I hope this doesn’t come across as rude. I’m a big fan of your feralnette au and saw that you’ve draw lukanette in the past, but that Luka is (sorry I’m not sure if this is the best phrasing) disturbed or distant from Marinette after their breakup in the au (I’ve only seen a couple Asia related to him in the au though so I might be way off sorry). I’m not sure I really understand what caused this changed in him but I understand if you simply just don’t ship lukanette anymore or have your own opinions of how characters would react! (even though poly square with Felix, Mari, Kagami, and Luka would be *chef kiss*) Again I’m hoping this doesn’t sound mean or anything, I would just like to know your thought process!!
kind of a long response!
I still ship Lukanette and in the lukanette art i have posted, its not for the Feralnette AU! its for its own thing.
meanwhile in the AU what I haven't shown is Marinette purposefully cutting off their relationship in an attempt to distant herself from... well, herself, to try and focus on two things, keeping a façade up to hide that she's Ladybug, and to use every ounce of energy into either training or tracking hawkmoth down.
Luka still cares deeply for Marinette but he's uncertain what brought this change about in her and how to even approach her anymore. Marinette was very positive, very optimistic, and very approachable when they first met, and now she's guarded, sleep deprived, and weirdly enough, aggressive.
If you don't know what a friend is going through, its hard to try and get the truth out of them without coming off as pushy or controlling, he's simply at a loss as to how to talk to her in such a way that wouldn't be misread, or worse, drudge up the very trauma that person might be trying to cope with. After all, she did initiate the break up with him, which must mean on some level, the relationship wasn't working out for her, and he really has to respect that, even if he doesn't understand it. The issue is he really does WANT to understand it, and Marinette isn't giving anyone enough pieces of the puzzle to really get why she's behaving this way - everyone draws their own conclusions with what evidence they have.
he doesn't get with Marinette in this AU simply because Feralnette is an... extreme person. unhinged, as it were. it would Stress Luka The Fuck Out, especially since the boy has trust issues about withheld information, and all Feralnette is, is in fact, a miserable bundle of secrets in the form of a person that punches things. it wouldn't be healthy for them!
and tbh, when you go through heavy trauma, the concept of having to retell everything to someone so they know all the reasons why you act the way you act, or why you keep some things to yourself, or why you have certain reactions to things... its exhausting. and invasive. and Luka doesn't want to be that, but Marinette's traumas and secrets are so intimately interwoven together by now, trying to tell him the things that he would want to know, that would make him feel secure in their relationship, would deeply harm her to re-experience, to explain.
feralnette doesnt want to deal with that stuff right now. she doesnt want to sit there and think, why does (x) thing make me upset. why do I have (x) reaction to (x) stimuli. she doesn't have the time. she's running out of time every day she doesn't catch hawkmoth. she doesn't want to talk about anything that's happening to her or happened to her because its too risky to tell and right now it hurts too much to even think about. and it would hurt Luka to NOT know, to not know what happened to put someone he loves through such incredible suffering, creating this horrible ouroboros of harming one another by trying to protect one's own heart from pain.
now now now. this doesn't mean luka doesn't have a huge role in this au that i havent gotten to yet, because, i am a human first and a luka fan second. (I also plan on having aus OF the feralnette au because the machine that is my brain will never stop wanting to draw girls punching things.) so here's a bit of concept art im still working on featuring luka with a blasphemous
tdlr: Luka is wonderful, but he wouldn't be wonderful for Feralnette. She's not ready to talk about the things that hurt her, and he wouldn't be able to stand not knowing what's killing her slowly.
