cultists who worship Plagg as a Deity of Chaos and Death. This is so the two kinda parallel each other in their histories and situations, making them a compelling reflection of the other Miraculous-Kwami duo.
Both taken from their homes, both forced into a Ritual that binds them to a sentient concept of reality, but the Kwamis they're bound to are on opposite sides of the offence/defence spectrum, and the Rituals used give full control to different sides of the two being bound together.
Of course the Miraculous War in Paris would be very different with this setup, as I doubt Fu, for all his faults, would want to forcibly bind people to other Kwamis like he had been unless The Wish was really messing with his head, so it'd likely just be a Black Cat vs Butterfly showdown for a while with occasional appearances of the old Turtle man.
Ok, so long story short my friend Asuki is a writer and she has semi-recently made an AO3 Account(A fact she has tried to keep hidden from me), so I decided to be a good friend and recommend one of her fanfictions.
It's called "Miss Karma", and it's a story inspired by "Cheshire" by RozonRozark.
Here's the link for your viewing discretion.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
I was just sitting around, minding my own business with my own thoughts, and then I thought of this Crack idea so now it's the problem of everyone reading this.
Ok! So! I thought of a fun little Miraculous AU where anytime Marinette does something remotely violent one of her friends catches a severe case of "I have a crush of Marinette Dupain-Cheng".
Marinette beats Adrien in a fencing duel? Kagami falls for her.
Marinette punches a crook in the face? Alya's got feelings for her.
Marinette puts Chloe in a headlock for being a little shit one too many times? Chloe herself is now in love with her!
It's a phenomenon that has Max ripping his own hair out in frustration trying to figure out how the hell it happens(That's why it's so short).
Not to mention it's so effective that Marinette has taken to showing up in civilian form during her friends' Akumas simply because their love for her instantly deakumatises them upon seeing her.
And for extra spice you can make it so Marinette is completely oblivious to all of their affections and just thinks about how great and friendly her classmates are! They're always offering to help her out with stuff and are so nice! She's so lucky to have met them!
And if someone takes this idea and turns it into a fanfic or something... Please tell me so I can laugh at my insanity being brought into reality!
Addition: this also works on Lila, except she goes after LADYBUG first after seeing her destroy some Akuma on the Ladyblog, and there's no Volpina because when Ladybug appears she gets wooed with the Grimoire before she can start yelling.
THEN she sees Marinette in action, and she's now planning to form a throuple with her and Ladybug...
Hahahaha! Yes! I adore the concept of Maribug/Ladynette, so I am down for this! Although I'm not sure what you mean by "She gets wooed with the Grimoire".
Who here is a fan of Jujutsu Kaisen and Miraculous Ladybug? Because I am!
And as such it's only natural for me to do a crossover involving the two.
The premise for this particular idea? Well, we'll be looking at a what if scenario where Marinette Dupain-Cheng has the fabled Ten Shadows Technique from Jujutsu Kaisen and how that would change the story, from her childhood all the way up to the war against Hawkmoth.
First of all, we need to figure out how Marinette would have the Ten Shadows, so we're going to need some LOOOOOOOOORE to figure it out.
While you can make your own backstory on how it happened, here's my take: Long ago a member of the Zen'in Clan who wasn't a complete dipshit married a Chinese Sorcerer and got married, and then their union produced the bloodline that would go on to produce Sabine and, therefore, Marinette.
Yup, in this timeline Marinette is not only French/Italian/Chinese, but also a bit Japanese!(Albeit rather distantly due to the Zen'in staying in China and their bloodline propagating there)
Naturally, this means that Sabine is also a Jujutsu Sorcerer, and considering the kind of person she is she also likely taught Tom how to used Cursed Energy. So not only is Marinette getting an upgrade here, but her parents are as well!
Here's a quick rundown on their Cursed Techniques.
Sabine's CT is Cursed Amplification, which allows her to amp up any aspect of herself or an ally. What that means is that she can amplify the power of her strikes to make the lightest tap hit like a truck, strengthen the durability of her body to be practically indestructible, increase the healing speed of Reversed Cursed Technique, and even increase her chances of landing a Black Flash!
Tom Cursed Technique is the much more simple Nature's Gift, which is basically a lesser version of Hanami' Disaster Plants due to Tom lacking the needed Cursed Energy reserves. Despite Tom's CT technically being weaker than Hanami's he makes up for it in knowledge and creativity, allowing him to catch up and catch opponents off guard.
Together, they're the Nightmare of Nature, with Sabine amping up Tom's Technique to the point it makes Hanami look weak in comparison.
(To give a general idea of their power, Sabine is a Special-Grade Sorcerer while Tom is Semi-Grade 1)
But enough about her parents! Lets move onto the star of the show!
Now Marinette's life is mostly the same, with the exception of her papa having some cool magic tricks that he shows her, but diverges on her fourth birthday when a smol pair of wolves pop out of her shadow, surprising the little bean.
After a brief panic from both Marinette and her parents Tom and Sabine calm her down and explain to her that this is just her Cursed Technique coming in and that there's nothing to be afraid of, Tom emphasising the point by picking the two Gyokuken up and placing them in his lap, which the two allow as their connection to Marinette make them instinctually friendly to her loved ones.
Seeing her Shikigami being so passive, Marinette tentatively reaches out to pet them and receives affectionate licks in return, causing the bluenette to quickly come to love these gud bois!
So caught up in playing with her shadow puppers, she doesn't noticed her parents exchanging a look with each other.
They had planned to begin teaching her Jujutsu when she turned six, but the emergence of this legendary Cursed Technique in their daughter has pushed their plans up to now.
And so, they began teaching Marinette the ways of being a Jujutsu Sorcerer, dividing which of them teaches what depending on their expertise in that particular aspect of Jujutsu.
Sabine teaches her about raw Cursed Energy Manipulation, Cursed Energy Reinforcement, Cursed Energy Detection, the history and known capabilities of the Ten Shadows Technique, and tops it with lessons on various martial arts to supplement Marinette's fighting style to ensure her daughter isn't a sitting duck without her Shikigami around to protect her.
Tom, meanwhile, focuses more on encouraging Marinette to be creative with her Cursed Technique, to constantly do unexpected things with it to catch opponents off guard. He also teaches her how to use Reversed Cursed Technique as while Sabine is technically better at it than him, that's mainly due to her using Cursed Amplification to ramp up it's efficiency while Tom has to do it the natural way.
When it comes to stuff like Binding Vows, Cursed Tools, how to analyse opponents and exploit their weaknesses, and the various ways to boost Cursed Techniques they take turns teaching their daughter, as they both have their own unique way of doing it when it comes to those things.
Marinette also did a bit of training by herself. Nothing serious or dangerous, but she did practice with the Ten Shadows Technique, both in working in tandem with the Gyokuken and using it's subsidiary abilities like Shadow Diving, Shadow Storage, and making Shadow Clones of herself(she loved using them to prank her parents). She also played quite a few more games, both to increase her reaction time and reflexes and to help her problem solving skills.
During this time she also learned the unique ability of the Gyokuken, being able to merge together to form a werewolf-like Shikigami that was powerful enough to give her papa some trouble against it(Tom still won due to experience, but it was still a challenge for him).
She also named her doggos, giving them Japanese names in honour of her Japanese roots, even if they aren't very prevalent to her nowadays. The white wolf is Akari, the black wolf was named Yamimaru, and she calls their merged form Twilight.
Finally, an entire year had passed since her birthday, marking her as now being five years old, she decided it was time to attempt a Subjugation Ritual. And with the knowledge Sabine had passed onto her about the Ten Shadows Technique, she decided that Gama(The toad) was the safest option, just to get a general feel for it.
Her parents were still on standby, of course, just in case things go sideways.
And so Marinette made her preparations, clearing out a room in the bakery so Gama wouldn't have anything to throw at her, did a full song and dance number with music and finishing with a loud "Merged Beast: Werewolf!" to summon a supercharged Twilight, and made multiple Shadow Clones as decoys before beginning the Ritual.
But, as it turned it, these preparation were completely unnecessary as Gama didn't even get the chance to move before Twilight was already ripping them limb from limb and painting the walls with the Shikigami's blood.
Marinette felt cheated.
To make his daughter feel better Tom decided to fight her so her preparations didn't go to waste, however he quickly realised this was the wrong move when he could barely keep up with the powered-up Twilight, barely avoiding getting gored on the Shikigami's claws.
And then a sudden reappearance by Gama left Tom on the ground, wrapped up by a very long tongue. Sabine had a good laugh as her husband got beat by their five year old daughter.
"Good job sweetie."
"Thanks mama."
(Note: If Marinette were to fight Tom herself she'd have to rely heavily on her Shadow Clone just to even the score, the reason she won here was because of her jacked up Shikigami)
And so begins another year for our little hero, and the beginning of a pattern for her. For most of the year she trains her skills, gaining new ones and refining the ones she already has, along with practicing with her Shikigami and occasionally go Curse hunting with her parents. But when her birthday comes back around, she does another Subjugation Ritual to add another Shikigami to her ranks.
On her sixth birthday Marinette had Gama tie Orochi down to let Twilight go ham on the giant snake.
On her seventh birthday Nue was squashed against the ceiling of the Parisian catacombs, crushed between it and Orochi's massive head.
On her eighth birthday Marinette dug a giant hole and summoned Bansho in it, baiting the elephant Shikigami to fill it with water before having Nue take her out of the pit and zapping Bansho's water hole.
On her ninth birthday Marinette committed rabbit genocide.
On her tenth birthday Marinette used Datto to blind Kangyu before having Akari and Yamimaru tear the tendons of the ox Shikigami, disabling it's movement and, by extension, it's ability.
A few months before her eleventh birthday Marinette broke tradition and had Well's Unknown Abyss hold Madoka still to let Kangyu ram the deer Shikigami into oblivion. The reason for this? She discovered Rose's illness and found it's existence to be unacceptable, so she decided to get the "Miracle of the Ten Shadows" early in order to heal her friend.
On her twelfth birthday Marinette had just decided to combo Koso into oblivion and not give them a chance to fight back due to her lack of information on them.
And so the moment the tiger Shikigami appeared it was immediately ambushed by Orochi, who brought it up into the sky to get electrocuted by Nue a bit before Orochi curled it's massive body and brought Koso back down to the ground in an incredibly painful manner.
The snake Shikigami was then dispelled, but they were immediately replaced with a swarm of rabbit Shikigami that blocked Koso's sight. This was intentional, as Marinette had also used Datto to push herself high into the sky in order to summon Bansho and drop the elephant Shikigami onto the Divine Guard after Datto was dismissed.
Jumping up, Marinette allowed Nue to grab her and take her away as Bansho was dispelled. Koso got up on all fours, ready to pursue, only for a long tongue to snag their ankle and send them flying into the path of Kangyu, who had been running for quite some time and built up plenty of distance for it's charge, instantly killing the tiger Shikigami.
And thus, Marinette now had nine different Shikigami of the Ten Shadows Technique under her command, officially classifying her as a Special-Grade Sorcerer.
All that was left, was him.
The Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga.
And so, on her thirteenth birthday, Marinette... Took a break.
She had a classic party with all her friends, eating good food, playing party games, and just generally having a good time simply existing.
It wasn't that she wasn't confident in her abilities, oh no. It's just that this is Mahoraga we're talking about here! The trump card of the Ten Shadows! The untameable beast! The strongest Shikigami in existence! He Who Knows No Bounds!
And given how long the Ten Shadows Technique has been around I wouldn't be surprised if a user or two got into conflict with Miraculous Holders in the past and summoned the Divine General as a last resort, ending up with everyone dead and several Miraculous being lost in the heat of battle.
And so, instead of risking her life duking it out with the most absolute unit of the Ten Shadows Technique Marinette decided to further refine herself and her Cursed Technique.
But lets put a pin in all this for a minute and see how all this has effected Marinette's school life.
Taking a glance into the average day in Mme. Bustier's classroom we find that the dynamics are mostly the same between the various classmates, but everyone is much calmer and friendlier with each other. This is because Marinette has the Ten Shadows Technique, and as it turns out having a small army of shadow monsters with various abilities under your command is a good deterrent against the local bully.
In other words, Marinette doesn't tolerate Chloe's bullshit and threatens to feed her to her dogs if the blonde doesn't behave herself.
Chloe tried to called upon her father's authority to even the odds, but no amount of political power is gonna save you from getting swallowed whole by a giant snake or trampled by an elephant.
With Chloe forced to shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down lest she become literal dog food, the classroom is a much more harmonious place thanks to it's resident Beast Tamer keeping the peace.
Marinette also has a defined friend group from the start.
First up, Nino. This boi has been her friend since forever and is one of the few people Marinette has felt safe passing the knowledge of Cursed Energy onto, the others being the other members of her friend group.
He has his canon crush on her, but Marinette sees him more like a brother.
Next is... Nathanial! I like the idea of him being friends with Marinette as they're both artistic individuals with animosity towards Chloe for her constant cruelty. Plus, they're both in the Art Club so them bonding over their respective art forms isn't that much of a sketch- I mean stretch!
He also has a bit of a crush on her, but Marinette views him as her best friend.
For Marinette's next friends, it's a two-for-one deal as it's Juleka and Rose! They're both part of the canon "Girl Squad", they're both part of the Art Club like Mari and Nath, and in this timeline Marinette broke her own tradition and fought a battle to the death just to cure Rose of her illness despite them not being friends at the time, so in their opinion Marinette is the class hero!
While the two of them are loyal girlfriends to each other they both admitted to having small crushes on Marinette and wouldn't mind giving a poly-relationship a try if Marinette asked. Meanwhile Marinette is the biggest supporter of their relationship and views them as great friends.
Her friendship with them also means Marinette occasionally hangs out with Ivan due to Kitty Section connection and having already met Luka, although she just considers herself on friendly terms with them rather than fully fledged friends.
Finally, Marinette has one more friend in her group and it is... Sabrina! Betcha didn't see that one coming ay?
So, to explain, after Marinette's initial threat to Chloe she saw the blonde treating Sabrina like a slave and said "Not on my watch foul knave!" before sweeping Sabrina off of her feet and whisking her away to a paradise of friendship and happiness!
That's how Sabrina sees it anyway. In actuality Marinette just asked Sabrina if she wanted to be friends and hang out with her, to which Sabrina gladly accepted. Although there was some friction at first as Sabrina wasn't used to healthy relationships, causing her to try to be Marinette's servant in all but name(Don't worry, she got better).
And, of course, Sabrina has a crush on her, because of course she does. But unfortunately for her Marinette only sees her as a friend and a victim of abuse, so sorry little police pupper but you ain't getting the class cinnamon roll in this timeline.
...Unless?
Anyways I feel like I got a little off topic here, so back to Marinette having the Ten Shadows Technique.
So one day Marinette is just chilling in her room, hanging out with her dogs, and playing a two-player game with Koso as her number two. However she's been a bit bored recently, having essentially mastered most of the abilities of the Ten Shadows Technique with only her Domain Expansion and further refinement being options for her.
Then, she comes to a thought. What if the Ten Shadows Technique had more capabilities available to her than she knew? It wasn't completely implausible after all, since she doubted the first Ten Shadows User knew all of the things she did right now, so why not explore her Cursed Technique for a bit?
After finishing the level she and Koso were on Marinette dismissed her two Shikigami before summoning Nue and slipping into it's shadow and mentally commanding them to fly out of the city's bounds.
Once there, she popped out of Nue's shadow and dismissed them before thinking about the possibilities of her Technique. During which, she asked herself one simple question, one that changed the entire way she thought about the Ten Shadows Technique.
Why ten?
Why were there only ten Shikigami available to subjugate and summon? Why was she limited to only having ten Shikigami? Why was there any limit to the Shikigami when the Ten Shadows Technique had many more applications to it?
The answer? There wasn't. As proven when Marinette made a Shadow Hand Puppet in the shape of a horse and entered a subjugation ritual with a completely new Shikigami, one that took the form of a black horse with blazing red eyes and blood red flames replacing it's mane and leg hair.
Naturally, she curbstomped it quickly with the help of Bansho and Twilight, but she didn't pay much attention to that. What she did pay attention to was the fact that she just busted the limits of her Cursed Technique!
For the next few hours Marinette went on a rampage against her own Technique, conquering Shikigami after Shikigami, adding more and more to her arsenal of abilities with each successful subjugation.
She also now understood why the Ten Shadows Technique was the rival of the Limitless and Six Eyes, for it's utility seemed boundless right now!
'No...' Marinette thought, 'It's no longer the Ten Shadows Technique, for that name is misleading. From now on it shall be called the Shadow Master Technique!'
With her newly dubbed "Shadow Master Technique", Marinette summoned Nue and returned home, using one of her new Shikigami's abilities to hide the two of them from sight so that she could go directly to her balcony without drawing attention to herself.
'Watch out Mahoraga, for I'm coming for you.' Marinette Dupain-Cheng vowed, determined to tame the legendary Shikigami.
What do you guys think so far? Is this worth continuing? Will Marinette the Shadow Master be the one to tame Mahoraga? How do you think the Miraculous will effect her? Comment your thoughts down below!
(Also, I couldn't figure out how to Linebreak so I just used a GIF of Mahoraga)
Consequences and Blame(And why you shouldn't misplace them)
It's somewhat common knowledge in the Miraculous community that one of the "Rules" of the show is as follows: "Marinette always makes a mistake and learns a lesson... Even when she's not actually at fault."
This means that, no matter what she does or doesn't do, Marinette will always be blamed for the episode's problem, regardless of if she's actually at fault or not.
Many authors alleviate this issue by either having Marinette call out people for always blaming her for their problems or simply not having that stupid rule from the start. But I would like to propose an... Alternative take on it.
So lets turn back the clock in the Miracu-verse to when Marinette is but a smol child. She's smol, she's innocent, and... She's being blamed for literally everything wrong in the world and just cannot win no matter what she does.
Marinette hits a kid because they were being a jerk? She receives detention and told that she should've gone to a teacher.
So, next time it happens she does just that... And the teacher(Cough Bustier Cough) tells her to be a "Good Example" and the teacher doesn't do anything about the kid.
Seeing that the teacher was utterly useless, Marinette goes to her parents and... They just tell her to avoid the kid.
She tries, but then the kid seems hellbent on hunting her down and tormenting her. She tells her parents about this and... They don't do anything about the problem.
So, she changes tactics again, and again, and again... And no matter what she does either nothing changes or she gets punished for it.
Even worse, she starts getting blamed for things that simply aren't her fault or for situations she wasn't ever involved in. Kids blame her for pranks, adults blame her for "Acting out", both blame her for "Misbehaving".
No matter what she says, no matter what she does or doesn't do, it's always the same. She's the one to blame, she's the one whose wrong, she's the one to face consequences even when she doesn't deserve it, she's the one who always suffers.
After an entire year or two of this treatment, Marinette comes to a conclusion, that the universe was trying to teach her one, simple lesson.
Everyone will always blame her and say that she's in the wrong, so why bother trying to be right? If they want her to be a problem, then be the biggest problem ever.
And so, Marinette adapts her tactics once more, only this time it's towards being as much of a nuisance as possible, to cause as many problems as possible, to make everyone around her suffer as much as possible for always blaming her for everything!
And everyone very quickly comes to understand just how badly they fucked up by constantly antagonising the smartest and most creative kid in class.
Pranks, traps, and all sorts appear everywhere in the school seemingly overnight, so many that people can barely get into the building without getting splashed by water buckets or caught by net and rope traps.
Of course, everyone blames Marinette again, and her response is one they do not expect.
"Yes, it was me, unlike all of the previous times you blamed me for things I didn't do." She said, staring strait into their souls before walking away, but not before giving them one last ominous warning.
"And it's only going to get worse from here."
And it did get worse. So, so much worse.
Torn clothing, graffiti on houses, jumpscares from very well put-together costumes, Marinette put her creativity into overdrive in bullying everyone around her and getting payback, constantly finding new and more efficient ways to torment her classmates.
Naturally, her parents are informed of her behaviour and try to ground her, but Marinette, being Marinette, already planned for this outcome.
And so, she hung her head, put on a sad face, and went to her room like a good girl, pretending to be cowed by their scolding, leaving her parents satisfied with their "Success" in curbing their daughter's tendencies.
The next day, they woke up to find their daughter gone, several of her things missing, and the cash registers smashed to bits and raided of their loot, the front door left wide open.
Marinette had run away.
It shook them to their cores, to see their beloved daughter be so uncaring, but they made their stance clear. They weren't with their daughter, so Marinette would no longer be with them.
Living out on the streets was rough for Marinette, but nothing she couldn't adapt to, she was an intelligent fighter after all, so she quickly picked up good shelter spots, who and where to avoid, and generally just how to survive the Parisian streets.
She lived out on the streets for a few months before a familiar, yet unexpected face appeared before her.
"Dupain-Cheng?" Chloe Bourgeois asked(?) in surprise as she saw the blue-haired girl that used to ruthlessly torment their entire school.
"Oh, it's you. What do you want Bourgeois?" Marinette replied coldly, remembering how Chloe used to bully her before her "Vengeance" phase.
To Marinette's surprise Chloe's response wasn't one of malice and spite, but rather friendly delight as she told Marinette that she missed the now sorta-orphan girl's presence in class, complimenting and outright praising Marinette's tactics and planning capability.
It was... Unexpected, but nice. Nice to have someone compliment her, to be on her side, to not blame her for every wrongdoing in existence for no reason whatsoever.
And then, Chloe made an offer she wasn't expecting.
"Hey, why don't you come back? I can have daddy set you up a room in the hotel and we can hang out whenever we want!" She asked enthusiastically, surprising the bluenette.
Deciding to give it a shot, Marinette agreed. Worse case scenario she ended back up on the streets anyway, so she was willing to try it out.
Just this once.
And, much to her surprise, she's welcomed with open arms by Chloe's father who was happy that his daughter had another friend.
He might have been a corrupt official, but he still tries his best to be a good father dammit!
And thus, Marinette now had a cushy penthouse room in the best hotel in Paris. And better yet, she wasn't surrounded by people who blamed her for every problem they encounter!
Chloe, her father, Sabrina, they never told her she was wrong, they never told her that she was responsible for events outside of her control, they never told her to apologise for mistakes that don't exist!
To Marinette, it was paradise, and she will forever be grateful to Chloe for granting her this privilege.
She even eventually meets Adrien Agreste and finds him to be utterly delightful! He listens to her problems and tells her that the other people were the problem and that he's sorry she had to go through all that. It was wonderful.
She started crushing on Adrien after that, but refrained as he was Chloe's crush and Marinette was loyal to her friend and saviour. However she was completely unaware that she was Chloe's crush and the "Adrien Crush" was just a cover story for it because Chloe panicked and wasn't ready to confess just yet.
Eventually, Marinette returns to school, and her classroom. She sees some familiar faces, and some new ones, while others were missing. But that didn't matter to her.
What did matter was the recognition and utter fear she saw appear in their eyes as she entered the classroom with Chloe and Sabrina.
"Surprise bitches, bet you thought you saw the last of me!" She said with a downright feral grin, knowing that the next few years were going to be fun.
And so, Marinette goes back to screwing with her classmates, getting away with it completely thanks to Chloe's connections.
Though, she's a bit more lenient this time around. Not out of altruism, but just because she finds bullying her classmates to be a rather boring affair nowadays and just does it to keep them in line.
She still pranks them to remind them of how bad she used to be, but her Rage and utter Hatred has cooled off since then. She still holds a grudge, but now she only really unleashes her full fury on those who accuse her of a wrongdoing she didn't actually do.
And thus, this was how Marinette became Chloe's most useful enforcer, making sure all of their classmates don't get any funny ideas about trying to usurp Chloe's position as Class Rep and ensuring their compliance with all of Chloe's commands.
This went on for a few years, until the Miraculous come into play...
(This is Part 1 of the idea, I'll make Part 2 once this post gets 100 Likes because I'm tired and need a break. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed)
This is a question that has plagued many Miracufans ever since they learned about the other Miraculous Fu has access to. Why did he send out the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous instead of any of the other Miraculous he has access to?
For some it's understandable, as they either have non-combative Powers(Mouse and Pig), or have high risks to their use(Rabbit and Monkey) But for others like the Dragon and Rooster, it's hard to get why Fu chose the big two instead of them.
I spent a while going over the different Miraculous and trying to think of a logical conclusion, but couldn't find anything to explain it away. And then my friend Asuki just pops right in and tells me the answer as if it was obvious!
"Simple, versatility. The Lucky Charm and Cataclysm can be used in pretty much any situation. Hell, that's basically the Lucky Charm's whole shtick, making a solution to the problem at hand." -Asuki Hatashi
And once I thought about it, I realised she was correct!
As we've seen from Marinette's usage of the Lucky Charm, it has nearly always succeeded in solving the Akuma of the Day, with the only times it hasn't being due to outside factors Marinette wasn't aware of or prepared to deal with(Like Chloe in the Vanisher portion of Antibug)
And from what we've witnessed from the Black Cat Cataclysm, there doesn't seem to be much of a limit to what it can destroy, with the only thing surviving it to my knowledge is a Resistance-enhanced Shellter, both Powers defensive in nature and originating from two different Miraculous.
And in case you want to contest that point, may I remind you that Adrien busted an entire pocket dimension in Pixelator? And yes, that did happen, go rewatch it for yourself.
Comparing them to the Powers of the other Miraculous, we see that Lucky Charm and Cataclysm are simply too versatile to be outdone by the Powers of the lower tiers, who each have some sorta drawback that keeps them from matching up.
The Fox's Mirage is useful no doubt, and as we've seen from Alya a skilled user can keep an opponent running around in circles for several minutes with a single illusion. However once you bypass the illusions and get to the Holder, they don't have the firepower to stay their ground in a direct fight.
The Bee's Venom is also a good tool, making the user incredibly dangerous in close quarters. However unlike the Cataclysm, we've never seen it discharged into anything other than a living being, leaving it as a purely combat-oriented power. Plus, as far as we know it can only be used in CQC and has no range functionality.
The Turtle's Shellter is good defensively, and as we've seen before it can be used to cut through things. But that takes quite a big of effort and skill to pull off effectively, so it remains a primarily defensive Power. Plus, during Miracle Queen we saw the drawback. While you may be nigh-untouchable in your bubble, you're also a sitting duck.
Manifestation and Metamorphosis(Asuki's Fanon names for the Peacock and Butterfly Powers) are strong, but they require powerful emotions and, in the Butterfly's case, someone else involved in the battle.
Multitude lacks brute force, Resistance lacks range, Clout is useless against opponents like Stoneheart, Burrow... You need to be cautious with time travel in general, Perfect Storm(Dragon's Power) is good, but the triple usage could trip some Holders up, Second Chance is useless if all routes lead to failure, Voyage is great for sneak attacks but works better when paired up with another Miraculous, the object made by Genesis could be broken, Uproar has a chance of backfiring against allies, I can't even understand the Rooster's restrictions, Fetch is effective at retrieving objectives but not at combat, and Gift could accidentally motivate the enemy even more by reminding them what they're fighting for.
So, in conclusion, the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous were chosen because their Powers offer the most utility and are effective(Or at least useful) in nearly every situation. Sure, there's counters to them, but not ones as easy as counters for the other Miraculous Powers.
Princess Justice done right(At least in my opinion)
So... I've been thinking about Marinette's canon Akumatised form, Princess Justice.
Particularly I thought about how weird it was that people consistently give her fire powers. I mean, I get it with "Cleansing Fire" and all that to "Burn away the sins". But... Fire is known to be hard to control by nature, to the point that it's considered one of if not the most dangerous element out of the basic four. Plus, fire is completely indiscriminate about what or who it uses as fuel to keep itself going.
And that's not justice, that's just selfishness and destruction.
Not to mention her Akuma-name is Princess Justice, not Princess Fire or Princess Burning.
And so, I made my own variant of Princess Justice.
Now, follow along with me here as a lay out a semi-prompt narrative.
So Marinette is in her room, stressing the fuck out due to everything and being forced to bare the burden of saving Paris day-in and day-out.
She's trying to remain positive, she's trying to not get Akumatised, but... it's just too much for her. I mean she's 14 years old for crying out loud!
At this point she just... Breaks. She can't handle it anymore and if she tries... She'll just break in a different way.
Hawkmoth, being the absolute idiot that he is, thinks that this is a good thing for him. After all, another Akuma, another chance to gain the Miraculous!
Hahahaha... No.
The moment Princess Justice is born she raises her sword and swings it down, as if executing a criminal is ye' olden times. And when she does, her ability attacks everyone.
Not just everyone in Paris, but everyone in the entire world.
Her ability? Karmic Retribution. The crimes someone has committed during their life will be dealt back to them as injuries proportionate to the amount of crimes and their severity.
Depending on how sweet or salty you want to make the story, the results will vary, but for my personal take...
Chloe loses both of her arms and her tongue, along with having several smaller slashes across her entire body, Bustier is downright decapitated, and Lila finds herself in pieces as if she were put through a goddamn blender.
And Gabriel? His asshole behaviour and super-(dickery)-villainy come back to bite him as his body is strait-up obliterated down to the last molecule, leaving nothing behind and granting Princess Justice free reign to do whatever she wants. Which is basically to dish out more justice.
How badly Adrien gets hit depends on if he's getting served sweetly or with a side of salt, and to what extent he's served up with said condiments.
Where you go from there is your choice, I just wanted to share what I felt was the Princess Justice that made the most sense. An Akuma that wants to deliver justice to all, for better or for worse.
I was just sitting around, minding my own business with my own thoughts, and then I thought of this Crack idea so now it's the problem of everyone reading this.
Ok! So! I thought of a fun little Miraculous AU where anytime Marinette does something remotely violent one of her friends catches a severe case of "I have a crush of Marinette Dupain-Cheng".
Marinette beats Adrien in a fencing duel? Kagami falls for her.
Marinette punches a crook in the face? Alya's got feelings for her.
Marinette puts Chloe in a headlock for being a little shit one too many times? Chloe herself is now in love with her!
It's a phenomenon that has Max ripping his own hair out in frustration trying to figure out how the hell it happens(That's why it's so short).
Not to mention it's so effective that Marinette has taken to showing up in civilian form during her friends' Akumas simply because their love for her instantly deakumatises them upon seeing her.
And for extra spice you can make it so Marinette is completely oblivious to all of their affections and just thinks about how great and friendly her classmates are! They're always offering to help her out with stuff and are so nice! She's so lucky to have met them!
And if someone takes this idea and turns it into a fanfic or something... Please tell me so I can laugh at my insanity being brought into reality!
HOLY SHIT I JUST HAD A THOUGHT THAT CHANGES MIRACULOUS LADYBUG ENTIRELY!!!
Ok, so it's a canonical fact that despite being made by the Peacock Miraculous that Adrien, Kagami, and Felix are all biologically Human in every sense aside from their Amoks.
And from Astruc's answers on Twitter this would include other species like dogs and such.
So that got me thinking... Why would it be different for any other species?
This means that, theoretically, Duusu can resurrect the Dragons!
Amokization isn't just creating new life! It's restoring old life!
This opens up so many possibilities... Like what if this was the Peacock's original purpose but nobody, not even Duusu understood it? What about the other Miraculous? What possibilities do they hold?
Warning: Adrien Salt ahead, so if you don't like it I recommend skipping this post.
So, I was reading this Miraculous fic called "Masked Hearts"(Spoilers for those who know what it is).
In it, Adrien reveals his identity literal seconds after Hawkmoth's defeat and promptly asks out Ladybug despite Kagami being there(It's before Lies happened).
Naturally, Kagami takes exception to this. Not only publically breaking up with him, but also asking out Ladybug.
And I could help but think... What if she also stole his Miraculous right before that? Even using it to transform and carry LB off bridal style?
That's one hell of a "Fuck you" right there!
Where it goes from there is up to you.
Edit: Here's the fanfic with the specific chapter.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
All the Miraculous Requests I had from my Patrons in 2023! This isn't even including all the original OCs and akumas I got!
Ko-fi | Patreon
-Marinette in MY favorite outfit from Scarlet Lady (this one's from "Glaciator")
-Chat Blanc and Marinette (specially SL Mari)
-Marinette and Tikki sharing Hot Chocolate and Floral Cookies
-My Akumanette Little Devil kissing Silencer
-Kim and Ondine, Kim kissing her on the cheek
-Penny and Jagged kissing
-Marc and Nathaniel kissing
-Rose and Juleka in their Princess Fragrance and Reflekta Scarlet Lady cover outfits
-Nino and Adrien hugging
-Good Lila with the Butterfly Miraculous
-Good Gabriel with the Peacock Miraculous
-Young Marianne with the Fox Miraculous
-Original version of Evil Nathalie with the Peacock Miraculous
-Bustier with the Bee Miraculous
-Scarlet Lady version of Vanisher
-MY favorite akuma aka Stormy Weather (I was literally asked to do my favorite lol)
-Nathaniel in his Scarlet Lady "Reflekta" outfit
-Caprikid wishing my Patron a Happy Birthday!
-Gabriel horrified by a full glitter suit he's forced to wear
-Ladybug in the Hades game style as a Goddess of Creation
-Kagami. Just my baby girl Kagami.
-Rose dressed in Pastel Goth Fashion
-Rose dressed in a pink version of Chie Satonaka's (Persona) outfit because they share a Voice Actor
-Juleka. My other baby girl Juleka.
-Juleka in her "Style Queen"/"Queen Wasp" outfit from Scarlet Lady
-Human Pollen
-Human Nooroo
Ok, so we know how the Power System in Miraculous Ladybug is awful, right?
Well I was thinking: Why not make our own Powers?
My friend and I have been discussing this for a while now(Like, a year or two). And have already made a lot of Miraculous Powers ourselves.
Although to be fair, we kinda cheated by making each Kwami represent multiple concepts of the universe, so there's much more flexibility with what we were allowed to make.
But still, if you have any Power Ideas of your own, please make some! Because who knows if they might show up in a fanfiction or something.
(Asuki has a folder with over 14k words worth of Powers and she still isn't satisfied!)
