Everyone knows about Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the baker's daughter, and eventual seamstress.
But what if I were to tell you there are other versions of the baker’s daughter that are just as great in other professions? Sometimes she is a dancer, an olympian, or an everyday girl. Countless variations of the same lovely bubbly girl.
The story I want to tell you about is of one version that is a young soon-to-be lawyer. Open rival to French mob Milieu. Both in the courts and behind her black mask. Everyone will come to know the woman without fear. The Cat of the Devil. The DareDevil.
Preface (Chap 1?)
Marinette wasn’t always blind. When she was younger, she could see just as well as any other kid.
Marinette even remembers the day it happened. She remembers it better than she does some colors nowadays.
It was a day like any other for the Dupain-Cheng family. Actually that wasn’t true, it wasn’t a normal day. It was a slow day for the bakery and Tom and Sabine decided to close early and take a young Marinette to a day out to the park.
The family enjoyed their time in the sun during the nice late spring day. From swings to sandcastles, from running through the grass to a small picnic in the park.
It was a great day in her opinion. And looking back, Marinette would say it was a good day to be the last she saw.
A car crash on their way back home changed the fate of the Dupain-Chengs from that day on.
It was almost cartoonish in its execution. Two drivers were not paying attention to the lights and crashed into each other. Causing the truck behind one of them to swerve to avoid slamming into the back of them. The truck struck into a hydrant instead. That hydrant went flying into and ricocheting off a light pole and crashing into the back of a semi-tanker.
That tanker was holding a noxious concoction not safe for humans in any manner of the imagination. When the hydrant hit its side, and pierced it, it caused the toxin within to spill out.
That spillage arced into a horrid rainbow, and stuck the poor young girl in the face.
It flooded her vision, burning its way from the Cornea all the way to the Optic Nerve.
As it did, Marinette cried out in pain while her world went black in more ways than one.
When she woke up, she was told what had happened and how the accident affected her.
The doctors told the family that she would be blind for the rest of her life.
Her parents were shocked, while Marinette was heartbroken.
She ended up crying herself to sleep after that.
She woke up later that night to a percussive beeping. It was so loud that she had to cover her ears.
The beeping was intense even with her hands covering her ears, but after a while the noise became manageable. And once she was able to manage it without flinching she realized something amazing.
She could see! Well, maybe not see but she could make out the outlines of things around her.
To her adolescent mind it was like a coloring book without the colors added.
It didn’t take her long to notice that her other senses were heightened too.
Her face itched from the medical tape covering her eyes. When she brought her hands up to inspect the cloth she found out that she could feel each individual thread. Her sense of touch was so fine tuned that she could feel when there was a missed stitch.
It was all overwhelming to her, with all of her senses overclocked the way they were.
She was close to a panic attack until she smelled something familiar.
The smell came from a small object next to her. It was a small teddy she had brought with her to the park.
It smelled like her parents. It smelled like her home and the bakery. It was so clear to her she nearly forgot she was still at the hospital before she was lulled back to sleep by the small plush comfort.
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The next day the doctor told the family what they would need for Marinette’s new life. They did go on to explain that Marinette’s other senses would get stronger to compensate for the lack of sight.
Everyone understood that. The adults understood it was supposed to take time for her body to adjust. The baker’s daughter even use that explanation as to why everything was much MORE than it was before.
But what everyone didn’t know is that horrid concoction may have taken her eyesight but it heightened all her other senses to a superhuman degree. And that it took hold much sooner than what they expected.
Marinette still had to stay a few extra days in the hospital to make sure she didn't get sick from the accident and to make sure the chemical burns around her eyes didn’t get infected.
While she waited to go home she became familiar with her new enhanced senses.
The doctors and nurses noticed but didn’t connect her small requests as anything worth of note.
It was always small things like “Could you stop the beeping? It’s really loud.” talking about the heartbeat monitor, or “Can you change my bandages? They are very scratchy.” Referring to her bandages.
When she left the hospital, she had fresh and silky bandages, a silenced heartbeat monitor, and a room that smelled more like bread than antiseptic.
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It took awhile for Marinette to fully bounce back from the whole ordeal.
There were good moments: The local defence attorneys that would frequent the shop took a liking to her and told her all about how they defended other people’s innocents and stood for justice.
The blind girl was always enraptured by their stories, and had a new profession in mind for her future. She asked her parents if she could be a lawyer when she grew up, and even asked if they could get her a law book for a birthday. Even though it was well above her reading level neither parent could deny her with how cutely, and innocently there 6 (maybe 9) year old requested the book.
There were bad moments: The first time she actually shared her new abilities with anyone didn’t end well.
Her friend at the time, Chloe, had been upset about something but was hiding it from everyone. When Marinette asked what was wrong, Chloe did her best to hide the waver in her voice and told her friend she was fine. With how in tune she was, Marinette, easily saw past the lie and asked why her friend was lying. Taken aback Chloe got defensive and angry at being read so easily.
Unfortunately Marinette lost a friend that day. The confrontation helped her understand not everyone would appreciate her new abilities. From then on she kept them a secret that she would never really share with any other human.
It took over a year, almost two, before she was back to anything resembling normal. And her parents were happy to share the day things officially became normal once more.
Even if it wasn’t as celebrated as it was in America when Halloween came around Marinette dressed like ‘Lady Justice.’
Roman style clothes, exaggerated bandages over her eyes, a cane in place of a sword, she even cared around the scales. It was on that holiday that Tom and Sabine celebrated their daughter reaching equilibrium. They took many pictures and shared the day with her.
‘Lady Justice’ is still one of Marinette’s favorite things to dress up for Halloween, and it turned into the family’s favorite holiday.
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Later in the year, in the same park that changed her life years before, Marinette found herself trying to find someone that had piqued her interest for a while now.
She couldn’t explain it if you asked but there was something about the elderly man that was THERE where as it wasn’t with other people.
She hadn’t encountered him directly yet. It was always in passing: coming, going, staying in one spot, or leaving. Whatever she was doing he was doing the opposite. And she knew it was him that was giving off that… whatever it was.
It intrigued her and she didn’t know why.
Today was the day that she got the courage to talk to him and ask what his deal was.
It was well timed too. He had just got to the park and sat at a bench to feed the birds.
“May I?” she asked when she got close enough.
“Oh?” he was quiet for a moment, most likely taking in her appearance. Her normal everyday apparel was nothing eye-catching; it was her cane and glasses that got the most attention.
It only took that moment of silence for him to understand her condition before he spoke again, “Of course, young miss.”
He quickly moved over to give her room to sit. Whether it was out of pity or courtesy she could never tell.
She stayed quiet for a while just sitting next to him.
Being this close to him was a bit overwhelming. Whatever it was about the elderly man took a bit to get used to. And once she got over the overwhelming sense she spoke.
“Why do you feel different from everyone else?” She had tilted her head, half facing him, in a way she learned to help people understand she was talking to them, them while keeping an ear out to hear them still.
“I feel different from other people?” He asked. He sounded curious rather than put out by such a strange question.
“Yeah,” She nods. “I don’t know how to describe it, but there is something about you.” She pauses trying to come up with the right words.
“And what would that be?” He genuinely wanted to know.
“It’s like you are in the center of a bubble. I don’t know what to call it other than that.”
She goes on “It feels like a fluffy blanket that came out of the dryer and is all staticy.”
Fu watched the girl try and explain what ever it was about him that she couldn’t understand with a raised brow. He had an idea of what she was talking about but didn’t want to say anything yet. Instead he just watches her try and suss it out.
“Sigh, it feels like…” She huffs, “You are there even if you are standing far away.”
“It feels like you could protect anyone if you wanted to.”
It wasn’t the word Fu was looking for but she practically named the very Kwami he was connected to. (he was looking for her to say magic)
“You are a very smart (may need to change that) girl.” he states.
“And as to why I feel different from other people, that is difficult to explain.”
He looks her over again, “I would like to ask you how you even noticed. Not to sound rude but are you not blind?”
“Most people can’t tell me apart from any other senior citizen, even if I were right in front of them standing on my head.”
She chuckles at that. “Truth is blind and she isn’t fooled by what people want her to see. People say, I am like that a little too.” (change that phrase) It was a catch phrase that the defense attorneys said enough around her that she had picked up.
“That has a very nice turn of phrase to it.” Fu said, thrumming his chin. “What would you say if I told you it was magic?”
She looks at him full on.
Fu can’t help but wonder how she can look like she is judging him without being able to see him.
Marinette tries to find out if he is lying or not. Listening to his voice, his heartbeat but neither tell her he is being deceitful.
She hums, “That would be hard to believe, but you aren’t lying.” (probably need to change this too)
“I would currently hope I am not. Otherwise I would just a crazy old coot instead of the wise old man I try and portray myself to be.”
Fu makes a decision with what he is going to do.
“Wayzz, would you mind helping me explain this to her?”
With a surprise introduction, and an explanation from Fu and Wayzz, Fu takes Marinette on as an apprentice in the magical ways of the order. As a way to hone her abilities to detect magic.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Fu later meets the Dupain-Chengs and tells them that he could help their daughter with her condition through meditation.
Her parents agree to Fu and his kind mannerisms.
Once at Fu’s house Marientte meets the other kwami.
She has a strong connection to the two main kwami, Tikki and Plagg.
As much as she likes Tikki and could see herself getting along with the creation deity, Plagg is far more lax and pushes all the right buttons to egg her into listening to her more chaotic impulses.
A small list of things he has convinced her to do that the others know about:
1) lay down and enjoying the sun in strange places when ever she can.
2) sharing snacks with him and/or getting him cheese anytime she could
3) pushing her to help out her attorney friends (which was a little strange until he explained how). by helping them by listening to their clients and outing all the lies they tell (that explains it).
And all other manner of things that helped her relax or caused a bit of chaos.
He did convince her one thing that the others don’t know about:
Taking his miraculous out during the night for a nice run every now and then.
Which by itself isn’t bad and would have been put in the other list of things he has convinced her to do. But, she ended up coming across one of the mobsters from the Milieu that had escaped justice and got of scot free from the charges he was facing. She ended up fighting him and leaving him for the cops to find the following day.
Needless to say they both kept that night and all others she took his miraculous out for the night a secret from Fu and the other Kwami.
Overall though he was the little devil on her shoulder that helped balance out her more justice seeking and law abiding personality.
He would always call her one of his ‘kittens’ and she would call him ‘a little devil.’ And an off handed comment during one of her nights out gets her the name of “The Cat of the Devil.” (note: The news does call her this as well as “The woman without fear” and “DareDevil” that takes on the mob and its underlings)
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Chap 1 (start of it at least)
Marinette is given Plagg’s miraculous when Fu needs help getting back the butterfly miraculous.
Fu ends up giving Tikki to a nice young man that would be a good partner for his young apprentice.
When Paris and France first get to see the miraculous duo, it is from the Ladyblog (crap I didn’t think of a different name for Alya’s blog) during the ‘Stone Heart’ akuma attack.
Mister Bug (gawd I don’t like the kwami!swap names but coudn’t think of a different one) as a blond young man, covered in red and black spandex. His chest, shoulders, and outer thighs are covered in red with black polka dots. While the rest of him is covered in black. He has a domino mask that is red with black polka dots.
Marinette, That Cat of the Devil, is covered in black synthetic leather with accents of green here and there. The leather goes all the way up her neck and lines her chin line. Her mask covers more of her face, starting at her cheeks and going all the way to her hairline and wraps around her face following her sideburns down to connect to the rest of her suit. She has a long ponytail flowing behind her acting as the tail of her costume. Her eyes are different from her partners though. Where Bug has a mask covering his face and the whites of his eyes showing hers are a solid green that don’t show off the eye themselves. She also has a pair of leather cat ears on the top of her head (and a small pair of horns pointing out on her forehead.)
The pair deal with the large rock monster quickly enough. Bug seems exited about the whole thing and looks to be having fun fighting and coming up with plans. While Chat is a bit more collected and focused. She protects her partner while he finds a way to get past the Akuma’s defenses with his Lucky Charm.
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(((This is a gift for @miraculous786. They have been one of the people that have helped me be more vocal in sharing my ideas/prompts with others and even giving me the confidence to post my own stories. This idea was just going to a quick “Hey guys, here is an idea.” But Miraculous786 said they were a fan of DareDevil. So I decided to work on my notes a little and try and make, at least, a decent start to it.
Well Miraculous786, this is the start I thought of. its a little rough and is like draft1.1 but with this and the notes I sent you before, I officially hand it off to you. This story is now yours to do what you want with it.
My only request is that you keep up the good work and remember to “Have Fun With It.”)))
Just read your Mari!daredevil fic and o really like It, also If you want to change Ladybug! Adrien's hero name you could call him Red Beetle, or just keep Ladybug and have Adrien sugar where he explain that he doesn't care about the gender roles and stereotypes that society imposes :)
You know what... that is great. And I can see it as Adrien both breaking stereotypes and a bit of rebellion towards his father.
Tikki: “most of my holders are called ‘ladybug’ most don’t have a problem with but seeing how you are” *motions toward Adrien*
Adrien: “Why does that matter? We are in a new age, gender stereotypes are a thing of the past.”
Tikki: “Wow, that is very noble of you-”
Adrien: “Plus, it would irritate my father to no end if he ever found out.”
Tikki: “.....”
