Hello, I’m Fern! I use She/Any pronouns, and I’m an Ao3 author who mostly writes Miraculous Ladybug fics but has also branched out into Hermitcraft, the Life Series, and other fandoms as well!
I’m currently working on:
- A multi-story AU called Miraculous: Tales of Beetle Rouge & Māo in which EVERY* character gets a different Miraculous (which you can learn more about in this post)
(*Gabriel and Nathalie do not)
- A Miraculous Reboot story
- The Missing Prism Piece which is Prism/Robert fic
- Mecha Man Blue Blood (a Villain!Robert fic)
- Having 250 total completed fics by the end of 2026
If you wanna check out my fics, I’m WaterTheFern on Ao3!
Let me properly introduce the main characters of The Miraculous Tales of a Beetle and her Shadow (aka my reboot of Miraculous), Colette Dufour and Adrien Capello and their alter egos Lady Beetle and Shadow Noire!
More info below the cut
Let’s start with Marinette/Colette and Ladybug/Lady Beetle (also if you saw my previous post, I did change Marinette’s name again)
The most obvious change is her color palette, being mostly yellow compared to her canon pink, and this was done to separate Colette from Lady Beetle, as her arc revolves around accepting and connecting with her hero persona over the course of the story and getting used to being both Colette AND Lady Beetle
Additionally her eyes were changed to push her look into being closer to her moms as well as give the stark difference between her natural color versus Lady Beetle’s bright blue. Her hair is still in pigtails, though it’s longer, reaching her mid back now, this is another difference between identities as Lady Beetle has shoulder length hair. Her earrings also have the Chinese kanji for “Fortune”
Lady Beetle pulls a lot of inspiration from Asian Lady Beetles (which is also where her name comes from), as those beetles have a lot of black and white as opposed to the more typical red. I also wanted to avoided such a basic color scheme, which is why I opted to make the red more of a bright pop of color rather than the main color, with black and white being the primary colors on her suit.
Now to Adrien and Chat Noir/Shadow Noire
This design is very simple and that’s the point, this is very put together, basic, monotone, and that’s because this is Michael Capello, not Adrien, this is Gabriel’s version of his son, and the only things Adrien are allowed for himself is his hair and his mosaic locket that has a picture of his mother in it (which isn’t pictured because I didn’t want to)
Shadow Noire is very different to Chat Noir as I went very punk for his look, and while it wasn’t intentional it also looks a lot like KISS which I imagine he’d love. The other important things to note are his different Miraculous, now resembling his locket necklace as camouflaged and the choker while activated, this is because all Miraculous will change to reflect their user, both with its camouflage and activated mode (similar to Miss Hound’s new camouflage mode) and Adrien still feels trapped, which is reflected in his choker despite how free he feels as Shadow Noire.
The other thing is just like their Miraculous, weapons also change, however they typically stick to a specific category, in this case the Black Cat’s category is destructive. Whats interesting about Adrien’s is that his isnt inherently deadly, unlike most Black Cat’s and that’s because Adrien appreciates chaos, he doesn’t go out of his way to cause it, which is why his weapon is blunt.still destructive, but not exactly deadly
Marinette cutting her hair like how her childhood was cut from her. She no longer feels connected to the girl in pigtails and she feels like a drastic change will somehow make her feel whole again.
Adrien growing his hair out and letting it become messy for some semblance of control over his own life and the strict expectations that were put onto him as a child, trying desperately to recognise himself in the mirror.
Anyway this is why pixie cut Marinette and long hair Adrien is real and true ☝️
Interviewer, talking with Robert Moon, Courtney Rivera, and Amanda “Mandy” Harper: So, we know some of your relationships played into your characters, but were there any improvisation that made it into the show?
Robert: Oh god, a lot of it actually
Courtney, snickering: Yeah, like my dad bod comment
Interviewer: Really?
Mandy: Unfortunately. That was an annoying scene since it involved Courtney’s invisibility, so it took us a while to get used to talking to no one.
Robert: Or someone in a morph suit.
Mandy, nodding: Or someone in a morph suit.
Courtney: Yeah, so, I got annoyed, I called him dad bod, and that was the scene we used.
Interviewer: Anything else?
Courtney: Yep. We weren’t originally gonna tell Robert our names, that was improvised once again by yours truly.
Robert: Courtney said her name and it just sorta spiraled but the director liked it so it was kept.
Interviewer: So we were never going to learn the Z-Team’s names?
Robert: Nope.
Mandy: Originally just mine and Courtney’s names were going to be revealed.
Interviewer: Which reminds me, why were your real names used?
Robert: So, it was actually my fault. I didn’t want to use a fake name so they came up with Robert Robertson the third and I liked it.
Courtney: Don’t forget you kept calling Chase, Chase, so they opted to just change people’s last names.
Mandy: With the exception of Mélissa since they wanted her to have a demon name
Robert, blushing: I will never live that down, will I?
the best female characters are the ones that online discourse calls annoying and cannot stand. this is a fact sorry. the more hated she is by the online sphere the better her character is sorry
I always forget just how much I love the Hermits and Hermitcraft in general until I haven’t watched them in a while and go to catch up and suddenly I’ve watched several episodes and it’s like two hours later
While this wasn’t my intention as I kinda just got possessed by Tales of a Beetle and her Shadow and drew headshots of what they look like, I guess now’s a good time to introduce our main characters!
Here are Mélody Dufour, Adrien Capello, and their hero counterparts Lady Beetle and Shadow Noire! (Or at least their faces until I design their full outfits)
These designs are in no way final, but I really wanted to get something out since I’ve finished their backstories and most of origins
Below are notes about the changes to both their stories but also their designs
I’ll start with Adrien since he’s been changed the least overall:
Adrien is a character I have very little problems with and even the ones I do have are mostly just nitpicks, however the main change is of course, his last name from Agreste to Capello
I’ve never been a huge fan of his name relating to butterflies because despite being a nice nod to Gabriel being Hawk Moth, why are they named after a butterfly? Yes, we learn Gabriel chose it but why would someone so clever (prior to the writers butchering him) choose something so obvious? Especially since at this point he likely would’ve already come into contact with the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous
So his name is Capello now, which comes from “cape” or “cloak” which is a reference to Gabriel being a fashion designer but also him being reclusive, this also referencing Adrien’s double life both as a superhero but also trying to be a regular teenager
Adrien’s full name is Adrien Michael Felix Capello, his second name coming from his father Gabriel Michael Capello and his third name coming from his uncle Felix Graham, which his first name being “his”
Throughout the story Adrien is going to find himself as Adrien while Michael is his model persona and Felix is the “perfect” son persona
The minor change from Chat Noire to Shadow Noire is the two points on his mask to represent fangs (though Shadow has actual fangs as well) as well as his more yellowish hair as opposed to the darker hair of Adrien
Next is Marinette who I changed quite a bit:
I really wanted to separate my version to the canon one so her name is now Mélody, both because of the nickname Luka gives her in canon but also because of her ability to weave through situations like music on air, allowing her to easily go through situations with little to no issues
Her last name Dufour comes from the French words for oven and four, the name is a pretty typical one for bakers, so it felt fitting
As for her design, which is the most obviously different in with the headshot, I wanted to make Marinette and Lady Beetle distinctly different but still feel like they’re two sides of the same coin
Mélody’s hair is black and her eyes are brown to make her look a bit closer to her parents (granted her hair is black in canon but I wanted it to actually LOOK black here), this also makes her standout less, making her rise to fame as a fashion designer but also her role as a superhero even more shocking to those on the outside
While I didn’t mind getting rid of her pigtails, I decided to instead make them two longer ponytails instead, as well as adjusting her bangs and giving her freckles!
Lady Beetle’s hair is a lot more blue, resembling canon Ladybug, but it’s also shorter and lose, this shows how with it being such a big responsibility, Mélody sees being Lady Beetle as something she can’t mess up, long hair isn’t something you want when flinging through Paris, but the reason it still has length to it and isn’t just tied up is because a part of Mélody sees being Lady Beetle as something to enjoy, after all, isn’t being a superhero every little kids dream?
So for context, I’ve been rewriting Miraculous for the past 5ish months or so and have been using Miraculous Heroes as its temporary name, I’ve grown a little attached but it doesn’t work for my version of the story and characters so I knew it’d eventually change
I recently (as in two days ago) came up with the name “The Miraculous Tales of a Beetle and her Shadow”
This title of course pays homage to the original, but with the added flare I enjoy, as well as using Ladybug and Chat Noir’s new names Lady Beetle and Shadow Noire respectively
Now, why isn’t it “Lady Beetle and Shadow Noire”? Well because one that’s boring and two, there’s layers to it being Beetle and HER Shadow
There’s a lot of symbolism in this rewrite, and I want that to be immediately clear from the title alone, in this case it’s showing off their relationship, both current and future, as Shadow Noire looks up to Lady Beetle and wants to be like and eventually Marinette “taking in” Adrien as her friend and eventually boyfriend
Anyway, this is the first time I’ve properly talked about my rewrite/reboot so I hope this gets people excited for what I do
