An Underrated Alex Line Is When Carlos Comes Into The Garage Ep1 And Asks Julie If Her Ghost Friend Is

Chat Noir: ( ♥ ͜ʖ ♥)

Ladybug: (ง'̀-‘́)ง

Confessions & campfires.

Ladybug answers the Internet. Sort of.

Ladybug AU where it's Adrien who gets nervous around Marinette. And when they're in their superhero outfits, Ladybug/Marinette is kinda super in love with Chat Noir.

Adrien sat in the back of his private car, jiggling his leg. On his lap rested a parcel wrapped in pink, tied off with plain brown string. He let out a miserable sigh and knocked his head against the headrest. The Gorilla sent him a pitying glance through the rear view mirror. 

Today was the day. The day. Marinette’s birthday. For weeks he’d agonized over what to get her. He’d begged Nino for help, casually asked Alya for a hint, Googled “what to get a girl for her birthday” at least ten times, and had even resorted to asking Plagg for suggestions (“Camembert,” he’d replied).

The gift couldn’t be too expensive because that would give Adrien’s crush away. It couldn’t be too impersonal, either; anyone could get her an impersonal gift. He was hopeless at crafts so handmade was out of the question. In the end he’d asked himself what he knew about Marinette’s likes and came up with a list: fashion, the color pink, Jagged Stone, and Chat Noir.

Then he’d entertained stupid thoughts about showing up on her balcony and serenading her. Right. Like he’d be able to get more than two words out around her, even in costume. So he had settled for something both simple and personal: a Chat Noir phone charm. As far as he knew, she didn’t have one.

The Gorilla cleared his throat and Adrien sat up, scanning the front of the school. There. Marinette jogged up the steps to where Alya stood waiting for her. The girls embraced, Alya swinging Marinette back and forth a few times before letting her go. Adrien took a deep breath. It was now or never.

He got out of the car and started towards her, the wrapped parcel held behind his back. Marinette laughed at something Alya said. Gosh, she was adorable when she laughed. Her crinkling eyes, the cute little freckles on her nose, the way she showed all her teeth, her shaking shoulders. And that giggle! She could make the whole world laugh with—

Adrien tripped over one of the stairs. He yelped, but caught himself before he fell, and straightened sharply. 

Marinette and Alya stared at him. “Are you okay?” Marinette asked.

His fingers tightened around the parcel. “F-Fine. I’m—yes. I forgot there was another stair, umm, right there.”

Alya arched an eyebrow. Marinette’s smile widened. “Happens to everyone,” she said, then turned back to resume her conversation.

Adrien hurried past them and into the school. Nino stood just inside the front doors, shaking his head. “Dude, really?”

Adrien sighed. “She was laughing. Can you blame me for getting distracted?”

“I can.” Nino slung an arm over his shoulders. “The bright side is you have a whole school day’s worth of chances. As long as you don’t mess them all up, you’re good.”

Unfortunately, a girl in one of the lower years got akumatized during the lunch break, resulting in classes being dismissed for the rest of the afternoon.

~

Ladybug noticed Chat Noir was significantly less perky that night. He lay on his back with one leg swinging over the side of the Eiffel Tower, a hand on his stomach, ears drooping. They’d taken down an akuma in the afternoon—which had thrown a damper on an otherwise great birthday—but that couldn’t be the source of his mood. She poked his leg. “You okay?”

Chat sighed. “I guess.” He didn’t look at her. “Just wishing I wasn’t such a coward.”

“What are you talking about, chaton? You’re the bravest person I know.” She blushed beneath her mask. Well, it was true…

“In costume, maybe. In my civilian life? Not so much.” He gestured down the length of his body. “Despite the incredible package, I’m not as purrfect as you might think.”

Ladybug’s face reddened even further. She hadn’t been thinking about his package. No sir. Not her. She swung her legs back and forth, worrying at her bottom lip. She wanted to tell him it was her birthday. Why did they have to put that on the list of things they couldn’t know about each other?

Chat sat up. “Anyway, Paris is quiet tonight. I think I’ll go home and drown my sorrows in video games.”

“Oh. You’re leaving already?” He helped her to her feet and she held onto his forearm. “But not without a hug, right? Mopey cats need hugs. It’s scientific fact.”

Chat Noir managed a smile. “Sure,” he said, holding his arms open. Ladybug stepped into them and wrapped him up in a tight embrace. Her heart beat wildly. Could he feel it through their suits? Just in case he couldn’t, she pulled away from him before he noticed. “Thanks, buginette. I actually feel a little better.”

“M-Must be the magic,” she said. She watched him vault away from the tower and leaned against the nearest beam, holding both hands over her heart.

She’d gotten exactly what she wanted for her birthday.

GINA’S SELF WORTH JOURNEY (requested by anon)

the gmw writers really showed their inability to think outside the box and I have gone on a million rants about this (mostly to myself in my room lol) but just to pick up one of the many things that made me roll my eyes: when Maya is asked why she likes Lucas her response is he’s a nice/good guy and that’s all she says. And while I don’t begrudge her that, I do find it a little ridiculous that that is all the writers could come up with when there are at least like 5 obvious reasons (very clear/present in canon) for why Maya likes Lucas:

1. He challenges her, and honestly as far as I can remember he is the only one that does actually go toe to toe with her. (Lucas:”You wanna tangle with me?”/ Maya: “You think you can take me?”)

2. He makes her smile and laugh despite herself. Maya enjoys interacting with him. It’s all over her face when they play their little games or she teases him. She gets a thrill from flirting with him (and, yes, it’s flirting. It’s so obviously flirting that if you look flirting up in the dictionary you’ll find a picture of the “mad dog” scene where Lucas is asking Maya “well, what do I seem like to you?”)

3. He supports her (”I don’t want that for Maya, I want her to be happy” “They’re taking away something you’re very good at”) like homeboy was actually fired up about the arts program because he knows how much it means to her and that support resonates with her (she literally can’t stop staring at him when he says that and when Riley tries to get her attention she’s in a daze)

4. He KNOWS her, arguably better than the people who have known her for a lot longer. Lucas sees Maya and her selflessness even when others don’t (“Maya did that for Riley because that’s who Maya is”). 

5. He gets her! He’s been in her shoes before, making a mess of things, getting into trouble and letting his anger at the world get the best of him (This isn’t just shown in the show, I think he even straight up says this to Maya at one point) They also both see themselves as their friends’ protectors. In so many ways, they really are two sides of the same coin. 

6. She is attracted to him. Body language y’all. Maya is always finding herself leaning into Lucas’s personal space, yanking him towards her, touching him unnecessarily and ya! I’ll say it! He totally turns her on. When he gets all strong angry boi she finds that shit hot. That’s literally in canon.

To conclude, when Maya is asked if she likes Lucas it’s fucking dumb that her only response is “he’s such a nice guy” when her response could have been “I can’t explain it, he makes me laugh” or  “He’s the first guy in my life that’s ever been supportive and showed they cared about me” or “I feel like we just understand each other” or even “I don’t know why, but I’m drawn to him.” Literally any of those responses would have been more in line with what we are actually shown. 

(also, all these things that Maya likes about Lucas are very distinct to her relationship with him- they are NOT the things Riley likes about Lucas, which does pretty much amount to “he’s a good guy.” Hence, another reason it’s total BS that Maya only likes Lucas because “she’s turned into Riley”) 

Anyway, I just wanted to make this post because I’ve been thinking about season 3 a lot lately and just how messy and all over the place the writing is. I hate that the writers lost sight of the natural arc of the show, I hate how they wasted everyone’s time with the triangle arc by essentially just invalidating the feelings Maya and Lucas had for each other, having literally no one experience growth from it, and putting all the characters back to square one. And I hate that they didn’t take the great opportunity that was before them to subvert tropes/expectations. Legitimizing Lucas and Maya’s feelings for one another would have allowed all three characters in the triangle to grow, develop and be further fleshed out as characters. And, also, it would have meant that Lucas isn’t just Riley’s love interest and Maya isn’t just Riley’s unlucky sidekick. When you have a chance to give characters nuance so they can break away from 2D tropes/clichés seize on it! That’s what makes entertaining stories! The writers walked themselves into a storyline, realized that relationships were inevitably gonna change and characters were inevitably gonna get hurt (which is okay! why do the writers avoid hurting Riley at all costs? disillusionment and disappointment is simply an unavoidable part of growing up) and then turned around and ran to the exit rather than deal with the actual consequences of the story they set up/developed from (arguably) season 1. It was cowardly, lazy writing and that’s on that.

Listen I know I am hardcore on that HSMTMTS bullshit and I promise if you follow me for the multitude of other shows I talk about/write about I will get back to them. But before that happens…

I’m seeing a lot of negative feedback regarding how “bad” some of the actual production of HSM was (as in, the show within the show). 

All I can say is…that’s the point? The point is to make this show (as in HSMTMTS) as realistic as possible. 

Which is meta in it’s own right, isn’t it? The kids in the HSM FILM were all so unnaturally good at singing/dancing? Like Chad had a whole song about how he doesn’t dance while he was doing freaking pirouettes and backflips on the baseball field. Come on. 

But an entire cast is not going to be like that in a normal, real world public school. Even “East High.” Those kids are just like anybody else; some of them are good, some of them are not so good, but all of them are trying their best.

And again, that’s the point.

The scene with Ricky and EJ as Chad/Troy in the hallway talking/walking? Do you really think that was supposed to be anything other than awkward? Do you remember the rehearsal for “Start Of Something New?” Or how Ricky can’t really dance that well, or how EJ’s voice breaks sometimes, or Nini’s subpar acting/getting thrown off by things that alter the production?

That’s high school theatre!

Federle was concerned the dancing in the show was TOO good! He didn’t want it to look like a professional production (but the dancers they hired were so awesome and the choreographer was so talented he decided he had to keep it). 

If the argument is that Gina and EJ deserved the lead-they explained that. Ms. Jenn cast Nini and Ricky as leads because of the emotional connection to the material. Her gut said to go with the underdogs, because there was something between them she felt read like Troy/Gabriella. It happens in life, because it happened with my senior musical–the director cast kids in leading roles who had NEVER performed before, because he felt they embodied the character they auditioned for so well. 

It worked for my high school theatre director and it worked for Ms. Jenn. She was completely on point, because Ricky and Nini legitimately recreated the “Breaking Free” scene in real time during opening night.

Again, the META of it all!

This show is incredibly high concept and while I know not every viewer is going to pick up on all these small moments and decisions and appreciate them like I do, I just hate to see this blind hate without really thinking a little bit more critically about what a piece of art or entertainment is trying to tell you. 

(We all in agreement no one should be getting into that performing arts program, though…besides maybe Seb)

Ladybug + transformations in S2

au where everything is the same except marinette has black hair and grey eyes and she goes all blue when she transforms and that’s why no one recognises her

@storyseekers event 01 : get to know the story seekers — eleanor   — the renegades trilogy by marissa meyer